15-Card Highlander Format

[Dead]

Moving on from blue denial, i've tried red reusable land destruction:
What's probably most important is abilities that can be used over and over again. Hammer of Bogardan has been mentioned, as has the rebel engine. It's a shame buyback isn't featured in the legal sets. What we do have, however, is spellshapers. Another observation is that lands are vulnerable, as they are very difficult to replace once lost. Which means the order of the day is a land destruction spellshaper: Seismic Mage.

1 Seismic Mage (MM)- Destroy all their land, part 1.
1 Squee (MM)- Destroy all their land, part 2.
1 Rishadan Pawn Shop (MM)- Save key permanents from destruction by returning them to library- crucial to keep the seismic mage going.
1 Impatience (UD)- Without mana, they can't play.
1 Veteran Brawlers (PY)- If they don't have land, they don't have untapped land, making this a great creature.
1 Lightning Dragon (US)- Another solid Finisher.
1 Hammer of Bogardan (6th)- Alternative victory route, direct damage and counter-proof.

7 Mountain
1 Rishadan Port (MM)- More denial

SB: 1 Hammer Mage (MM)- In case of Artifact Mana.
SB: 1 Shivan Gorge (US)- If you need colourless damage (eg they have hosers such as COP:Red.
SB: 1 Flint Golem (NE)- More colourless damage and highly unlikely to be blocked early on.

 

[Dead]

My next thought was to get around the mana problems with green stuff to deploy some serious fat.

1 Vernal Bloom (US)- Effectively double mana
1 Groundskeeper (MM)- Essential to protect your lands
1 Overlaid Terrain (NE)- Drawback negated by the keeper
1 Llanowar Elves (6th)- More mana
1 Blaze (6th)- Something to spend it all on.
1 Squallmonger (MM)- Reusable damage, takes out flying stuff and adds to the blaze.
1 Rhox (NE)- Big Finisher, the direct dealing is very handy.
1 Thorn Elemental (UD)- Second finisher.
7 Forest

SB: 1 Woodripper (NE)- Artifact removal.
SB: 1 Defense Grid (UY)- Stop the terrain being countered.
SB: 1 Stream of Life (6th)- Replaces Blaze against fast agressive decks or counterspelling.

 

[Dead]

Finally I'll finish with a Saber Ants deck for the fun of it...

1 Saber Ants- Critter Generation.
1 Spidersilk Armour- Critter Protection.
1 Spiteful Bully- Hit the ants with it each turn once the armour is down.
1 Dark Triumph- Sac one little insect to make the rest big.
1 Thrive- Make them bigger
1 Caller of the hunt- One big creature...
1 Tiger Claws- ...with trample.

1 Gaea's Cradle- Plenty of mana
5 Forest
2 Swamp

SB: 1 Seal of Doom- If they have something that must die.
SB: 1 Calming Verse- Get rid of difficult enchantments.
SB: 1 Rishadan Pawnshop- If they have removal for the Saber Ants.

 

[Captain Caveman]

"Congratulations, Psychotic Tutor, your Pox deck is four (minor) changes from the ultra-secret deck I currently consider unbeatable..."

Well, I'd like to take credit for coming up with something..
but... its YOUR deck. All I did was play-test the stuff
you posted, already. (I'm a copy-cat)

I usually leave all the creative stuff up to: Erik, Zadok001
yourself and many others. I'm a modular deck builder. I'll
take what I consider a good deck and tune it to my own
playing style.

In my own play-testing secessions, I found that land
destruction was great. Whether it was in the form of Ponza
or Pox it work pretty darn, good once I got rolling.

One more comment.....
What do you think about playing with the "free" stuff.
(Dryad, the Legates, Cave-in and the others.)Sideboard?

caveman,
a.k.a. PT

 

[Gizmo]

Yeah, I feel kind of stupid about that, Caveman. I was just thinking about my POx deck and trying to amke sure I didn`t let anybody find out about it, then I saw you had posted osmething nearly identical - I nearly freaked!

Of course I`d forgotten I`d already posted an early version of it here - doh!

As for free stuff - I think the pitch stuff is weak because you have to lose cards to do it. I`m not sure what you gain, mana hasn`t been a particular problem except against strong LD decks.

Dead - Is 7 land too much? I would imagine you could happily drop to 6 for most decks, especially if you aren`t going to be using man-lands or Dust Bowls.

 

[DÛke]

...there are already some great decks as I see.
Very powerful, and very interesting. I like the discard decks at most. Very unique.

I think I'll give it a try:

Invasion:
1x Duress
1x Specter's Wail
1x Snuff Out
1x Unearth

1x Ravenous Rats
1x Apprentice Necromancer
1x Bone Shredder
1x Highway Robber
1x Ticking Gnomes

1x Rath's Edge
1x Spawning Pool
4x Swamp

 

[Duel]

Just a thought, since the goal is to deal damage in a cnotinuous fashion, how about this, just for fun:

2 haunted crossroads
2 highway robbers
1 mind slash
1 Attritition
1 dark rituals (Worthwhile?)
1 Bone shredder
1 devout witness
4 Swamps
2 plains

I know, it sucks. But I think it's interesting...

 

[Ed Sullivan]

Duel - it's highlander format

 

[Duel]

What's higland... oh. Never mind....

 

[Hetemti]

Viashino Cutthroat
Highway Robber
Phyrexian Reclamation (Not undertaker...it's nice to have more cards in this format.)
Haunted Crossroads
Lightning Dragon
Cateran Enforcer
Dark Ritual
Apprentice Necromancer
Sulforus Springs (Why are people thinking City? Allied Painlands don't come in tapped anyway, and they are friendly lategame.)
3 Mountan
3 Swamp
-=-
Peat Bog
Sandstone Needle
Phyrexian Negator
-=-=-
What about this with sealed deck...ie...a booster with some cards swapped for lands...and something to ease the color problems...like only requiring one of a color in a doublecolor spell. Or allowing two lands to me marked as dual...

HetemtiPost v1.3.0

[Edited by Hetemti on August 19th, 2000 at 06:35 PM]

 

[Gizmo]

If anybody wants to scare the crap out of people in 15-Highlander then this Sneak deck will do the trick:

1cc Dark Ritual, Vampiric Tutor
2cc Grim Monolith
3cc
4cc Bodysnatcher, Sneak Attack
5cc Weatherseed Treefolk
6cc Crater Hellion
7cc Phyrexian Colossus, Delraich
8cc Avatar Of Woe
Lnd City Of Brass, Sulfurous Springs, Dwarven Ruins, Sandstone Needle, Mountain

And I haven`t shown you my Enchantress deck yet, have I?

1cc Sheltered Prayers, Wild Growth
2cc Seal Of Cleansing
3cc Dense Foliage, Yavimaya Enchantress
4cc Parallax Wave, Opalessence, Replenish
5cc Saproling Burst
Lnd City Of Brass, Brushland, Forestx2, Plainsx2

 

[galtwish]

Giz, the Returns are to lock the game. If I remember correctly, you said you don't lose if you can't draw a card. Returns will eliminate everything other than what is one the table, so if you get ahead, you win. If you can drop a Nether Spirit and then Returns (obviously with the Spirit out of the GY), then you win. returns also hoses all the "good" recursion spells. It could work really well with any fast beats deck too. Yes, Diminshing Returns is my Ring of Gix for this format, but I think it completely breaks the format.

1 Cloud Sprite
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Sage Owl/Spire Owl
1 Waterfront Bouncer
1 Snap
1 Unsummon
1 Sigil of Sleep
1 Counterspell
1 Tangle Wire
1 Diminishing Returns
5 Island

SB
1 Annul
1 Relearn
1 Misdirection

and yes, I may actually post decks that don't involve Diminishing Returns.

Erik

 

[plaguelord2000]

ive never tryed this before but a good deck to try is ponza. if people nead land in this tournament land distruction is good. try this deck.

3 stone rain
2 avalanch riders
4 shock
1 haunted crossroads

3 mountains
2 swamp

this may seam a little goofy. but the idea ia to get a reacuring avalanch ride to distroy there lands till they can do any more and then pay there echo. the shock are for creature control and to do a little damage. you might want to go with rhystic lightning, or arc lightning. seeing that your stone rains will take affect on turn 3 you might want to go withc lightning blast. well i hope this deck works. it seams that it should. until later then

 

[Gizmo]

People are going ot be jumping straight to Page 2 o this thread now, so I guess I have to repeat that this is Higlander.

"There can be only one!" (copy of a non-basic land card that is)

Erik, only you remove ten cards - they get to draw from the whole 15 cards. Diminishing Returns IS a hard lock as you say, but only for yourself.

10/10 for effort, 0/10 for execution.

 

[galtwish]

It always helps to read the cards.

Humbley,
Erik

 

[galtwish]

That damn card needs an errata

 

[nanokill]

that highlander format is so cool! here is a green deck for it.
cratures:
Llanowar elf
priest of titania
wild dogs
scyrb sprites
vine dyriad
albino troll

instant/enchan.:
rancor
giant growth
seal of strenght
tranquil grove

lands:
gaea's cradle
forest 4x

 

[Ristik]

I have a couple interesting decks for this format as well. The first is a variant on a MBC deck I could never get off the ground, a Citadel of Pain Deck:

15Citadel

1 Dwarven Ruins (FE, 5th, 6th)
4 Mountain
1 Ghitu Encampment (UY)
1 Citadel of Pain (PY)
1 Chimeric Idol (PY)
1 Lightning Dragon (US)
1 War Cadence (MM)
1 Wall of Fire (AL-6th)
1 Flowstone Wall (NE)
1 Ridgeline Rager (PY)
1 Hammer of Bogardan (MI, 6th)
1 Well of Life (PY)
SB: 1 Earthquake (AL-6th)
SB: 1 Scald (US)
SB: 1 Colos Yearling (UD)

I built this deck off the principle that most decks don't use land after turn 8. Having 5-6 untapped lands every turn = 5-6 damage every turn. Every nonland card in this deck helps tap out or provides a benefit for tapping out, except the Hammer, and it's way too strong to leave out. The Quake in the SB helps deal with creature rushes, the Scald provides a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario for them blue mages, and Colos Yearling is a mountainwalker. Enjoy.

This next deck came when I was looking through my "nobody wants me" rare binder. I stumbled across a white card that begged me to use it in a deck... Security Detail:

15Detail

1 Ruins of Trokiar (FE, 6th)
1 Forbidding Watchtower (UY)
4 Plains
1 Security Detail (MM)
1 Wrath of God (AL-6th)
1 Wave of Reckoning (MM)
1 False Prophet (UD)
1 Renounce (MM)
1 Path of Peace (US)
1 Topple (NE)
1 Defender en-Vec (UY)
1 Parallax Wave (UY)
SB: 1 Seal of Cleansing (NE)
SB: 1 Armageddon (AL-6th)
SB: 1 Fountain Watch (MM)

This deck is fairly simple. The first few turns, until the decks are gone, stall with Defender en-Vec, Forbidding Watchtower and Parallax Wave. Then, kill everything with Wrath, Prophet, and Wave of Reckoning. After everything's dead, the coast is clear for a 1/1 Soldier to deliver the kill. The sideboard is also straightforward. If your opponent has some funny tricks, Geddon after you have a token out. If he has some annoying thing (like the amazingly strong Phyrexian Processor), Seal it. If he has enchantment kill, use Fountain Watch and favor Wave of Reckoning over Wrath and Prophet. It's a sick deck, but it works and uses some of those "worthless" rares.