Summary
- Bans and unbans:
- Survival of the Fittest is unbanned after trial.
- Council meeting: The council held a meeting on 25.10.2025. Main topics were Survival of the Fittest, community feedback, and changes in council.
- Change in council: Miki from Czechia joins council.
- Next update: February 1st, 2026.
Bans, unbans, and trials
- Survival of the Fittest is unbanned.
With the trial ending on November 15th and the unban formally taking effect immediately after, Survival of the Fittest remains legal without interruption.
Cards discussed
Unban: Survival of the Fittest (6 yes; 0 no)
Following the August decision to extend the trial through the post-summer event cycle, both data and survey feedback point to the same conclusion: the format is fast, and Survival is not an outlier in that environment. It remains setup-dependent and tempo-taxing to convert into real advantage, and the abundance of graveyard hate that European Highlander already demands naturally suppresses its most explosive lines.
This matches the tournament picture: across four recent Top 8s in Finland, Germany, and Czechia, Survival appeared three times across three different archetypes – evidence of modest, context-bound adoption rather than a format-defining engine. Community sentiment has been overwhelmingly consistent: “powerful but fair”. We expect the primary beneficiaries to be creature-centric midrange shells; combo lines exist but are not overly oppressive.
On that basis, we have not found any compelling reasons to keep Survival of the Fittest banned.
Balance (no vote)
Just like any “power outlier” card, we are keeping an eye on Balance. The current paradigm of Magic design favors fast and efficient creature-based strategies, and the format needs credible tools to contest. This 32-year-old card functions as a genuinely viable Wrath variant in a way most four-mana sweepers do not and is in practice conditional. Its impact is highly context-dependent: opponents tend to feel Balance on the turns when it’s great against them, but there is a sizeable share of games where it is completely dead or awkward. Given those dynamics – and the present metagame – we’ll continue to monitor play patterns without changes for now.
Council meeting
The council held a video meeting on 25.10.2025. Besides Survival of the Fittest, there were 2 main topics.
Player questionnaire
The latest questionnaire (50 responses) characterizes the format as fun and healthy.
Survival was repeatedly described as powerful but fair—setup-dependent, interactable, and context-limited—which aligns with other data.
Overall, community sentiment seems very positive. There was no broad call for bans, and no single card consistently dominated feedback. In line with that, we favor incremental, evidence-led tuning over change for its own sake. With one more set arriving this year and seven slated for next year, we’re pleased to enter a heavy release cycle from a stable baseline; we’ll continue to monitor results and play patterns as new cards land.
Council composition
We had a chance to chat with a new council member candidate, which leads us to…
Change in council
Following a unanimous vote, we’d like to welcome Mikuláš “Miki” Veselý to the council. Miki is a long-time player and tournament organizer from Prague who helped grow European Highlander from Prague to Brno, and he remains active in both major Czech scenes. Many of us have already met him at events in Berlin and Prague, and we value the experience and perspective he brings from the Czech community. We’re grateful for everything he has already done for the format and for his willingness to dedicate time to the council.
Next regular update
The next regular update will be February 1st, 2026.
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