Messages

my decklist fizzeled this time but nevertheless had some good results recently
had a draw vs Luca Doe (runner-up / Temur) and a draw vs Karl with Academy + 2 wins and 2 losses
I would add Oath of Druids and cut 1-2 utility creatures next time


// 15 Creature
1 Baleful Strix
1 Brazen Borrower
1 Champion of Wits
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Rotting Regisaur
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Tomebound Lich
1 Vendilion Clique

// 14 Sorcery
1 Collective Brutality
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Duress
1 Exhume
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Reanimate
1 Serum Visions
1 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Treasure Cruise

// 25 Instant
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Daze
1 Dig Through Time
1 Drown in the Loch
1 Entomb
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Fatal Push
1 Force of Negation
1 Force of Will
1 Intuition
1 Mana Drain
1 Mana Leak
1 Mental Misstep
1 Miscalculation
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystic Confluence
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Remand
1 Repeal
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare

// 5 Planeswalker
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Oko, Thief of Crowns

// 35 Land
1 Ash Barrens
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Field of Ruin
1 Flooded Strand
1 Karakas
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Prismatic Vista
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
5 Swamp
7 Island

// 6 Enchantment
1 Animate Dead
1 Back to Basics
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Sylvan Library

[Changes to the present banned list, effective 10/15/2019:]

Changes to the present banned list, effective 10/15/2019:

Banned:  
                                             
• True-Name Nemesis

Unbanned:
                                                 
-

Current watchlists:

Ban watchlist:                                                    
• Demonic Tutor
• Dig Through Time
• Entomb
• Mana Drain
• Tainted Pact
• Tolarian Academy
• Treasure Cruise
                                   
Unban watchlist:                                                    
• Skullclamp
• Survival of the Fittest *new*
• True-Name Nemesis
• Umezawa's Jitte


Single cards explanations (parenthesis -> voting result):

Ban True-Name Nemesis (Ban 4x / Unban 1x / Abstain 1x)

This card has been legal in Highlander for a long time and there have been many discussions about it.
Now we have finally come to the conclusion that the card should be put onto the banned list in order to improve the format.

Those in favor of keeping TNN in the format often state its powerlevel wouldn't justify a ban compared to other cards.

We agree that there certainly are more powerful, more explosive or more frustrating cards legal in Highlander than TNN. Most of those come with deckbuilding restrictions though, enable archetypes or are important for the format's balance (B2B or Blood Moon for example). TNN is not even too strong in all matchups. Against Combo decks it's mostly a clunky threat and control decks tend to have less problems with it. Where it warps the format in an unhealthy way are other "fair" matchups (Aggro, Midrange, Tempo) where the card often wins games on its own without any setup requirements.

While constructing a deck, players will often have to ask themselves what their plan against certain archetypes is. Fair decks however also need to have a plan against TNN in particular – a single card. This way, TNN influences deckbuilding more than any other single card in the format we can think of.

Another argument that comes up regularly when talking about TNN is that there is enough removal in the format for it and it can be raced easily. There are only a few removal spells however that handle TNN and are not otherwise situational or bad in most other scenarios (sacrifice effects) and most decks only have two to three of those at most and have to be quite lucky to draw them at the right time. Racing is often only possible with flyers or a clearly dominant board position. Furthermore, this way of arguing also implies the creature is problematic – those points don't have to be made for any other creature in the format.

We do not think that TNN adds anything meaningful to the format, but instead takes a lot away from it, as it allows the player to go into an autopilot mode with it, resulting in non-interactive games. The card has been mentioned by Wizards in their Developmental Mistakes article.
Opinions on TNN within the community seem to be split. We acknowledge that there has been a survey on Facebook where more people voted against a ban of TNN than in favor of it. The last four survey results from Continental Cup Halle 2018, MGM # 15, Highlandermasters Westfalen and Helsinki however show that TNN is the card with the most votes for a ban currently, so we are sure that we do not act against a clear majority here.

Survival of the Fittest (Add to WL 5x / Not to WL 1x)

SotF has been banned for more than 9 years now. It was banned because it was format-dominating in an unhealthy way during these days. Lots of decks played a creature-toolbox, many a creature-based combo where Survival fits quite well obviously. Nowadays the meta looks quite different and it is doubtful if the powerful synergies of the past using Squee, Genesis or Reveillark are still viable in any way. However this card could offer new space for deck-building and would push some green-based Midrange decks, an archetype which seems to be a bit behind. Maybe it could also serve as a new tool for Reanimator decks but comes at the cost of playing more creatures like in the current tier-1 builds.
We have had some test-sessions with this card and had to recognize that it is has lost some of its former power, so we decided to put Survival of the Fittest up for discussion with the community.
It should be added, that when looking at other Singleton formats where you are allowed to play this card, it doesn't seem to have a dominant impact, as far we can see.


Current state of discussion:

Skullclamp (Stay banned 2x, Unban 2x, Abstain 2x)
Pro Ban:
card seems too oppressive
another busted combo-piece
aggro would be pushed further which isn't a good idea

Con Ban:
needs a special setting
needs time and ressources to grant card-advantage
offers some new room for deck-construction

Umezawa's Jitte (Stay banned 6x, Unban 0x)
Pro Ban:
shuts down creature-decks
games center around this card as soon it is online
would be another auto-include in every deck with enough creature to carry it

Con Ban:
equipment is not an inherently good archetype
lower power level than cards on banned list
equipments do not see much play recently

Demonic Tutor (Ban 1x, No ban 5x)
Pro Ban:
incentivizes player to splash black
negates the one-of-highlander-thing as it is basically a second copy of the best card in you deck at the given situation
stronger than vampiric and mystical which are banned already

Con Ban:
iconic card
enables deck with plan
combo & control needs it to compete with aggro

Dig Through Time (Ban 1x, No ban 5x)
Pro ban:
seals the deal on even matches
Delve is not a real cost in decks where this card is good

Con ban:
UU makes it somewhat restrictive
can realistically only be played during late mid-game or lategame, where other cards have powerful effects, too

Entomb (Ban 0x, No ban 6x)
Pro ban:
in Reanimator it enables broken t1 or t2 plays that end the game on the spot

Con ban:
has sweet but not broken synergy with many other cards like Bloodghast, Hogaak, Life from the Loam, Echo of Eons etc.
also serves as a special tutor for non-reanimator combo decks which forces some creativity in deckbuilding

Mana Drain (Ban 1x, No ban 5x)
Pro Ban:
generates unfair tempo-swings
enhances randomness of the game

Con Ban:
often just a counterspell
highlander has powerful cards, where else can you play your Mana Drain?

Tainted Pact (Ban 0x, No ban 6x)
Pro Ban:
instant Demonic in some builds
strengthens multi-color-decks

Con Ban:
weaker than Demonic Tutor
only good in a few decks

Tolarian Academy (Ban 0x, No ban 5x, Abstain 1x)
Pro Ban:
enables busted starts
unfun to play against, especially for newcomers

Con Ban:
enables specific archetypes which is good for format diversity
Tolarian Arcademy wasn't oppressive based on latest tournament results

Treasure Cruise (Ban 1x, No ban 5x)
Pro Ban:
in some scanarios feels unfair like an Ancestral Recall
too good when already ahead

Con Ban:
still needs resources and setup

Birthing Pod (Add to WL 2x, Not to WL 4x)
Pro Ban:
reusable onto-the-battlefield tutoring has been broken ever since
instant you-win combos exist
creatures are getting better as time goes on which makes this card always dangerous

Con Ban:
green midrange relatively weak at the moment
creatures are getting better but not necessarily ETB-abilities
instant you-win combos require whacky creatures, which might be too steep a deckbuilding cost


Council:

The current council members are:

Bobz0rd - Max, Germany, Erfurt, * 1991
Dalibor - Dalibor, Slovakia, Senec, * 1979
Dr. Opossum - Stephanie, Germany, Berlin, * 1987
Maqi - Thomas, Germany, Mannheim, * 1982
pyyhttu - Tuomas, Finland, Helsinki, * 1982
Vazdru - Gerry, Germany, Karlsruhe, * 1975

We are currently planning to add new council members. If you would like to join us, please contact us. The council can be reached now via mail too: hlcouncil.eu@gmail.com


Roadmap:

We want to enhance the transparency of the council-work and the discussions which lead to our ban-/unban-decisions in a better way. As first steps we decided to
- publish the voting-results to each card discussed and give some insight to the main pros/cons mentioned by the community and council.
- We wanted to raise the effectuality of community feedback too. As you can see by the current banning/unbanning-decisions the surveys and the feedback of the community has a big impact on the voting process.
- Council members will post a short introduction of themselves during the next days right here in this announcement-board, so it is easier to find for the community.
- We added an E-Mail-address in order to make it is easier to reach the council as a whole.

As next steps we would like to discuss with you the following topics as well:
- We would like to reformulate the current guidelines which give direction to our decisions on banning or unbanning a card. Therefore we would like to hear your feedback on this, how your vision of our format looks like and how you would frame this vision. These guidelines are really important to us and are meant to reflect the idea of what Highlander should be like.
- We are thinking about creating regular polls and surveys to better orientate our decisions and in order to provide everyone with an easily accessible way of participating on issues.
- We would like to discuss if there's a good possibility for a "community vote" within the banning/unbanning process.
- We want to find out if there's a good possibility for an institutionalized rotation of council members.

Last but not least, we want to thank the community for all the feedback, which really helps us to improve our work!

You refer to https://europeanhighlander.com/?fbclid=IwAR0I6yqc0n7_-vug5x9azw56kmauRdDeUGoVJ12Ex0IpzG3A960UVsrOaGg
My first reply has got deleted somehow, that's why I reposted it today on Facebook. For those who haven't access to it for some reason here the post:
(let us postpone the banned-list-discussion a few days, we working to enchance the transparency of the voting results and possibilities of participation for the community)

As the criticism of the council ist still online (https://europeanhighlander.com/) but my reply to it has got lost somehow I feel free to repost it (see below).
Personally I feel quite sad that many good replies and suggestions of the community to Jo Fra's origin posting have been deleted. I liked many of them – critical voices and encouragement for the current council same way.
According to my point 5 (see below) I would like to know if someone from Austria or NRW wanna join the council currently. I know that there have been some contactings but it would be good to know how many are willing to join. Every serious support is welcome!
If you don't wanna join the current council but would like to be part of a somehow new formed one let me know too. Thanks in advance!
_______________
Repost of my reply to criticism of the council, 21 Sept. 2019:
1
Thanks guys for your effort and your approach to make Highlander a better Magic format. Every input from the community is welcome.
2
Transparency is indeed an issue. We are currently developing a solution for more transparency. I am pretty sure we can introduce the result in the next weeks, no later than the beginning of November. For the meantime: I am Gerry, part of the current council, 44 years old, married, 3 kids, living near Karlsruhe and working as management and tax consultant. I play Magic since Beta especially Highlander and Limited.
One of the criticism brought forward was that we don't have any legitimation being council members. Probably many of you think the same and maybe you are right. I guess everyone is free to draw his/her own conclusions. So why I am council member? Frank Topel has founded the Highlander format as you know it today. You wouldn't play Highlander the same way without his devotion for the format. He wasn't elected and made the rules like he thought it would be the best way for the community alone – at least at the beginning. We've had long and sometimes heated debates in that early days what could be the best way to go, to get his project being successful. After a while my passion for the format granted me a seat in the HL council as Frank asked me to join. That's why I am here trying my best to preserve his ,,heritage" in some way.
Another point of cristism is that the community feels ignored by the council. We've made a lot of surveys during the last years to find out what the community would like us to do. We are looking forward to increasingly use polls and surveys in order to enhance the qualitiy of community feedback. http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=584.135
3
As some guys create the impression that the council doesn't want to cooperate and there would be no willingness to have an exchange with the community and hear their concerns let me clarify a few things:
After Alf Cett contacted us I phoned with him for about half an hour. I promised him to discuss his points in the council, which I did. I've also said, that I am absolutely not against any change at all but that I am personally not convinced by their approach for reasons see below.
Later I was contacted by the initiators of the task we currently talking about.
I offered a face-to-face talk at Halle early in November. I explained that the discussion in the council will take a few days and I want to use the time till Halle to talk about their ideas.
As those guys want to have a system-change in the next weeks they declined that offer as they wanted to introduce their ideas to the community in Halle already. They asked for a Skype-conference which I declined for as long it is unclear if the community wants a change or not.
So they started this topic which is a good thing imo.
4
Reasons why I am not convinced by the introduced approach:
a) An implementation of a democratic system sounds good for all of us as we are all happy living in a democracy. But there are imo unsolved problems implementing your voting system which could be a real danger for our fomat. They had various ideas building a highlander club with a monitoring function during elections and how to avoid fake votes. But this wasn't convincing to me completely.
Some easy questions to answer:
My son is 11, he has a DCI number for 4 years now and is playing kitchen table Highlander? Is he legitimized to vote?
A guy playing only Modern and Standard and doesn't care about our format but would like support his buddy obviously by voting for him. Good thing his vote influences the future of Highlander?
b) An elected council isn't better or worse as the current one, it is just different. It won't make Highlander to a better format per se. Decisions will be liked and cursed by the community like today. Only a better legitimation of a decision doesn't make it better of worse for the community and game-play by itself.
French Duel Commander has a similar and afaik non-elected council which shakes up the format from time to time - but they still have big success -> https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=22442&f=EDH. Imo the relevance of the council is overrated and there are other, much more important parameter for the success of our format.
c) Populism is always a problem. Does a democratic process always lead to the best solutions for the whole community? Have a look at UK (,,Brexit"), USA, Italy and the success of the ,,Right". One told me Magic Players are the smarter people - they would only vote for smart people who wants the best for the format, populism won't be a problem and the guys are respectful with each other....
d) Does anyone really like election campaigns every year which can be sometimes dirty and offending if the atmosphere is poisened? ... this could easily lead to a fragmantation when the moat between the groups become too deep.
e) The council should grant a good working atmosphere, otherwise you should go straight for direct democracy and dispose the ,,council-idea". A quarreling council isn't worth a cent imo. They will hardly find a common announcement, the motivation to discuss and participate and act together as a council – for what a council is made for.
Furthermore there is no punishment for an elected member doing nothing over that year too. We've had candidates wanted to join the council but a few weeks later they stopped playing Highlander.
Furthermore there is no binding for an elected council member voting like he told during such an election campain. Or have I missed something?!
Ok, he won't be re-elected probably but the damage would have been done already.
5
I am in favour of open the council for new members. Communities like Austria or NRW should have the right to send out some kind of representatives like Dalibor for Slovakia or pyythhu for Finnland. If a local community doesn't feel representated by their members they shoud start their discussion within the local communities for a new solution. We would like to support these new and emerging communities in every way and we would therefore like to encourage you to reach out to us with your vision. The council always was and will be an organ from the community and for the community.  

Allgemeine Informationen zur Veranstaltung:

Das Turnier wird am 09. 11. 2019 stattfinden.

Hall of Games
Martinstraße 10
06108 Halle (Saale)
Deutschland

Einlass: 9.00 Uhr
Anmeldebeginn: 9.30 Uhr
Anmeldeschluss: 10.45 Uhr
Turnierbeginn: 11.00 Uhr

Anmeldegebühr: 25€
  - die Anmeldgebühr kann bereits per Paypal bezahlt werden:
                       lars-lindenhahn@gmx.de
( bitte per Freunde + gebt eure Mailadresse an!!! )

daraufhin erhaltet ihr eine Teilnahmebestätigung, welche euch einen Platz im Turnier sichert

- jeder Spieler erhält zur Anmeldung ein Booster Los

( Booster Los: hebt dieses Los gut auf, denn in jeder Runde wird ein Modern Horizon Booster verlost - wird eure Zahl aufgerufen, erhaltet ihr nach der Runde euer Booster (gegen Vorlage des Loses) bei unserem Personal )

-Tops werden ausgespielt ( ab 60 Teilnehmern wird es Top 8
geben - Preispool wird entsprechend angepasst)
- Rules Level: Competative
- goldrandige Karten sind erlaubt
- Rundenzeit : 1h
- 5 Extraturns nach dem Time Out
- BannedList von highlandermagic.info

Tournament Organizer: Hall of Games
HeadJudge: folgt
Judges: folgt, folgt, folgt

TEAM CHALLENGE:

Auch dieses mal wird es wieder eine Team Challenge geben:

- Startgebühr: 10€ je Team
( jedes Teammitglied erhält zur Anmeldung ein Booster Los )
- 3 Spieler je Team
- 1.Platz: 33,33€ MarketGutschein je Teammitglied
- 2.Platz: 3 Booster Modern Horizon je Teammitglied
- 3.Platz: 2 Booster Modern Horizon je Teammitglied

( Booster Los: hebt dieses Los gut auf, denn in jeder Runde wird ein Modern Horizon Booster verlost - wird eure Zahl aufgerufen, erhaltet ihr nach der Runde euer Booster (gegen Vorlage des Loses) bei unserem Personal )
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mittagspause:
Aufgrund der hohen Spielerzahl wird es keine Mittagspause geben. Wir werden euch ausreichen Zeit lassen, um euch in den umliegenden Restaurants zu stärken - fragt am Thresen nach um zu erfragen, wo es am besten schmeckt
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kauf + Verkauf von Einzelkarten/Sammlungen:

Es wird wieder einen Händler vor Ort geben, bei dem ihr eure Einzelkarten / Sammlungen verkaufen könnt, bzw. noch wichtige Karten einkaufen könnt.

Hierzu folgen noch nähere Infos.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Der Preispool wird entsprechend der Spieleranzahl angepasst. Bitte seid euch also bewusst, dass es bei deutlich weniger Spielern auch weniger Preise geben kann, da das Turnier finanziert werden muss.

Preise ( ab 120 Teilnehmern ):

Platz 01 - 380€ Cardmarket-Gutschein+Box Topper(ModernMaster)
Platz 02 - 300€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 03 - 200€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 04 - 200€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 05 -  150€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 06 -  150€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 07 -  150€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 08 -  150€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 09 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 10 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 11 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 12 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 13 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 14 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 15 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 16 -   90€ Cardmarket-Gutschein

Preise ( ab 90 Teilnehmern ):

Platz 01 - 250€ Cardmarket-Gutschein+Box Topper(ModernMaster)
Platz 02 - 200€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 03 - 150€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 04 - 150€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 05 - 120€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 06 - 120€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 07 - 120€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 08 - 120€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 09 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 10 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 11 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 12 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 13 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 14 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 15 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 16 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein

Preise (ab 60 Teilnehmern):

Platz 01 -200€ Cardmarket-Gutschein+Box Topper(ModernMaster)
Platz 02 -150€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 03 -100€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 04 -100€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 05 - 80€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 06 - 80€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 07 - 80€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 08 - 80€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 09 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 10 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 11 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 12 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 13 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 14 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 15 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 16 - 50€ Cardmarket-Gutschein

Preise ( ab 30 Teilnehmer )

Platz 01 -120€ Cardmarket-Gutschein+Box Topper(ModernMaster)
Platz 02 -  80€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 03 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 04 -  60€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 05 -  40€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 06 -  40€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 07 -  40€ Cardmarket-Gutschein
Platz 08 -  40€ Cardmarket-Gutschein


Special Prices for Special Peoples:

Es wird natürlich wieder spezielle Preise geben für spezielle Kategorien.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wie kommt ihr am besten zum Turnier?
Falls ihr mit dem Zug anreisen solltet, bewegt ihr euch aus dem Hauptbahnhof raus, lauft bis zum Riebeckplatz und geht dann den Boulevard herunter. Haltet fortan Ausschau nach der Santander Bank auf der rechten Seite des Boulevards - Nebenan befindet sich nämlich auch der Laden!

Sollte eure Anreise mit dem Auto erfolgen, so können wir euch nur empfehlen ein Navigationsgerät zu verwenden. Kostenlose Parklätze befinden sich vor dem Laden selbst, allerdings kann man sich meist nicht darauf verlassen dass diese auch frei sind. Was wir euch empfehlen ist das Parkhaus des Charlottencenters, welches sich hinter dem Laden befindet und in dem ihr den gesamten Tag für je 3,50€ parken dürft.


Was müsst Ihr mitbringen?
Wir erwarten von jedem Spieler eine leserlich ausgefüllte Deckliste im A4 Format zum Turnier mitbringt, sowie einen Block und einen Stift mit euch führt um eure Lebenspunkte zu notieren. Was ebenfalls nützlich sein kann ist ein Würfel um zwischen den Spielern zu entscheiden, welcher das jeweilige Duell beginnt.

Zur Location:

Die Hall of Games befindet sich, wie der Name bereits vermuten lässt, in Halle (Saale) und bietet Platz für bis zu 120 Spieler. Vor Ort habt ihr die Möglichkeit euch mit Sleeves und sonstigen Zubehör einzudecken, sowie Einzelkarten vom lokalen Händler zu kaufen oder eure Sammlungen an ihn zu verkaufen.

Snacks und Getränke werden vor Ort zu fairen Preisen angeboten. Informationen zu den Ankaufspreisen von Karten und Sonstigem erhaltet ihr auf Anfrage bei Jens Eckardt (AtzenJens) oder eben direkt im Laden. Euch fehlt es noch an etwas? Kein Problem! Einzelkarten und Zubehör, wie Hüllen und Deckboxen gibt es selbstverständlich im Laden vor Ort. Vorbestellungen sind ebenfalls möglich.

Noch Fragen?
Falls ihr noch weitere Fragen zum Turnier haben solltet, meldet euch bitte direkt hier in der Veranstaltung, auf unserer Facebook-Seite oder bei der Hall of Games unter der 034544538583.

— Das Team der Hall of Games

Cards on the following list will be closely observed and are potential candidates for a banning on October 15th, 2019.

• Demonic Tutor
• Dig Through Time
• Entomb
• Mana Drain
• Scapeshift
• Tainted Pact
• Tolarian Academy
• Treasure Cruise
• True-Name Nemesis

Cards from the following list are still banned but will be under testing for a potential unbanning on October 15th, 2019.

• Gifts Ungiven
• Skullclamp *new*
• Umezawa's Jitte

Off the Ban watchlist:

Scapeshift
Before Scapeshift, there was Bring to Light in the watchlist, which was dropped in favor of Scapeshift. Scapeshift was added to the watchlist in October 2018 as it was considered as the real offender among the three top tier combo decks, constantly finishing in top-8 in tournaments, and as such too oppressive to some Highlander areas. It was also noted that Scapeshift enabled various midrange decks with a single card combo win, making the archetype too flexible.

But Scapeshift-decks haven't received too much of new playable cards in the last sets, and that people have moved on to different decks. Additionally players learned better how to play against this kind of decks. At least Scapeshift doesn't seem too oppressive right now so we decided to cut this one from the ban-watchlist.


Off the Unban watchlist:

Gifts Ungiven
This card has been introduced to unban-watchlist on January, 1st 2018. It has been added especially because higlander meta has changed much since its ban in 2011. It was questionable if a card on CC4-slot can still be too strong while aggro-decks become faster since 2011 with every set. In fact there are only three cards left on banned-list with CC4 (Natural Order, Gifts Ungiven and Birthing Pod, which is virtually a CC3-spell due to phyrexian Mana).
Furthermore the power-level of cards has risen drastically since that time. But this is partly a reason why Gifts Ungiven stays on the banned-list. The banned-list allows explosive starts and combo-decks like Academy could benefit most of Gifts Ungiven while this card probably won't see much play outside combo-decks. As there is currently no noticeable requirement to push combo-decks or adding another powerful tutor to the meta we decided to cut this card of the unban-watchlist for a while.


On the Unban watchlist:

Skullclamp
Although Stoneforge Mystic is unbanned equipments do not get much love recently. Predominant you will find a package with SFM + Batterskull and a Sword (of Fire and Ice mostly) if a player decides to add any equipments to his/her deck. Skullclamp is (together with Jitte) on the banned-list for eternitys, even Highlander veterans haven't had the chance to play with those equipments ever although there have been long debats which impact adding one or both equipments could have on our meta all over the years. Maybe time has come to test this out finally. In theory Skullclamp needs a specific deck to shine while Jitte can be thrown into almost every deck which run enough critters to carry it. At least in some of the tier-1 decks where the creature-count is low (e. g. Reanimator, Academy, some Scapeshift-builts) both equipments hardly find a slot so other decks, which stands behind right now would get some powerful weapons to compete.

Now you might ask: Why has this card been removed from the watchlist in April just to be reintroduced in the next announcement? We know this looks odd but there's a simple explanation: As communicated there have been internal changes to the council and those changes also lead to a new majority agreeing with the above reasoning.  


Other announcements:

The London Mulligan replaces the combination of Free Mulligan + Vancouver Mulligan

Hardly any discussion has polarized as much as the recent mulligan discussion. The community and the council largely agree that, with the London mulligan becoming the new industry standard for mainstream Magic, not implementing it or not at least trying it would be a hardly justifiable non-action. This leaves us with two possible outcomes:
1. A new combination mulligan of Free mulligan + London mulligan or
2. the implementation of the London mulligan.
We have tried to take into account the main arguments  of the two groups.

Uniformity across formats (LM):
One of the main arguments of the LM group was the standardization across the formats to make it easier for newbies and players of other formats to enter Highlander. In addition, the recognition by WotC for Highlander as a "real" format was repeatedly called. In fact, Eternal formats are strongly and very often different from rotating formats. Many would say that makes the charm. All in all, magic is a very complex game anyway (layer system, priority, stack, etc.) and we doubt that unifying one rule would significantly simplify format transition nor would WotC have more sympathy and support for us.

Highlander has always had a combination mulligan with Free + X (FM + LM):
In fact, that's not true. Especially older players will remember the Spoils mulligan, where any number of cards of your starting hand were put away, then you would redraw to seven and after that the stowed cards would be shuffled back into your library. The Spoils mulligan quickly became too strong, allowing players to aggressively fish for specific cards and excessively streamline their decks. The outcome of the games was more often than not determined during the first few turns with one player running away with game on the back of a perfect hand. Consequently, the Free mulligan followed. Just a few years ago, the Free mulligan was then supplemented with the Vancouver mulligan, creating the first combination mulligan.

Allows for "better games" / less "non-games" (FM + LM):
This argument doesn't really help because of the many possible different definitions of "non-game". We asked many players about the topic and got a different description from each of them. Player A finds the mulligan should mitigate the resource problem Magic has. Meaning, one does not want to draw too few or too many lands or mana resources within the early game. Player B thinks the mulligan should not only fix the resource problem, but should also allow them to play their spells during the first turns, so one would not only want to draw the appropriate number of lands, but also the fitting low-curve spells. Player C expects from the mulligan to make their deck not only steady and dependable but also wants to access their key cards with relatively high probability. So they demand specific cards on the starting hand or a direct way to these spells. In the best case they always have an optimal starting hand or an approximately perfect starting hand. The questions which we had to ask ourselves were "What is the task of the mulligan?" or "Is this still the task of the mulligan?". "At what point does the wish of Player A, B or C exceed the idea of Magic so much that it does more harm than good?" and how does that work with the subjective idea of avoiding "non-games"?

The most important question we had to answer is, where do we actually want to go with the format and what function should the mulligan actually have.

Especially tournament players, who look back on years of experience and can put strong trust in their skills often forget an important point: Magic owes a large part of its success to its considerable chance component. Each of us started sometime. And without the factor of luck, hardly any of us would play today if our tournament opponents and playgroups had only consisted of Gary Kasparows and Magnus Carlens. Good players will still prevail statistically the more games are played. But the random component also allows newcomers to emerge victorious between many defeats and thus gain new motivation. We find that in a format which has a very substantial proportion of casual players and is in need for newcomers, this aspect should certainly not be lost. Maintaining this balance between "randomness" and "consistency" ultimately determines the rating of all arguments .

"The mulligan should not punish the player" is probably a statement that every one of us would sign.
But the impact on probabilities starts much earlier: during deckbuilding. The task of the mulligan is not to compensate for a shortage of resources (whether in the form of lands or cheap spells)  which have intentionally been left out during deck building. In other words, deck composition should not be made too easy because the mulligan will just fix everything for you anyways. You need to estimate how high you would like the probability of having any number lands or any number of spells in your starting hand. With what probability do you want to start with at least two lands for example? Have a mana elf on the starting hand? A counterspell effect? Of course, you will hardly be able to speculate on a specific card, but our format not only has the "disadvantage" of being able to play each card only once, but also allows us to access all kinds of variants of the same type of effect. Of course, it doesn't always work the way you wanted it to. This is where the mulligan comes into play. It is not a punishment but a choice. A second chance, which has a price. A compromise.
Once the mulligan allows you to orient your deckbuilding to it, the mulligan transcends its original purpose. As soon as it allows you to play fewer lands because your curve is very low and aggressive, ensuring you'll be able to pay all your costs during the first few turns, it is not a second chance anymore. As soon as we start taking "quality mulligans", because the hand could be a little bit better, or because we feel it necessary, because the opponent does the same, the mulligan is no longer a mulligan, but we are entering an arms race. And if consistency determines our game, we no longer have to play our matches to determine a winner.
WHEN this point is reached, or IF a person feels a disturbance in this balance between "randomness" and "consistency", everyone ultimately decides for themselves. However, quite a respectable part has already acknowledged that they are planning to or must adapt their deck due to a mulligan change.

In relation to the "consistency-randomness" balance, also the desire for deceleration (LM) was expressed by some people. Highlander has undergone a significant development, especially in recent years. While a few years ago everyone still resorted to midrange and control lists, games are often decided in the first turns now. The mana curves become narrower, the decks faster, the play style more aggressive. Older players in particular will be able to remember that decks were fine at coping with something like three or four pet or test cards. That is unthinkable today. The decks are tuned and each card has its "reason for being" or is being cut. Of course, no one can tell with certainty how the meta evolves due to a change of the mulligan. And of course, our influence on this development is limited. Already with the change from Spoils mulligan to Free mulligan we were faced with the same precarious situation. Of course, specific decks have better starting conditions for adjusting to a new mulligan than others. This argument works both ways, depending on whether one chooses a mulligan who favors consistency or one who refutes it. We hope the mulligan, IF it favors certain decks, will favor those decks which are already kind of balanced in itself. Decks whose consistency cannot increase much further due to their redundant card packages. But even these decks, in the best case, will have to lose a bit of consistency and possibly have to work on their resources.

Why did we decide to change it now? Well, many forget that the discussion has been going on since the first mention of the London mulligan half a year ago, and since then it has repeatedly initiated heated conversations and demands for implementation. Since the announcement of a test run on the latest Mythic Championship the desire for change became more and more concrete and finally reached its climax when WotC announced that they decided to establish the new mulligan for its competitive non-eternal formats.
We understand the decision to go with "London mulligan only" as a conservative compromise, between people who argue for a strong focus on consistency and those who see a problem in the already existing consistency. The London mulligan will be the most suitable tool to balance out explosive play strategies and allows for more deceleration, so that Highlander may be more attractive to players who need to find their way into format and into the game first. We also strongly believe that the implementation of the London mulligan will happen without subtracting from gameplay and without reducing the strategic depth of the format at all.
We fully understand that not everyone might agree with this decision, but we would like to emphasize that this unfortunately is a problem that any rules change always has and that this decision is not irrevocable at all. If, after a certain period of time, the new mulligan does not produce the expected results, or perhaps even does more harm than good, it can of course be adjusted or turned back. However, we believe that our players can enter the new challenge with the same self-confidence as they did when we switched from Spoils mulligan to Free mulligan and that everyone will be able to adapt to the new situation.

Starting with tabletop Core Set 2020 Preleases on July 5, the new mulligan can be used for all play. It will become officially reflected in the comprehensive rules with the M20 rules updates on July 12. Stores may opt to enact the new rule for regular REL or lower events before the official rules change on July 5 to give players the opportunity to test out the new procedure. Competitive REL events cannot use the new rule until the official change.

https://www.cardmarket.com/en/Magic/Products/Tickets/Frankfurt-2019

Highlander Side Event
Frankfurt
Saturday August, 3rd
12.00

anyone ?!

i try to be there

[Banned:]

Changes to the present banned list, effective 04/15/2019:

Banned:                                                      
-

Unbanned:                                                    
-
                                               

Current watchlists:

Ban watchlist:                                                    
• Demonic Tutor
• Dig Through Time
• Entomb
• Mana Drain
• Scapeshift
• Tainted Pact
• Tolarian Academy
• Treasure Cruise
• True-Name Nemesis
                                       
Unban watchlist:                                                      
• Gifts Ungiven
• Skullclamp
• Umezawa's Jitte

Off the Unban watchlist:

Skullclamp
After weighting up various arguments for and against the unban of Skullclamp, the Council has decided to lay the focus on Jitte as a potential candidate for the unban. Skullclamp neither got enough votes for an unban, nor enough votes for its Watchlist position, and also community surveys did not justify the idea of Skullclamp in the format. Should the request for the resumption of the discussions arise again, we ask for appropriate feedback and the participation in unbiased surveys around this card and will, if necessary, add it to the Unabn Watchlist again.


Other announcements:

Council:

We are aware that a Council member should have some example function in terms of visibility, teamwork, reliability and general interest across communities connected to the format. Therefore, we saw us forced to make internal changes in the Council and put our hopes in a new member. We thank Christoph for the many years of cooperation and want to introduce Max Hofer. Max has already prove himself at various tournaments and attracted attention with his open, friendly and interested nature. We look forward to the time together and warmly welcome him in the Council!

[+]

Great Payout!

yeah - crazy thing how times changed  
EUR 15 and first price Tabernacle (it) + Workshop (engl.) ...

just 7 years ago

firestarter takes Scrubland and Savannah

TaZi sold his PP for EUR 3 per player point


@ derStefan/Silberhase/Agent007:

you can choose from price-funds above or
I will transfer EUR 3 per player point if you send me a PM with bank data

derStefan 6 PP
Silberhase 2 PP
Agent007 2 PP


@ r4nd0m / Peddy Frost:

r4nd0m 1 PP
Peddy Frost 1 PP

I will transfer EUR 3 if you send me a PM with bank data

sorry guys

4 players within 14 days are not enough to keep this online league alive
maybe we can try another online tournament format somewhere else in the future

registration closed / concerning price-pool see here: http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=1344.0

x

i join too (4th)

[23 Christian Hauck Germany Europe 52 1 39 2 37 16 4 4 2 2 2 2]

congratz to highlander veteran from Mannheim Christian Hauck (https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptxln/top-8-profiles-2017-11-04#hauck) !!
he finished day 2 at Pro Tour Albuquerque, New Mexico on second place with a record of 13-3 (4-2 draft - beaten Ben Stark and Pierre Dagan in second Draft/ 9:1 standard with Temur Energy)

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptxln

watch him live on twitch 17.00 CET

Christian reached Platinum Pro Status this season!

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/top-players/statistics/2017-18-leaderboard

19   Yuuya   Watanabe   Japan   Asia Pacific   53   0   36   2   39   17   4   4   3   3   2   1
23   Andrew   Cuneo   United States   North America   52   0   30   4   48   32   8   8   5   5   3   3
23   Christian   Hauck   Germany   Europe   52   1   39   2   37   16   4   4   2   2   2   2
23   Carlos   Romao   Brazil   Latin America   52   1   33   2   38   15   4   4   3   3   1   0
23   Shota   Yasooka   Japan   Asia Pacific   52   0   33   1   36   15   4   3   3   2   2   1
23   Andrew   Baeckstrom   United States   North America   52   0   33   2   39   24   6   4   4   4   3   3
28   William   Jensen   United States   North America   51   0   33   1   36   18   5   3   3   3   2   2

TaZi joined (with fee)

[Wednesday September 12th]

ok, let's try to relaunch this now

registration will be open till at least 8 player have joined but won't be closed before Wednesday September 12th
there will be an option to join this league this time without paying entry fee
check updated standing order for new details: http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=1363.0

please make your cross to join and make clear if you wanna join with or without entry fee

have fun!

I'm interested in following up how the power level increase will affect the format. Gut feeling is that it is for the better.

surprisingly it is still much fun to play
maybe even better than before

Tazi won some leagues with Kess and Teferi as Commander recently
here you can find the lists he played:

Kess -> https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-commander-constructed-league-2018-07-29
Teferi -> https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-commander-constructed-league-2018-08-05


for last duel-commander-challenge we worked together on this Leovold Flash-Hulk-deck:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/commander-1-v-1-challenge-2018-08-12

lost first round vs Teferi
and won half the remaining games with combo and other half with Leovold + draw7 / Teferi Puzzle Box

btw. never unban Flash(-Hulk) again