Category: Banlist updates

  • April 2018 Banlist Update

    April 2018 Banlist Update

    Changes to the present banned list, effective 04/15/2018:

    Banned

    –

    Unbanned

    –

    Ban watchlist

    Unban watchlist

    Single card explanations

    Bring to Light

    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.

    True-Name Nemesis

    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

    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

    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.

  • January 2018 Watchlist Update

    January 2018 Watchlist Update

    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.

    Reasonings

    Stoneforge Mystic

    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.

    Birthing Pod

    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.

    Gifts Ungiven

    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.

  • October 2017 Banlist Update

    October 2017 Banlist Update

    Changes to the present banned list, effective 10/15/2017.

    Banned

    Unbanned

    Ban watchlist                                      

    Unban watchlist

    Single cards explanations

    Mystical Tutor

    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.

    Imperial Seal

    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.

    Entomb

    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.

    Grindstone

    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).

  • July 2017 Watchlist Update

    July 2017 Watchlist Update

    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.

    Reasonings

    Birthing Pod

    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.

    Fastbond

    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 Tutor

    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.

  • April 2017 Banlist Update

    April 2017 Banlist Update

    Changes to the present banned list, effective 04/15/2017.

    Banned

    –

    Unbanned

    Ban watchlist

    Unban watchlist

    Single card explanations

    Grindstone

    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:

    • An experienced player can usually spot signs of their possibility early on and can prepare for them. This is because only one individual copy of each combo card may be played. So generally some rather telling and complicated tutoring predates the arrival of the combo.
    • Answer-cards in Highlander are – for a good reason – often very flexible and hit multiple types of cards (Vindicate, Counterspell, Kolaghan’s Command, Unexpectedly Absent etc.). Combos often suffer from this ‘splash damage’ on their key cards. They aren’t as safe as a freshly deployed Aetherworks Marvel in Standard for example, where you can expect it to stick around for several turns.
    • Having a dedicated combo deck is one thing. Jamming two-card combos and the tacked on tutor package into existing decks (mostly control shells) comes at the real and often too high cost of valuable deckbuilding slots.

    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.

    Stoneforge Mystic

    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.

    Back to Basics / Blood Moon

    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.

  • January 2017 Watchlist Update

    January 2017 Watchlist Update

    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.

    Changes

    Reasonings

    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.

    Other Changes

    New Council Member

    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:

    • ChristophO – Christoph, Germany, Hamburg, * 1983
    • Dalibor – Dalibor, Slovakia, Senec, * 1979
    • Dr. Opossum – Stephanie, Germany, Berlin, * 1987
    • Maqi – Thomas, Germany, Mannheim, * 1982
    • Nastaboi – Juha, Finland, Espoo, * 1982
    • Payron – Jan, Germany, Erfurt, * 1988
    • pyyhttu – Tuomas, Finland, Helsinki, * 1982
    • Vazdru – Gerry, Germany, Karlsruhe, * 1975
  • October 2016 Banlist Update

    October 2016 Banlist Update

    Valid during October 15th, 2016 0:00 CET until April 14th, 2017 24:00 CET.

    Changes to the present list, effective 10/15/2016:

    Banned

    none

    Unbanned

    none                                                      

    Ban watchlist                                                      

    Unban watchlist

    Explanations

    No bans, no unbans

    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.

    Off the ban-watchlist

    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.

    On the ban-watchlist

    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.

  • July 2016 Watchlist Update

    July 2016 Watchlist Update

    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.

    Changes

    + Dig Through Time
    – Natural Order
    – Sensei’s Divining Top
    – Timetwister

    Single card explanations

    Natural Order

    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.

    Sensei’s Divining Top

    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.

    Dig Through Time

    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.

    Timetwister

    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.

  • April 2016 Banlist Update

    April 2016 Banlist Update

    Valid during April 15th, 2016 0:00 CET until October 14th, 2016 24:00 CET.

    Changes to the present list, effective 04/15/2016:

    Banned 

    • Natural Order
    • Sensei’s Divining Top

    Unbanned

    –                                                     

    Ban watchlist

    • Fastbond
    • Mystical Tutor
    • Oath of Druids
    • Mana Drain
    • Demonic Tutor
    • Dig Through Time
    • Tolarian Academy
    • Yawgmoth’s Will
    • Mishra’s Workshop
    • Tainted Pact

    Unban watchlist

    • Stoneforge Mystic                                                     
    • Gifts Ungiven
    • Sensei’s Divining Top
    • Natural Order

    Single cards explanations

    Natural Order banned

    Unfortunately, Natural Order did not have the positive effect on the format we hoped for. Since its unban, especially lists, which are very present anyway, profited from this card, which in turn lead to the always same game procedures, mainly focusing on Craterhoof Behemoth and Primeval Titan. Also the card’s downsides (rather high cmc, the need of sacrificing a green creature, sorcery speed) aren’t enough compared to the unmissable influence it has on the game. Therefore we decided to take the card out of the format, despite its short phase of legality.

    Sensei’s Divining Top banned

    A powerful tool for many decks, which continually smooths draws to a degree like no other card can, while also being almost indestructible.
    However, the problematic part of playing this card is the time issue, which it often creates when used repeatedly over a long game. By banning this card, we would like to come to less stressful tournaments and lower the amount of unfinished games, which in turn should create a happier environment for everyone.

    Fastbond

    Fastbond has found a niche in Storm, artifact-based decks and some Oath builds, where its performance is quite powerful. We will have a closer look at the tournament results during the next months in order to exactly value its impact on the meta. If Fastbond continues to be the key for combo decks and pushes those decks above the top, we will put it back to the Banned list in October. However, until now their popularity and tournament performance were within reasonable limits.

    Mystical Tutor

    Mystical Tutor stays on the watchlist for the reasons already given. Besides the obvious mana efficiency (1-Drop + End of turn option and therefore no loss of mana in player’s own turn) and timing (Instant), Mystical Tutor is able to find direct answers (in form of removal, discard, counter) or indirect answers (other tutors). In contrast to his ‘siblings’ Enlightened Tutor and Worldly Tutor, Mystical Tutor is much more powerful. Like many other tutors too, Mystical Tutor gains more and more options with each new set (e.g. Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise). Furthermore it enables Miracles like no other card. The potential of this card is undeniable and therefore should be observed.

    Oath of Druids

    One of the most powerful cards in the format. There are some decks created around this card, but it also demands a very specialized deckbuild. It gives the opponent at least one turn to react to it, which is the main reason to keep this card in our format. Due to its interaction with powerful creatures which could be printed in every new edition and its low casting cost, it has to stay on the watchlist so we can be prepared for new situations.

    Mana Drain

    This card is uncontested the strongest representative of its kind. Even if it needs more elements to exploit its full potential, it is in the worst case still a Counterspell, i.e. a 2-drop, which cancels the opponent’s spell and has no disadvantages.
    However, in fact Mana Drain repeatedly and randomly leads to absurd situations, by not only throwing the opponent one turn behind, but by also giving his caster an almost insurmountable advantage through a potent follow-up (especially early in the game). Therefore Mana Drain is often felt as frustrating by many members of the community. Hence the Council has decided to take a closer look at this card.

    Demonic Tutor

    No other card polarizes as much as Demonic Tutor. Supporters describe it as format defining and as the best answer card available while detractors claim it as the potentially strongest card in the format because it increases the count of each yet so powerful card to two. Demonic Tutor is not only the Swiss army knife against uncomfortable board situations, but also helps to enable those. In fact our statistical analysis has shown that each deck, which plays black, also plays Demonic Tutor. Many decks splash the colour only for this card. Its presence is unusually high for a non-land card. Therefore we will discuss whether Demonic Tutor is a problem.

    Dig Through Time

    With Khans of Tarkir, WotC released several new and powerful Delve cards, which influence our format decisively. In other formats, DTT (and its sibling Treasure Cruise) are already banned. We therefore decided to give this card special attention.

    Tolarian Academy

    With the addition of Tolarian Academy some Combo decks like Eggs and Artifact Combo were able to arise. Even if the performance and appearance of those decks is still reasonable, we are well aware of the potential of this card. Artifact-based lists can generate significant board advantages very fast, from which it is difficult to catch up. To what extend Tolarian Academy really influences the format will be observed by us during the next months.

    Yawgmoth’s Will

    Yawgmoth’s Will is a card with outstanding potential, that theoretically benefits not only but mostly Combo lists. Until now, especially TPS and Artifact Combo profit from this card and abuse its possibilities to its fullest. We would like to give more attention to Yawgmoth’s Will and will observe its development.

    Mishra’s Workshop

    A “one of a kind” card, which in the early turns gives artifact specialized decks a pretty overwhelming advantage. Mainly in the combination with cards like Trinisphere or potent mana rocks like Coalition Relic, it sometimes works like a 1st/2nd turn win condition and suppresses interaction. We decided to monitor this card very closely in order to keep the environment healthy for players.

    Tainted Pact

    Tainted Pact – like Demonic Tutor – has the potential to find every card you need and at the same time can be cast as an Instant. Yes, you exile everything until you found what you are looking for and you have to have a “true” Highlander deck – which is a reasonable downside to the card at first glance. But in nearly every case you are looking for a certain genre of cards to tutor for, instead of a specific single card, or you are just looking for the missing winning piece. This again keeps the downside of Tainted Pact modest and can even make it irrelevant altogether. Like Demonic Tutor and Mystical Tutor, this card will be observed more in the future.

    Stoneforge Mystic

    Even if we, similar to Natural Order, have to be afraid that Stoneforge Mystic will strengthen present and popular decks in particular, the wish of the community for this card is a reason for us to think about it more concretely. Therefore, this card also gets a place on the watchlist for cards to be unbanned.

    Gifts Ungiven

    Gifts Ungiven has been banned exactly four years ago. Although the main-reasons (splashability, combo-potential, one of the best tutors in HL overall) haven’t changed, we decided to rediscuss this card because metagame and gameplay has changed alot within the years. Furthermore, one main-characteristic of a banned card nowadays is its cheap casting cost. In fact we have only three cards left with cmc4 or higher: Natural Order, Birthing Pod (Phyrexian mana!) and Gifts Ungiven. It is time to have a closer look at this card again.

    Sensei’s Divining Top

    Sensei’s Divining Top had, independent of the arguments for its ban, indeed positive influences. It enabled some combos and also gave library manipulation to non-blue decks. We like to observe in what kind of way the format profits from the banning of this card and possibly intensify the discussion again at a later point in time.

    Natural Order

    This card was one of the most powerful cards in the format. Unlike other powerful cards, it doesn’t require many deckbuilding changes to most of the decks playing it. We will keep this card on the watchlist for at least one more season to give the community chance to respond to the ban in either positive or negative way.