Top8 Decklists Highlander Grand Prix 8

Tabris · 06-04-2011, 11:26:36 PM

Helle · 07-04-2011, 12:19:23 AM

Thanks a lot!

Sturmgott · 08-04-2011, 08:46:21 AM

The top 8 does not necessarily look like the most diversified regarding archetypes...

Adan · 09-04-2011, 12:21:16 PM

Maybe because Controldecks got their engines (LoA & Life) banned which turns Highlander into an aggroformat...

MarcMagic · 09-04-2011, 12:53:58 PM

Quote from: Adan on 09-04-2011, 12:21:16 PM
Maybe because Controldecks got their engines (LoA & Life) banned which turns Highlander into an aggroformat...

Neither LoA nor LftL improves the MU vs Aggro. It's just that the powerlevel of creatures is getting higher and higher and Aggrodecks are either too fast (RDW, WW, Boros, RG) or have access to powerful answers (4c-5c Aggro, Bant, Naya) while having a good clock on the table.Controlldecks get more and better creatures as well but it's always hard to have always the right answer against so many different Aggrodecks. Massremoval is not even good enough in many cases. Staxx gets pwnd by strong Bant versions (early clock + removal + counter) or secondary artifact removal like Vithian Renegades, Tin Street Hooligan, Smith to Smithereens etc which does not even takes the speed out of aggressive decks. Oath is kind of weak because every Aggrodeck now runs enough cards like O-Ring, Disenchant-effects in form of creatures and other stuff like discard (Duress, Thoughseize), Counter etc pp. And why play 5c Control when you can play 5c Aggro with same removal but aggressive creatures to win versus Aggro and Control : ).

Ofc it is possible to tune decks versus Aggro to get decent matchups but most of the time it's like this: Aggro does a lot of pressure, Control has to find answers in time (decent blocker, removal, moat-effects) to get even more time to take boardcontrol. In this case Aggro just needs to find one of his good spells (maelstrom pulse, vindicate, O-ring, creature removal, bounce, counter) to continue the beatdown strategy. IMO it's getting quite hard to follow defensive strategies because Aggro got access to both, aggressive creatures and answers.

But I think most of the people want to keep the format as it is atm. It is just my opinion but people are always happier to see an aggressive metagame than a controll/combo dominated meta.

so_not · 09-04-2011, 03:24:29 PM

Control decks are aimed to beat the metagame. You can always build a competitive control deck in almost any given format but that means you have to understand the format and know how to fight the current best decks. That is not always an easy task especially when people are stubborn with their pet decks and refuse to adapt. At the moment cheap creatures are good but so are the most expensive ones (Titans, Engine, Avenger for example). If you can't survive the first few turns to cast Wrath/Moat, they counter or destroy it or just send another way of low-costed creatures with some support from Swords and planeswalkers then clearly that is a problem for old-school control decks. Then again you can't just pack your deck full of removal and think you are going to win everything because you will just face another control deck with better matchup and lose. Maybe you should fight them with their own tools at the beginning of the game and then overwhelm them with nutty finishers? There are definitely good control decks out there and the point is that control decks aren't bad, people just don't seem to know how to build them properly right now.

EDIT: I'll probably get flamed because bringing this up again, but the illusion of aggrodominance is also part of the fact that control decks are by default harder to play good enough than a generic aggro deck. So to succeed with control you should have a metagamed deck and play better than your opponents. I mean that in a 100 player tournament you must be able to play your best game throughout the tournament to do well. Aggros are a bit more forgiving on average (if the best aggro player plays against the best control player, I don't know who has to make the more difficult decisions). I'll try to do my share to correct this problem by playing control this weekend. I also think that aggro decks have a format specific edge in game one (assuming unknown opponent), because their mulligan decisions aren't affected as much depending on what they are playing against.

kozel · 10-04-2011, 08:45:31 PM

There is also the lack of good combo decks, that is making the metagame rather stale. (unban will, wheel, led.. something.. jar is hardly enough to push "storm")

High tide is decent, but is a weird one in the regard that it has mostly issues with fast aggro and handles control decks rather well.

Also, please ban sdt already.. Highlander isnt supposed to be a 99 card format. I'm sure everyone knows how much time it consumes, but it is also very tireseome to use -> not fun for either player.

Maggot · 12-04-2011, 03:32:14 AM

Unbanning Balance would really help Control-Decks...

Nastaboi · 12-04-2011, 08:31:07 AM

Quote from: Maggot on 12-04-2011, 03:32:14 AM
Unbanning Balance would really help Control-Decks...

If you were trolling you got me, but Balance was for a short time unbanned four years ago for exact reason and didn't have desired effect. In fact any stupid or random card like this one (Library, Mind Twist) makes playing control less appealing. So_not and Kozel summed the problems with control very well, it's not something that can be easily addressed with bannings or unbannings.

Maggot · 12-04-2011, 10:59:17 AM

You are right I´m a Troll, maybe even the last Troll^^

I know that Balance is not balanced...yes it sucks to be me

If WotC doesn´t decide to print some really good and new Controll cards when Jace is gone from T2, I don´t see a future for this archtype in Highlander. They add and improve creatures but leave the Controll spells the same or make them worse. (Except Terror!)

But I don´t think that will happen because R&D has found out that players don´t think it´s fun when their creatures get countered...
Rumors state that R&D is close to a newsbreaking discovery: Player´s don´t like it when their creatures are destroyed, but pssht it´s still a secret...

Cheers
Maggot