UBR Highlander Deck - Need some sugggestions

[Killer Joe]

Okay, I'm hosting a "Night of Magic" at my place this Saturday and the e-mail I sent out mentioned for folks to make and bring a "Highlander" deck or singleton or whatever it's called.

So, one copy of any card except basic lands. I want my deck to destroy lots of TARGET creatures via cheap black instant spells, draw lots of cards (blue obviously), burn folks for the last 2 to 3 of thier life points and maybe a smidge of countermagic.

Possible Black spells:
Terror (1B)
Dark Banishing (2B)
Expunge (2B)
Snuff Out (3B) not very cheap though
Diabolic Edict (1B) great card but not a TARGET card
What else?

Possible Red spells:
Incinerate (1R)
Lightning Bolt (R)
Seal of Fire (R)
Shock (R)
Whatelse?

Possible Blue (draw) spells:
Sleight of Hand (U)
Opt (U)
Whispers of the Muse (U)
Inspiration (3U)
Soratami something (2U)
Fact or Fiction (3U) C'mon, I didn't say this was commons only!

Possible countermagic spells:
Arcane Denial (1U)
Mana Leak (1U)
Counterspell (UU) <--eh,...
Power Sink (XU)
I'm really looking for one blue cc in the spell

Please help a brother out and don't tell Mooseman about this, he'll be there shhhhhhhhh

 

[Limited]

Put this together really quick (mostly just listed personal favorites):

Creatures
Anger
Crypt Angel
Dimir Infiltrator
Drift of Phantasms
Flametongue Kavu
Gravedigger
Keening Banshee
Man-o'-War
Mausoleum Turnkey
Nekrataal
Nightscape Apprentice
Nightscape Master
Scrivener
Shivan Zombie
Wall of Souls
Will-o'-the-Wisp
Wonder
Spells
Agonizing Demise
Capsize
Cauldron Dance
Crosis's Charm
Decree of Pain
Fanning the Flames
Jilt
Last Gasp
Probe
Recoil
Ribbons of Night
Shadow of Doubt
Shattering Pulse
Spite/Malice
Terminate
Whispers of the Muse
Enchantments
No Mercy
Artifacts
Chrystal Shard
Erratic Portal
Lands
Crosis's Catacombs
5x Island
5x Mountain
9x Swamp
Tainted Isle
Tainted Peak
Winding Canyons

 

[Killer Joe]

I keep forgetting about creatures!!!!!! I hate having to put them in a deck they're so messy and all..

Okay:
Man-o-War
Nekkrataal
FTK
Scrivener
Gravedigger
Ghitu Slinger? The one with echo and does 2 damage to any target when it CIP.


All this combo'd with Crystal Shard & Erratic Portal

I really like!

Okay fella's, keep 'em commin'!

 

[jorael]

Definately Nightscape Battlemage: land destruction, bounce and also reusable with bounce.

Other card I can think of at the moment: Urborg Emissary, Ogre Savant, Duplicant, Clone, Mausoleum Turnkey, Boneshredder, kamigawa dragons, ....

 

[Mooseman]

So, what's a good counter deck to these? hahahahahahahahahaha

KJ, I may not have a highlander deck to bring. If I do, it will be my famous 10 minute build type......

 

[Killer Joe]

I've been exposed!

 

[DarthFerret]

One word for blue: Counterspell

Second word: Control Magic

Two best blue control spells in the game, even if you can only have one each!

Also, especially in Highlander format, I like Mind Twist, Hymn to Tournoch, and any other discard spells. Only one copy of each spell means you are more likely to bombshell a killer combo, since there are not multiple copies to work with!

 

[Oversoul]

My control decks in highlander were usually UBW, but I've seen UBR do really well too (we always did 150 card decks though, which changed what kind of cards you could play).

 

[DarthFerret]

I have only done one Highlander game, and what I used was a straight white deck combining soldiers, clerics and some banding abilities.

 

[Killer Joe]

Although we had a great time on Saturday Night there were NO Highlander games

But thanks to everyone for their input!

 

[Limited]

Did you play the deck anyways? Did ya win?

 

[Mooseman]

Did you play the deck anyways? Did ya win?

Yes he did, but alas it was not meant to be...... (he played against a dredge deck, non-Highlander).
Although, I did play my evil mono blue deck in a 3 player chaos game, and it won when the dredge deck player made too many mistakes. KJ was also in that game and it took over an hour to finish due to "UPEVIL", (as KJ calls upheaval).
BTW, we did a swiss 8 player tourney and KJ did win that..... is anyone suprised.
He beat my sligh deck and it was the only games I lost..............

 

[Gizmo]

My Highlander Counterphoenix deck is a ****ing house. Seriously, it has like 3 bedrooms and an en-suite toilet in the master bedroom, it's that good.

Deck of 30 instants + Bosium Strip = game win.

 

[Oversoul]

Deck of 30 instants + Bosium Strip = game win.

That is one of my favorite things about highlander: forgotten rares that aren't normally any good become powerhouses. One of my most commonly seen bombs was Mangara's Tome.

Since we used such large decks (150 card minimum), the typical strategy was a steady stream of good cards fast enough to protect itself but powerful enough to be a real threat in the late game. I responded to this with my decks based around deck-searching and card-drawing (Demonic Tutor, Pursuit of Knowledge, Thieving Magpie, Mystic Remora, etc.) and then blowing everything up (Balance, Nevinyrral's Disk, Wrath of God--too bad I never owned a Pernicious Deed, huh?) while I had card advantage. Good times.

 

[Killer Joe]

Oversoul: Please tell me you're refering to the forgotten rare called "Bosium Strip"

Shard Phoenix + Countermagic is a long time favorite of mine. I could build right now:
"Highlander CounterPhoenix"
~Shard Phoenix
~Forbid (combo's well with Shard Phoenix"
~Hammer of Bogardan
~Counterspell
~Incinerate
~Bosium Strip
~Fact or Fiction
~Force of Will
~Lightning Bolt
~Mana Leak
~Shock
~Power Sink
~Fire // Ice
~Electrolyze
~Suffocating Blast
~Prophetic Bolt
~Seal of Fire
~Memory lapse
~The Darksteel red instant with entwine
~The Power Sink type counterspell in Fifth dawn with "scry 2"
~Tons of other stuff (i gotta go right now......)

 

[Oversoul]

Oversoul: Please tell me you're refering to the forgotten rare called "Bosium Strip"

I am, although it was Gizmo that first referred to the card. I'm not sure what other card you think I would be talking about...

 

[Killer Joe]

My bad. Initially after I read your post I thought you were suggesting that Shard Phoenix was a "forgotten rare".

As for MOOSEMAN's comments: What can I say? I put out an e-mail that stated for folks to bring their "Best Dueling Deck". I had mine ready to go just in case we would play a tournament. I'm writting an article about the night so I'll tell more in the article.