[True Name Nemesis]

August 1st, 2023 - Watch List Changes

Changes to the present watch lists:

Ban Watchlist
• Oath of Druids
• True-Name Nemesis *removed*
• Urza's Saga


Unban Watchlist:
• Gifts Ungiven
• Library of Alexandria
• White Plume Adventurer *removed*

Unban Trial (The following cards are on unban trial, starting 15.08.23 for 3 months. The next change to their status would be on 15.11.23)
• Gifts Ungiven
• Library of Alexandria

Single card explanation:

True Name Nemesis
True-Name Nemesis turned out to be just another power-full three drop in our format. We do not see any capability of the card to be as game decisive as it used be 4-5 Years ago. As a consequence, it will be removed from the ban watchlist.

White Plume Adventurer
We’ve previously stated, that the cheapest Initiative threat is the most dangerous, which led to the ban of White Plume Adventurer. Without any errata to the initiative or the undercity, this effect on a three mana creature with reasonable stats and an ability that helps to defend the initiative is too problematic. For now, we do not see any room for an unban of the card, hence it will be removed from the unban watchlist.

Gifts Ungiven
Gifts Ungiven offers players the flexibility to search up value piles, a combo finish or simply the best four cards in their decks. In itself, this effect sounds extremely powerful (and probably still is), but is it still enough to warrant a ban?
The power-level of cards and our format has increased since the original banning of Gifts Ungiven back in 2011. As a consequence, the card has now to compete with a variety of cards in the same CMC-Slot. On top, interaction on the stack, the board and the graveyard have substantially improved in the last 12 Years.
Inspired by the feedback of the community that we received, the card will be available for an unban trial. Is it still too strong? Does resolving the card take too much time and makes it thus a bad experience for tournament play? We encourage everyone to experiment with the card and providing us feedback.


Library of Alexandria
There was a time when playing Library of Alexandria on the draw turn one was game decisive. In 2010, the card was banned because of its dominance in control mirrors and price tag. While we want the format to be as accessible as possible, most communities already allow proxies and we do not consider price tags as a reason for bannings.
The card still has the potential to dominate slower matchups, but it comes at a significant cost. With the increase of power-level and speed, it became almost mandatory to have a play on turn 1 (be it a permanent or a spell to interact). These constraints also affect the mana base, as including only colorless mana producing lands has become a real cost.
Thus, we think that the card should be available for an unban trial. As in the case of Gifts Ungiven, we will appreciate everyone testing the card and providing us feedback.



Contact us:
Forum (http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php), Email (hlcouncil.eu@gmail.com)

Next scheduled Update: 1st November 2023 - Ban- and Watchlist update

[White Plume Adventurer]

May 1st, 2023 - Ban and Watch List Changes

Changes to the present banned list, effective 15/05/2023:

Banned:
•White Plume Adventurer

Unbanned:
•True-Name Nemesis

Changes to the present watch lists:

Ban Watchlist
• Birthing Pod *Removed
• Oath of Druids
• Oko, Thief of Crowns *Removed*
• Urza's Saga
• True-Name Nemesis

Unban Watchlist:
• Gifts Ungiven *New*
• Library of Alexandria *New*
• White Plume Adventurer

Single card explanation:

White Plume Adventurer
The tight grip that the Initiative mechanic has held over the midrange matchups of the format hasn't loosened up since we initially put WPA on the watchlist. Since WotC hasn't shown any interest in fixing the mechanic themselves (by nerfing The Undercity for example) we don't see any other way forward than to take action ourselves.
We've previously stated, that the cheapest Initiative threat is the most dangerous and for this reason we are banning White Plume Adventurer.

True-Name Nemesis
The HL format is hardly the same it was back in 2019, when TNN was added to the ban list. While still being able to take over some games, he is hardly as fearsome as he used to be. As our own testing and the majority of the feedback we have gotten during the trial phase has shown that the Merfolk is just another good 3-drop nowadays we have decided to unban True-Name Nemesis.

Birthing Pod
When we unbanned Pod in November last year we stated that "a three month trial period cannot show all effects on the meta and we will keep an eye on the development of the format with Birthing Pod."
Another six months have passed since then and while Birthing Pod is in fact a strong card, it hasn't lead to any initially unforseen unhealthy play patterns. After this additional surveillance periode we are now removing Birthing Pod from the watchlist.

Oko, Thief of Crowns
Today marks the 3-year-anniversary of Oko being introduced to the watch list. While the planeswalker is still a very strong card and can sometimes be frustrating to play against, numerous answers have been printed since 2020 and what once seemed almost like it couldn't be dealt with, can now be handled by almost any deck (Not more or less difficult than other Planeswalker anyway).
We do believe that there will be even more viable solutions to Oko printed in the future. For now, the Thief of Crowns has served his time on the watchlist and is free once more.
We are removing Oko, Thief of Crowns from the watchlist!

Gifts Ungiven
While Oko's three years might sound like a long time initially, they do get dwarfed by the almost incomprehensible 12 years, that Gifts Ungiven has been on the ban list already. Most Highlander players never experienced a format with the powerful instant. Even nowadays, the council statement from the initial banning holds up:

The three most common scenarios with Gifts have been: tutor up the four best cards for any given situation (tutoring for overall quality), setup a strong graveyard based synergy, or pave a way for a combo win initiated during next turns. So in a sense, Gifts has been both a powerful tutor, as well as an instant draw on steroids at the same time in combo/control builds. When abusing this card, the most broken scenarios have been the ones where Gifts has been used to tutor up a suite of win conditions that in the end leave the opponent no way out.

While combo cards, graveyard synergys, win conditions and the overall powerlevel of cards in general has gone up since then, one very important thing has also changed: The speed of the format.

We still recognize Gifts Ungiven as a very powerful tutor spell that can set up all kinds of shenanigans that weren't even around back when it was first banned (Sevinne's Reclamation / Unburial Rites+Fatty - Yes, you read that one right! The original Innistrad released exactly one day before Gifts Ungiven was banned, so HL players never got to experience that combo!) but we do at the same time think that the format might be fast enough today to not have it being dominated by it.
To have the potential to test Gifts Ungiven in a future Trial, we are adding the card to the unban watchlist.

Library of Alexandria
One-upping even Gifts Ungiven, this land was banned in 2010, almost 13 years ago, after being legal since 2008.
The two main reasons given back then were dominance in control mirrors and the price tag (If people back then knew what cards would be worth today...).
We do want the format to be as accessible as possible but card prices are no longer leading to bans.
As for the dominance in control mirrors (or other matchups): The same logic in regards to the speed of the format explained above with Gifts Ungiven applies here.
To have the potential to test Library of Alexandria in a future Trial, we are adding the card to the unban watchlist.

Miscellaneous:
Every now and then Players are asking if they are allowed to bring a wishboard. To make it clear for everyone, the homepage rules section will be updated: For rules purposes, the only cards a player owns during a tournament match are the ones contained in the deck they are currently playing.

[White Plume Adventurer]

February 1st, 2023 - Watch List Changes


Changes to the present watch lists:

Current watchlists:

Ban watchlist:

• Birthing Pod  
• Oath of Druids
• Oko, Thief of Crowns
• Urza's Saga  
• White Plume Adventurer *NEW*                                        

Unban Trial-Candidate (This card is unbanned for the next 3 Month until the next Announcement)
• True-Name Nemesis

Single card explanation:

White Plume Adventurer
Over the past few months the arrival of Initiative as a mechanic has shaken many eternal formats to their core (Vintage, Legacy and Pauper) and it has done so as well for Highlander. In a 1-v-1 singleton format the answers to the Initiative are few and the mechanic has started to warp our format. The Initiative might be one, if not the best thing to do for "fair" decks. Even dedicated midrange/goodstuff lists often get outvalued by a single Initiative threat. The sooner you get the Initiative, the easier it gets to "ride it to victory", making the cheapest Initiative threat the most dangerous. Therefore, we decided to monitor the Initiative closely and to put White Plume Adventurer on the Watchlist.

True-Name Nemesis
True-Name Nemesis was banned in October 2019. Since then, the format has dramatically shifted. Spellbased-Combo and control are close to non existent, while creature centric decks are ubiquitous. With TNN back to the mix our reasoning is, that TNN from a Goodstuff/Midrange/Tempo deck is "just another 3drop threat", whilst it is a much-needed roadblock for more controlish decks. In non-control decks TNN is a resistant but statwise overcosted threat, that is often outclassed by its more aggressive counterparts and doesn’t generate cardadvantage (which most 3drops do nowadays). In control decks it is a much-needed answer to Monarch and Initiative, while also being able to play offensive and defense. This trial is clearly risky. We are aware, that this might lead to an uprise of Tempo decks. On the other hand, it might establish Control as a force to be reckoned with and help to keep the Initiative in check. For the three-month Trial Period we are willing to take these risk and hope to shake up the format in new and interesting ways. As usual we rely on your feedback as a community to evaluate this Trial Period.


New Council Member:
We are happy to announce our new Council member Felix/ BourbKi, who has applied to join us and will from now on be part of this council. Felix has been known for his active participation and community engagement for quite some time. Beside of his current work on the recent local establishment of a local Highlander League in Berlin, he was particularly noticeable because of his always friendly and fair dealings with other community members. We are looking forward to work with Felix in the future.



Contact us:
Forum (http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php), Email (hlcouncil.eu@gmail.com)

Next scheduled Update: 1st Mai 2023 - Watchlist update