Discussion Forum

:) I wanna make it clear; I'm not posting here in order to get people to comment or like my deck on the vault. I don't care about points here and there. I was just hoping on people to give some sort of guidelines or reflect upon this deck if they've came across or created similar decks. Also I'm curious if people are familiar with playing Highlander here?

In its current shape;


Artifact (12)

1xChromatic Lantern
1xCranial Plating
1xCrystal Ball
1xTrading post
1xMimic Vat
1xMox Opal
1xMycosynth Wellspring
1xIchor Wellspring
1xSwiftfoot Boots
1xSword of Body and Mind
1xSword of Vengeance
1xTrading Post
1xVoltaic Key



Creatures (21)

1xÆtherling
1xLodestone Golem
1xAugury Owl
1xBlade Splicer
1xBlightsteel Colossus
1xEtherium Sculptor
1xEthersworn Canonist
1xGrand Architect
1xJudge's Familiar
1xKuldotha Forgemaster
1xLavinia of the Tenth
1xLeaden Myr
1xMaster of Etherium
1xMetallurgeon
1xPalladium Myr
1xPerilous Myr
1xPrecursor Golem
1xSolemn Simulacrum
1xSteel Hellkite
1xSteel Overseer
1xWurmcoil Engine

Enchantment (2)

1xBlind Obedience
1xOblivion Ring

Instant (16)

1xAzorius Charm
1xCounterspell
1xDispatch
1xDispense Justice
1xEssence Scatter
1xForbidden Alchemy
1xHindering Light
1xMana Leak
1xMental Misstep
1xNegate
1xPath to Exile
1xSpell Snare
1xVapor Snag

Planeswalker (6)

1xGideon Jura
1xJace, Architect of Thought
1xTamiyo, the Moon Sage
1xTezzeret the Seeker
1xTezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1xVenser, the Sojourner

Sorcery (10)

1xCall to Mind
1xThrist for Knowledge
1xDay of Judgment
1xTezzeret's Gambit
1xFabricate
1xGitaxian Probe
1xPonder
1xPreordain
1xSupreme Verdict

Land (34)
1xAcademy Ruins
1xAzorius Guildgate
1xDarksteel Citadel
1xEvolving Wilds
1xGlacial Fortress
1xInkmoth Nexus
14xIsland
9xPlains
4xSwamp
1xTerramorphic Expanse


Cards I'd want to fit in with time and in case it needs heavier modification;

Sword of war and peace
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Feast and Famine

Etched Champion
Force of Will
Wrath of God
Master Transmuter
Aether Vial
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Serum Visions
Sensei's divining top
All the necessary duals + Artifact lands (already got 'em, just havent updated deck list)

Hey man


I have experience building big and complex decks. It's been years since I've played Highlander as everyone plays Commander these days and so I'm forced to go along. The two are basically the same with the huge difference that you have no color restrictions, no card amount restrictions as long as the deck is above the 100 cards minimum and you don't have to worry about banned cards.

No banned cards means Tolarian Academy, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Recurring Nightmare, Metalworker, Balance, Sundering Titan, Tinker


Your list doesn't look bad, maybe a little low on land for my taste but that's personal preference. Also I think you really need recurrable removal like Oblivion Stone and maybe Scourglass which isn't that great but not bad either. Karn, Silver Golem would be nice to include.

Arcum Dagsson is a nice tutor dude. Reshape is great. Darksteel Forge is good. They say nasty stuff can be done with Mycosynth Lattice although I've never used it myself but it's worth exploring. Master Transmuter is always fun. Eldrazi Monument can be fun and don't ever leave home without your Memnarch :)

Sword of the Meek, Thopter Foundry and Time Sieve are also great cards and killer when combined. Mindslaver is also great.

Is there a main strategy to your deck or do you just aim at high overall card quality?

you can build in multiple synergies and angles of attack like

artifacts that create tokens (like Myr Battlesphere and so many others) and Opposition which is always a great. Either of these cards are good and together they are gold.

anyway, if you have specific questions fire away :)

Thanks Seth for your input, hope u didn't feel obliged to reply :D

Some really nice suggestions for cards to add for extra control. Deffo need to include Memnarch, wonder how I've managed to not come by it yet. Scourglass seems like a potential global effect that could work, at least before I get my hands on Wrath of God. Arcum Daggson would work well in here also, tutoring a Scourglass, sword, plating, or Contagion Engine/Akroma's memorial (turn 4-5). I switched Akroma's Memorial into Contagion Engine and came to the conclusion that they're way to slow, with 7 mana you're hoping for more drastic effects and advantage. BUT with the Daggson dude, u could really speed things up for midgame control. I've also had my doubts with the Wellsprings (mainly Ichor), as I feel manaramping's been more essential with this deck, Daggson, on the other hand would come in handy with these two on the battlefield.

Actually I had more lands and managenerators in here, but while playtesting I struggled with overflow more than a few times, and decided to slim it down, as I've got some ramp and decent card draw, lack of mana hasn't been a huge issue so far. :)

The overall strategy with this deck is (or has been so far) to keep a steady control, ramping up, and getting a chunk of meat on the table safely, or a plainswalker, and protecting it/them in the process.

As u mentioned it would be nice to have multiple ways of getting the job finished, and not relying on that one strategy over and over again. Thanks for the reflections and suggestions buddie! Appreciate it :)

Dagsson = Mindslayer, Darksteelforge. Add a Karn, silver golem in there. I realise the potential :)

I made some further modifications to the deck, for the better I hope. Waiting for some playtesting. Thanks Seth for the advice. I added Scourglass, Reshape, Mindslaver, Karn, Silver Golem, Arcum Dagsson into the deck..and now while writing this I realised I left Memnarch in the shop...... gdammit..

I also made room for Sense's Divining, Lodestone Golem, Etched Champion, Sword of War and Peace (looking for Fire and Ice + Light & Shadow judge foils in the meanwhile),

Another slight thing that bother's me simply for the reason that these two creatures aren't part of the "gang"; Augury Owl and Judge's Familiar. They fly, they help with speed and control BUT would I benefit more from say a Memnite, Signal Pest, or Ornithopter..? Just asking for people's personal opinions.

[QUOTE=maiske]Another slight thing that bother's me simply for the reason that these two creatures aren't part of the "gang"; Augury Owl and Judge's Familiar. They fly, they help with speed and control BUT would I benefit more from say a Memnite, Signal Pest, or Ornithopter..? Just asking for people's personal opinions.[/QUOTE]

I would play cards because they are good and serve a purpose, not because of some theme. Of all the creatures you just mentioned only Augury Owl brings value to the table, it sculpts your library on top of being a flying blocker. (I always play Raven's Familiar who I think is better, it does pretty much the same thing but lets you draw a card). Baleful Strix is great as well as it's an artifact (relevant for reccuring artifacts), a great blocker and it replaces itself with a card.
Judge's Familiar doesn't do much in this type of format unless you have some really heavy everything costs more strategy going. Memnite, Signal Pest, or Ornithopter are just bad, you're not going to be able to build an efficient 100 card singleton affinity aggro deck so don't try. Play long term value over speed.

[QUOTE=Seth]I would play cards because they are good and serve a purpose, not because of some theme. [/QUOTE]

I agree with u on that one. Thus why I've kept 'em there since the beginning. Still I've doubted their purpose for some reason. Judge's familiar being a T1 flying blocker's (+sac) great value imo. Baleful strix seems a no brainer tbh, seen him being played in Grixis control quite alot, gotta add him to my Wants list. :)

[QUOTE=maiske]I agree with u on that one. Thus why I've kept 'em there since the beginning. Still I've doubted their purpose for some reason. Judge's familiar being a T1 flying blocker's (+sac) great value imo. Baleful strix seems a no brainer tbh, seen him being played in Grixis control quite alot, gotta add him to my Wants list. :)[/QUOTE]

It's on my wants list as well but I'm not paying the 80$ for a playset. (for me it would be strictly for legacy toyurnament play so I would need the playset) They are good but not 20$ good :)

Traded a couple of cards for Baleful Strix yesterday, and I didn't see any reason not to add a Demonic Tutor into the deck. Adding them 2 to the deck, adds 2 additional swamp symbols in there also, which affects on my manabase again.

Strategical question; Would it be wise to play 1 copy of Tormod's Crypt, to keep those Tarmo's, crawler's, ghasts, golgaris at bay? I've played this Highlander deck so far against a top notch B/G/R Highlander, Standard BG,BW and UB. What caused me the most trouble was opponents graveyards. Hoping to play against other Highlander decks in the future, to get a bigger scale picture. It's seems a huge disadvantage to have Sword of Body and Mind dealing dmg ( i need to upgrade i kno) and milling opponents graveyard simply giving him/her more opportunities in the go. Looking to get this thing (my deck) as sharp as possible for all kind of threats. Any other cool suggestions? :) ..FOW.

Graveyard abuse is the single strongest kind of rediculous abuse in the game if not kept in check. For many multiplayer decks the graveyard is pretty much their second hand. I usually play 2 to 3 ways to deal with graveyards (not counting tutors to get these cards) and curse everytime I play against a guy who goes nuts abusing his yards because my 3 hate cards just aren't enough. 2 to 3 cards is enough against your allround well balanced deck that benefits from the yard but doesn't really focus on it. Decks that focus on graveyard reuse walk all over you in terms of rediculous card advantage if you can't stop them fast.

I know a guy that runs artifacts and spells to search his opponents library just to extract the hate cards that stop him from abusing his graveyard. I've lost many games against this guy :) His :manab::manag: commander deck is rediculous.