Cards on the following list will be closely observed and are potential candidates for a banning on October 15th, 2018.
Cards from the following list are still banned but will be under testing for a potential unbanning on October 15th, 2018.
Changes to the present banned list, effective 04/15/2018:
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Based on recent available tournament data Scapeshift is one of the best combo decks currently – maybe even the best one. It isn’t just a local meta phenomenon as Scapeshift decks has quite decent results on some bigger tournaments in quite different areas during the last months (e. g. in Finnland, Berlin, Mannheim, Erfurt, Frankfurt, online). It seems quite robust to any meta-changing and keeps that high level performance for already quite a while. As we don’t want to ban combo-decks in total basically, but weaken it if necessary we decided not to put Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle or Scapeshift itself on watchlist but a specific tutor which shines most in Scapeshift-shells. Bring to Light do not see much play outside Scapeshift-combo so we suppose this could be the right tool to weaken the combo to adjust meta if outstanding performance will last on during the next months.
Same is true for uprising Reanimator as Entomb stays under special monitoring too.
First off, we get that True-Name Nemesis is ,,only” a creature and creatures tend to not get banned. The usual argument is, a creature is rather easily handled, therefore making a ban unreasonable.
True-Name Nemesis however is different in this regard because it isn’t answered easily at all. Most common solutions for problematic creatures are useless against True-Name Nemesis.
This alone would not be a problem if True-Name Nemesis wouldn’t also be unblockable (making it a formidable tool to keep opposing Planeswalkers off the table) and wouldn’t be almost impossible to destroy in combat (thus often times being a full-stop to opposing aggressive strategies).
Furthermore, True-Name Nemesis is blue. As it happens, Blue is the dominant color in our format at the moment. The fact that Blue also gets to get the arguably best midrange creature is unfortunate – to say the least – for the purposes of balancing the power level among colors for our format.
Current top performing decks do not care all that much about True-Name Nemesis. Scapeshift, Reanimator and Blue-based Control all have reasonable tools against the pesky merfolk.
It is rather the decks we don’t see as often at the moment, which have a harder time dealing with it. It could be the right call to reduce the obstacles for those decks in order to shift the metagame to a point where they can more easily flourish.
Yawgmoth’s Will has been on watch for a long time now and all that can really be said about the card is, that it is a non-issue.
It only really becomes broken when used in conjunction with Dark Ritual-like cards. However, the nature of a singleton format makes this combination rather complicated to execute.
If one succeeds at going off with Yawgmoth’s Will, congratulations to the person because they really pulled off a feat.
Consequently, Yawgmoth’s Will leaves the watchlist for the time being.
Skullclamp is on banned list for ages now and this for some good reasons. The clamp looks quite grim on paper and would be absolutly dominating in a few scenarios. Nevertheless Skullclamp has been already picked up by the community for some discussions lately. Why? In fact not many tier 1 decks would play Skullclamp currently, powerlevel has been increased quite a lot since this card has entered the banned-list and it could be a nice tool for decks which are on the decline at the moment maybe. Card like Treasure Cruise gives “instant” 1:3 card-advantage while Skullclamp needs a special setting to reach this and is more often just a dead card from the top without any impact on the game. Maybe this cards grants new strategic aspects in deck-building (cards like Bitterblossom seem almost vanished, Bloodghast would have a new friend) and game-play (when is the right time/turn to “cycle” your Mana-Elf for 2 cards? when do card-advantage outclass tempo-loss?).
In other singleton-formats where Skullclamp is unbanned, this card does not have an overwhelming influence too. In Canadian Highlander for example this card hasn’t even an entry on the point-list.
Valid during January 1st, 2018 0:00 CET until March 30th, 2018 24:00 CET.
Cards on the following list will be closely observed and are potential candidates for a banning on April 15th, 2018.
Cards from the following list are still banned but will be under testing for a potential unbanning on April 15th, 2018.
Stoneforge Mystic has been unbanned eight months ago and has been tested in many games. It proved itself as still be viable but not outstanding or even format defining. The community feedback has backed up this impression so this card won’t be closer observed anymore.
We rediscussed Birthing Pod and the predominant feedback of the community was that this every-turn-repeatable tutor with great combo-potential is not be welcome currently. So we decided to stop observing Birthing Pod for an unban in the next months.
There are currently discussions concerning the “weakest” cards on the banned list and a big part of the community thinks Gifts Ungiven is definitely a candidate which should be observed and discussed thoroughly in terms of their potential impact on the format . It has been banned in 2012. Since then Gifts Ungiven was an on/off-candidate for unban-watchlist and therefore always on the edge. The community feedback gave the deciding pulse to add Gifts Ungiven to watchlist again. Please let us know how you judge a potential unban.
Changes to the present banned list, effective 10/15/2017.
There were more reasons for banning of this card. Huge dominance of blue decks in the format – this is a growing topic that needed to be addressed and this might be the first step of it. With many calling for ban of more blue cards (Dig Through Time and Mana Drain being the other main calls), Mystical tutor makes most sense currently – with the unbanning of Entomb and Imperial Seal. While being less powerful in abstract than Demonic Tutor, the fact that it is blue, instant and appears in what is widely viewed as a current best deck (Izzet), makes it currently the right choice for ban. The usage as a “Miracle tutor” is just another point of this card why it got the vote.
This card has been on the banned list since 07/15/2006 partly for its price, but since there was lately another printing of it in the form of Judge rewards card, this reason lost its relevance a bit. On the other hand it’s powerlevel is also something, that the council evaluated during its’ unbanning – in other singleton formats, where this card is allowed, it doesn’t show in big numbers. Mostly it appears in pure combo decks and even there, it is not stronger than tutors we already have in our format. The cost of 2 life might be pricey in our current meta with monoRed around, sorcery speed is also a downside to similar tutors like (Enlightened, Worldly and Mystical). Therefore we think it is the right time to try it and give it a chance.
As one of the strongest reanimator spells of all time (banned since 04/15/2010), this card for sure brings some questions to the format, that need to be answered. The most obvious one is – will it bring the Reanimator deck to tier1 level? Due to current blue decks dominance as the usual predator to combo decks we think it will not happen, but we will closely monitor whether it doesn’t harm the format too much and in case it does a banhammer might be used once again here.
Since the unbanning of this card (04/15/2017), it is mostly invisible in our format and while we know it has some potential in a combo artifact deck, the deck didn’t show up more neither changed the meta at all. For the first time since 2008 players had an option to play Painter’s Servant combo again, but it looks like it is not a boogeyman anymore. Also, due to Stoneforge Mystic, artifact hate cards are now a bit more common in the format. So we are pretty confident that unbanning was correct and therefore we are removing it also from the watchlist.
Edit by pyyhttu Sun Oct 1 11:46:04 UTC 2017: Announcement was missing watchlistings of Entomb and Imperial Seal. Added. Watchlist contained false entry, Fastbond. Removed. (It was already removed from watchlist on July 1st).
Valid during July 1st, 2017 0:00 CET until October 31st, 2017 24:00 CET.
Cards on the following list will be closely observed and are potential candidates for a banning on Oct 15th, 2017.
Cards from the following list are still banned but will be under testing for a potential unbanning on Oct. 15th, 2017.
Birthing Pod has been banned April 2012 and has never been added to watchlist afterwards.
Although the reasons for its ban are still be valid we guess it is time to rediscuss this card as the meta has changed much during the last 5 years.
The creature-centered deck become less successful while straight control-, combo- and aggro-decks become more powerful lately based on the results of bigger tournaments: http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=1274.0.
To assemble combo kills with birthing pod seems more difficult than it was in the past, phyrexian mana seems more expensive while RDW is one of the dominating decks recently.
To announce Birthing Pod to watchlist should encourage the community to test and maybe rejudge that card.
This card – as many other cards can be strong in the opening hand. And this is where it causes most of the problems, of course. As fast mana is always a thing that needs to be looked at while keeping the format in balance, this card doesn’t belong to “no restriction” fast mana cards like Moxen, neither to short term fast mana cards like Dark Ritual. Fastbond is somewhere in the middle.
Cards like Wheel of Fortune make it work even in lategame, but if these do not resolve or go wrong, Fastbond is a lot of times to no use and in fact a card disadvantage. As a topdeck (one of the best indicators of a banworthy cards), it rarely does something. This card has been unbanned already 2 years ago and since then spent a lot of time on the watchlist. And because no new card made it more dangerous in the meantime, we feel it is time to remove it from watchlist now.
Vampiric was added to the watch list as we wanted to open up the discussion about tutors as whole. While jury is still on the other cards, everyone seems to agree that Vampiric is the most powerful and dangerous of generic tutors. Thus we can narrow our focus to Demonic, Mystical, Imperial Seal and Tainted Pact.
Changes to the present banned list, effective 04/15/2017.
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We have had Grindstone on the banned list for quite a while now, only because of the combo with its colorless companion Painter’s Servant.
Actually, it became ever more evident over time, that two-card combos aren’t all that scary in Highlander. Some reasons for this are the following:
In fact, it has been a long while since a two-card combo really dominated Highlander. It might have been Flash/Protean Hulk, which feels like aeons ago. Even Rest in Peace/Helm of Obedience seems – although very playable – far from too good or format warping. Grindstone/Painter’s Servant might be better than Helm of Obedience/Rest in Peace, but if it will be too good cannot be said without real experience with it.
Since there is no desire for having cards banned which maybe don’t need to be banned, we wanted to give Grindstone a chance and see if some interesting new decks will develop because of it.
Four years ago, Stoneforge Mystic was banned due to its omnipresence and games revolving too much around it. Especially the combination “Stoneforge Mystic – Batterskull” was a common scenario and even after the unban people will fall back on this. This card is, despite restrictions in the card type, a tutor with legs, which, can potentially take players away from the game at an early stage or can adapt flexibly to play situations via appropriate equipment (e.g. Sword of Fire and Ice against Izzet or Sword of the Meek as Combo part finder).
Within the last four years, however, a lot has changed. Many equally powerful creatures and planeswalkers have been printed, as well as creatures that match up well against a fast Batterskull, like Tasigur and Siege Rhino. The format overall has become faster, thus making it reasonable for most decks to either race a quick Stoneforge Mystic or find an answer to it. Even if here is a small concern that Stoneforge Mystic will strengthen midrange good stuff decks even more, most of those decks are not even running any equipment right now. So adding Stoneforge to such decks will come at the cost of multiple card slots.
But the tip on the scales for our decision was the demand of our community for this card. Many players wanted to see it unbanned. So let’s see where Stoneforge Mystic will get us.
It cannot be denied, that Blood Moon and Back to Basics secretly (or not so secretly) define the Highlander metagame as it stands right now in a big way.
The two most successful decks of the last months (RDW and Izzet Control) are prominent profiteers of the aforementioned cards.
Blood Moon and Back to Basics are viewed by many as swingy and unfun cards preventing people to play games of magic. The question then arises, why players would want to play “unfun” games when they could choose not to. The usual answer to this question is that we need these restraining cards in order to hamstring ‘greedy’ multicolor strategies. If we didn’t have them, everybody would play the same goodstuff decks. While the cards certainly provide “free” wins the current meta shows that due to the singleton nature of the format even a fairly strong presence of those cards does not impact ‘greedy’ multicolor decks enough to promote less ‘greedy’ decks.
Therefore it is to be doubted if Blood Moon and Back to Basics add more to the metagame (variation-wise) than what they substract (gameplay-wise).
This is why we would like to ignite a discussion within the community of how to deal with these two cards.
Cards on the following list will be closely observed and are potential candidates for a banning on April 15th, 2017.
Cards from the following list are still banned but will be under testing for a potential unbanning on April 15th, 2017.
The tutor setting in highlander has always been a controversial object. How many tutors are necessary for a healthy meta? And which one? There were epic debates over the different tutors in the long history of our format. Many people consider Demonic Tutor as best tutor overall and always wonder why Demonic Tutur is unbanned while other has been banned. Our banning policy is founded on following principles five reasons. Imperial Seal was also kept banned by an unofficially reasoning #6 – the price barrier. Since the recent judge foil reprint this has been partly fallen away. At least we decided to have an “overall-picture” view on our tutor setting again and to discuss the current one on the whole. That’s why we also added Vampiric Tutor to the watch-list. It is argued that the format should have that one good tutor, which has been Demonic Tutor from the beginning, maybe there is time for a reallocation. It is also said that splashing for Demonic is too easy with no real cost, while Vampiric could perhaps remove that reason. Vampiric is more often harder to interact than Demonic, but a successful counter play to nullify Vampiric Tutor costs to its caster a draw and 2 life, which favors opposing control, and aggro strategies.
Both Imperial Seal and Vampiric Tutor seem comparable in power-level to Demonic or Mystical Tutor, but they shine more in combo-decks and decks with clear gameplan but less in midrange-goodstuff-piles. At the cost of 2 life, sorcery rather instant speed, card disadvantage, and the fact that present meta is lacking a combo presence with shift to burn, we should take both under a scrutiny.
Indeed Entomb has a different effect on the game play and it is still comparable to the other new introduced tutors on the watchlist. But Entomb is even more a combo-tutor than the others and usually no option for most Aggro, Midrange or Control decks. Entomb is obviously THE tutor for graveyard-based decks, especially of course for reanimator. We will evaluate how strong those decks perform which could have any use of Entomb in the next months.
Hermit-Druid-Combo, Helm-Combo, Buried-Alive-Combo, Splinter-Twin-Combo seem to be accepted by a big part of the highlander-community as elements of the meta. Grindstone + Painter’s Servant combo seems at least comparable to the mentioned combos in terms of speed and power-level. We will rediscuss if Painter’s Stone at six mana is still too strong for highlander.
The Council has decided to temporary take Gifts Ungiven away from the Watch list. Many compare it to Intuition. That is not correct. Intuition classically searches for a specific card and 2 Witness effects (alternative 3 cards with the same or a very similar effect). Gifts allows us one more specific card with the same Witness count, because independent of what combination the opponent gives to us, the direct access to 2 wish-cards are enabled. With increasing importance of the graveyard, Gifts becomes rapidly a 4-card-tutor. It is not only able to find the missing combo piece, but the whole combo. Additionally, it is easily splashable.
Still, we are aware of the higher mana requirements of this card, so that Gifts is not a “Fast-Tutor”. Parallel to our evaluation of the tutor cards (in the format and on the Watch List) we want to distract ourselves from this card, which could lead alone to an overload by Combo or Control in the current format for now.
Since Tabris has left the council in May we have been looking for an appropriate candidate to close this gap somehow. Payron has been on our watchlist of potential council members for quite a while already. As he joined our forum in February 2008 he is a member of the first days and proofed his dedication for our format since that time constantly. He has an excellent reputation as well-accepted and -connected community member of Erfurt, one of biggest and most active communities in Germany besides e. g. Berlin, Mannheim, Frankfurt and Würzburg. He delivers content for our format which is quite rare. Recently he launched a Youtube Channel to present highlander for a bigger community and raise the degree of popularity of our format. We welcome Payron as new council member as of Jan. 1st 2017
The current council members are:
Valid during October 15th, 2016 0:00 CET until April 14th, 2017 24:00 CET.
Changes to the present list, effective 10/15/2016:
none
none
First of all, while all of the cards currently on watch are worth debating about, we believe that the Highlander metagame and the Highlander gameplay are both in a very good spot right now. Community feedback mostly echoes this sentiment.
Also, some big tournaments lie ahead of us and we want to wait until after the dust has settled and we have new data so we can make more profound and correct choices when it comes to banning or unbanning something.
Timetwister – We observed Timetwister as kind of a placeholder for all Draw-7 effects. Those have the potential to be broken when paired with fast mana.
It seems though, the amount of fast mana available in Highlander is too small to really make the Draw-7’s oppressive.
Currently, Storm seems to have fallen off the radar and Artifact Combo or Eggs remain as the sole archetypes sporting Draw-7’s. Those decks are able to win tournaments but are lacking in the consistency department.
We are fine with a certain amount of brokenness in the metagame. As already stated, we believe we are in a good spot right now metagame-wise. Combo is viable and even good but not dominant. Because of this, Timetwister leaves the watchlist.
Mishra’s Workshop – The ol’ shop is inherently broken. No doubt about it. There is more to it though. To really leverage the Shop’s power, you have to run a large number of artifacts in your deck. The Shop makes you go “all-in” so to speak.
The problem then becomes, when you don’t have Mishra’s Workshop. What do you do with all these Trinispheres, Coalition Relics and Lodestone Golems in your hand? Those cards are amazing when powered out by the Workshop but lackluster when cast on curve and even when cast after mild acceleration like a Talisman or Signet. Unlike in Vintage, where the “shop-density” is rather high (4/60), we have to make do with 1/100. This poses great challenges to deckbuilding, where you want to make your deck good with and without Mishra’s Workshop.
Overall, we think Mishra’s Workshop enriches the format by being a very good but not mandatory incentive to play artifact-centric decks. We know this is a judgment call and one could certainly argue otherwise but we feel the provided deck-building incentive outweighs the potentially dangerous brokenness of the card.
Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time
If you’d have to pick the single color which has got the most powerful cards it would certainly be Blue. As the stale saying goes: The best land in Magic is Island. Nothing new under the sun.
Consequently, we have to make sure to keep Blue contained. Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time certainly rank as two of the best blue cards at the moment. Their ability to run away with the game should be known by now. Most decks built to abuse the Delve mechanic will cast those cards for U and UU pretty consistently. The deck-building cost isn’t even very high, because you just
play cantrips, fetches and cheap spells which is a thing most decks want to do anyway.
Having these two cards on watch can’t certainly be a wrong thing.
Valid during July 1st, 2016 0:00 CET until October 14th, 2016 24:00 CET.
Cards on the following list will be closely observed and are potential candidates for a banning on October 15th, 2016.
Cards from the following list are still banned but will be under testing for a potential unbanning on October 15th, 2016.
+ Dig Through Time
– Natural Order
– Sensei’s Divining Top
– Timetwister
Natural Order comes off the list and will stay banned at least for the immediate future. The card has been subject to much discussion during the past two years, so we will not repeat the reasons for its ban. We will say though, the vast majority of the community and the council seem content with it being gone. Games are just much more enjoyable without the randomly powerful swings this card creates.
Just recently banned and now gone for a while is Sensei’s Divining Top. We have reasons to believe – and community opinion is backing us up here – that overall gameplay is improved or at least not harmed at all by the absence of the Top. Nevertheless, we will further monitor the performance of Control decks. Should they decline, a renewed discussion of SDT would likely become appropriate.
Power-level wise, Dig Through Time ranges just a little beneath other blue cards currently on the list (we’re looking at you, Mana Drain and Mystical Tutor!). Because of that, DTT falls off the list.
We introduce Timetwister to the banning watchlist. There are hints of Combo potentially being too strong (although the verdict if this true is still up in the air). We certainly would like to have a little control over some of the lower tier key cards those combo decks use, in order to retain the option of not having to completely axe Combo (for example by banning Tolarian Academy) but being able to modulate its power-level by cutting a good but not crucial card from the strategy.