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Written bei Kai T.:

And here we go for our last finalist: Thomas Stier!

Thomas' accomplishments and victories speak for him - he is by far one of Germany's best HL players. He is a veteran in the HL business and member of the HL council. He is crazy (!) about foils, it HAS TO BE the first edition in foil !

Thomas is well known and respected in the HL community due to his high level play. His strength is to accurately analyse game situations, gaining the edge by exploiting marginal advantages and then translating these into victory. His active and creative input when designing new decks and the remastering of established deckideas is legendary. For the "The One" Finals he is one of the major favorites.

Name: Thomas Stier
Age: 35
Favorite Highlander decks: 4c Reanimator, 4c Blood, 4c PatternRector
Favorite Highlander cards: Loxodon Smiter, Cruel Ultimatum, Liliana the Last Hope
Highlander achievements:
Highlander Cup Champion (GP XV), 3rd place at "The One Summer",
Top8 at MKM Series Frankfurt 2016, 2nd place at MGM4 Berlin, HL Cup Top8 (GP XIV), Winner MKM Berlin 2013, HL Cup Top8 (GP XII), HL Cup Top8 (GP VIII)

Other MtG achievements:
PTQ t4 (journey to nyx)

How do you prepare for the finals?
Trying to guess the meta, then construct some decks geared towards beating that meta and test extensively with them, then probably last minute audible to a completely untested brew

The next competitor:

Name: Sebastian Nötzel

Age: 29

Favorite Highlander decks: Scapeshift, UW Control

Favorite Highlander cards: Island, Snapcaster Mage, Sorrow's Path

Highlander achievements: nothing

Other MtG achievements: some GP money finishes

How do prepare for the finals? Play some rounds.

Sebastian finally found his souldeck it seems. After some 4c DarkBant-ing here and Azorius Controlling there, he seems to have settled into 4c Scapeshift, a deck of which he may rightfully claim mastership by now.

Sebastian is a methodical and calculating player, he is hard to read, mentally strong and knows his deck and the matchups inside-out.

The combination of all this makes him a serious contender for becoming "The One".

Name: Kai T.

Age: 31

Favorite Highlander Decks: 5c Wonder, Izzet, 4c Blood

Favorite Highlander cards: Opposition, Recurring Nightmare, Sylvan Library

Highlander Achievements:
The One summer qualification winner

Other MtG Achievements:
Miscellaneous top 8's

How do you prepare for the finals:
I analyse the opponents' cardpools and their pet decks. I then create a metagamed deck which also fits my playstyle and test with it.

Kai is a veteran Highlander player with a competitive spirit. He knows everything one must know about the format.

He showed his expertise at the first qualifier where he demolished the competition with a fierce double-red blast Izzet build, crushing every blue playing opponent on his way to victory.

Now that the "UR-Knall" deck is out of the bag, will he switch it up or stay true to it? We will soon find out...

Aaaand the next one:

Name: Philip Ehrle

Age: 34

Favorite Highlander decks: RDW, Jeskai

Favorite Highlander cards:
Zealous Conscripts, Pygmy Hippo, Bull Hippo (Portal Version)

Highlander achievements: Nothing worth to mention

Other MtG achievements: Several GP money finishes

How do you prepare for the finals:
I'm focusing on predicting what the others might play in order to adjust my possible decks to it.

Philip is a well respected and strong Highlander player. He might not have a title on his resume yet, but that doesn't mean anything.

Philip always plays strong decks and good cards, no trickery there. Also, his strategic intuition and his technical in-game operations are top notch.

His opponents better be aware of his prowess. It might very well be that "The One" will be his long due breakout performance.

Here's the next competitor!

Name: Alexander Vey

Age: 27

Favorite Highlnderdeck: Abzan Midrange

Favorite Highlander cards:
Fact or Fiction, Survival of the Fittest, Brainstorm

Highlander achievements: Qualification for the ,,The One" Finals

Other MtG achievements: Participated at German Nationals and Pro Tour

How do you prepare for the finals?
Probably not at all.

Alex is the dark horse of our finalists. He did only play in a handful of local Highlander tournaments before bursting into the finals of the first The One qualifier with a brave double-Armageddon Abzan list.

Coming, as it seems, from a prolonged Magic hiatus, he since rehoned his skills by jamming limited weeklies. It's always a good idea to keep your fundamentals strong!

Let's continue with the OG of our contestants:

Name:  Gerry Stahl

Age: 41

Favorite Highlander Decks:
Dimir Aggro-Control, Reanimator-Oath, UW Skies, UGb Time Walk

Favorite Highlander Cards:
Mental Misstep, Birds of Paradise, Back to Basics

Highlander achievements:
One top-8 and some top-16s at Highlander GP's/Cups.
Winner of HL Online League Season III back in 2008.
The only player who has participated at every HL GP / Cup in Germany since the very first one in Dortmund 2005

Other MtG achievements:
Lost 1:2 to Kai Budde at last German Nationals in 2011
Limited GP Vienna 2014 money finish
German Nationals 2011 price finish

How do you prepare for the finals:
"Create a bracket with eight possible deck-choices for The One and some test-games"

Gerry is in my opinion not a mere Highlander player anymore. But rather a general law of nature. I think it is safe to say that no active player has done more for the format than him.

The Council member will be a fearsome competitor in the finals since his level of format entrenchment is just through the roof.

My only critique here is: How can you favorite the lovely Birds of Paradise together with the ugly and infamous b2b? That's just mean!

Alright, here is the next competitor for the title:

Name: Daniel Scherer

Age: 26

Favorite Highlander deck: Red Deck Wins

Favorite Highlander cards:
Black Vise, Blood Moon, Wasteland

Highlander achievements:
Won the last two of the three "The One" qualifier tournaments. Defeated Christian Hauck. Twice.

Other MtG achievements:
Winner of OvinoVIII Vintage tournament in Milano 2013

How do you prepare for the finals:
"I'm just patiently waiting for it."

Daniel is having a love affair with RDW lately (as you can guess by his profile already). But he was known to pilot 5c Oath back in the day and also dabbles with 4c Blood from time to time.

Daniel doesn't mind a pinch of salt when things go the wrong way for him. He always stays a good sport though.

Unfortunately for all of his opponents, things tend to turn out quite in Daniel's way recently. He really is on fire at the moment and everybody better watch out for him.

In less than three weeks it will be finally decided who will be "The One".

8 players will gather for a tense double-elimination play-off.

During the next days I will be giving you some small player profiles of those who'll be battling. Here we go with the first heavyweight:

Name: Christian Hauck

Age: 32

Favorite Highlander deck: 4c Blood

Favorite Highlander cards:
Knight of the Reliquary, Wood Elemental, Obzedat Ghost Council

Highlander achievements:
multiple HL Cup Top8's, HL Cup Champion XIII

Other MtG achievements:
Member of German National Team, Worlds competitor 2010, Two GP Top 8's

How do you prepare for The One Finals?
"Just thinking about the possible decks and trying to predict the meta"

Christian is known for his superb expertise with 4c Blood, a deck he was one of the first to establish within the Highlander metagame.

Recently he also experimented with Izzet Control, which earned him a top-8 spot in the second qualifier tournament of this series. It will be hard to say what he'll be on.

If you ask people who will win "The One", he's certainly on the short list of many.

Stay tuned for more player profiles!

@Georg B:

It is "Opulent Palace" actually. Not "Opal Palace". I corrected the mistake.

Here it is!

Complete video coverage:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOyEZ3Xw2acCUvrFIuZNMUvjBQ05S7ACL

All t8 decklists:
http://mtgpulse.com/event/27014#354360

Decklists on mtgpulse will follow soon. Video coverage of the tournament should come online within the next week or so.

Highlander can only exist with a vibrant community and I'm thankful for every new face I see. A big "Thank You!" to everybody who was there and contributed to a great tournament.

[Final Standings ( after top 8 ) - The One Winter Qualifier 2016]

Final Standings ( after top 8 ) - The One Winter Qualifier 2016

Rank	Name	Pts	Deck	OMW%
1	Scherer, Daniel	22	RDW	59,0667
2	Hauck, Christian	22	4c Blood	61,6549
3	Nötzel, Sebastian	19	4c Scapeshift	54,2556
4	Beltle, Georg	17	4c Blood	62,3099
5	Redl, Philip	15	Mardu Superfriends	59,486
6	Yang, Xiaoliang	13	Jeskai Control	61,9709
7	Rabe, Jan-Hinrich	12	Selesnya Eldrazi Ramp	65,9199
8	Stührmann, Stefan	12	Sultai Doomsday	58,2668
9	Vey, Alexander	12	Abzan Midrange	51,9968
10	Hauck, Manuel	12	Gruul Beatz	49,9537
11	Przybilla, Benedikt	12	Naya Aggro	41,873
12	Guenzel, Achim	11	Esper Control	44,4974
13	Behnert, Carsten	10	RDW	55,985
14	Hittel, Matthias	10	Sultai Artifact Combo	49,127
15	Dietrich, Tobias	10	Hermit Druid Combo	48,0463
16	Iacono, Giuseppe	9	High Tide	59,5763
17	Materne, Robin	9	RDW	55,5115
18	Feige, Bernhard	9	UB(r) Control	51,2434
19	Atzori, Andreas	9	Azorius Control	49,5802
20	Hohenberg, Thomas	9	Izzet Control	47,2222
21	Johansen, Mats	9	UB(r) Control	43,9656
22	Balikci, Hüseyin	8	Abzan Midrange	51,1019
23	Deutscher, Markus	7	Jeskai Control	56,0622
24	Stier, Thomas	7	Sultai Delve	48,963
25	Deschermeier, Philipp	7	Elves	46,2407
26	Dubbernell, Robin	6	Mono Blue Control	53,6111
27	Würtz, Alexander	6	Izzet Control	51,4524
28	Ziesche, Sebastian	6	4c Scapeshift	56,2296
29	Stahl, Gerry	6	UG Time Walk	49,9333
30	Ehrle, Philip	6	RDW	49,563
31	Seeger, Jan	6	AbzanGeddon	43,3611
32	Nelle, Robin	6	Gruul Beatz	44,3333
33	Przybilla, Armin	3	4c Blood	54,7084
34	Gandyra, Christian	3	Izzet Control	53,1746
35	Heusinger, Luc	3	Jund Scapeshift	42,537
36	Denzler, Ole	3	White Weenie	36,1111
37	Hellé, Matthias	3	Naya Aggro	35,4222
38	Haussmann, Georg	0	Rakdos Midrange	50,2508
39	Rosenberger, Alexander	0	Azorius Control	41

Leaderboard Top 25 "The One - 2016/2017"   
                  

Player	Points	avg. OMW%	Qualified for the Invitational
Hauck, Christian	53	56,199	Q (by Winter Qualifier)
Scherer, Daniel	53	55,535	Q (by Autumn Qualifier)
Nötzel, Sebastian	46	50,201	Q (by Winter Qualifier)
Stahl, Gerry	41	56,195	Q (by Autumn Qualifier)
Ehrle, Philip	33	54,510	Q (by Overall Score)
Stier, Thomas	32	52,427	Q (by Overall Score)
Vey, Alexander	31	56,015	Q (by Summer Qualifier)
Yang, Xiaoliang	31	52,762
Hauck, Manuel	30	50,789
Hittel, Matthias	29	53,600
Behnert, Carsten	29	53,560
Redl, Philip	27	53,742
Dietrich, Tobias	25	48,830
Atzori, Andreas	23	54,798
Thiemann, Kai	22	55,592	Q (by Summer Qualifier)
Feige, Bernhard	22	48,526
Rabe, Jan-Hinrich	21	66,418
Hohenberg, Thomas	21	48,508
Ziesche, Sebastian	19	55,780
Iacono, Giuseppe	19	53,721
Zimmermann, Martin	19	53,637
Rosenberger, Alexander	19	49,947
Beltle, Georg	17	62,310
Lehmann, Ronald	15	48,120
Nelle, Robin	15	44,951
Templin, Paul	14	62,368
Zarges, Florian	13	55,884
Rilke, Sebastian	12	53,148
Hintze, Joern	12	51,982
Groh, Sebastian	12	50,815
Ziemes, Malte	12	39,648
Muench, Jan	10	60,185
Rosengren, Lars	10	57,275
Franke, Jörn	10	52,645
Lauter, Alban	9	54,759
Brenndoerfer, Paul	9	54,574
Tobisch, Tim	9	53,833
Flinkert, Sven	9	48,654
Fischer, Tom	9	46,417
Kannegiesser, Thomas	9	39,250

Only 5 days to go!

Dear Highlander Players,

we hope you had a great start into 2017! We are proud to announce the third tournament of our series: The One - Winter Qualifier, the last chance to earn your ticket for the finals to become The One! Compete with the best players and fight for fame, awesome prizes and an exquisite trophy. Check out the video for details!

Wizards Well, Mannheim. Saturday 4th of Febuary 2017. There can only be one!

Trailer
https://youtu.be/Sxq88yJ8VyI



FB group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/252578405122925/

FB event
https://www.facebook.com/events/640141462839229/?ti=as



Do not miss out on this! Just be there!

Here's how my HL Cup went:

The day before, our playgroup had a heavy testing session, during which I lost so many times with my trusty 4c Blood that I decided to pull the last minute audible.

I went home, brewed a completely untested 4c Scapeshift list. This took me until 3 am.

Fast forward: I end the Cup with a 0:2 drop.

I want to take this opportunity to deliver a big "THANK YOU" from JK-Entertainment to the HL community for being awesome!1