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15555 Posts in 1182 Topics- by 550 Members - Latest Member: World
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 1 
 on: 01-05-2023, 12:00:54 AM 
Started by Rigero - Last post by Rigero
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.

 2 
 on: 01-02-2023, 01:00:45 AM 
Started by Rigero - Last post by Rigero
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

 3 
 on: 01-11-2022, 01:00:56 AM 
Started by Rigero - Last post by Rigero
November 1st, 2022 - Ban and Watch List Changes

Changes to the present banned list, effective 15/11/2022:

Unbanned:
• Birthing Pod *New*

Changes to the present watch lists:

Current watchlists:

Ban watchlist:

• Birthing Pod  
Intuition
• Oath of Druids
• Oko, Thief of Crowns
• Urza's Saga                                            


Single card explanation:

Birthing Pod
The last 3 month have shown us that this card is not as scary anymore as it was when it was banned. With the current meta being a lot faster and punishing against the life loss, we did not observe any domination by Birthing Pod. In fact we noticed that it was not played as much and left a lot of lists that were prime candidates to play it. However, 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.


Attractions and Cards from the Unfinity set
To clarify the questions regarding the legality of attractions and cards from the Unfinity set; We've decided to go with the same way WotC put forward. This means all eternal legal cards from this set will also be legal in European Highlander ("Not every card in the set has an acorn symbol. The other cards, known as "eternal cards," are just like cards in any other expansion. They conform to the Comprehensive Rules, although in many cases they necessitated new rules being written." https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/unfinity-release-notes-2022-10-07). If there should be the need to ban certain cards in the future, we will adjust this accordingly over the normal banning of said cards.


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

Next scheduled Update: 1st February 2023 - Watchlist update

 4 
 on: 01-08-2022, 12:00:35 AM 
Started by Rigero - Last post by Rigero
August 1st, 2022 – Watch List Changes

Changes to the present watch list, effective 15/08/2022:

Current watchlists:


Ban watchlist:

• Intuition
• Mind Twist
• Oath of Druids
• Oko, Thief of Crowns
• Urza's Saga

Unban watchlist:                                                
• Birthing Pod  *New*
• Underworld Breach
• Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath

Because we are testing Birthing Pod for an unban we are putting the card on the unban watchlist.
If we decide not to unban Birthing Pod after evaluating its trial period, we will remove it from the watchlist again.

Trial Period:

The following card will be unbanned from August 15th till November 1st 2022.(It will be default banned at that date unless it specifically gets unbanned):

Birthing Pod

Single card explanation:

Birthing Pod
The discussion about this card is going on for quite a while, and we think currently the Format is in a pretty good shape, with a lot of divers decks. Therefore, we think it is a good time to shake up the format a bit and try out cards that might not be as broken/influencing anymore as they were when they were banned. This time we want to test out Birthing Pod for 3 month to see how it performs.


To further improve the format and gain valuable information we need your input, worries and opinions on these changes and views on the format. Do not hesitate to contact any of us via private message or just start a topic in the forum.

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

Next scheduled Update: November 1st 2022 – Banlist update

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