Welcome to One Double O, the place to read up on the 100 card Singleton format.
This week, I'll be looking at the cards from Exodus, the last set of the Rath cycle that would bring 100 card Singleton closer to the paper format, Highlander which I will be looking at to discuss the possible future outlook of 100 card Singleton and more specifically, the banned list which has not yet to encounter any changes since its last big change.

Exodus is now on our online shelves. I'll advise people to get the cards they need a few days before the release events end because in my experience, card prices start to go up after that unless the card is already overhyped. If you want to do it the hard way, you can always play in the release events and hope to get the card you want. Otherwise, stopping by at mtgotraders.com would be more than sufficient to get what you need.
Exodus is a rather small set and the useful cards are only a handful. The top few cards are probably these:
#1 - Survival of the Fittest
#2 - Recurring Nightmare
#3 - Forbid
#4 - Price of Progress
Below are a rundown of the various cards that might be useful to have when building decks. If you see a description that is similar to what you want to accomplish, you should pick up a copy and try it out.
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Carnophage
B for 2/2 that deals you 1 damage a turn. You can choose not to pay and get it tapped (although you wouldn't usually do this) so it's somewhat different from its Zendikar counterpart, Vampire Lacerator, although very similar. If you actually think about this 2 damage to opp - 1 damage to self situation, you will realise that it doesn't get you too far ahead in the reality of the game state unless you can push very aggressively so this really goes only into very aggressive decks.
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Cataclysm
A very powerful lockdown card which would likely pop out in a GW beatdown archetype or something similar. This card can be maximised by playing all 4 card types but even at a minimal of 1 land and 1 creature, the odds of the game being sealed at that point in time is very high, better if the opponent is tapped out. To make the card work better, cards such as Flagstones of Trokair or Yavimaya Elder that work when they enter the graveyard can be good. Floating mana like when using Upheaval can also be very deadly so playing it in a WB build for Tombstalker and even Soul Stair Expedition / (Oversold Cemetary) can be good too.
Greater Gargadon in red can also break the symmetrical effect by eating up the cards that are going into the graveyard anyway.
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City of Traitors
Tapping for 2 colorless mana is definitely good but its drawback can be quite significant. It belongs to very specific archetypes that can make use of its "burst" mana such as a storm deck or perhaps an aggressive deck (say a blue or red aggro deck) that is not too color intensive (like WW)
On a side note, this card works well with the Ravnica block "karoo" lands but because of conflicting interests, you would probably not find them in the same deck. In any case, if you are going to play into the mid-late game, this is probably not the card for you.
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Culling the Weak
A Dark Ritual + B that needs a sacrificial creature. On the flip side, this can also mean, your dying creature can turn into BBBB for you to use at a cost of B. A very possible card to play in a storm deck that has 0 mana creatures and cards such as Infernal Contract or Necropotence that can use the BBBB that comes from this spell.
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Dominating Licid
Looking at this card, one can tell that it is a rather powerful creature as it can potentially remove 2 attackers from combat by blocking one and controlling the other. The problem would be where to put this card into since it's rather fragile as a 1/1. I suppose a UG deck would be the most probable house for this card, possibly as a sideboard card against a creature deck with little removals, seeing that the UG archetype won't lose too much board position if a creature is lost. I would directly compare this with Old man of the Sea and weigh the needs of the deck to choose which to play.
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Ephemeron
This card looks dull in comparison with many of the other blue 6 mana fatties. However, being able to jump back to hand is a valuable ability. If you need an "undying" game ender, this is a card that fits into that description.
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Forbid
Counter magic that buybacks. It can't get more irritating for people who hate counter magic. Combined with Ophidian or Shadowmage Infiltrator or simple card drawing, its buyback cost becomes almost negligible. Other cards such as Gush or (Meloku, the clouded mirror) also become more valuable with Forbid. Being able to maximize its use or having foresight into the possible next plays is an important skill when it comes to buyback cards. It is much more important here because you lose 2 valuable cards with the buyback cost. A simple play that could potentially be backbreaking could be a Remand on the spell being cast that targeted by a Forbid with buyback or just a counter magic targeting Forbid. Thus, knowing when not to buyback is the key to making this card work for you.
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Hatred
This card does something very unfair. If you have more life than your opponent and you have an unblocked blocker, win the game if your opponent has nothing. Everytime we look at a card, we assume that the worst case scenario occurs and that clouds our eyes from the true power of cards and combos. Of course, I won't say this card is so powerful such that every deck that plays black should play this card but the converse Murphy's law of "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" should not apply all the time. Setting up your opponent by making him tapped out is going to be the key to making the card work for you. It's no doubt a risky card to play but benefits of playing it might be worth the risk. Just how much do you want to win immediately? I foresee this to be a great sideboard card as you never know who is more aggressive in game 1 unless your deck is made very very aggressive. I wouldn't mind playing this in a sideboard of a deck that has a couple of creatures that connect every now and then.
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Keeper of the Dead
By stockpiling creatures in your graveyard, you will be able to Doom blade a creature every turn. The requirements are not difficult to create especially since black has cheap creatures or cycling creatures. The only foreseeable problem would probably which deck that this card can go into. I'm guessing that this belongs in a sideboard of a black heavy mid-ranged deck that runs a considerable amount of creatures or with a accessible constant graveyard removal. Some decks would just get decimated by free Doom blades every turn.
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Keeper of the Flame
Just as how one can manipulate life total to set up a Pulse of the forge with pain lands, fetchlands and shocklands, Keeper of the Flame can also be used in this direction. The only problem is that she does nothing when you have more life than your opponent. Probably a card to help the monored deck (assumed from the RR casting cost) fight aggressive decks rather than against slow matchups.
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Limited Resources
This card will annoy people who like to have lands out. It can potentially lock a player out from the 6cc and up range of spells. I think this is a card that belongs in a early-midrange deck's sideboard to suppress late game strategies.
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Mind over Matter
The first card that comes to mind is Arcanis the omnipotent which would let you draw your entire deck with Mind over Matter. Together with Winter Orb, it can lock out your opponent's mana while you get all your lands every turn.
With Lotus Vale out, Mind over Matter turns every card into a Dark Ritual.
Every card turns into a free Twiddle so it's up to you to use it.
I don't have many ideas regarding this card but I'm sure someone else might.
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Null Brooch
2, discard your hand: Negate. If you have flashback, madness or have the ability to play "handless", this card would work wonders for you. The first two are self-explanatory but how does one play "handless"? Aggressive mid-ranged decks can use this card. Control decks with Sensei's Divining Top can make use of the artifact to play from the top of the deck.
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Oath of Druids
This is a very powerful card which could support something like a lone Progenitus if built around. It is rather difficult to build a deck around this card unless the enchantment can be searched out with great consistency and can be almost 100% protected. As such, the most fitting colors would be a UGW (bant) color combination. This can be combined with Polymorph cards to increase the consistency of getting the Progenitus out. This is a "build around me" card which may or may not be worth all the effort. Only testing can tell.
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Plaguebearer
A Gorilla Shaman that kills non-black creatures instead. Having the mana to kill the creatures you need is not easy but with this, you can clear tons of tokens and a bunch of low converted mana cost creatures very fast. I would think this as sideboard material against decks such as elves?
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Price of Progress
This is probably the MOST painful burn spell that one can pick up, capable of dealing damage many times its casting cost. This will be very strong now since people still play a considerable amount of non-basic lands in their decks. Its power might drop when people start to move towards the basic / non-basic camp.
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Ravenous Baboons
While we have an almost strictly superior Goblin Ruinblaster, this card has its own pros over it or Avalanche Riders. You can use Momentary Blink or reanimation spells with Ravenous Baboons to pop non-basic lands which would more likely be the target of most land destruction spells. Avalanche Riders is odd in the sense that you almost always want to pay its echo cost but that would slow you down, returning the lost turn from the lost land to your opponent. No additional costs on this guy to create such a situation. Not too aggressive but it does its job well.
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Recurring Nightmare
Swap a creature in play with a creature in the graveyard. You can repeat this process for every 3 mana you have. With a card that spits out a few tokens, you could just use this card to reanimate your whole graveyard into play if you had the mana to do so.
For example: Swap a random creature for Siege-gang commander. Swap a goblin token for Siege-gang commander. Swap the other tokens for 2 other cards in the graveyard.
Cards like Yosei, the morning star would really mess the game up with a Recurring Nightmare. It can even be used as a simple reanimation card provided you have a creature out in play (which is not difficult at all).
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Shattering Pulse
Shatter with buyback! I would think that this card might see some play if artifacts start to become more popular in the future. Not something the format needs at the moment but it's good to have.
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Skyshroud Elite
A 2/3 for G most of the time since almost every deck plays non-basic lands. A very powerful addition to the card pool that is both a good attacker and a good blocker (since there are many 2/2s played in the format) but there are better blockers to block with. It's a green Kird Ape.
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Skyshroud War Beast
This is a very powerful sideboard card against greedy decks that run heavily on non-basic lands. A big creature against a slow deck is always good. It's probably not maindeck material because of the possibility of it backfiring in the event that there are very few non-basic lands in play and not all decks run a ton of non-basic lands.
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Sonic Burst
2 mana for 4 damage but you will need to discard a card at random. It's the same as casting 2 Shocks but you could potentially change that dead land into damage. The only problem is that you hardly want to cast it early and it might wreck your game when you do unless you have a fair amount of luck on your side. Still, the 4 damage can be rather valuable.
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Spellshock
A very powerful card to use against blue mages or generally slower decks in aggressive red decks. Possibly a sideboard material that would see play as a Sulfuric Vortex #2 against slower decks. It works in a different way from Sulfuric Vortex which can be a good thing in itself. Putting Pyrostatic Pillar with this and Sulfuric Vortex into a deck could create a very suppressive environment.
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Spike Weaver
Against a deck with little to no removals, this card buys 3 turns with its in-built fog effects. I can see it going into the sideboard of decks like the Heartbeat of Spring deck. Spikes have a cool interaction with Cauldron of Souls since the -1/-1 counter from persist cancels out one of the +1/+1 counters. Just saying.
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Survival of the Fittest
The super creature tutor that will make its presence felt in the 100 card Singleton format. For one, like most good cards, a deck with it wouldn't need it out. With it in play, the game just goes to the next level. Traditionally abused with cards such as Squee, goblin nabob, Basking Rootwalla or Genesis to turn this creature swapping enchantment into a card advantage engine. Cards like Living Death or Reveillark greatly improve with this card. At the very least, you will definitely be able to find whatever creature you have in your deck that can best improve your board position with. Unfortunately, playing too few creatures with this card is not a good idea so this has to go into a deck with a healthy amount of creatures before it can work the way it is meant to.
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In the second part of today's article, as we have no changes in the bannings again, we'll take a look at the ban list of the paper format Highlander to make some comparisons.
Highlander is almost the same as 100 card Singleton with 3 main differences:
#1 It consists of all the sets until now
#2 It uses a different banned cards list
#3 It doesn't use a sideboard (because sideboarding will be a headache)
The reason to look there is very simple: it is a good source of information for the format because it's a parallel format.
It's just too similar not to consider it a good source of data and technology.
In time, the two formats will probably converge so that the difference of #1 will almost be negated totally.
Another reason to look at the format is regarding #2, the banned cards in the format.
Bannings affect any format in one way or another and a divergent banned list across two objectively similar formats means there is something wrong somewhere. Like how Classic can affect Legacy bannings, this is the same exact parallel to that. There should be some consensus somewhere when it comes to card evaluation as seen from the formats where the differences are much more evident.
For example, using results from the Singleton 100, the Highlander community can choose to not keep cards like Grindstone banned or Singleton 100 can unban cards like Intuition and Gifts Ungiven but of course, there are other factors to consider (right now) because the formats both work with a different cardpool, affected by unavailability of some (many) cards online and also the different banned list.
However, in time to come, this should theoretically converge because the objective of the banned list should be the same.
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#3 (the fact that we have sideboard) feels basically like a throw-in to make the format "more competitive" when Singleton 100 was pushed to be the choice format to represent the singleton formats. The real-life restrictions can be troublesome but in can be worth looking at too because notes are allowed under new tournament rules to facilitate sideboarding. It's something the Highlander people may want to consider with the new rulings.
Now I'll go through the banned cards of the 2 formats together.
Here's the bunch of cards that don't affect us (yet) as we don't have them online:
Ancestral Recall
Black Lotus
Chaos Orb
Falling Star
Fastbond
Mana Vault
Memory Jar
The moxen 5
Power Artifact
Sol Ring
Tolarian Academy
Time Vault
Time Walk
Wheel of Fortune
Yawgmoth's Will
Here's the bunch of cards that we have that are jointly banned:
Balance
Flash
Imperial Seal
Lion's Eye Diamond
Mana Crypt
Skullclamp
Strip Mine
Tinker
Umezawa's Jitte
Vampiric Tutor
Worldgorger Dragon
Here are the cards that currently unrestricted in the Singleton 100 format but are banned in Highlander:
*Buried Alive
*Cephalid Illusionist
*Dread Return
*Enlightened Tutor
*Mystical Tutor
*Painter's Servant
*Protean Hulk
*Trinisphere
Here are the cards that they have available but are banned in Singleton 100:
Crucible of Worlds
Demonic Tutor
Gifts Ungiven
Intuition
Life from the Loam
Regarding the joint part of the banlist, I found a conversation over Library of Alexandria that mentions a reason for the banning of Imperial Seal here. I do not know much about what is going on in their world but apparently, Imperial Seal is banned on the basis that it's too costly (which is a very relevant factor to formats that want more people playing them).
Mana Crypt is an interesting card that I feel is very random in its effect which can be very risky to play. I suppose that luck would play a greater part in the games in which it appears so it might be banned to reduce a luck factor.
The rest are understandable as they are either "too powerful" themselves or are a part of a powerful known combo.
The interesting part about the lists come from the divergent part of the list.
First, looking at the cards that they have banned that we have available to us, we see a bunch of cards that seem to belong in a deck that I believe mills itself out and casts a flashbacked Dread Return into Sutured Ghoul to punch for the win by just looking at both Cephalid Illusionist and Dread Return. I'm not too sure Hermit Druid isn't part of the list but I suppose it has something to do with either the fact that it "lags" for a turn before going off or the fact that the Dread Return is banned says something about the viability of such a deck now.
Is this "combo" that threatening? I have no clue because it hasn't been greatly exploited in the Singleton 100 format despite the wide knowledge that it exists. Could we have been oblivious to something good here? I suspect that our ignorance is not the main case here but the fact that we have sideboards may influence this result.
Buried Alive, from what I know, apart from assisting the above deck, usually sets up a Genesis recursion or a possible dredge chain. Again, the "no sideboard to cover graveyard" might be the reason for its banning unless there is a stronger reason behind it.
The most interesting card in that bunch is probably Trinisphere. I've never actually seen a Trinisphere being played in 100 card Singleton which leaves me rather intrigued as to what made it ban-worthy. Looking through lists of Highlander decks, I notice one trend: decks were either made very powerful or had aggression + suppression. The most impactful card we don't have online is probably that contributes to the suppression is Back to Basics which when arrives will probably change the format greatly. Does Trinisphere have the potential to become very powerful because of the greater presence of efficient aggro decks?
Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor are very interesting choices because people who play 100 card Singleton have never raised an objection to either. In fact, I advocate not playing Mystical Tutor unless trying to play a combo of some sort because the card lost from it is very big in the control matchup which I don't like. The banning of the two looks odd considering the number of other tutors there are running around the format.
Looking directly at what they have banned that we don't, I feel there is no need to add more cards into the banned list at this point in time because those cards (with the *s) don't seem to be damaging the format now.
Now we look at what we have banned that they don't.
Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam fall into the same category of land recursion but they are both very different in how they work. The only reason I can guess they are banned is their interaction with Wasteland which would decimate decks with many non-basic lands. However, in Highlander, this does not seem to warrant enough attention to cause the 2 cards to be banned. In my opinion, having those 2 in the format opens up to more powerful plays that are not too broken. For example, Life from the Loam + the retrace mechanic, Crucible of Worlds + fetchlands etc. It's not as if everyone who could would actually play either of these 2 cards and it's not as if we don't have cards that mess up non-basic lands in the format already. In fact, the only decks that benefit from these 2 cards are the slower decks (that would die to every turn Wasteland) instead of the faster decks. In addition, there isn't easy to naturally obtain the 2 cards together early enough for it to be a format breakdown. Really. These 2 cards should be unbanned.
Demonic Tutor is no doubt a strong card but it really depends on what the format allows to assess it properly. It's hands down better than Grim Tutor. The "intention of the format" is what determines the place for this card. As such, I don't have comments to make regarding whether or not this card should or should not remained banned.
Gifts Ungiven is the BEST blue spell for the format. Intuition pales in comparism to it. As seen from the recent EDH bannings, Gifts Ungiven's banning has been explained properly. It is no doubt very powerful but banning Intuition because of their similarities is just wrong. No one has ever mentioned Intuition as a "really powerful card" as I have with Gifts Ungiven. In fact, Gifts Ungiven only works for mid-late game decks that already have very strong mid-late strategies in place. People fear Gifts Ungiven too much although I admit it does help people win. Even so, it takes time to set up and it is impossible to make a flawless defense with it. Intuition needs to be unbanned. When people become convinced, Gifts Ungiven might be able to come back?
All in all, looking at the banned lists, I feel that nothing should be added and Crucible of Worlds, Life from the Loam and Intuition should fall off the list. Mana Crypt is a possible card to drop because the 3 damage is rather significant but it does add to the inconsistency of the format. We could debate all day long about this topic but I feel that these need to change at this point in time.
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3X One Double O News Items:
#1 Change in Weekend Challenge Timeslots
The 4 timeslots have moved half a day forward, from 2 on Satuday and Sunday on the MTGO calendar to 1 on Friday evening, 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. Do take note of the changes and plan your events properly. You can always look at the Premier Event room to see the dates and the timings.
(I heard one of them the Friday slot is in the afternoon in the US. That made me curious as to the locations of the people who play the weekend challenges. Friday afternoon during work/school time is definitely not a good timing.)
#2 Send your suggestions to Mike Gills
El_fake approached me the other day to ask me to spread the word that any good suggestions regarding MTGO can be sent to michael.gills@wizards.com . The change in the weekend challenge timeslots is a direct result of feedbacks and more good suggestions can go straight there. Of course, I'm putting this here because any changes you think can make playing the 100 card Singleton format better can go straight to the person who is willing to listen to your idea.
Timings, payouts would be the common issues. Maybe you have something more to contribute?
#3 Holiday Promotion
On the week of December 23-29, there will be a 1/2 price off 100 card Singleton constructed queues. (Yay!)
The full announcement can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/120909a
Although the prize payout is MED3 packs, going into a 2-man tournament which spits out a 3 ticket valued pack is a good deal, even if you win 50% of the time. Do take the opportunity to farm for more packs!
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Last Words
Happy holidays to everyone and I hope that you get to open the $ cards from the Exodus release events. Do play in them as they have good payouts as with any other release events. Play in them early so that you get into one that fires. (Classic release events die down near the end for some reason.)
tarmotog@hotmail.com
tarmotog on myMTGO.com
13 Comments
Here's the blurb from the 1/2 off promotion. It doesn't mention the 2-man queues, so I'm assuming they are still full price. Still, if we can spread the word to all the 100 singleton players and people who might like to try 100 singleton for the first time, the 8-man queues for half the cost is still a wonderful deal and a cheap way to enter the format.
"Standard and Zendikar Block Constructed can be fun but have you tried your deckbuilding skills in some of the other formats on Magic Online? Now you can for half the normal tickets! During each week of the holiday promotion all 8-player queues, daily events, premier events, and weekend challenges for the selected format will cost half the normal amount of event tickets to enter while still offering the same prizes! Start testing your deck ideas now!"
Also, are you sure the 100 singleton queues will be giving out MED3 packs. I played in 2 100-singleton queues yesterday and they both paid out Exodus packs. It would seem silly if they reverted back to MED3 after they've already switched to Exodus.
However I've noticed that WotC has done a lot of weird things with pack payouts.
I've been thinking a lot about ways that the community and WotC could promote our favorite formats. One of the ideas I've come up with is format specific avatars / alternate art avatars.
In other words create a unique avatar or an alternate art version of an already existing avatar that can be won only by winning an 8-man queue or making the top 8 of a weekend challenge for a specific format like 100 singleton.
Example of Unique Avatars
Eternal Witness - Avatar - for 100 Singleton
Force of Will - Avatar - for Classic
Lotus Cobra - Avatar - for Standard Singleton
etc...
Example of Alt. Art Avatar
Loxodon Hierarch - Avatar - for 100 Singleton
Necropetence - Avatar - for Classic
Birds of Paradise - Avatar - for Standard Singleton
etc...
This kind of promotion would give something unique to each format and encourage collectors to try out these formats. It would also be a way for us players to promote the format by responding to "Cool Avatar, how did you get it?" questions.
I'm not sure what the legal restrictions are but WotC might not even need to commission new art, they might be able to use a resampled version of card art for this kind of promotion.
Nice idea. Sadly the avatars are really not a good choice imho. Id feel no incentive to play in an 8 man just to get an alt art avatar or even a new one. If I had the tickets Id play in them anyway if I was semi confident I had a winning deck. Otherwise no incentive that has no monetary value would get me to spend tickets.
Well, not all promotions appeal to everyone.
A lot of Avatars have retained some value despite the fact that WotC has basically the tournaments that use them, so there has to be some collectors out there who find them value.
Personally I like changing my avatar occasionally, and I like getting avatars as a bonus prize.
Do I think this is a more appetizing promotion idea than a half price tournament? No in a million years. But it is something that will appeal to some players, myself included.
The reason mana crypt is banned (imo at least), is because the card acts like a double mox if you get it in your starting hand you are on 3 mana t1. That is better than sol ring, in fact the only equivalent is the moxes and lotus. The life gain can hurt and you can get unlucky and hit it 5 turns in a row, but it averages 1.5 life per turn.
all the cards jointly banned should stay banned. except for jitte. Ya its great, but so are alot of other equipments. If it was unbanned people would just get more prepared for artifacts.
all the others that are banned in paper or just online (bottom 2 lists) should be unbanned imo, except for gifts and maybe trinisphere. Gifts gives you the win, at instant speed. I havnt played with or against trinisphere but it seems easily broken (maybe with mana crypt, turn 1). The others are all strong cards that help provide the win. They are all cards that have very powerful abilities, but not overwhelming. They are just pieces of the puzzle, where gifts gives you the whole puzzle.
Tarmotog, I have seen you play this format since quite a while, and yet I am a bit shocked about your comments after reading all this.
Esp the comments regarding life from the loam and gifts.
Both card were banned at the same time (together with clamp, jitte and some other stuff). Tempest was not even released at that point, so Wasteland was out of the equation. It was simply absurdely powerful to find Lftl, Genesis a cycling land and whatever else you want. It basicly reads - search your library for 4 cards and win the game. Intuition is not worse than Gifts, its BETTER than Gifts, especially if u have LFTL unbanned like you want.
Mana Crypt - like the guy above said, its absurdely powerful if u have it turn 1. The life loss doesn't even matter. There are ways to get rid of it later in the game.
Comparing Jitte with other equipments is like comparing Mana Drain with Mana Leak ...
Last but not least: Survival and Oath of Druids.
Survival will be banned soon, I am sure about this. This is the card with the greatest impact on the format.
Oath of Druids - when you write about a format (Highlander), the readers here would expect that you play it.
With the comments on this one, I really doubt that you ever did. Oath of Druids decks are some of the best paper highlander decks and no, its not hard to build a deck around it. No matter that there are less card available, the tools for the Oath deck are there and it will be noticed very soon, I am sure.
I think most players see the banning of (Life from the Loam) and (Crucible of Worlds) as a preemptive banning before (Wasteland) entered the environment. Neither cards was dominating the environment before they were banned.
(Life from the Loam) and (Intuition)/(Gifts Ungiven) create a back-breaking combo together and therefore I don't want to see both sides of that combo unbanned together.
I've put off buying Survival because I also have strong feeling it will be banned sooner rather than later. It's far too powerful with Squee, Dredge, reanimation spells (Discard any creature to get Akroma, discard Akroma to get Loyal Retainers), and a number of other cards.
Tarmotog said: "I do not know much about what is going on in their world but apparently, Imperial Seal is banned on the basis that it's too costly (which is a very relevant factor to formats that want more people playing them)."
You got it right: http://magicplayer.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=896&postdays=0&postorder=as...
(see the format's maintainer, Sturmgott's answer straight below that linked post).
Tarmotog said: "Buried Alive, from what I know, apart from assisting the above deck, usually sets up a Genesis recursion or a possible dredge chain. Again, the "no sideboard to cover graveyard" might be the reason for its banning unless there is a stronger reason behind it."
Yes, there's a stronger reasoning behind it's banning: magicplayer.org <-- ctrl-f: "Buried Alive // Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker" (Sorry, can't offer more exact linking as magicplayer's index page doesn't support permalinking of any sort). But in short: Buried alive was originally banned as *theoretically*, Buried Alive + (random) Reanimate spell (3 + 1 mana combo) was a GG of opponent was tapped out, (stack for Buried Alive would be: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker; Pestermite and Karmic Guide). This was considered too strong a combo.
Tarmotog said: "The most interesting card in that bunch is probably Trinisphere. I've never actually seen a Trinisphere being played in 100 card Singleton which leaves me rather intrigued as to what made it ban-worthy."
The real reason for Trinisphere being banned is that Mishra's Workshop is legal, along with other tempo cards (Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors) played in stax. Turn one Workshop + Trinisphere was considered too unfun and luck pushing. The source is buried somewhere in the forum, (use search for "Trinisphere".) *Edit*, found it: http://magicplayer.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=784&postdays=0&postorder=as...
Tarmotog said: "Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor are very interesting choices because..."
Again, see magicplayer.org index page and do ctrl-f for "Enlightened Tutor" for details.
I'm pretty sure guys from magicplayer.org have a lot more to offer, thus made a ping back of this article at: http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=225.0
i like the idea of format specific avatars,
however i really doubt i will ever give up my jesus avatar (hermit druid)
intuition + loam: the first time we've seen loam in action is probably from the extended pt where Gifts Ungiven + loam +2 cycling lands was the card drawing engine of a tog deck. Let us put it this way. If we stare at them blankly, we know it's good. If you take a look at relevance to the format.... not that much. In fact, the past PE was topped with red burn/goblin decks. Intuition/gifts don't help that much against those decks. In fact, whatever you want to accomplish with loam will take time.
Loam can be argued for and against but having loam definitely opens up more strategies.
Even if I concede life from the loam, the jointly banned Crucible of Worlds has no business staying on the banned list.. no?
Mana crypt: Fast mana is no doubt good but it's inconsistent to work around. You randomly die to it bolting you and and randomly win when it doesn't but that isn't the main point. It really only makes games more luck based than anything.
arch: I would try out every format to get a unique avatar from each... as long as they don't expect me to play once a month to get one.
dragonbgx: I don't play highlander but I see that format as a guide to what a possible 100c singleton format might become. The people have definitely played the format more than any of us online could possibly have so they would have seen much more than what we have. Technology-wise, strategy-wise, it's a much more developed format than 100c singleton. Even so, it's not too far off from the 100c singleton.
pyyhttu: thnx loads for the inside info! =)
That cleared up quite abit.
I must so try out buried alive + perstermite +kiki jiki + phyrexian delver...
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For anyone who is interested, here is the abstract regarding enlightened tutor and mystical tutor (I wish we had proper explanations like these):
"Ban Enlightened
Some of the most game-defining and critical cards in the current meta are enchantments, first of all Survival together with Back to Basics (not only Mythrandir hates this card Wink), Blood Moon and the artifact Winter Orb. Why? On the strength of our experience this cards decided the most games in the last time by far when they once hit the board. The evaluation of recent tournaments supports this impression. On the other hand side this cards also have an important function for the balance of our meta. That's the reason why we didn't ban one or all of the mentioned cards but the best tutor to get access to them, Enlightened Tutor.
Another point is -like pyyhttu already mentioned-: the banned list looks more rational when Mystical and Enlightened both are banned or unbanned. That's one reason why we discussed to unban Mystical Tutor instead of banning Enlightened. After we debated this approach for a while we all (Sturmgott, malz77 and me) came to the conclusion that unban Mystical isn't a good idea cause it would push Staxx too much (Mystical -> Gifts Ungiven, Armageddon, Wildfire, Mindtwist, Upheaval)"
"The Mystical Tutor presents the same advantages. Mystical Tutor searches for effects that can only be countered in contrast to enlightened tutor or worldly tutor which search for “Permanents” which can be attended to in various ways. As an example, just think of how good this addition to the HulkFlash deck would have been – it will find the Hulk (through the Summoner's Pact), as well as the Flash, and even Duress, Orim's Chant or Abeyance in order to protect the combo."
Regarding Umezawa's Jitte:
"Umezawa's Jitte has not been unbanned despite several demands from players in the Forum. The reason remains the same as the reason we originally banned the card. We decided to ban Umezawa's Jitte for the following reasons:
1. Powerlevel and casting cost: Jitte provides a way too high powerlevel according to it's casting costs and cardtype (artifact). Jitte combines multiple important funktions in one card. It offers boardcontrol and fast kills for just two mana. Because the equipped creature only needs to deal damage, not combat damage, Jitte is almost always impossible to handle.
2. Missing selfregulation: The intended selfregulation through its legendary status (my Jitte destroys your Jitte) from WotC's R&D does not work for Jitte. It's far less likely to draw Umezawa's Jitte the time needed than in other formats to destroy the opposing Jitte. Thereby the luckfactor in a aggro vs. aggro matchup becomes more and more important because a Jitte which could not behandled for two or more turns is in most cases equal to victory."
Mind over matter + azami in Commander = lol fun :)
I hope WotC reads the bit about Imperial Seal being banned in paper due to cost. Imperial Seal is basically a fair card in 100CS. I don't think it's an auto-include by any means.
You aren't giving Oath enough credit. It's a major archetype in vintage, and this should translate over into classic. It's easy to activate with Forbidden Orchard, and transmute gets it too.
Personally I've found it a very good anti-aggro card in prismatic singleton 100... nothing like oathing every turn against goblins or elves.