Today I present a deck which is very popular and a constant force in the highlander meta. Many people know that archetype as Zoo but since the release of Shards of Alara its also called Naya which is one of the Shards which rely on massive creature power. This deck trys to combine all the good quality/aggro creatures and mix it up with the best burn we´ve got in magic. It also have three of the best planeswalker (in terms of cost-effect relation) to support the fast aggro strategy.

There are many different builds out there and since the release of SoA its quite ususal to mix it with blue to get all the good bant creatures too. Even five colour aggro decks are quite usual nowadays and it seems they will replace this kind of deck. But I think a huge advantage this build got is the pure speed it can provide with such a low mana curve. As I said there are many choices to make. You can even make this deck faster or stick with more quality spells. Even more burn is possible.

Here is the list:

RGW-Naya/Zoo

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

Matchups

Control: It depends on the control deck and on their draw. If you are opposing a standard UW/UB/UWB version you have a good matchup depending on their removal count. Since this deck is able to get a quite aggressive start they are simply to slow. Even for cards like Vedalken Shackles or Moat you got all the answers. If the meta got a lot of recursion based control decks you can easily implement Loaming Shaman. A card like Back to Basic can easily crush you so if possible try to get some basic lands against blue based control decks since they will run this card!

If you got a realy control/combo heavy enviroment try to add spells like Ravages of War, Tangle Wire or Frost Bringer.

Aggro: There are different kind of aggro decks. Boros, White Weenie, RG/Beasts, RDW, Goblin, Elves and even Black Suicide. So it depends which kind of aggro you are facing. Most of the time you got the better creatures and better spells. But the advantage they have is either speed or consistence. A RDW or WW can easily crush you in turn four or even get you in turn 10 with a price of progressorBlood Moon. To avoid such devastation its not a bad call to implement cards like Loxodon Hierarch, Obstinate Baloth and of course more basic lands On the long run I would say its quite balanced betweend this deck and other aggro versions.

AggroControl: They got all the good control cards and run Tarmogyof,Rhox War Monk, Kitchen Finks,Shriekmaw etc. so you need quite aggressive starts to beat them. The will simply control (obv.) the game and beat you down with the same good creatures you are running or even better ones. Most of the time it depends on the draw of both players. Planeswalker and removal are difficult to handle and you need always the pressure on the battlefield to win the game.

Conclusion: Its realy fun to play this deck since it can win on so many different ways and its allways nice to play exciting cards like Ajani Vengeant and Knight of the Reliquary so it differs from pure aggro since it got a lot of quality spells. The matchups are quite balanced against other archetypes which makes the deck very strong. But as I said before its possible that the 4-5c aggro builds will replace this kind of deck since its not as fast as RDW or WW and trys to compensate this through quality spells but since the mana base is easy to establish in Highlander you can also play all five colours to get the best spells of each colour.

so far~

Today we got another deck which is not well known. I´ve asked Coldcrow to give me his MonoU-Prison list and write something about his build.

The result is the following text.

I got tempted to write a primer for the Highlander-Blog and chose a quite unusual, but effective deck. Some of the older players will remember the dreaded Stasis decks of old. First they counter/remove everything then you got no more untaps and finally they played Kismet and Feldon’s Cane and you died a horrible death of doing… nothing.

MonoU-Prison

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

A exact copy of such a deck is of course not possible, as there are too few equvivalents of the card Stasis.

I chose to keep it Mono-Blue, for the maximum power of Back to Basics, Vedalken Shackles, Thwart, Gush andSundering Titan. Splashes are of course possible, white and green would be the first choices for cards like: Freyalises Winds, Kismet, Hokori, Dust Drinker and such.

I omitted the namesake card, Stasis. As a one of Stasis is not very reliable, because you have to find some way to break the symmetry, which would necessitate more bounce spells and cards like Howling mine. In green splashed build with Garruk Wildspeaker it could be strong though.

Also a reason to play this deck is that you  get to slam down Mind Over Matter! Where else is that card played? It serves several roles in here: tapping threats, tapping Orbs, untapping Mana + Temple Bell.

Cards I am not really happy with: Rising Waters, Frozen Aether. Both are costly at 4 mana, are no artifacts (not being tutorable by Tezz or Fabricate) and the latter one can be utterly useless. I’d like to include one or two more early counters, but alas! There are only so many good ones. Memory Lapse/Negate / Arcane Denial would be possible candidates.

Matchups:

Let’s start with the bad ones:

RDW/Burn:

Well. There isn’t much you can do about that. They need only 2-3 mana to cast their burn spells, are Back to Basics proof, and you have zero lifegain. You really need to have the early counters ready to reach the midgame when you can establish a lock.

Zoo/Naya:

Also not too great, as they play huge early threats. But if you can land and protect one of your anti-aggro tools (Shackles, Propaganda, Tabernacle, Dream Tides, Bridge) they are often quite helpless since they run alot less burn spells. On the other hand be aware of Qasali Pridemage and Krosan Grip.

If your meta consists of mostly aggro you can tune this deck in that direction. A white splash with Wraths, Swords and such would be prudent.

Other control decks (3c-5c, Rock etc.):

These are quite good MUs. Often they run alot of dead anti-creature cards and a non-basic heavy manabase. The ample support of counterspells + Mana should enable this deck to comfortably outplay them. Once you can land a lockpiece it is mostly over for them.

An exception would be MUC/BlueStaxx. That deck looks almost like this only that they play no lockpieces but huge blue spells/Artifacts. This will often be a classic draw-go game, where the one moving first loses.

Combo:

Also quite favorable due to counters + mana denial. There are many combodecks out there but most of them need unhindered mana to operate, which makes the orbs prime threats to them.

Conclusion: If you want to play a different , pure control magic game, this deck is quite satisfying.

BUT: that might not be the case for your opponent, since games tend to go very long with them being able to do nothing. So you might get a win or two by just forcing the opponent to concede in agony(A/N I realy like that ). That actually happened to me in the online league.

As usual I’d be glad to receive every kind of constructive critics.

Best wishes

Today I want to present a deck which is  loved and hated all over the world . My friend Patrik (also known as Pennywise on the forums) played this deck since 12 years and is constantly improving it. He also got the 4th place on the Highlander Grand Prix three years ago. He tried different builds with a black and white splash or just green.

This  build is mono green with a slighty white splash for Ravages of War and Armageddon since its obvious that a deck which got so many alternative mana sources can only benefit from such mighty spells. Additionally there are Mirror Entity and Ranger of Eos

Here is the list:

Gw Elves

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

As you can see a lot of the cards are meant to be synergetic which is not unusual for a tribal deck like this. Since elves are one of the oldest tribes in magic there are a LOT of options to put in. I saw many many builds over the years. Straight aggro, aggro-control and even combo elves (yeah nothing spectacular in extended). Patrik tried also some combo elements like staff of domination or Progenitus. But he came to the conclusion that straight aggro with a very aggressive curve is the best way to go.

It would be very easy to implement some black cards since the deck is capable to splash any kind of colour for cards like Maelstrom Pulse or Putrefy and Demonic Tutor. As far as I know Patrik was not satisfied with these cards so he was going back to a more creatures less non creature spells – build. To implement the mass land destruction is in my view a very good call to the actual meta game.

A lot of 4-5c aggro decks are going wild and have such strong cards from all colours. He´s able to finish the game with just one spell against these decks. And even against control its a game winning card. Since its not my deck I cant write as much as you guys would like but I´ve seen it a  lot in real life and think its one of the best tribal decks out there if not the best.

Its a force to reckon with. I lost on the last Grand Prix my only game in swiss against Gwb Elves and its insane what potential they have. I cant imagine any other deck which can get such explosives starts like elves. I hope you guys enjoy this list and feel free to ask.

so far~

This time I want to present a well known archetype. My goal was to show some unique decks on the blog but I thought it would be nice to have some classic builds for people which are new to the format. So here is my version of MonoR-RDW which get 2nd in the current Highlander season (Season X).

MonoR-Red Deck Wins

• Lands
• Creatures
• Spells

As you can see there are a lot of obvious choices but of course as always there is a lot of space to implement personal favorites. The good thing about RDW is that you can easily modify it to your local meta. If there are many WW-Decks you can add Sulfur Elemental/Ghost Fire/Pyrite Spellbomb if your meta is dominated by control decks you can add The Rack and land destruction spells etc.

I would say that this kind of deck got a lot of good matchups. Sometimes its insanly fast and is able to kill an opponent on turn four. And even in a game where an opponent is able to stabilize you can end the game with spells like Price of Progress or Ruiniation/Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon

Against straight Aggro Decks like Gx Elves, WR Boros or Rx Goblins this deck is also performing very well. Its able to burn the small dudes which are essential since they use a lot of synergies and finish them off with his own haste creatures which are “immune” to spot removal or at least generating card advantage. I added in my build spells like Volcanic Fallout and Breath of Darigaaz for this kind of matchups.

Midrange Aggro Decks like GWR Naya, UGW Bant/UGWB Dark Bant or 5C Aggro Decks are the “worst” matchups. Since they got a lot of good cards against RDW. They play all the good removal + lifegain creatures and got counterspell backup. Sometimes you can mess with their manabase but if they are playing their second Kitchen Finks which got revived by an Eternal Witness or a Baneslayer Angel the deck simply cant beat this.

Against Control Decks you got a good chance since they need their anti-aggro cards right on time and dont have much time to develop their board. Some player add cards like Tangle Wire or Frost Bringer to get a better matchup against control/combo decks but In my build is no place for this kind of cards. I think its a viable strategy to add more mana denial to the deck but my deck is a hybrid between sligh and aggro so its crucial to have enough mana. Cards like Avalance Riders and Fulminator Mage are also a good option to think about.

As you can see my build is missing any artifact removal. This is a meta game call but if you whish to implement some cards against artifacts I would suggest those Pillage / Smash to Smithereens or Hearth Kami.

This type of deck is in my opionion a good benchmark for any deck which want to survive in the Highlander meta. Its an insanly fast deck and can check if the opposing deck is stable enough to stay in the meta. As far as I know its a very popular deck on MTGO and a lot of players mix it up with a goblin strategy or even more burn so if you planing to create a new deck check if its able to catch up with this kind of archetype.

so far~