Banned List - Strategy / Guideline

[Vazdru]

our banning strategy / guideline could need an update

currently you'll find following explanation if you follow this link:
http://www.highlandermagic.info/index.php?id=faq

"Q: Why is card "XYZ" banned / not banned?

Answer:

Whenever one starts out to build standards for a non-sanctioned DCI format, there will always be friends and enemies of such projects. Most of the discussions will revolve around cards on the banned list. Complaints stating "why is my favourite card XYZ banned" and others "I always lose to card ABC and that should be banned" run rampant and it is impossible to satisfy everyone.

The banned list which is currently applicable for Highlander using the MagicPlayer.org rules is based on over eight years of experience with this format and playing in over 100+ tournaments and many, many casual evenings. The banned list is not just maintained by one person, but there is a committee ("Highlander Council ") which includes the six most active participants internationally who discuss and decide together over the bannings, taking into consideration the view points of the community as well.

The major aspects and goals we follow in our banning stategy are:

To maximize the variety of competitive decks;
Keep the number of banned cards as low as possible;
React to the metagame should certain deck types begin to dominate disturbingly with evidence meta is not able to correct itself;
If a deck merely exists due to a "broken" card, this deck loses the right to exist. Then only the "broken" card should be banned (e.g. Flash).
Of course we don't expect everyone to agree with the decisions the committee makes. This is not possible where we attempt to satisfy the pro-tournament player as well as the casual player.

Within the highlander format we wish to encourage a large variety of decks and the games should be decided over play-skill rather than top-decking the god-card.

A person may obtain an decisive advantage by being the first to topdeck a card. This card must not have a too high performance/cost ratio. Examples where the effect have proven to outweigh the cost are: Library of Alexandria, Mind Twist and Sol Ring."

What do you think?
It is obviously a bit outdated, a refreshment can't hurt.
I don't mean just some numbers but in general.
How would you express your principles for banning / unbanning a card?

Theoretical early turn combo kill? Would this include Hermit Druid although this card have actually almost no impact on the format?
Fast mana? This must inclose Mishra's Workshop right? Fastbond, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Tolarian Academy, Cradle?
Are there good and bad tutors for the format or is it always the tutored card which is the problem? Where would you draw the line between necessary/good tutors and those to ban? Casting Cost, flexibility?
How to define "broken" cards - ok, Flash and Time Vault are easy, but are there objective criteria? Other than available meta- or tournament-data? But this data is limited, the numbers small - do you think this data is reliable? If not, what else?
Is there another dimension which includes cards like Sensei's Divining Top, Tabernacle or are this cards always unprobelmatic for the format, because they don't fit well in a banning-pattern?

Please check if you follow your own prinicples as well. Do it work out for ya or do you vote differently because of your personal experience with card A or B?

I guess everyone will answer this questions differently, the task is to find a good guideline which unite most of the community and council. Therefore I would like to hear your ideas first.
Thanks in advance!

[derStefan82]

I would like to take some time to talk about the current banned list and banning strategy.

My personal feeling from the past is that the goal of the banning strategy always was to create a diverse format.
You could see it easily because a lot of "high power" cards got released to make new strategies possible or punish the dominance of creature based decks.

I personally have the feeling that right now we have a really healthy feeling where all deck types can be successfully played (aggro, combo, control).
Unfortunately it's not what I experience when I play bigger tournaments, at the moment I have the feeling that I play most of the games against either Blood or some UW or UR based list with nearly identical cards.

I don't think that is why they are generally the best decks, but because they are at the moment the most consistent ones.
There are decks out there which feel more broken like Academy, Oath or TPS but those decks require a lot of effort regarding mulligan and being able to beat the deck quality of the Blood or Ux type deck.

Here are my 2 cents on current watchlist cards:

Fastbond:
I played a couple of Fastbond mirrors and it felt that whoever opens with Fastbond just wins the game and I thought about what the difference between Fastbond and cards like Library or Mindtwist on the banned list is.
The main difference I think is that those decks would fit in a lot of different deck buildings where with Fastbond you really need to build your deck around, thats why we don't see much Fastbond decks out there.
I still think that there are some Fastbond combinations which are pretty strong like Will or Glacial Chasm or Oath but I don't see a big problem right now.

Mystical Tutor:
Never had the feeling that this is unfair and nobody I know feels that this is unfair.

Oath of Druids:
If we take for example Oath of Druids, I think with this card you always play on the border of your total life. For sure you can have turn 1 Oath but on Blood you can have your perfect curve. You play no castable creatures so you play against a four turn clock as well. Oath is not faster.
I personally think that it's good to have a card like Oath which plays the role of punishing the creature deck and which allows to build a deck which has a slightly positive matchup against Blood.

Natural Order:
Personally I think this card is required for good Patter decks, that's why I like the card in the format. Because it allows additional Tier1 decks.
People started to play Bribery a lot more again. I think it pushes already fast decks to get an even bigger advantage and so I understand that this still on the watchlist.

Mana Drain:
For sure this allows really strong plays but I think it's a card mostly made for control decks and those decks need those kind of cards to be able to get the necessary speed. If you see the number of high quality 1 and 2 drops other decks have I think there should be some high quality 2 drops for those decks as well.

Sensei's Divining Top:
I can understand the time argument on this card, on the last bigger tournaments a lot of people stated that the Ux decks often result in draws.
I don't know if Top, slow play or playing to few win conditions is the main problem of getting into time limit.

Demonic Tutor:
This is for me the most iconic card in the format. I think that it's a card which is necessary to have other decks then Blood or Ux because there is not much of an alternative for it. If you want to compete with a combo deck you need to be able to win in time. Most of the time you need a flexible tutor to be able to search ether for your win condition or your solution. I feel that it's kind of fair as with 2 mana and sorcery speed it should normally if used for win conditions finding allow you to win you not earlier then turn 3 + you did nothing beside tutoring in turn 2 (no counter no removal). Again if you don't build a goodstuff kind of deck you need some cards to allow you to find your strategy or to survive long enough. I don't think that the Blood or the Ux deck would have a problem to replace it.
One additional for it in the fomat is to strengthen black.

Dig Through Time:
Never had the feeling that this is over the edge and nobody I talked about it feels so.

----------------------

The cool thing on highlander for me is that you are allowed to play some of the most iconic cards in the magic history.
I assume a lot of other players see it the same, if you see the amount of Workshops, Tablernacles etc. people are playing at big tournaments.
As I started in Würzburg to do tournaments as Win-A-Dual tournaments the amount of non-highlander players building highlander decks (with proxies) immediately grew a lot. Before there were max a hand full of players left from the "old" highlander group in the meantime we are around 15 and half of them new ones.
For me having the free mulligan and allowing a lot more of the broken cards made the format better and I think there is a hell of room for people to brew decks that are strong enough to compete.

[Tiggupiru]

The more specific you get, the more people will complain about them even if 95% of the population would agree.

I would just state: "We ban cards that make the format less enjoyable", but people would complain about that as well.

Any hard numbers here is never a good idea. There is always going to be huge number of sequences that leads to early kills, but those are incredibly inconsistent. Trying to draw a line what is appropriate turn and consistency for combo decks to go off when the variables are so numerous, is insane.

You guys have earned my trust and then some, so I personally do not care too much what you put there. I didn't even know this "guideline" - thing was a thing until now.