Not many people outside Australia know that there is a local variant of Magic: the Gathering known as Australian 7 point Highlander. It is a single cards format like Commander but with only a 60 card deck plus 15 card sideboard and no Commander. It is also a 1v1 format. Vintage banned and restricted list applies and a committee allocates points to the more powerful legal cards. The health of the format is assessed after the release of each new standard set to figure out whether points need to go on to or can be taken off of particular cards. Each player is allowed to spend 7 points worth of powerful cards on their deck.
In Australia this is a very popular format, and at Melbourne's most recent GP a a five round tournament side event was organised by the player base. It got 98 players which made the top 8 very difficult to get into. Channel Fireball have since reached out to the Australian highlander community to help make the format more represented in future GPs.
Currently I am participating in a league featuring 25 players from around Melbourne's eastern suburbs, with the central meeting point at Next Level Games Ringwood. The current points list can be found at Auseternal here. I am at 3 wins and 1 loss after the first bracket of rounds, having battled Hamish, Calvin, Aidan and Joshua (my loss). I am not known for my MtG prowess so I am quite happy with my standing so far.
I have some tough games coming up in my next bracket, including Lyndon(
The deck I have been playing so far is a Splinter Twin version of Blue Moon. It is basically a control deck with mid range beaters and burn with the random 'whoops I win' factor of Splinter Twin and Pestermite or Deceiver Exarch. My list through the first bracket was similar to the following (the asterisks shows where my points are spent and how many the card is worth):
1 Back to Basics *
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Exclude
1 Force of Will *
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor *
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Mana Leak
1 Mental Misstep
1 Mystic Confluence
1 Negate
1 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Pestermite
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Remand
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Snapcaster Mage *
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
1 Stifle
1 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Treasure Cruise **
1 True-Name Nemesis *
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Blood Moon
1 Blood Sun
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Risk Factor
1 Splinter Twin
1 Dack Fayden
1 Electrolyze
1 Ionize
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
8 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Mountain
1 Polluted Delta
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills
I have not been impressed with the Splinter Twin combo in the deck for a while so it is time for me to move away from it. I took Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker out of the deck a couple of weeks ago when I found Risk Factor and have been much more happy with that. Now to dig though the history of MtG to find some new replacements. Any suggestions would be sweet.