Tinker in Highlander

The deck didn’t start out looking quite like this. Predictably, the first Tinker deck I played was built by Dan Unwin. It was for Cancon in 2010 and I think I was a win out of top8. I didn’t really know what I was doing, to be honest, but Tinker early seems like one of the, if not the most powerful things you can be doing in highlander. You don’t win that turn, but a lot of decks have trouble dealing with a huge monster. The counterspells and various instant-speed tricks usually prevent them from doing too much about it.

Sometimes you Tinker early and get there, but most of the time you play like an aggro-control deck. Most of the spells are instants, so you can counter whatever is relevant and bash them with wizards. The deck is extremely versatile, but not too difficult to beat if you play appropriate answers. A deck with a clock and disruption can easily get there in the hands of a competent pilot. My most feared matchup is easily White Weenie, at least when played by Luke Mulcahy.

Some of the cards are metagame specific. In Melbourne, many people have manabases that get punished by Back to Basics. Often, it is 2U: win the game. Even against mono-colored decks, shutting down the excellent non-basics that the format has to offer can be crippling. Library of Alexandria, Karakas, Academy Ruins, Dust Bowl can all cause problems, and often if you aren’t Tinkering, you need an extra way to deal with them other than Wasteland. Although, sometimes you just pitch it to Force of Will, Misdirection or Chrome Mox, or shuffle it away with Brainstorm or Jace.

Pithing Needle may seem suspect at first, but it is a very important answer to a lot of problem permanents that blue may otherwise have difficulty with. Jitte and the swords are good ones, although you have to catch the sword before it gets equipped. Sword of Fire and Ice is particularly troublesome.  Pithing Needle is also a good answer to planeswalkers and of course, Time Vault. Grab it with Trinket Mage and use it for the aforementioned purposes, or Tinker that bad boy away.

Stifle may seem like a strange choice. It is the kind of card that can easily be cut for something else, if you like. It is however, very versatile and the deck has enough card advantage to make up if it ends up being dead. Stifling turn one fetchlands when you are on the play will produce ‘The Stifle Effect’. That is when a player puts the fetchland from hand to bin while picking up their library. Their eyes roll up slightly as they think about which land to get and plan the rest of their turn. You raise a hand. “Hang on buddy. Stifle. ” Whatever they do next is the stifle effect. Generally they look at you with a mix of surprise and contempt and say “go”. The turn one Stifle doesn’t happen that often but the card does a lot of work. Planeswalker ultimates, Time Vault activations, Emrakul triggers, and the storm trigger all get stopped by the one mana instant. You can even counter the Legend Rule so you get to keep your legend and theirs dies. (Just to be clear, this is a joke, you CAN’T do this.)  If you are going to play it, make sure you know what you can counter though, or you may look foolish. I once tried to counter Lotus Petal’s mana ability. I was playing against storm, and JP gave me a look that asked if I was retarded. (I am.)

The Tinker targets are something I’ve given a lot of thought to. Wurmcoil is good because you can feasibly cast it if need be, not to mention Academy Ruins shenanigans.  It is resistant to edict effects, but weak to Path/Swords. It also leaves you with something after a Wrath effect, but those don’t get played that often. Inkwell Leviathan is the most common target. Kills in three hits, and damn hard to kill. Sphinx of the Steel Wind is the emergency target. Sometimes you just have to get this bad boy. It gets sided out a lot. I have tried Blightsteel Colossus before, but it just didn’t seem to get there. It should be in the sideboard though for combo matchups. Killing in one hit is good, apparently. I could see myself maining it in a combo-heavy metagame.

The sideboard is heavily flawed. If you plan to play this deck, you’ll definitely want to have a look at your metagame and tailor the sideboard accordingly. Hurkyl’s Recall is pretty terrible. The Man O’ War effects get some strange looks, but they have been good for me as tempo cards in aggro matchups. Often they’ll just be a speed bump that buys a turn or two, but in aggro matchups that will often be enough time to dig for a Shackles or Tinker. The red hate cards are there for one matchup and I only have them because I HATE losing to Glenn Shanley. It has only happened once in eleven matches but those three spots can definitely be filled with something else. The cheap counterspells are pretty self-explanatory. Bring them in against blue decks to protect your key spells. Tormod’s Crypt is a must-have. People keep playing Reanimator and bad Loam/Crucible decks. Crypt effects are good against Hermit Druid, and I have been known to bring it in against storm, if only because I have so many dead cards against it. They don’t need Yawgmoth’s Will to go off, but half the time you can throw a spanner in the works. Extract is pretty obvious. Arcane Laboratory is there mainly for combo decks. Storm, Hermit Druid and Channel all have to deal with it before going off. Thada Adel is comes in against control as an extra beater, and stealing their Sensei’s Diving Top or Sol Ring can be good. His main use is against Time Vault decks, and to a lesser extent, Painter/Grindstone. Painter/Grindstone doesn’t seem to get played all that much, however. Threads of Disloyalty is pretty obvious as well. Bring it in against aggro decks and give it a burl when dueling a Hermit Druid deck. Submerge is for green decks. It is pretty strong in response to a fetchland, but there would be a lot better cards out there.

Some alternate sideboard cards to consider- Treachery, Control Magic, Flusterstorm, Emrakul, etc, etc. Figure it out yourself.

The main deck is pretty decent but it needs to have Dismember in there somewhere. Also, if you have a few extra dollars, adding Time Vault would be excellent. You would need to change the main deck quite a bit, but I think that Time Vault versions are strongly as they generally win the turn you Tinker. Also, having ‘oops, I win!’ hands is obviously good.

In conclusion, this deck is sick. Play it, and win. Furthermore, if you are reading this from sunny Brisbane, play highlander. It is really fun. Hassle card shop dudes to run tournaments. I am happy to answer any questions or rebut any critique in the forums, so hit me up!

Have fun playing highlander!

Rei Barker

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