[T1 Highlander] Keeper-style deck

[Malhavoc]

I've recently started getting interested in the Highlander format: being able to play every card ever printed, like in T1, but with the less broken decks due to the restriction of all cards (apart from basic lands) seems quite attractive. Despite I have no experience with the metagame, I thought that it should not present too much mana denial: with cards like wasteland, null rod, b2b, blood moon and similar others being restricted, it should be possible to play very colorful deck, even if the restriction of rainbow lands makes this a bit harder. On the other hand, even aggro decks should somehow be slowed down, being unable to play x4 of 2/1 creatures for one mana and such, thus leaving enough space for a control deck.

I had an interested deck I used to play in Vintage, but which failed to be competitive, particularly for the shacky mana base. I've tried to convert it to this format, and here it is the result, a deck very similar in its structure to a classic Keeper/4cc, but without the mana denial plan (it is still 61 cards, can't decide what to cut.. and the sideboard is still 17 cards: I'm just testing it to see what's more useful to keep):

// Lands 15
1  Library of Alexandria
1  Strip Mine

1  Reflecting Pool
1  Forbidden Orchard
1  Gemstone Mine
1  Mirrodin's Core
1  City of Brass
1  Glimmervoid

1  Tropical Island
1  Tundra
1  Underground Sea

1  Adarkar Wastes
1  Underground River
1  Yavimaya Coast

1  Tolarian Academy

// Other Mana 9
1  Mox Sapphire
1  Mox Ruby
1  Mox Pearl
1  Mox Jet
1  Mox Emerald
1  Mox Diamond
1  Sol Ring
1  Black Lotus
1  Fellwar Stone

// Creatures 2
1  Exalted Angel
1  Darksteel Colossus

// Draw + Manipulation 4+5=9
1  Thirst for Knowledge
1  Fact or Fiction
1  Skeletal Scrying
1  Ancestral Recall

1  Sylvan Library
1  Impulse
1  Frantic Search
1  Brainstorm
1  Gaea's Blessing

// Tutors 5+3=8
1  Burning Wish
1  Cunning Wish
1  Demonic Tutor
1  Regrowth
1  Merchant Scroll

1  Mystical Tutor
1  Vampiric Tutor
1  Reclaim

// Removals 4
1  Swords to Plowshares
1  Balance
1  Pernicious Deed
1  Engineered Explosives

// Broken 6
1  Holistic Wisdom
1  Tinker
1  Future Sight
1  Time Walk
1  Oath of Druids
1  Yawgmoth's Will

// Protection 8
1  Mana Drain
1  Force of Will
1  Misdirection
1  Counterspell
1  Prohibit
1  Dissipate
1  Forbid
1  Duress


// Sideboard 17

// Burning 6
SB: 1  Chainer's Edict
SB: 1  Pyroclasm
SB: 1  Decree of Justice
SB: 1  Vindicate
SB: 1  All Suns' Dawn
SB: 1  Mind Twist

// Cunning 8
SB: 1  Rushing River
SB: 1  Orim's Thunder
SB: 1  Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 1  Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1  Simoon
SB: 1  Gifts Ungiven
SB: 1  Twincast
SB: 1  Fire/Ice

// Others 3
SB: 1  The Abyss
SB: 1  Powder Keg
SB: 1  Sphere of Law


MANABASE: I've tried running fetchlands to improve the usefulness of sylvan library, and have a smoother mana base, however being forced to use only 1 dual of each kind, and one fetch of each kind too, I've experienced the possibility to not have the right dual for the fetch in play, and that's not good at all! The actual mana base has proved itself quite good in a field without mana denial; sometimes it could be hard to get GG, but since that is needed only later in the game, to cast Holistic Wisdom, it's acceptable.

PROTECTIONS: This is one of the point that puzzles me more.. I've tested Disrupting Shoal, but get dissatisfied: it's quite hard to have the right costed blue spell at the right time, particularly in a format where your opponent can cast an incredible variety of spells. Mana leak seemd to be a really good counter too, particularly in the early stage, but without any sort of mana denial it proves itself almost useless later. I've tested rewind too, but it seems a bit too slow; so, in the end, I'm wondering if this amount of protections is enough or not.. maybe I should add a couple of counter, but there are so few slots available!

DRAW ENGINE: This part seems to be quite good. In the first versions I've kept in also Lat-Nam's Legacy (useful to reshuffle bad cards like Darksteel Colossus), but it was eventually axed to make space.

TUTORS: Since everything is restricted, tutors guarantee I can get what I need, and fast. The only "unusual" tutor is reclaim, but I'll explain later how it reveals to be a fundamental card. A tutor that wasn't included is the enlightened one, which would be great to get oath fast against aggro, but apart from that it seems to be quite limited, and I did not what to have another card-disadvantage tutor. Maybe it could be a good card for the sideboard.

REMOVALS: I really tried to put fire/ice in, but really could not find the space! I do not want to put out pernicious or the explosives, which are simply so good to clean the board from many critters (and sometimes even enchantments or artifacts). Balance, as StP, is a no-brainer, and I really could not found space for the fire/ice.. I even removed powder keg, siding it.

WIN CONDITIONS: Tinker for Colossus is a often used in T1, and in Highlander should be even a stronger move. The Angel is excellent to raise your life, in order to survive the race with aggro and to get fuel for drawing cards with skeletal or sylvan library; with only one drain and without an easy way to get WW quickly, you won't play it too fast usually, but since your opponent should be a bit slower than a T1 aggro deck too, it serves its purpouse well anyway. Oath is also a great card to bring the two guys above into play, and fast.

Another win condition is the Decree you can get with Burning (did not maindeck it since without drain it's not easy to get so much mana), and another one is  the Ancestral Recall. Yes, that. The mechanic is revealed by what it's the most powerful card in the deck: HOLISTIC WISDOM. Once you get enough mana, this wonderful enchantment let you play your more broken spells again and again, which means multiple ancestralls or time walks, or always having a mana drain or FoW active: something that no Highlander deck can hope to dream. Usually when I cast Holistic Wisdom (with enough mana available) my opponent gets to play at worst one more turn, and no more: I start casting ancestral after ancestral, drawing handfuls of cards, then cycling a sorcery for walk, untap, and start again; sometimes it could be hard to find a sorcery, so here it comes Reclaim:

---------------
G, Instant
Put target card from your graveyard on top of your library.
--------------

..it allows to switch an instant (and most cards in the deck are instant) for any card type: you can then draw it with an ancestral or any other card draw, to get the card you wanted, being it a walk to deny your opponent any turn, or a answer against a painful permanent, a good mana producer (like tolarian academy), or just the win condition you need to seal the deal.

It's quite easy drawing your entire deck in a matter of few turns (YOUR turns, the opponent does not play ]:> ). At this point you can start an infinite turn combo:

- cast time walk with an empty library
- cast gaea's blessing targeting walk and regrowth, and draw a card
- pass, draw the other card, cast walk, cast regrowth on gaea's blessing
- repeat

If you start the loop without win condition, you can win anyway, just using gaea's blessing to shuffle a third card. If you have 7 cards in hand and library of alexandria you can continue the loop getting one card in the grave each turn. You can put into play all permanents, then get all counters, then cast ancestral turn after turn on your opponent, decking him.


So, in the end, that's the deck breakdown. If anyone can give me feedback, I'd appreciate it a lot, particularly if it gives me insight of the Highlander metagame and how I can adapt the deck to it. Thanks in advance. 

[Philatio]

     As far as the metagame goes, the best decks are combo decks.  They've won all of the three NE Highlander tournies.  After the first iteration, we banned Tendirls of Agony, and that just slowed things down a turn and made it so that win conditions were really 2 card combos rather than 1 card combos (Salvagers+spellbomb, belcher+severence, power artifact+grim monlith+braingeyser), with the exception of tinker-> colossus.

You're really, really, really going to want something on turn 1 that either counters a spell or does something devistating, like root maze or null rod.  These don't fit your deck, really.  But something like abeyance, orim's chant, that sort of thing are pretty good.  I would maybe include maze of ith if I were you, though, since colossus is run in about every deck.

[Malhavoc]

Thank you for the insight. This mean at least that I should pack mana leak to have another possible first turn counter; maybe even Disrupting Shoal for the same reason. Maybe sideboarding cards like extract and maybe cranial extraction could be an idea too (they are also tutorable by burning wish); I'm not too sure about including maze of ith, after all I have some other answers (sword, 2 wish, my own colossus, and even more possible after sideboarding).

In a metagame with 1 duress and 1 force I understand that combo decks can easily go off first turns, but at the same time they should be quite unable to protect their bombs.. if the key spell gets countered, they could go in trouble, am I wrong?

[49 Cents]

I would at least fit in Disrupt and maybe even Force Spike. They counter on turn 1 and Disrupt even recycles.. But your build looks pretty solid and very fun to play, I must say..

[Malhavoc]

If fast counters are what are needed, then even miscalculation should be quite good, and can also be cycled in the late game when it loses usefulness.

Miscalculation
1U (2), Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays .
Cycling (, Discard this card: Draw a card.)

[Philatio]

Thank you for the insight. This mean at least that I should pack mana leak to have another possible first turn counter; maybe even Disrupting Shoal for the same reason. Maybe sideboarding cards like extract and maybe cranial extraction could be an idea too (they are also tutorable by burning wish); I'm not too sure about including maze of ith, after all I have some other answers (sword, 2 wish, my own colossus, and even more possible after sideboarding).

In a metagame with 1 duress and 1 force I understand that combo decks can easily go off first turns, but at the same time they should be quite unable to protect their bombs.. if the key spell gets countered, they could go in trouble, am I wrong?

I don't think so, really.  A combo deck will have 6 or 7 draw 7s (depending on if you play Dim. Returns or not), Necro, Bargain, Mind's Desire, 5-6 tutors, and usually Will and Regrowth to "try again".  Post board (or even preboard) they'll have force, duress, xantid swarm, city of solitude, etc.  The threat density in a combo deck is really, really high.

Personally I think conditional counters like mana leak are pretty solid on the first turn, because you can almost always nail SOMETHING, or if not, kill the floating mana going into a draw 7.  Hell even Daze might work if played right.

Speaking of tutors, with respect to your decklist, every highlander deckin type 1 should run Tainted Pact.  Well unless you don't run black.

Extract is something I usually run in the board myself for the mirror.  I had someone extract my time walk when I had colossus out and it won the game.  It's way better than cranial extraction, at any rate.

[Nomad]

[Speaking of tutors, with respect to your decklist, every highlander deckin type 1 should run Tainted Pact.  Well unless you don't run black.

I don't play Tainted Pact at the moment.  Maybe that's why I came last (well, 2nd, same thing actually) at the Highlander side event at Waterbury, but I'm more inclined to believe it was due to Jacob's topdeck of a Lotus.  And then he won with Tainted Pact.  Shit.  What was my point again?

[rvs]

Ofcourse Keeper-style is the best way to go. It can even get 2nd in a real tournament: http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=230

[Malhavoc]

I've switched the Pernicious with Fire/Ice: I've found that the first tends to sweeps away too much jewelry on my side most of the times.. and the Explosives should be enough to do the trick. I've also changed dissipate with mana leak, and tried adding an Isochron Scepter: it has a lot of excellent targets (reclaim could be really great, allowing infinite turns with time walk, or being a tool to get the right card at the right time). Since unlike Vintage, there is not so much artifact hate, there aren't so many null rod, and (apart from combo) the decks speed is a bit slower, I thinkg the Scepter could really shine here. Only problem: now I am TWO cards above 60... any tip about what should I cut?