Sarven has been playing Magic the Gathering since Stronghold (1998) and is on The Highlander Points Committee. He is well-versed in a wide variety of deck archetypes but remains an avid student of the game. Sarven is a passionate writer and seeks to apply his extensive experience in research and statistics to gaming. By day, 'Dr McLinton' works as a Research Associate at the Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWeX) managing various projects investigating psychosocial factors at work, as well as lecturing Psychology Honours and supervising PhD candidates. By night, 'McLinton Sensei' teaches traditional Japanese Karate in South Australia's premiere sporting centre, the ARC Campbelltown. He holds a 4th-degree black belt and is a gold medalist, competing both nationally and internationally in Karate and Open-style contact tournaments.
Player’s Standing Player’s Name Player’s Deck List Link 1st Rob Lark “4-c Good Stuff” (WUBR Tempo) 2nd Riley Beck “Oath-nihilator Six” (RUG Combo-Control) 3-4th Nick Savidis “Time Vault” (UB Combo) 3-4th Torin Kelderman “Jund Haste” (BRG Aggro) 5-8th Reuben Buresti “Blue Moon” (UR Control) 5-8th Oli Oks “RUG Lord” (Temur Control) 5-8th Michael Hearn “TR 45” (Mono-U Ramp) 5-8th James Arthur “Omnath Pile” (WURG Midrange)
A win-a-dual event by SA’s second Dragon’s Lair store in Salisbury. $30 entry with 17 players battling it out for a Plateau in 4 rounds of Swiss with cut to Top 8. Huge thanks to DLS for putting on an amazing prize pool and an awesome event! The Top 8 featured a swath of Ragavan decks (as expected), but most interesting was the prevalence of Jund… with not only 3 Jund in the Top 8 but the Finals was a Jund vs. Jund playoff! Check out the Top 8 lists below: Player’s Standing Player’s Name Player’s Deck List Link 1st… Read More »SA: Dragon’s Lair Salisbury Win-a-Dual (17 Players) 03/07/2021 | Deck Lists
The Winter Solstice This tournament report is a brief summary of the Highlander portion of the Winter Solstice, a weekend of eternal events in Adelaide that had attendance from interstaters too! Background For the last six months or so I’ve had to focus on work and other major life commitments, so AE event coordination and content creation has been (sadly) a lower priority (but I’m glad I’ve been able to jam the occasional highlander event and write a tourney report here and there). So when the question arose “with Vic Eternal Weekend cancelled due to COVID, are there any interests… Read More »SA: Highlander: Winter Solstice @SGC (23 Players) 13/06/2021 | Deck Lists & Tournament Report
“Highlander for Friday Night Magic?” Sign me up! This week was one of the first events for the brand new store in Adelaide, the Social Gaming Club. The new store run by Charlie Ferwerda has been open for a few weeks and the Highlander scene has just started up, with 8 players popping in to compete and/or playtest in a very chill environment. These smaller ‘low stakes’ events are a brewer’s dream, since we all get the chance to try out off-kilter decks and exciting new cards in a relaxed atmosphere that, despite still having official pairings and store credit… Read More »SA: Social Gaming Club 7PH FNM May 2021 Adelaide | Deck Lists & Tournament Report
5 Rounds of Swiss, cut to Top 8 playoffs for a Revised Tundra, plus another half-a-grand in swag for 2nd through 8th thanks to Phil at Dragon’s Lair! Player’s Standing Player’s Name Player’s Deck List Link 1st Michael Hearn “TR45” (Mono-U Ramp) 2nd Rajdeep Tokhi “Junk” (GWB Midrange) 3rd-4th Sarven McLinton “Sedgemoor Fish” (BUG Tempo) 3rd-4th Russell Cutting “SProwess” (RUG Combo-Aggro) 5th-8th James Arthur “Nono Black” (WURG Aggro-Midrange) 5th-8th Socrates Stavropoulos “Aphid” (BUGw Combo) 5th-8th Luke McGlaughlin “Burn Hangover” (Mono-R Aggro) 5th-8th Ryan Hearing “Chadgeddon” (Mono-W Control) 9th Torin Kelderman “Jund Haste” (BRG Midrange) 10th Simon Hall Sultai (BUG Midrange)… Read More »SA: Dragon’s Lair Win-a-Dual (21 Players) 16/05/2021 | Deck Lists
Welcome to the Time Vault deck archetype for 7 Point Highlander! This is an introductory article, where you will find all the resources you need to start playing Time Vault decks, and links for you to further explore its major variants in more detail. A Summary of the Time Vault Archetype Time Vault is such a powerful card that it has spawned a plethora of decks that hinge either partially or entirely on that namesake artifact. This has led to Time Vault retaining its place on the 4 Point list for many years, which has certainly not dissuaded players from… Read More »The Time Vault Archetype in Highlander
Welcome back to our recurring article on the 7 Point Highlander metagame. Here I will overview data from the most recent Quarter, which contains information on decks and points that have been submitted by players via the Point Results Form. If you haven’t already seen it, you can report your Points here. These quarterly metagame reports release around one week prior to the regular Points Announcements (which occur with each Standard-legal set release). The Point Results Form was created as our first port of call for collecting the most readily accessible data; deck strategies such as Aggro, Combo, and Control; predominant colours played, and perhaps most importantly;… Read More »7PH Quarterly Metagame Report – Q1 2021
Here is a summary of the metagame, and my experience at the event! The Metagame Ever since Oko, A-call, and Time Walk gained points, the Adelaide metagame has been incredibly diverse. A lot of previously rare archetypes like Affinity, Tolarian Academy ramp, and unpowered Aggro and Midrange decks have finally had their chance to shine. In this event we had a very broad range of decks in the Top 8, spanning the whole gamut of Combo, Aggro, Midrange, and Control! Whilst there were Tempo and Ramp decks in the room none made the top 8 cut. It is also a… Read More »SA: Dragon’s Lair Adelaide (14 Players) 11/04/2021 | Deck Lists & Tournament Report
Player’s Standing Player’s Name Player’s Deck List Link 1st James Arthur WURG Midrange-Aggro 2nd Luke McGlaughlin “Rakdos Bridesmaid” (BR Aggro) 3rd-4th Brad Fielke “4c Stoneblade” (WURG Midrange) 3rd-4th Oliver Oks “RUG Lord” (Temur Tempo-Midrange) 5th-8th Michael Hearn “TR 45” (Mono-U Ramp-Combo) 5th-8th Nathan Simpson “Rakdos” (BR Aggro) 5th-8th Nick Savidis “Dimir Time Vault” (UB Combo) 5th-8th Elliot Hoskin “Gruul Moon” (RG Midrange) 9th Sarven McLinton Bant Time Vault Midrange 10th Ed Watts WURG Time Walk Midrange 11th Russell Cutting UBR Reanimator 12th Simon Hall [unknown] 13th Sara Davey [unknown] 14th Reuben Buresti UR Tempo Twin 15th Drew Carter WUR Miracles… Read More »SA: Good Games Adelaide (21 Players, Top 8 Cut) Apr 2021 03/04/2021 | Deck Lists
Long Live Aggro! The metagame This week’s Adelaide meta was a breath of fresh air. SA saw some interesting developments in the wake of the recent Points Announcement coupled with the new Kaldheim printings. Most importantly, Aggro is back and with a vengeance! Raj took down the event with a clean 4-0 sweep on a Grixis tempo deck with a very Aggro bent, playing 1 drops like Bomat Courier and Goblin Guide to get in early beats and close the game with a traditional burn plan. He was the only person playing Ancestral Recall in the event (for the first… Read More »SA: Dragon’s Lair Valentine’s Day Adelaide (14 Players) 14/02/2021 | Deck Lists & Tournament Report