Summary
- Bans and unbans: Mystical Tutor unban trial.
- Council Meeting: The council held a video meeting to start 2025, discussing the new website and player feedback.
- Player Questionnaire: The 2024 results show a strong format (4/5 rating) with strengths in deck diversity, power level, and community. Key concerns are power creep and design issues. The council plans to increase engagement and transparency.
- New Website: The new website (europeanhighlander.eu) is live. A Discord server (discord.com/invite/gGUzfYPEJf) is now the main hub for ad hoc community and council communication.
- Next Update: May 1st, 2025.
Bans, unbans, and trials
Effective from February 15th to May 15th, 2025:
- Mystical Tutor is unbanned for a 3-month unban trial.
Cards discussed
Mystical Tutor (4 yes; 3 no)
After discussion and a council vote, we have decided to trial Mystical Tutor. As one of the more reasonable candidates for unbanning, it provides a boost to spell-based combo decks and potentially control, offering a powerful new option for players to explore. While it does primarily benefit already strong decks and may not directly support struggling archetypes, we believe its impact is worth evaluating in practice.
This trial reflects our commitment to giving the community more opportunities to engage with powerful cards and see how they function in the current meta. During the trial we encourage feedback from players, both for and against, to help inform our final decision.
Tolarian Academy (2 yes; 5 no)
The council discussed the potential of Tolarian Academy as an unban candidate. On the positive side, it is a powerful card that could enrich the meta by diversifying strategies beyond goodstuff decks, supporting existing archetypes and potentially fostering new ones. However, the card’s history cannot be overlooked – it has consistently demonstrated problematic behavior, promoting unhealthy and uninteractive play patterns that can lead to non-games.
Sensei’s Divining Top (2 yes; 5 no)
While Sensei’s Divining Top is not inherently a very powerful card and represents a lower-hanging fruit on the ban list, it would not bring significant positive change to the format. Its impact is narrow, primarily supporting its own combo niche rather than offering broader benefits. Given this, the downsides outweigh the slim positives.
The biggest concern remains Top’s reputation as a time sink. European Highlander is already a slower, grind-heavy format, and tournament matches frequently go to time. Reintroducing Sensei’s Divining Top would only make event logistics more difficult. Considering these factors, we have decided against trialing it at this time.
A notable discussion point is Top’s interesting synergy with Mystical Tutor. However, we decided to focus on one card at a time rather than introducing multiple variables into a trial period.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom (no vote)
Based on player feedback, Nadu, Winged Wisdom was a topic of general discussion. On the positive side, it introduces a new creature-based combo deck that is interactable and aligns with the format’s power level. However, concerns were raised about its reliance on a design mistake, the potential for its lengthy combo sequences to fizzle (discouraging scooping compared to deterministic combos), its limited axes of interaction, and the subjective perception that it is “unfun” to play against. At this point no action is taken, but the council will continue to follow player discourse on whether or not Nadu is ultimately good for the format.
Survival of the Fittest (no vote)
We also talked about a potential Survival of the Fittest trial. On the positive side, SotF would strengthen creature combo and green creature-centric decks, increasing redundancy and enabling new and exciting play patterns. On the downside, SotF introduces a repeatable tutor effect for the card type that has been pushed most aggressively in power level over the past years, effectively turning every drawn creature into the best possible one.
One of the key concerns is Wizards’ print policy. Even if a potential trial led to an unban—something most of us disagree with—the increasing power level of newly printed creatures, with no signs of this trend slowing down, puts SotF in a precarious position, waiting for a single new printing to push it even further. Other concerns include pitch elementals, MDFCs, and adventure creatures, which allow Survival to tutor not just creatures but also spells and even lands. Additionally, its role as a repeatable Entomb in any green-based reanimator deck is a significant factor.
Taking all these considerations into account, we have decided not to trial SotF. We are aware that SotF has been downgraded in the Canadian Highlander points list, but given that European Highlander is a slower, more grind- and value-oriented format, our evaluation led us to a different conclusion than our Canadian counterparts.
Council meeting
The council kicked off 2025 with a productive video meeting, where we discussed the new website and reviewed player questionnaire responses. Our goal is to hold similar video meetings before each major announcement, ensuring thorough discussions and providing the community with a summary of key talking points afterward.
Player questionnaire
The 2024 player questionnaire has closed, and the results indicate a strong state of the format, with an average format rating of 4/5. Players identified the pillars of success as deck diversity and creativity, the format’s high power level, and its vibrant community. However, the key issue aligns with challenges faced by other eternal formats, namely concerns around general game design and power creep.
The council aims to increase engagement with the community. While there is a strong desire for more trial unbans, we are running out of low-hanging fruits in this area, so meeting these expectations regularly may not always be feasible. Discussions about specific ban and unban trial candidates will be included in our regular updates, ensuring transparency and keeping the community informed on these important decisions.
A more detailed summary of the questionnaire responses and council member Demppa’s thoughts will be shared in video format soon.
New website
The old website (https://highlandermagic.info) has faced increasing technical issues and extended periods of downtime, highlighting the need for an overhaul in both design and content. To address this, we are excited to announce that our new website (https://europeanhighlander.eu) is now live and fully operational. While the old website will remain accessible for the time being, it will no longer receive updates as we prepare to archive it.
The new website is accompanied by a dedicated Discord server (https://discord.com/invite/gGUzfYPEJf), providing a direct communication line between the community and the council. The server will be adapted to support additional features as the community begins to embrace it. Moreover, the Discord server will be the primary communication hub for the council internally, ensuring our consistent presence and our accessibility to the community. Our other existing social media outlets will be evaluated in due course, but we encourage the community to connect with us on Discord as the primary platform for direct communication and outreach.
Change in council
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Lutansy, who has decided to step away from the council. His contributions have been invaluable, and we deeply appreciate the time and effort he has dedicated to our format. While he is stepping back from an official role, we hope he and his community remain engaged, and we look forward to his continued presence in the European Highlander scene.
Next regular update
The next regular update will be May 1st, 2025.
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