Why do you play EDH or Highlander?

[Offler]

I am preparing tournament in "german" highlander here, and i want to hear so much opinions about these formats for so much people as possible.

So why have you chosen to play this format?

My own reason was its complexity - large card pool, large decks and thus more variable play, and also longer play and in best case nicely flavoured decks which can tell stories while are being played.

Some people around here play them from the same reason, others are trying to play "good" cards only - imagine almost monocolor deck, with Wrath of god and Damnation as only two cards of different colour (not possible in EDH, but possible in HL ...).

[sunshine]

Basically, the fact that it's Highlander with 100 cards decks creates high variability from game to game - something that you don't get with a tuned 60 card deck (actually you try pretty hard to avoid it). You can make anything from a wacky casual pile to what is essentially a collection of the best spells in the game. The whole business with having a general just adds a nice element of flavor.

[MattH]

1. Customizability - one person's Kresh deck might look entirely different from another. It's the nature of 100 card highlander.

2. Multiplayer politics. 1v1 has nothing to compare with the scenarios multiplayer offers. Last night I successfully got the whole table to freak out about one player's turn 2 Luminarch Ascension...while totally ignoring my turn 1 Bloodchief Ascension. ^_^

[anonymos]

I look at it as something readily available that can be amusing instead of something serious. I just finished out my Karn EDH and am looking for something new to play. I also have a 400+ card highlander deck. I'm slowly looking to get all the lands "highlandered" for that, but getting unique foil lands takes a while because I have to check and make sure I don't have them yet. I'm also working on getting it all foiled/altered. One day I'll post a list, but it's just a big collection of cards that seemed fun to me at one point in time or another.

[Offler]

Also i have one bit different question...

Some believe that EDH and HL are casual formats, so their basic idea is to put all thrash cards together in a deck.

Other will follow good ideas from this format, but they are willing to make them better. For example i play Azami and Mind over matter, which is not so expensive combo when it comes to money, some friend of mine is playing Mind over Matter with Library of Alexandria...

Besides i like broken cards and combos, i want to buy Time Walk and Ancestrall Recall for my card collection, but i really dont want to play those cards.

Do you believe that Highlander is casual or not so casual?

[MMogg]

Fun, plain and simple. Back in 2001, when I studied in Germany, I was first introduced to highlander. It seemed everyone had his own pet deck (back in Canada, however, it was little known in my area). I instantly fell in love with the format mainly because of what others in this thread have said, the variability. I like both competitive and casual highlander, just as I like casual and competitive Legacy. I had a highlander artifact deck back in 2001 that could tinker out a Phyrexian Colossus (with a Voltaic Key) quite consistently, and sometimes on turn one! That was part fun and part serious.

Another reason I like to play highlander is because there are a lot of cards I really like but are unplayable in other formats because they just don't make the cut. Counters like Dismiss, Rewind and one of my favourites, Desertion, are playable in highlander, but can't be played in other competitive formats. [/rambling]

[Ectoplasm]

The fun of playing a different game every time since your deck is so random, and the random broken shit that can suddenly happen :D One game on MWS, my opponent apologized beforehand for playing a broken general (zur), I won the roll, played strip mine, go, he dropped a land, I dropped city of traitors and crucible of worlds and the game ended right there.

[Nidd]

I play EDH because I love Rakka Mar but she is crap in about every other format besides limited.
My EDH deck has a lot of uses for 3/1 Elementals - Blood Rites, Soulblast, Hamletback Goliath... You name it.

[Koby]

I enjoy the 100c formats. EDH is more widely accepted and easy to find opponent in random gaming scenarios. That said, I much prefer the Highlander format better because there is more strategic depth in the options that the colors open up.

Examples:
Bgw "Trainwreck" control works in 100c and has a lot of really fun cards to pick.
RDW is insanely consistent.
UW/b control is pretty much impossible to beat unless you rush them.

etc