Hey all, and welcome back to the deck garage!  I’m a huge fan of fun formats, be it DC-10, Peasant Magic, 5-Color Magic, or Highlander.  It just so happens that I received a Highlander deck for the garage this week, and since we haven’t seen too many fun format decks recently, I’m running with it. 

[Small Note: Highlander is a format where you can only run a single copy of any card, basic land excluded.  The format gets its name from a catch-phrase or one-liner “there can be only one” from the movie “Highlander”.  The format is also known as Singleton.]

Here’s the list –

looking to make this highlander deck more faster and controlling. please help me to make it better for magic online. thanks.

Qty,Card Name

1,Advanced Hoverguard

1,Annul 

1,Arcane Spyglass 

1,Barren Moor 

1,Befoul 

1,Chain of Vapor 

1,Compulsion 

1,Condescend 

1,Conjurer's Bauble 

1,Counsel of the Soratami 

1,Counterspell 

1,Cranial Plating 

1,Darksteel Pendant 

1,Deep Analysis 

1,Echoing Truth 

1,Eye of Nowhere 

1,Flash of Insight 

1,Ghastly Demise 

1,Hisoka's Defiance 

12,Island 

1,Isochron Scepter 

1,Lonely Sandbar 

1,Lose Hope 

1,Memnarch 

1,Memory Lapse 

1,Midnight Covenant 

1,Mirrodin's Core 

1,Myr Servitor 

1,Nightscape Familiar 

1,Peer Through Depths 

1,Psychatog 

1,Reito Lantern 

1,Rend Flesh 

1,Rend Spirit 

1,Rewind 

1,Salt Marsh 

1,Smother 

1,Soratami Cloudskater 

6,Swamp 

1,Syncopate

1,Thought Courier 

1,Thoughtbind 

1,Unsummon 

1,Wayfarer's Bauble

The first thing I would like to do is go through and make sure that our contributor’s deck has all of the appropriate counterspells, since he wants to go for control.  The worthwhile counters in the deck right now are Annul, Counterspell, Condescend, Hisoka’s Defiance, Memory Lapse, Rewind, Syncopate, and Thoughtbind.  I’m not a huge fan of Hisoka’s Defiance, so it will be making a trip out of the deck.  Annul likewise is getting tossed, as it is more of a sideboard card than a main deck card.  Memory Lapse can also make a trip – I’ve never been a huge fan of this card, as it only delays the game as opposed to finding a solution.  However, I think we could probably use Circular Logic, Complicate, Discombobulate, Exclude, Hinder, Syncopate, and Undermine.  This will bring the total, er, counter count in the deck to eleven, which seems like an acceptable number.

-1 Annul

-1 Hisoka’s Defiance

-1 Memory Lapse

+1 Circular Logic

+1 Complicate

+1 Discombobulate

+1 Exclude

+1 Hinder

+1 Syncopate

+1 Thoughtbind

+1 Undermine

I would also like to have a fair number of removal spells in the deck.  Starting with the black removal, I notice that our contributor has Befoul, Ghastly Demise, Lose Hope, Rend Flesh, Rend Spirit, and Smother.  I’m not too happy with Rend Spirit or Lose Hope (due to limited effect), so those are coming out in favor of Barter in Blood and Chainer’s Edict.  These two cards will help against anything that can’t be targeted, such as Troll Ascetic or Morphling.

-1 Lose Hope

-1 Rend Spirit

+1 Barter in Blood

+1 Chainer’s Edict

The blue in this deck should probably be contributing some removal (read as: bounce) as well.  Right now, the deck has Chain of Vapor, Echoing Truth, Eye of Nowhere, and Unsummon.  These are all fine, but I would like to sneak in Boomerang and Repulse as well.  To make some room, I’m going to drop Cranial Plating and Midnight Covenant, which just don’t seem like they do enough to help control the game.  The other *huge* bounce spell I’m going to throw in is Upheaval.  It won’t come up often, but it can’t hurt being able to win on an Upheaval.  Reito Lantern will make room for that card.

-1 Cranial Plating
-1 Midnight Covenant

-1 Reito Lantern

+1 Boomerang

+1 Repulse

+1 Upheaval

-1 Arcane Spyglass

-1 Flash of Insight

-1 Soratami Cloudskater

What do we throw in, though?  Concentrate comes to mind quickly, as does Thirst for Knowledge.  However, one card was truly jumping out as missing – Fact or Fiction.  It is an amazing card, it has always been an amazing card, and it will always be an amazing card.  You should have this card in your deck if the format allows.

+1 Concentrate

+1 Fact or Fiction

+1 Thirst for Knowledge

Finally, we need to throw in some threats.  I like Nightscape Familiar and Psychatog obviously makes the cut (the deck is based around him), but Myr Servitor just doesn’t do enough for my liking, so it’s gone.  Thieving Magpie and Shadowmage Infiltrator seem like good fits for the deck, allowing the pilot to hunt for his ‘Tog. 

-1 Myr Servitor

+1 Shadowmage Infiltrator

+1 Thieving Magpie

If we leave in Isochron Scepter and clear out every other non-land, non-creature card, that gives us a total of 38 non-land cards – an appropriate amount for a deck with fairly few expensive cards.

-1 Conjurer’s Bauble

-1 Darksteel Pendant

-1 Wayfarer’s Bauble

The deck probably needs to include every opportunity to fix the mana as possible, as well as a few nice additions, such as Blinkmoth Nexus and Stalking Stones.  I won’t bore y’all with the details of the land fix, so here is what I added / dropped:

-4 Island

-3 Swamp

+1 Blinkmoth Nexus

+1 Cephalid Coliseum

+1 City of Brass

+1 Darkwater Catacombs

+1 Polluted Delta

+1 Stalking Stones

+1 Underground River

That about wraps up the work on this deck – here’s how it came out…

NON-CREATURE SPELLS (32):

1 Barter in Blood

1 Befoul

1 Boomerang

1 Chainer’s Edict

1 Chain of Vapor

1 Circular Logic

1 Complicate

1 Compulsion

1 Concentrate

1 Condescend

1 Counsel of Soratami

1 Counterspell

1 Deep Analysis

1 Discombobulate

1 Echoing Truth

1 Exclude

1 Eye of Nowhere

1 Fact or Fiction

1 Ghastly Demise

1 Hinder

1 Isochron Scepter

1 Peer Through the Depths

1 Rend Flesh

1 Repulse

1 Rewind

1 Smother

1 Syncopate

1 Thirst for Knowledge

1 Thoughtbind

1 Undermine

1 Unsummon

1 Upheaval

CREATURES (6):

1 Advanced Hoverguard

1 Memnarch

1 Nightscape Familiar

1 Psychatog

1 Shadowmage Infiltrator

1 Thieving Magpie

1 Thought Courier

LANDS (22):

1 Barren Moor

1 Blinkmoth Nexus

1 City of Brass

1 Darkwater Catacombs

8 Island

1 Lonely Sandbar

1 Mirrodin’s Core

1 Polluted Delta

1 Salt Marsh

1 Stalking Stones

3 Swamp

1 Underground River

Hope that helps, anonymous contributor [y’all need to send me your names J], and good luck!  I’ll see y’all next week.

-Paul Hagan