I didn't get a chance to attend GenCon this year as I had hoped, but I heard that only a few people ultimately played in the tournament. At last week's biweekly NYC AGOT throwdown, where Beric ran amuck, I brought along my Highliander Targ deck and several people played 4 rounds with the Civil War variant. We had a blast.

I'm just wondering (a) whether people are playing highlander at organized gaming events, and (b) if not, why not? I'm hoping we can do more of these in NYC, though not necessarily as large, competitive tournaments. After the fun we had last week, Paul has graciously volunteered to bring his Lanni highlander deck along next week just to boost my confidence a bit by receiving a beating (he actually thinks his Lanni deck will win, poor fella).

Don't know how and if this is of interest, but if instead of "live" you want to play online with OCTGN, I absolutely love highlander format.

Skype me @ Dondiego81 anytime

(In Italy there are a handful of players who bring along their highlander deck at tournaments, so we can play the format between official matches. I hope there is some love in US too... I don't want to see the format die).

Diego

I have my Highlander deck, and play it whenever I get the chance. It came in second at the Mega-Regionals, and only lost against 1 deck at Gen Con (I had a first round bye in a three round event, and lost round two to Bara rush, but I did beat one of the other players in the pseudo 4th round). I love it, and the format, and encourage it as a side event. It can be so much fun.

Jeff, Jerry and I still play highlander regularly at our weekly casual meetups in Claymont. Bloodycelt played at GenCon. Maybe at Black Friday we can have a highlander side event. Is anyone else on the east coast interested in a highlander side event?

OK, I will bring my highlander deck.

Never thought I would say this about any format, but it is just too broken.

After I stopped Dobbler from decking me twice, but he still ended up decking me in 2 turns...that kind of ended it for me.

I still have a fun deck, but haven't played in years now.

I would argue it's broken because it's no longer regulated. A couple of errata's and limits would make it fine. But I haven't yet played Dobbler's deck. So maybe I'm wrong.

Of course Highlander is broken. That's part of what makes it so much fun, seeing who can pull off their "trick" first.

JerusalemJones said:

For sure, just like someone who likes Magic Type 1 (or whatever, I haven't played Magic in ages).

It just doesn't feel like the game (or the books) I love, though. Great, you decked me in two turns...now what...no, I don't want to play again?

When I play Classic Highlander, I don't play against an opponent, I just play with myself. I just have to make sure I work in my win condition

WIth all the search plots available, the obscene broken combos are just too easy to pull off. And since we don't ever see classic cards banned or errata'd anymore, I venture to say that FFG doesn't care about this format.

For us newer players.... What is the Highlander version?

Thanks!

@Dobbler - what do you use to deck someone in two turns? I imagine it abuses the Martell location thatn attaches cards facedown as attachments to a character?

@Ivengar - Clasic Highlander uses all cards from all releases, both ccg and lcg. In Highlander format you can only play one of any card by name, and is taken from the mid 80's action movie Highlander (tagline: There can be only one.)

Dobbler said:

Just curious, how far do you think banning the search plots would go towards fixing this?

JerusalemJones said:

Thanks JJ!

Yah I thought it would in part mean only 1 of any given card and I do get the movie reference but was unsure as to how it would be broken if it used the same cards in the game. Now that I know it means you can also use cards from the CCG I get the full picture.

Thanks again!

To be fair, you can probably play a deck that is disruptive enough to stop combo wins and search plots. The format just isn't serious enough for anyone to really meta against it.

As I said, I disrupted the combos twice, but it still happened second turn.

The first combo was something that used the GJ Queen and some sort of self-standing combo I think. I disrupted that one.

I can't remember the second one.

The third one (that got me), was the attachment that mills a card every time it was put into play? He had the location that made all cards -1 cost w/ 4 strength in the dead pile, a 1 cost character and a 1 cost attachment. Maybe the character mills when it comes into play and out of play and the attachment let you put the character and attachment back in hand? I even had a Trickery in hand, but that only stops it once out of infinate times

It was obviously a long time ago. I just remember he had three combos set up in two turns with an infinate loop that would have decked me. That was the end of Highlander for me...even though I ended up winning because he didn't put in a reset!

Oh, and banning all search plots would probably bring me back in. It would be much more of a back and forth, rather than broken combo that can be easily set up.

Classic Highlander, when playing at the highest level (does such a thing exist?), really comes down to three decks: the broken combo deck, the Uber speed deck, and the ubertool box deck.

My particular deck I played at Gencon two years ago was a Targ Treaty to Greyjoy deck...and yes, it had multiple combos.

Primary combo: Discretion (Bounce to hand Attachment), and Desperate Looters.

If I had revealed Beggar King as a plot, and had played either Blackwater Shores in play, or had played Against the Nameless other, I could infinitely do this, thus decking them in one turn.

In order to immediately get 4 STR in my dead pile, I would use On Ravens Wings first turn to get Bran Stark (Core Set), kneel him to cycle into Wildling Assault to go get the WIldling Rabble and WIldling Elder. I had several methods of standing Bran in the deck, so ideally I would stand him and cycle into another plot. I believe in my game against Tony my first turn (or was it second turn?) lasted around 30 minutes.

Other combos in the deck:

Alannys Greyjoy (TIme for Ravens) + Kingslayer or Mouth of the Blackwater to trash an opponent's hand

Dornish Alchemist or Maester Coleman + Kingslayer or Mouth of the Blackwater to consistently put cards in hand

Wildling Elder + Old Bear Mormont (promo) + Bran + Rabble = lots of standing for Bran

Hmm, I have many more, I just can't think of them...mostly the deck was cycling Bran as quickly as possible to use all my search plots to get all the pieces of my combo as quickly as possible.

So, first turn Outfox can stifle the deck? Or prolong the agony?

Seems like burn, especially burn that plays Threat from the North, could have stood a good chance against it. Or were the various character-based combos pretty resilient?

I think if I were going to play Classic Highlander somewhere serious I would probably start with something like:

Blockade

Outfox

Outmanuver

Dorne's Favorite Weapon (I would almost certainly be playing Martell)

Fear of Winter

After that I would probably play something that would search for Prince's Loyalist (assuming it isn't banned somehow).

Is there ban list for classic highlander at all?