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Today, I'll be talking about a little format called Highlander - what it's about, and what you should try to do when building a deck. I'll also give you a look at my own Highlander deck, which I've been refining for the last year or more.
Highlander - or, as it's called online, "singleton" - is my favorite format. Highlander allows only one copy of any card, except for basic lands. Generally, you don't need to ban cards in Highlander, because they are already automatically restricted. Skullclamp is, however, banned in Magic Online's Singleton - and maybe your play group might want to implement that too, because, to be honest, that card really is a great big pile of brokenness. But if you're playing with a Legacy or Vintage card pool, you should have the goods to deal with it.
That reminds me...you can play with whatever pool of cards that you want, so long as it's been agreed to beforehand. Standard, Extended, Legacy, Vintage, or even Block (although block might limit deck construction choices a little too much). The usual sixty-card deck minimum applies.
I am forever trying to get local players to put Highlander decks together so that I can play my masterpiece of a Highlander deck against them.
Highlander is great because every card that you draw in a given game will be one that you haven't seen already. This creates severe consistency issues in decks. It can be hard to make a deck with a game plan that works like clockwork every single time. There are none of the standard "Mountain, Frostling, Mountain, Hearth Kami, Mountain, Seething Song, Arc-Slogger" decks that have the same first three turns (give or take) every game. This isn't a bad thing - but it can be a challenge for players who don't own a lot of cards. I've been playing for quite some time, and spend sometimes quite frightening amounts of money on this game that we all love so much - but for the "save-up-to-buy-one-booster-a-week" brigade, making any kind of reasonable deck can be a difficult task.
This is unfortunate, because Highlander is supposed to be a casual format, and should be open to people in the way that competitive, net-deck based formats might not be. That said, Highlander is hardly alone in being a casual format that can be hard to get into. Just look at 5-Color magic. Two hundred and fifty cards can be a tall order for some people, never mind Reject Rare Draft, where the organizer has to be able to get their hands on an astonishing two hundred and eighty rares (which is tough, even if they are all crap).
On the other hand though, it's easier to get into Highlander than other casual formats because you just need one of each card. If there's a rare that you think would be perfect for your deck, you don't need to shell out for four - one's all you're ever going to need.
Highlander is a casual format - and as such, the intent is to have as much fun as possible. All other rules should be subject to that fact, so if it were to make things easier for people who don't have that many cards, I see no reason you couldn't decide to make the deck minimum forty cards rather than sixty.
So getting back to talking about the format in general, consistent play (and a consistent theme) is the primary challenge in Highlander deck building. For example, making a Land Destruction deck is very easy with a four-card limit: You get four Stone Rains, four Molten Rains, and four Annexs (or maybe not, but I love Annex).
But with only one of each card allowed, this becomes significantly harder. Now, of course, there have been any number of land destruction spells printed over the years, making it pretty easy for someone who's been playing for a long time. Just go back to Ice Age and use a Winter's Grasp, or even head over to Beta and pull out a Sinkhole. Name-dropping expensive cards like Sinkhole might be intimidating for some players, but it shouldn't be. If your intention is to destroy lands, then at the end of the day an Akki Blizzard-Herder will do the same job - just a little more inefficiently.
The point is, you can't just pick the best card and then play four of them. It takes a little bit of thought, and there will always be tough choices involved when looking at the various cards that do oh-so-similar-but-not-quite-identical things. A more extreme example might be a Psychatog deck; I love Psychatog, because I love combos but I hate how hard they are to put together sometimes. Psychatog combos with every card in your deck - and when you've got him on-board you don't need any other creatures to deal twenty damage, leaving that much more room for spells. But with only one copy of Psychatog (and a limited number of ways to search for him), it can be a tall order to get him out and win with him.
However, I have made a Psychatog deck in highlander that I still felt deserved that name despite only having one copy of its eponymous card - Mike Flores recently called a deck of his Critical Mass, with no Gnarled Mass in the main deck at all. Rather than playing four Psychatogs, I just came up with creatures that shared its spirit - in other words, creatures that win the game on their own. I played a 'tog, a Morphling, a Meloku, and if I'd had one I would have played a Masticore. I played only one Brainstorm, but I also played a Peek, and a Sleight of Hand, and an Opt. You get the idea.
But crafting a consistent deck is merely the first stage in the journey of fun that awaits you. The second step is getting to play your perfectly-honed pile. As mentioned before, every game will be unique (not that games with a four-card limit aren't, but somehow, they don't seem quite as unique). Every card you draw will do something different from any other card you have drawn so far (at least if it isn't a basic land). This is going to result in novel card interactions happening all the time.
Just to put things in perspective, I wonder if any of you have ever encountered this little scenario: You are playing a Black-Green deck and you've spent your first few turns going swamp, forest, swamp, forest, play a dude, make some mana, draw some cards, do some attacking, la la la, lee lee lee...
But then on turn 4, your opponent who played a second-turn Sakura-Tribe Elder, and who has craftily managed to assemble an unholy triptych of lands, each owned by UrzaCorp Incorporated, goes "Tooth and Nail entwined, get Kiki-Jiki and his bestest pal in the whole wide world, Sundering Titan." You suddenly have a Troll Ascetic on the table, and, hmmm, nothing else.
Now, that wasn't very fun was it? But mind-numbingly consistent, spine-breaking plays like that don't happen in Highlander. Take a break from nine-mana sorceries; you know you deserve it.
I think I've made my case for Highlander. Let's get on to the real reason I wrote this article in the first place - I want everyone to gaze in awe at my favorite deck ever.
This is my pet Highlander deck - which, obviously enough, uses a Vintage card pool. Its theme is messing about with lands. It has a lot of ways of doing this, though; the cornerstone of the deck is Crucible of Worlds, which will give you savage card advantage over the long term, and if you have some way of putting more than one land a turn into play, over the short term. In fact, Crucible is the deck's main way of winning. Along with Fastbond and Zuran Orb, you can gain infinite life and infinite mana, as well as bring back lands from your graveyard as many times as you need. Alternatively, you can use a Strip Mine as many times as you need every turn, so that they can play nothing, and will, eventually deck themselves (only to be done if you are in a particularly sadistic mood). There is no fear of you decking yourself because you play Regrowth and Gaea's Blessing.
Those are the deck's primary ways to victory. If you are desperate, you can also start with the mad Cartographer beatdowns.
Just in case you don't see the interaction between Fastbond, Zorb, and Crucible, you can tap a land for mana, sacrifice it for two life, take one damage to play it from your graveyard, repeat ad infinitum (or ad nauseam, whichever comes first). If you don't have the Zuran Orb, then you can still destroy all their lands with a Strip Mine - but you will take one damage for every land you destroy beyond the first. This can be avoided either by having a Lifegift in play, which will negate the damage, or with Glacial Chasm, which prevents all damage to you. Glacial Chasm has a costly upkeep, and you have to sac a land when you play it, but if you have the Crucible, and an Exploration, then you can simply not pay the cumulative upkeep, let it die, then bring it back as well as the land you sacrifice every turn at no life cost. You are then pretty well protected from any nasty creatures that might want to hurt you.
This is primarily a lockdown deck, but there are elements of control in there too; four Counterspells of one sort or another are there to help protect you until you can get the lock going, as well as a Swords to Plowshares, a Balance, and a Maze of Ith. I don't want to use the term "going off" simply because there are so many things to do with the deck at any time that won't win it for you immediately. There are a huge number of interactions between these cards, and different ones will show up in every game. This results in extremely rewarding play situations which require a good bit of puzzling over.
I'll mention a few other card choices now that might not be obvious. Bear in mind that this is a pet casual deck built from my unique card pool. I think it's tuned almost to perfection for the format - but "tuned" is a subjective term, meaning that "I am happy with my card choices."
The Lairs are generally regarded as pretty craptacular, but I have a soft spot for them - and given that they only get better with cards that allow you to play multiple lands, I decided to play Treva's Ruins. I am only playing one of each basic land because I only have room for one (and I am a bit of a purist when it comes to the "one copy" rule). The cycle lands also aren't great, but they go into your graveyard to be pulled out again by the Crucible of Worlds later. The artifact lands help Thirst for Knowledge and Tinker, as well as looking pretty (mine are foil).
Rowan isn't great, but it totally fits the land theme; there are twenty-eight lands in the deck, so you have a pretty good chance of turning one over anyway, and with Sylvan Library, you can make sure there is always a land on top, giving you a personal Howling Mine. The Library also works well with Abundance, letting you draw three cards a turn. It works like this: Sylvan Library lets you dray two extra cards. If you draw them, you have to put two back on top, maintaining the status quo but giving you a Sensei's Divining Top-style effect. With Abundance, however, instead of drawing you just put cards into your hand. You can do this three times because of the Library. Since you're just putting them into your hand instead of drawing them, the Library doesn't force you to put two back. Net result? Plus two cards.
Another amazing source of card advantage is Horn of Greed. Combined with Fastbond, Exploration, and Azusa, you get pretty savage Turboland effects happening, allowing you to fly through your deck at a frightening speed.
Trade Routes lets you fill up your graveyard with lands for the Crucible, and incidentally gets you to the Crucible sooner. Gaea's Blessing lets you shuffle key cards back into your library. Remember, you only have one of them, so each individual card is more important than it would be if you had four. It also means you won't get decked (though Witness and Regrowth also help with that).
The card drawing and counterspells are the best I can think of. Ancestral Recall used to be a Deep Analysis, but I treated myself for my last birthday. I have no intention of investing in the rest of the Power Nine. I just love drawing cards too much, I guess.
There's a single Disenchant just to deal with random stuff. Since you're only allowed one of them, I think there's no real harm playing a card that might usually be found in a sideboard. Also, casual formats don't usually go along with the whole concept of sideboards.
Notice my lack of affection for creatures. There are only three in the deck. Eternal Witness is just very good, while Cartographer, and Azusa really fit in with the theme. While they all help you gain card advantage, they can, in a pinch, serve as really tiny beating sticks (beating twigs?) or at least can chump block.
The deck used to kill with a single Exalted Angel (man, she's some good, even if she doesn't fit with the deck's theme in the slightest). Then I switched to Meloku, the Clouded Mirror (he's even better, and this time he does fit with the theme). Then I played in a lucky-dip draft and opened up a Rath's Edge...
It's a land that can kill people! Holy mother of God, where have you been all my life? So that explains why that card is in there. Plus, it means I get to take another smelly creature out of my deck.
There are three Tutor effects that can get the Crucible since it's so central to the deck's functioning. That said, the deck can tootle along quite well without the mighty artifact, but it certainly lacks the same oomph. Don't worry that the tutoring makes the deck just as consistent as any four-card limit format. It's not an "oh-looks-like-it's-turn-three-again-guess-I'm-dead" kind of deck. Sometimes it gets run over in no time flat. Sometimes it does win very quickly indeed, as it peels a Fastbond from the top. Most of the time, though, there's the usual jockeying for card advantage in the mid-game, where players are truly interacting and having a great time. And isn't that all any of us really want?
I hope this convinced you to give Highlander a go, and maybe I gave you a couple of ideas for your next casual get-together. Keep on keeping on.
Diarmuid Verrier
Welcome to Guild Week in the 2005 Championship Deck Challenge! This week each of our contributors has designed at least one deck... 
