Banlist changes I. of 2013

[Maqi]

Quick guide of how to determine if LoA should be unbanned or not:

1. Grab a random deck that lies around.
2. Look through it and ask yourself: "Does LoA belong in this pile?"
3. Always answer with "yes" because its right to so. (Hint: If you are wondering whether you should put LoA in your burn pile: "Hell yeah!")
4. Simulate 100 matches versus any deck with you having LoA in your starting 7.
5. Lose 0 times
6. End procedure with insight gained.

In a more serious tone:
LoA is so good, that really every deck will want to play it. That alone raises the cost of every single deck by at least 100 €.
Furthermore it soooooo strong in the opening 7 that it increases the overall randomness of games.

I really don't see any reason to unban this monster.

[LasH]

Quick guide of how to determine if LoA should be unbanned or not:

1. Grab a random deck that lies around.
2. Look through it and ask yourself: "Does LoA belong in this pile?"
3. Always answer with "yes" because its right to so. (Hint: If you are wondering whether you should put LoA in your burn pile: "Hell yeah!")
4. Simulate 100 matches versus any deck with you having LoA in your starting 7.
5. Lose 0 times
6. End procedure with insight gained.

In a more serious tone:
LoA is so good, that really every deck will want to play it. That alone raises the cost of every single deck by at least 100 €.
Furthermore it soooooo strong in the opening 7 that it increases the overall randomness of games.

I really don't see any reason to unban this monster.

I totally disagree.

1/2.) Autoincludes are no reason to ban (top)
3.) Loa does not belong in any aggro deck. I've never seen it in naya or rdw and its bad there
4.) Even in starthand there are MANY scenarios how your opp can stop the loa and its for sure no autowin and how many times do u have it in your starthand in 100 matches? Yes in 7 (13 with spoil mul?)
5.) This shows that you never played 100 matches with LoA in starthand

I really have to laugh about all your points considering you used these points and have THIS unban watchlist containing jitte and academy.

How many matches did you lost with active jitte in your testgames?

Futhermore how many games do u lose with active oath? How many games did u lose to workshop trini start? Repeat this with other broken early drops (black vise?) and i really cant follow your argumentation.

All thats left is that it matches alot of non-all-in deckstrategys. And i really dont wanna use the library for carddraw if i play vs RDW.

Since when is the price of a card a limitation for this format?

I really dont see any difference between this monster and the other monsters. Btw i want neither of them - i just cant follow your argumentation on the unbanwatchlist cards and i personally dont understand even after your post how you can consider jitte on the one hand but you totally hate LoA - both cards ruined mirror matches, since we alrdy AGREE that 95% of the decks play on the battlefield im pretty sure 95% gonna run jitte.

Do u disagree?

[Nastaboi]

1/2.) Autoincludes are no reason to ban (top)

Top is a bad example here, because me and most Finnish players think that it should be banned. But you are right that Maqi shoudn't use hyperbole like that - Library isn't that good in all decks.

However, every game where it was involved back when it was legal was just stupid. And those were the games where it was drawn naturally - Gifts or Loam had nothing to do with frustrative losses and embrassing wins it accounted.

[Mir]

LoA and Top are two completely different cards.

I was using Top for long time, even in less or more complicated combos (strongest is with Counterbalance and Future sight). The best usage was interaction with any shuffling effect.

LoA just add 1 card to your draw every turn even if its not interacting with any other of your cards... practically at zero cost.


Bannings:
Shahrazad - Good step. I wanted to offer this card on tournament as a fun prize, but i agree that playing it should be boring.
Stoneforge mystic - ask yourselves if its this card or batterskull what is broken.

Recent unbannings:
LED has been discussed in a manner "dont do it, its autowin" and nobody tried to buy one and use it in tournament. At least i have not seen it yet.

Watchlist:
Tolarian Academy - I use alternate card which has different mechanics - Lotus Vale. Offers 3rd turn win as well.

[MMD]

So we have the second Oath of Druids deck winning a HLGP in a row.

It seems that my evaluation about the banned list is correct and one of the strongest and most reliable strategies today is Oath of Druid feat. Demonic & Enlightened Tutor, mainly because an G1 Enchantment is easy to resolve and very hard to kill. The creature power creep is not a big problem for Oath imo, as there are even some matchups where Oath became a kill condition lately as many control decks pack a reasonable amount of creatures into their decks nowadays(e.g. UWx Control). I estimate about 80% of the decks on a tournament are creature based, so Oath will nearly always find a possibility to trigger.

In the past Oath decks had problems to kill without the name giving card, but today you can just throw in  a handful of Planeswalkers and perhaps a random combo kill like Helm/RIP and/or Entreat the Angels and you are perfectly fine, not speaking about the Combo Oath deck like the one winning the last HLGP.

I still don´t think that Oath of Druids is too powerful in general but I HATE the games where my opponent resolves Oath in T2-3, as they are nearly unwinnable for me. Please ask yourself how many games have you won against T2-3 Oath of Druids and how much fun was it to play that game? I cannot think of another card in HL which has the same impact on game winning and fun killing. Cards like BtB or Bloodmoon are not comparable to this, as there is a big difference if you get punished for a  greedy mana base or for playing creatures in your deck, especially when the casting cost of this semi-indestructible silver bullet is only G1. You can also not compare it with Hermit Druid as there are about 4-5 times more outs against a 1/1 creature than against an enchantment. The only card which comes to my mind is Natural Order but if you compare both cards there is a clear difference in power level to me. The only advantage of Natural Order is that you can just throw it in your green deck as a no-brainer.

But again, imo Highlander does not have a big single card problem imo.  The main problem is the 30 lands 4-5C (aggro)goodstuff plague. In the beginning I thought that the Fetch/Dual land combination is the virus but today I think the spoils mulligan is the real problem here. The Oath of Druids strategy is just another beneficiary of this rule. I really like the spoils mulligan for the flow of the game but I really think this is a double-edged sword and we should better change the mulligan rule.