Avacyn Restored, Planechase 2012 and M13 highlander cards

Sup

There's a Nirvana song that has this bit in it that sounds like my ring tone. Gets me every frickin time.

That aside thought I'd run through the last few sets for good highlander cards in case you were wondering if there was anything that'd go in any of your decks. You do have multiple highlander decks right? :P

I may be a little brief with my explanations of why a card is good, cause it's getting late and I have a bunch of cards I want to mention. I will get progressively worse. Apologies! I might come back and link all the cards if I can be bothered.

So first up, Avacyn Restored:
In no particular order:

Zealous Conscripts:
Absolutely no where near as good in Highlander as it is in Standard but still ok. When I'm judging a creature for highlander I often run it through a few filters in my mind:
If it costs more than 2 mana it has to either be a blowout once it recovers from summoning sickness or it has to be good enough vs jace/swords to plowshares. Zealous should give you enough value enough of the time. Maybe catch a tapped wasteland or steel a planeswalker. Your deck would obviously have to be aggressive to get enough value out of conscripts.

Tamiyo:
She's playable, I played her in a deck that didn't suit her and she was still alright. I imagine in an 'MJ' style control deck or Wilfy's kurgan deck she's excellent. Her greatest attribute is her colour, blue hasn't got much removal.

Tyrant of Discord:
Ok I know it's generally bad but I just wanted to mention that in RG land destruction this guy is actually ok. Probably the only time it ever will be, highlander's great for that kind of thing.

Wolfir Avenger:
The 3/3 flash guy. Flash is really good in highlander against U and he has the magic 3 toughness against zoo's many 2/3's. I like the idea of a UG counter/flash guys deck and this guy is yet another playable in it.

Wolfir Silverheart:
He's just so big, you'll have to be a little aggressive and you'll have to choose heaps of creatures with trample/evasion to make him good but yes he's good enough.

Griselbrand:
The fatness, sweet reanimator target, you pretty much win on the spot unless you're versing a lot of pressure + removal.

Misthollow Griffin:
This guy's borderline, he's not great but with some work he's good enough. You can pitch him to Force/Misdirection/~Chrome mox, he's decent against the premier removal in the format, path to exile and swords to plowshares. You might be able to get a foodchain to combo with him.

Restoration Angel:
This chick's one of the best additions. Plenty of value to be had, blinking stoneforge mystic, trinket mage and other less obvious guys. He's another good flash threat which the caw blade deck is in need of. Will only take a couple more UW flash threats and that deck will be tier 1.

Sigarda:
Pretty funny how she's bad in standard cause of phantasmal image and phyrexian metamorph, in highlander however she's super hard to kill, whack a sword on her and you just won the game.

Silverblade paladin:
This guy brings the beats, not sure if he's good but he's worth a shot if you're tweeking a Wx aggro deck

Slayer's Stronghold:
I wanna play this in infect. Colourless lands really have to be good to make it into highlander decks. This is probably only good in infect.

Temporal Mastery:
I haven't really given this card a run but it seems powerful. Dan really doesn't like it but with a little work you could get it on top of your library enough of the time for it to be good. Brainstorm, Top, Jace etc. You'd probably want to be playing it in a deck that can hard cast it though. i.e. not aggro.

OK, now Planechase 2012:
These cards are really hard to get for a price that resembles their power level. If you have the opportunity to buy them in singles, go or it.

Shardless Agent:
Really really have to work on your deck to have next to zero bad cascades. Personally I must have zero bad cascades in my deck to play this or bloodbraid. No EE, add dryad arbor if playing GSZ etc.
The Hypergenesis deck is slowly getting there. At the moment it's too bad against counterspells but Shardless agent is it's best contribution since cascade was printed.

Baleful Strix:
This is a sideboard card against aggro decks or it goes in any UB deck with equipment.

Beetleback Chief:
This guy needs a lord or skullclamp to turn him on but in goblins I think he's good enough.Hopefully there's a heap of playable goblins in ravnica. Highlander goblins really needs another 3 decent 1 drops to be good enough. 4 drops like Beetleback Chief aren't filling the deck's holes.

Elderwood Scion:
If you're playing GW dude deck then get this guy in there. He'll dominate creature swarms and you'll never get blown out by cheap removal.

Maelstrom Wandered:
I'd love to one day Congregation at Dawn for this guy and 2 other dudes for an insta-win. e.g. kiki-jiki pestermite. If you have a bit of mana accel you can board him in against slowish control decks too.

AND finally M13:

Ajani, caller of the pride:
Sweet in infect. Maybe ok in zoo with goyf, a big knight of the reliquary

Faith's Reward:
There's a dude in Canberra, sorry I can't remember your name. But he plays a sweet Egg Storm deck Lots of eggs, cards to make them cheaper, Lotus and card that return Lotus and Tendrils/Empty the Warrens. I imagine he slams this card in there.

Sublime Angel:
Needs a lot of work but has potential. Need lots of evasion guys to make good.

Void Stalker:
Yet another fantastic versatile U guy. Can't go wrong with Ux in highlander really.

Diabolic Revelation:
Another good tutor for the Channel deck. Not an actual Channel finding tutor though, which is what that deck really wants.

Knight of Infamy:
This guy's really solid in highlander, he'd be played so much more if he wasn't in such a bad aggro colour.

Crimson Muckwader:
great stats for 2 mana, Bx aggro slowly getting there. All it takes is for Stoneforge and steelshaper's gift to get another 1 or 2 points which i believe they deserve (more on this next entry) and non-white aggro might actually get a run.

Smelt:
Good red sideboard card.

Searing Spear:
A lot of people whinge about funny reprints like Essence Scatter and Vapor Snag but I love them cause Highlander. Another good burn spell for mono-red. Any help for a highlander deck that needs it, is good by me.

Thundermaw Hellkite:
Hits hard! anti flying less relevant in highlander but even without that bonus he'd still be playable. Thundermaw is a serious clock.

Flinthoof boar:
BAM, another sweet zoo creature. They keep printing em don't they? This guys really good. Most playable constructed card in the set imo

Thragtusk:
I don't like cards like this, they have too big an impact on standard. Kitchen Finks, Timely Reinforcements, Batterskull, Wurmcoil Engine, you know what I mean. Gummy cards that gum up the board and make games go for long.

Predatory Rampage:
It's no overrun but this is Highlander, where "not as good" is good enough! This is only playable in tokens, a deck which has gotten a lot of good additions in recent sets. If anyone makes tokens they'll have to keep in mind that they'll either need to kill ASAP with overruns or they'll have to find some cards that fit the strategy AND are disruptive e.g. opposition.

Hellion Crucible:
I'm sure Glenn will be shoving this card right into his Red control deck. Card's good.

Ok I MUST sleep, I'm gonna be so frickin tired for highlander tomorrow... I mean today (fml).

Quickly before I go, I'd just like to thank Brett Hoogez for finding our crew mad cheap flights to Gp Auckland in November. $180 return whhhhaatt?!

I'll be going to the Canberra PTQ + highlander weekend in August if anyone's interested in joining me let me know and we'll sort out some transport, ideally car pool

Oh yeah, random underplayed card.....
Erratic Explosion? I may have mentioned it before, yeah pretty sure I did (with insidious dreams)
ok..ummm...Goblin Welder?

errghh too tired, sleep time