Core2020 Highlander Set Review

Sup highlander players,

I've gone part-time at work for leisurely purposes. Means I might actually catch up on my set reviews. Here we go!

Could be better than other 4cmc planeswalker options if you have a bit of life gain in your deck. Ajani's Pridemates are serious threats if you build your deck for them. The key is not playing bad cards just because they gain life.
Once you're trying to gain life you can start to abuse cards like Archangel of Thune, Necropotence and Birthing Pod.

He's not Scavenging Ooze but if you want versatile graveyard interaction this is a decent option.
Pro-black so doesn't get hosed by Liliana, the Last Hope. Still gets hosed by Wrenn and Six though.

Angel tribal could be a thing one day..and this would go in the sideboard of that deck. lol

This is super powerful with fetch lands; double Rampant Growth at instant speed in white! You won't be able to crack your fetchland turn one but you'll regain that mana and more the next turn. Works amazingly with Strip Mine and Wasteland. And if you already have heaps of mana then this can save a permanent or two, especially against sweepers.
I'm sure there's some kind of loop with this card...bare with me as I talk it through; Eternal Witness can return Brought Back, then you need your second permanent to generate WW to recast the Brought Back and get itself and Eternal Witness back in the graveyard with some small bit of extra value. Ehhh requires more thought.
Brought ramps you into Scapeshift, which can also play the following card effectively:

Similar to Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, except with no deck building cost, at least for Highlander anyway. Snow-covered basics allow you at least two basics of each colour.
I've already put years into my Scapeshift deck, so I'm very excited to add this to it.
Fetchlands give you two zombies.
If you're casting Primeval Titan off six lands, it now does a Grave Titan impersonation.
Parallax Tide and Worldgorger Dragon can mass blink your lands for mass zombies.

Unlike it's predecessors: Scorched Ruins and Lotus Vale, this has hexproof, which protects it from Wasteland, Strip Mine, Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter, making it actually playable.

Here are some ways to abuse Lotus Field:

Wanting to sacrifice your lands
Flagstones of Trokair
Dunes of the Dead
Balance - Turn three on the draw float 1W play Lotus Field then Balance is super powerful. Or if you went first you play Lotus Field turn 3 and Balance turn 4 before your land drop.
Weathered Wayfarer - Even if you're on the play, once your opponent has the same number of lands, you can sacrifice a fetch land, with that on the stack you activate Wayfarer to find Lotus Field. Now you're assured more activations. You could find Thespian Stage to copy Lotus Field and not have to sacrifice more lands. You can find Vesuva to copy Lotus Field if your opponent decides to stop playing lands. So many options.

Cheating the trigger
Stifle, Tale's End, Trickbind, Repudiate // Replicate
Brought Back, Second Sunrise
Blood Sun

Twiddle storm
Load up Lotus Field with auras which make it tap for extra mana then fill your deck with card draw and ways to untap the loaded land.

Finds Tolarian Academy, or if you already have it, Crystal Quarry or Cascading Cataracts to filter the blue academy mana into Golos mana. Or if Tolarian Academy is in your graveyard, you can find Petrified Field to return the Academy.
Finds Karakas to repeatedly return and trigger him again.
Fine as a ramp creature for Scapeshift. Finding Field of the Dead is strong enough that you don't even need the activated ability for power level.
The activation cost can be reduced by Training Grounds and Biomancer's Familiar but being able to activate twice in one turn is unrealistic.

In the right deck this is "3 mana deal 5 to anything". Possibly has a home in a Goblin Welder/Goblin Engineer/Daretti deck. Scrap Trawler, Krark-Clan Ironworks and two more cmc4 artifacts is a kill.

Another Voltaic Key for untapping Time Vault.
A problem with these effects is that if you haven't got the Time Vault, they do nothing. One thing you can do to overcome this is add more artifacts with powerful tap abilities:

Grim Monolith/Mana Vault/Basalt Monolith - these are powerful but if you don't draw a mana sink, they're bad. Also if you draw a mana sink but no monolith, that's also very bad. High risk, high reward.

Sensei's Divining Top - Apart from Time Vault, Sensei's Top is the best companion to a key. It is easy to tutor for and very hard to remove. Albeit it does cost a point; a precious point which could be spent on a Time Vault tutor instead.

Coveted Jewel - One day I'll give this the attention it deserves.

To maximise you want as many creatures to be the same type as possible. You also want your creatures to create tokens of the same type. For example, you could play it in goblins and use Goblin Instigator, Mogg War Marshal, Beetleback Chief, Siege-Gang Commander, Sling-Gang Lieutenant.
If the creatures are cheap you can maintain tempo by activating and casting each turn.
In Myr or Construct tribal, Icon of Ancestry's card type also adds synergy.

Payoff for eldrazi, the colourless ones and the ones with devoid.
The lower your curve, the better.
Exiles Eternal Scourge.
Note that you can't play artifact lands off the top with Mystic Forge because it says "cast" and you don't 'cast' lands, you 'play' lands.
Strong interaction with Academy Ruins.
Gives colourless the power to compete against coloured midrange and control decks.
You don't mind too much if Dack steals it because they don't have colourless cards to cast.
Very strong with Sensei's Divining Top. If you can reduce Top's cost by 1 (e.g. Foundry Inspector), you can draw your whole deck.

Haste and evasion, so quite good at snagging planeswalkers after they fire off their 'neg' ability.
Carries equipment well. Just really solid aggro creature if you can support the blue mana.
Good creature types.

Expensive but has infinite combo potential, e.g. The Locust God and a sacrifice outlet.

Very niche but I could see it in elemental tribal running Time Walk and green for ways to return Time Walk. Might feature the following little guy:

More support for aggressive elementals. +2 is no joke. Unlike most anthems she's also useful when you have no creatures.

Kitty!

Pretty low in power level but in a one or two colour deck with all the Chandras or a lot of elementals, this is passable. There are a LOT of Chandras.

Looks like it should be a phoenix.

This thing is fragile but in the right deck it can deal a tonne of damage. Imagine it with Lava Dart, Hellrider, Aria of Flame, Walking Ballista, etc

Amazing in elemental tribal. By nature it ramps and draws cards, which is exponential.
Can be Green Sun's Zenith'd, Collected Companied, brought back with Reveillark and Vesperlark (which are also elementals).
There are some powerful elemental token producers:
Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
Force of Rage - requires a high percentage of R spells to consistently cast for no mana.
Master of Waves - I played a lot of this guy in standard and he made A LOT of elementals.
Omnath, Locus of Rage - 7-mana Omnath is game winningly powerful but so are a bunch of 4cmc planeswalkers. However, if we're using cards such as Smokebraider and Incandescent Soulstoke, then 7 mana could be surmountable. Assuming we can get Risen Reef and Omnath together, they'll have quite the party. It's hard to rig the top of your library with lands; Sensei's Divining Top kinda works, Scouting Trek really works but is a shit card otherwise.
Rite of the Raging Storm - a little know card that wrecks Grixis and blue moon.
Seasoned Pyromancer
Titania, Protector of Argoth

You have to be an elementals deck for this to be a better choice than one of the many four-drop planeswalkers, but this is still fine to play onto an open board.

Passes the Jace test.

You trigger the second trigger twice with fetchlands. If you get to a grindfest you might hit eight lands and Omnath should go over everything.

This card is powerful but I don't think it's actually playable because you need to be running a bunch of one-toughness elementals AND you need to get them in your graveyard AND you need to clear away your opponent's blockers lest Thunderkin Awakener die to them. I think that's too many hoops for it to be worth it.

You can pump Thunderkin to bring back bigger things but that's yet an step. Either way, let's just see what we can bring back, in case there's anything totally busted:

Ashenmoor Liege

Ball Lightning

Groundbreaker

Lightning Skelemental

Blistering Firecat

Risen Reef

Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar (Too expensive to cast, would need to be discarded, so probably not a real option)

Spark Trooper

Spitebellows

Vesperlark

Nothing totally busted.

Elemental tribal mana is very accommodating with Cavern of Souls, Unclaimed Territory and Primal Beyond. You can probably play five colours but probably not Ground Breaker and Ball Lightning together.

Average aggro dude. Good with anthems. Attacks through Liliana, the Last Hope, Jace, Telepath Unbound and Mu Yanling quite well.

Sometimes you can get into grindy games where all you have are lands and a couple equipment. Normally in that situation, topdecking an equipment tutor is really bad, Ancestral Blade changes that.
It's is only 2/2 for 1W, so the utility is only worth it if you're maxed out on equipment tutors.

Showcasing these three together in a spirit tribal deck. Here's a rough list, doesn't look any better than a non-tribal list, but hey it's cool! Spirits are really short on good one-drops.

Mausoleum Wanderer
Beckon Apparition
Figure of Destiny
Spectral Sailor
Giver of Runes
Mox Pearl ###
Mental Misstep
Mother of Runes
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
Supreme Phantom
Rattlechains
Remorseful Cleric
Metallic Mimic
Stoneforge Mystic #
Ancestral Blade
Selfless Spirit
Drogskol Captain
Kira, Great Glass Spinner
Spell Queller
Empyrean Eagle
Spectral Procession
Geist of Saint Traft
Bygon Bishop
Hanged Executioner
Dungeon Geists
Tower Geist
Skullclamp #
Umezawa's Jitte #
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Truth and Justice
On Thin Ice
Open the Armory
Steelshaper's Gift
Path to Exile
Moreland Haunt
Flooded Strand
Marsh Flats
Windswept Heath
Arid Mesa
Misty Rainforest
Polluted Delta
Scalding Tarn
Prismatic Vista
Tundra
Hallowed Fountain
Prairie Stream
Snow-covered Island
Snow-covered Island
Mystic Gate
Seachrome Coast
Adarkar Wastes
Snow-covered Plains
Snow-covered Plains
Snow-covered Plains
Snow-covered Plains
Snow-covered Plains
Snow-covered Plains
Snow-covered Plains
Karakas #

SIDEBOARD
Kami of Ancient Law
Hokori, Dust-Drinker
Keening Apparition
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Spirit of the Labyrinth
Nikko-Onna
Promise of Bunrei
Wheel of Sun and Moon
Mistcaller
Containment Priest
Mindbreak Trap
Blue Elemental Blast
Hydroblast
Back to Basics
Moat

Corpse Knight

Nice win con for creature combos:

• Food Chain + Squee, the Immortal/Eternal Scourge/Misthollow Griffin.
• Can substitute Parasitic Strix/Skymarch Bloodletter in the Aluren combo chain (Imperial Recruiter/Recruiter of the Guard for a ≤3cmc blue creature to bounce and recast a recruiter to find Cavern Harpy to effectively let you tutor for a dude for 1 life. Go get Corpse Knight and cast a self-bouncing creature until your opponent is dead.
• You can sacrifice a persist creature over and over as long as you have one of the many creatures which remove the -1/-1 counter.
• You could repeatedly sacrifice Gravecrawler to Phyrexian Altar
• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian.
• Rally the Ancestors a bunch of dudes from your graveyard.
• Vesperlark, a sac outlet and a clone.
• Saffi Eriksdotter and Loyal Retainers

and many more.

The trigger doesn't target, which is nice against Leovold, Emissary of Trest and random sideboard cards like Leyline of Sanctity.

Knight could prove to be a good creature type after Throne of Eldrain is released.

Angels, Dragons and Demons are expensive and hard to run due to the cheap counterspells, removal, land destruction and fast combos of the format pushing curves really low. Perhaps you could use changelings to get some cheap ones in there.
Castable and bouncable with Karakas.
Wears Conqueror's Flail well.

Some combo potential; perhaps by saccing and recasting Mox Amber and Mox Opal over and over. Or perhaps a way of giving all your creatures haste and then casting a bunch of legendary elves which tap for mana.
Squee, the Immortal can make his way back to the graveyard to help activate Kethis a bunch of times.
Hope of Ghirapur is free :P
Excellent in Gene Holland's Legendary aggro deck. The following list is a bit old but you get the idea:

5th-8th – Gene Holland – 4c Aggro (We Can Be Heroes)
Champion of the Parish
Isamaru, Hound of Konda
Kytheon, Hero of Akros
Recruiter of the Guard
Swords to Plowshares
Thalia’s Lieutenant
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Dark Confidant
Shriekmaw
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Dire Fleet Daredevil
Grim Lavamancer
Harsh Mentor
Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
Lightning Bolt
Zurgo Bellstriker
Avacyn’s Pilgrim
Noble Hierarch
Reki, the History of Kamigawa
Anafenza, the Foremost
Captain Sisay
Deathrite Shaman
Domri Rade
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Kolaghan’s Command
Queen Marchesa
Renegade Rallier
Saffi Eriksdotter
Saskia the Unyielding
Shanna, Sisay’s Legacy
Sin Collector
Tajic, Legion’s Edge
Chrome Mox
Konda’s Banner
Mox Amber
Mox Ruby
Arid Mesa
Badlands
Bayou
Bloodstained Mire
Cavern of Souls
Flooded Strand
Forest
Karakas
Mana Confluence
Marsh Flats
Misty Rainforest
Plateau
Savannah
Scrubland
Strip Mine
Taiga
Verdant Catacombs
Volrath’s Stronghold
Wasteland
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
Ancient Grudge
Chained to the Rocks
Choke
Containment Priest
Fiery Justice
Fire Covenant
Grafdigger’s Cage
Orzhov Pontiff
Pyroblast
Qasali Pridemage
Red Elemental Blast
Remorseful Cleric
Thorn of Amethyst
Wear // Tear
Zealous Persecution

Effectively makes noncreature spells cost 'R' less, which is powerful, e.g. Experimental Frenzy when all your spells cost R.
Potentially a good sideboard card for storm postboard when the opponent takes out all their removal. Is a win condition by itself and helps combo off.
Sacrifices Zuberas :P
Bloodghast is a spirit and loves being sacced.

Decent beater for green devotion aggro.

Decent win condition for 'draw go' control. Can get pretty big, especially if you have a few zero-mana instants.

Another strong threat for 'draw go', although you need to be green as well as blue.
I like the flavour of your opponent's turn being night time. Very cool.
It might get Fatal Pushed, which is a risk, but if it doesn't die it will win the game.
If your deck has lots of activated abilities that are worth spending your whole turn on, (I have no good examples) then Nightpack Ambusher will work well there too.

Remember planeswalkers are legendary now and planeswalkers are getting more and more play with War of the Spark being a recent set.

Countering fetchlands is likely in highlander.

I really like this in 'draw go' tempo decks where you're always holding up mana but your threats aren't super strong, and therefore countering fetchlands gives  you the tempo to get there.

Very slow. Hard to play more than one or two 5-drops in a Highlander deck.
Designed to kill your own artifacts and enchantments, e.g. Hatching Plans, Demonic Pact, Summoner's Egg, Induced Amnesia, Mycosynth Wellspring, Ichor Wellspring off the top of my head.
Can deal with your opponent's stuff too if you have to.

Same combo function as Ruination Rioter. It's way harder to cast, so it's typically worse. However, it doesn't target, so it's better against Spellskite or Leyline of Sanctity.
Example of combo would be putting your whole library into your graveyard with Hermit Druid, flashing back Dread Return on Cavalier and saccing it to Cabal Therapy. In that example you probably shouldn't discard any cards to the ETB trigger...

Niche card for GB Birthing Pod decks. Acts like Ravenous Chupacabra but is much better when the opponent has nothing to kill.

Probably the best anti-control card since Carpet of Flowers. The difference is that this is maindeckable. I expect Chandra to be fairly popular. Enough to make elementals better, same for creatures with >3 toughness.
In case you didn't notice, Chandra's -X exiles.

Possible inclusion for a colourless / lightly coloured eldrazi/artifact strategy.

Good enough to Sneak Attack in. Goryo's Vengeance'able. 11 damage and wipe their board.

Gas for Dream Halls combo. Four mana is castable naturally and when you're going off it will almost certainly find you another big draw spell and another blue card to continue comboing.

With lots of fetchlands and swamp duals you can play multiple colours with all swamps.
As with Tireless Tracker, try to play Dread Presence before your land drop for the turn so that you get at least one trigger even if it gets removed.
If you have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the field you'll get double triggers from fetchlands.
Great with Fastbond.

Amazing land tutor. Probably the strongest Highlander card in the set. Even if they kill it you probably end up ahead. He even has that critical 2 toughness to not get Wrenn and Six'd.
Juicy targets include:
Mishra's Workshop
Tolarian Academy
Gaea's Cradle
Dark Depths / Thespian's Stage
Petrified Field - to return critical lands.
Strip Mine/Wasteland
Bojuka Bog - since Elvish Reclaimer's ability is instant speed.

Pretty easy to fulfill that +2/+2 clause. A one-mana 3/4 is pretty amazing.
Triggers revolt, fuels delve, Deathrite Shaman, Titania, Knight of the Reliquary, shuffles your library; all the goodness that fetchlands provide.

Sideboard for red against Baneslayer Angel/Lyra Dawnbringer.

Possible addition to a Hollow One style aggro deck; This into Burning Inquiry/Wheel of Fortune/Goblin Lore.
Cycling is slow and therefore doesn't compliment the aggro nature of Glint-Horn Buccaneer. Perhaps if you have a Fluctuator and cycle your whole deck...That's pretty good (bad).

Decent anti-aggro sideboard card in a deck with lots of blink and return effects, e.g. Aluren combo. Turns Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard into good anti-aggro cards.
Extra utility for Green Sun's Zenith and Ranger of Eos/Ranger-Captain of Eos.
Cathedral Sanctifier already existed but nice to have options.

That minotaur really doesn't like vegetables and fruit. Shout out to Sean and Brett!
Decent pump. Could act like a Lava Spike with utility in a Sligh style aggro deck.

'KoteL' would be a good acronym (acro-name) to verbalise if Ice-Fang 'Coatl' didn't exist. I believe this guy is good enough to earn a nickname of some sort; 'Ebon Legion' is probably best but you never know what dumb name will stick.
Good one-drops are in short supply, especially now that Wrenn and Six has made one-toughness much worse.
The trigger also checks you, so could go well in a Death's Shadow strategy.
You can crack a fetchland for a shockland then if you have another fetchland or a painland, you can grow the Knight. Build with that in mind.
He wants ≤2cmc things that deal at least 3 more damage, e.g. Infuriate, Lightning Bolt, Spike Jester.
Scales well late game; can take down big dudes like Gurmag Angler with his activated ability.
Vampire Knight are decent creature types too.

If you're a black deck without access to white or red, having some removal in your sideboard that exiles could be handy. Especially if you're control. Good against creatures like Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, Voice of Resurgence and critical combo creatures that your opponent is likely to have reanimation for, e.g. Devoted Druid and Hermit Druid.

Gideons and Garruks can be a headache for control decks. This is a decent sideboard card if you're running cards like Snapcaster Mage, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Goblin Dark-Dwellers.

Combo potential.
Dryad Arbor is easily accessible with green fetchlands and Green Sun's Zenith.
Life//Death is sweet with this; build your own High Tide/Bubbling Muck.
Powerful with Cryptolith Rite or Song of Freyalise but that's hard to put together.
Easiest thing to do is just play heaps of mana dorks. However, getting the right balance of mana sinks versus mana dorks is tricky. You also need to manage your inherent weakness against control decks that have discard, counterspells and sweepers.

There's combo potential with that "Creature spells you cast cost 1 less".
A long time ago there was a brief period where Volcanic Fallout and Jund Charm were well positioned in standard. I had brew that played Elvish Warrior, believe it or not. Marauding Raptor would've been off the chain in that deck...Perhaps there will come a Highlander format where '2 damage to each creature' is a maindeckable effect.
If your deck already happens to have no creatures with <3 toughness, then Raptor is amazing. Of course all the good Ixalan enrage dinosaurs fit well. A small thing to be aware of if you're going for this strategy is that Liliana of the Last Hope's +1 lasts until their next turn.
An unintuitive application of Marauding Raptor is that it can effectively sacrifice ≤2 toughness creatures, e.g. Academy Rector.

Generally strong blue card, as if that colour needed any help! Hard to deal with. Versatile. Deals with Bloodghast, which can be a problem for control decks.
When you consider Jace, Telepath Unbound, Liliana the Last Hope and now Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer, creatures really need to have >2 power to be effective against control.

Bonus Round has been successfully added to Storm combo. Four mana is way more than three when you're trying to resolve other spells that turn, but copying them twice may be worth the extra mana. Cast Repeated Reverberation into Rite of Flame or Dark Ritual and any other intant/sorcery and that should be game.

I began to write about this card and it got seriously out of hand. I ended up writing a whole separate blog post about it, check it out if you care.
TL;DR It's good and powerful but requires a lot of build around and is poor against blue. I believe it's not point worthy.

Unlikely to have enough good enablers printed, but the power level is there.
Sigarda's Aid
Kor Outfitter
Kazuul's Toll Collector
Nahiri, the Lithomancer

Engine potential in a bogles or infect style decks. Not ideal but allows you to run pump spells into your opponent's removal because you get a card back, although you will be down mana and a card (the Season of Growth itself).
Combo potential with Devoted Druid and pump spells.

Decent inclusion in reanimator strategies. Can brickwall aggro decks. Is a win condition in Worldgorger Dragon combo. Provides a body to sac to Recurring Nightmare whilst also discarding a fatty.

Your opponent can't really let you loot each turn, so needs to be dealt with.

Game winning sideboard card. Maindeckable in the right meta.

Against storm, gaining hexproof will stop Tendrils of Agony. There's a tension there though, if they're comboing off they might draw into some anti-hate to counter the Veil of Summer so you may want to cast this before that happens, or you might want them to commit as many resources as possible. That decision is situational. Knowing how the storm deck functions really helps there.

Threat and pseudo-removal is always nice.

Can reset persist creatures.

Strong in a Hardened Scales strategy. This Vivien's title even sounds like "Arcbound Ravager". She's begging for it.

She ultimates very quickly, so finding a Thrun or Carnage Tyrant against control is nice when she needs a friend. Note that "outside the game" means 'from your sideboard', i.e. not from exile.

In the right deck this gets huge. Elf tokens. Tireless Tracker clues. Good with mechanics like Food from Throne of Eldrain, Treasure from Ixalan, Eldrazi Spawn, etc.

Ok sideboard card against some control and combo decks. Probably only good if you have some mana acceleration to cast it ASAP for max value.

For six mana you really want to win the game; you're taking the whole turn off. If your opponent has a Jace already, this may not be enough.

Being able to gain haste means it's far more likely to get a hit in before being Fatally Pushed or given a plowshare to reap fields.
Very green intensive because you'll often want to give haste and trample to kill a planeswalker though a chump blocker.
Gives hope against True-Name Nemesis.
Anything pro blue with decent stats is good in highlander.

Regi-SAAAAAUUUUUURRRR
Stomp stomp stomp.
The risk is that you untap, discard and then they Fatal Push your dino.
To reduce this risk you can be a deck that dumps its hand super fast. You could also play madness cards.
You may even WANT to discard cards if you're a reanimator deck.
My doona cover has a giant T-Rex wearing headphones on it, more like Rocking Regisaur. Yes I'm single.

....

.....

Probably too slow but I'd like to play this in a grindy combo deck (if there is such a thing) and have this be "5 mana, untap, win the game". I'm sure there are a bunch of two card creature combos for ≤6 mana. Finding ones which don't rely on extra cards is hard though:
Corridor Monitor (untapping a mana source) + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Titania, Protector of Argoth + Sylvan Safekeeper
Mogg Maniac + Volcano Hellion
Wall of Blood + Rubblebelt Rioters? :P

Sacrificing Bloodghast over and over seems awesome to me.
Gives deathtouch to Crypt Rats.
There are some pretty big vampires out there. Some of them are even playable in the right decks. Lets look at some of the more juicy ones to drop on turn-three with Sorin:
Garza Zol, Plague Queen
Skeletal Vampire
Patron of the Vein
Vampire Sovereign
Blood Baron of Vizkopa
Champion of Dusk
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Nightveil Predator

Herald of the Pantheon?

The recently announced 'Theros: Beyond Death' expansion will almost certainly contain a bunch of enchantment creatures, possibly unlocking an enchantment aggro archetype.

Awlllrighy. We got there. 66 'playables'.

Here's my power rankings for the best cards in the set:

1st - Elvish Reclaimer

2nd - Veil of Summer

The rest in rough order of strength, all in roughly the same tier:

Scheming Symmetry

Chandra, Awakened Inferno

Manifold Key

Brought Back

Corpse Knight

Field of the Dead

Knight of the Ebon Legion

Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim

Mystic Forge

Lightning Stormkin

Thanks for reading. There's a Highlander at NLG Ringwood this Saturday, 1st prize Savannah if any Melbournites are interested. Hopefully see you there.

Mulch

Predictions for Scheming Symmetry in Highlander

This card is a hot topic and a good addition to several combo decks.
In this article I'll step through how Scheming Symmetry (henceforth written as 'SS') should and should not be played and how it may effect the meta.
I'll be using the four popular combo decks flash, storm, channel and reanimator as subjects. Chosen for their popularity and suitability with SS. If you are unfamiliar with these combo decks, you can find some example lists at auseternal.com. Note that those lists are a little out of date and builds vary dramatically.

To begin, let's determine whether simply casting SS and letting your opponent draw their card is a problem, a.k.a. casting it 'naked':

Casting Scheming Symmetry naked

To simplify things let's consider the best case scenario for casting SS naked. I mean, apart from being physically naked of course... You've won the die roll and have the option of turn-one SS:

Naked SS in flash combo:
To win turn-two after casting SS turn-one, you would need to have either Flash, Protean Hulk or Summoner's Pact and at least two lands in your opening hand. That seems quite unlikely (I haven't learnt how to calculate the probability but I should).
Hypothetically you cast SS on the play with Flash/Hulk/Pact in hand; will your opponent be able to stop you? Postboard very likely, but what about maindeck? Let's consider what cards each colour can tutor for against you when you're on the play:

• BLUE: Force of Will*, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Thought Scour, Portent, Force Spike, Stubborn Denial and many more.
• BLACK: Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize (DITS) - Most black decks run at least one of these main.
• WHITE: Judge's Familiar, Mana Tithe - That's all I can think of. Mana Tithe is not a very popular card but it is good and should see more play. As the meta evolves and players become familiar with their peers' decks, I can imagine the SS player knowing that their opponent who only has an untapped Plains, is almost certainly holding Mana Tithe. In that (unlikely) scenario the SS player can pass and wait until next turn for a third mana to pay the tithe. That line relies on having a third land though AND the opponent not having a two-cost disruption spell like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Leonin Arbiter or Containment Priest. Leveling becomes part of decision making here and it all gets very interesting.
• RED: Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast - Both maindeckable. I'm serious; especially if you have looting/rummaging effects.
• GREEN: Can't think of anything.
• COLOURLESS: Strip Mine*/Wasteland*/Ghost Quarter - Bad options but better than nothing, there's a strong chance the Flash player has a third land. Note that Ghost Quarter is a 'may', so it's effectively just Strip Mine.
  Surgical Extraction - Shuffles away the opponent's top card. Great against SS but inconsistent against most decks. It could do nothing or be devastating. Can stop a recurring Strip Mine from green decks.

In summary, against a Flash player who's lucky enough to have SS + Flash/Hulk/Pact + two lands AND be on the play; you need to be playing blue, Duress/Inquisition/Thoughtseize (DITS), a maindeck red blast or Mana Tithe. On the draw only mono green has to play a potentially bad card in Surgical Extraction. Maybe if they're a graveyard strategy they could justify Shriekhorn. If mono green is on the play however, they could find Wheel of Sun and Moon, which I believe is maindeckable.

Naked SS in storm:
Storm can win with many combinations of fast mana and mass card draw, the best of those effects are Black Lotus and Yawgmoth's Will respectively. There are many weaker substitutes for Will, e.g. Wheel of Fortune, Past in Flames, Bonus Round, Doomsday and more, so SS will mostly be finding Lotus. Even if storm has a Will + Lotus hand, it still needs a bit more 'stuff' to get the stormcount high enough, so it's not always a turn two kill. Assuming it is though, what disruption does each colour have access to for at one mana?

• BLUE: Force of Will*, Force of Negation, Spell Pierce, Thought Scour, Portent and more.
• BLACK: DITS are less reliable here since the Lotus will be on top of the library and they may have redundant mass card draw in hand. Still very effective though.
  Nihil Spellbomb.
• WHITE: Mana Tithe, Dryad Militant - Unreliable but could be effective depending on storm's hand.
• RED: Nothing.
• GREEN: Dryad Militant - Horrible against Wrenn and Six and Liliana, the Last Hope but otherwise fine.
• COLOURLESS: Mental Misstep - May counter a critical Dark Ritual or Rite of Flame but not reliable. Surgical Extraction, Strip Mine*/Wasteland*/Ghost Quarter - See description in the 'Flash' section above.

In summary, against maindeck turn-one SS from storm, blue has the best answers (Portent and Thoughtscour). Black has the strong DITS and the remaining colours have unreliable but relevant options. On the play some red decks can run Eidolon of the Great Revel or Ash Zealot and some green decks can run Collector Ouphe.

Naked SS in channel:
Blue has counters; Black has DITS; White has Mana Tithe; Red and Green have nothing on the draw but could run Eidolon of the Great Revel and Collector Ouphe if on the play. Channel is far less popular than other combo decks due to its volatility and extreme deck building restrictions, so I wouldn't make maindeck card choices with it in mind.

Naked SS in reanimator:
This deck could use turn-one SS to set up a turn-two kill with Entomb and Reanimate, or Reanimate plus discarding a fatty. However, Mental Misstep is a super popular answer to Reanimate and Entomb that every colour has access to. Leveling comes into it here; Most of the time the opponent will tutor for Mental Misstep but the SS player will aim for a turn-three kill by using a two-mana discard effect on turn-two and a two-mana or three-mana reanimation spell on turn-three to play around Mental Misstep. This exposes the reanimation player to other disruption though, so it's risky.


Ok, let's evaluate everything so far; Almost all blue and black decks play counterspells and discard respectively and it's unusual for a deck not to be playing either of those colours. The remaining decks may be unprepared for a naked SS initially but if it becomes widely adopted by combo, those players can add the disruption I've mentioned. Also, you can never cast a naked SS against other combo decks. I believe it's clear that a 'naked' SS is not feasible.

Casting Scheming Symmetry whilst breaking symmetry

Now let's get pragmatic; Considering all the above I believe SS is only playable if you can reliably prevent your opponent from drawing their card. To do that you can either draw your card first and combo-off immediately or you can shuffle/mill/exile their card off the top of their library.
Let's call these symmetry breaking effects 'break effects'. How many break effects do we need to reliably use SS? Let's do a rough calculation: Say we're happy with having one ~85% of the time and say we need to kill no later than turn-four, which is around when an aggro deck is killing you or your control opponent has too much disruption to fight through. So, 7 card hand on the play; That's three draw steps and one of our cards is SS. Online hypergeometric calculator tells me roughly 10-12 effects are required to meet 85%.

Here's what 12 draw effects looks like.

Gitaxian Probe
Brainstorm
Preordain
Ponder
Thoughtscour
Serum Visions
Opt
Chromatic Star
Chromatic Sphere
Darkwater Egg
Skycloud Egg
Peek

Of course there are plenty others for customisation: If you're red you get Manamorphose and Faithless Looting; You may have a point spare for Sensei's Divining Top; Arcum's Astrolabe is a nice one if you have plenty of snow-basics and fetches, etc.
There are also many non-cantrip, non-egg cards that let you draw for one or zero mana the following turn. For example, Teferi, Time Raveler, and in his case you can even cast SS in their turn and draw your card first that way.
I didn't list two-cost draw effects because they're too slow for SS + combo off.

Here are some cheap enough shuffle/mill effects:

Thoughtscour (helps in both ways)
Predict
Portent
Assassin's Trophy
Winds of Abandon

There are plenty other ways to mess with your opponent's library but they may not be cheap enough to pair with SS before turn-four. Here are some slow yet playable ones:

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Ashiok, Dream Render
Aven Mindcensor
Duskmantle, House of Shadow
Field of Ruin

Including 10-12 break effects is a significant deck building restriction. Once you add lands and combo pieces you may not have room for much else. You may have to cut luxury things like mana acceleration.

Let's theorise how these break effects play out in the combo decks:

SS in Flash with break effects:
Flash dedicates A LOT of slots to combo pieces. I looked up a couple lists and they only run 3-4 cantrips. For flash to employ SS it would need to choose a 'Hulk pile' requiring as few slots as possible to make room for break effects. Piles with less cards are easier to disrupt, e.g. Titania, Protector of Argoth + Sylvan Safekeeper versus a ~7 card Body Double Reveillark loop versus a ~10 card Mogg Bombers kill.
Assuming that flash can run SS, it would go turn-four SS + cantrip + Flash. We probably don't have space in the deck for mana acceleration to speed that line up. Using eggs instead of cantrips speeds this line up too but I believe flash combo prefers the card selection of cantrips.
Using SS takes away one of the deck's greatest strengths, comboing at instant speed.
I don't expect flash to adopt SS.

SS in Storm with break effects:
Storm is the strongest SS deck because Black Lotus overcomes the 'mana bottleneck' of casting SS in the same turn as your combo. Storm already ran 10+ cantrips/eggs before SS was printed. It can go turn-two SS + cantrip into Lotus and possibly combo off depending on its hand. Note that Manamorphose and the Odyssey cycle of eggs require two spare mana to draw their card.
SS is very scary in Storm.

SS in Channel with break effects:
Channel already plays several draw effects but they're mostly purposed for converting colourless mana to black mana for Lich's Mirror tutors. Most of these consume two mana, so the line would be SS + two mana card draw + Channel = 5 mana, i.e. too slow. Channel requires a high life total to cast its first Lich's Mirror post Channel. Therefore, you really need to hit that 5 mana by turn-three. The deck plays mana acceleration but not enough to reliably be two mana ahead.
SS can find Lich's Mirror mid-combo if you have a card draw effect, which is nice.
Hard to tell if SS is strong or meh in the deck.

SS in Reanimator with break effects:
Entomb and Reanimate have no one-mana substitutes. You only draw them occasionally. Therefore, turn-four SS + Entomb + Reanimate is unlikely. Most of the time you will be discarding your fatty beforehand then on turn-three going SS + cantrip + Reanimate.
Reanimator decks already played about six cantrips. Adding 4-6 more isn't a huge problem. SS seems really good in Reanimator.

Other issues to consider with Scheming Symmetry

• You're depending on going-off the same turn with a draw effect a lot of the time. This loss of one or two mana on your critical turn is a big issue against opposing disruption.
  SS is very risky against counterspells. If your opponent has a counterspell you probably won't have the mana to win the counter war and they will untap, draw their tutored card and you will be down.
• Your opponent may have instant-speed card draw. If they have enough mana untapped they could draw their tutored card and cast it to stop you. This combined with the counterspell weakness mentioned above makes SS particularly poor against blue decks.
• Your opponent may have an instant-speed effect to shuffle or mill your card in response to you trying to draw it. Some popular ones are: Thoughtscour, Assassin's Trophy and Field of Ruin. As players become more aware of SS they may play more effects like this and they will be more likely to hold up mana for them.
  Note that Chromatic Sphere and the Odyssey eggs draw a card as part of their mana ability and hence can't be responded to, but other draw effects can be.
• If a player has shroud/hexproof you won't be able to cast SS.

Conclusion

Ok, those are my thoughts on Scheming Symmetry. I expect it to be adopted by storm, channel and reanimator. It will significantly effect how channel and reanimator are built.
I believe SS is good, powerful and players should respect it. However, given it's build cost, it's natural weakness to ubiquitous blue cards and given players can adjust their decks and play patterns against it, I don't expect SS to be point-worthy. We'll see. It feels a bit like Rhystic Tutor.

May your schemes be asymmetrical,

Luke Mulcahy