Canadian Highlander is not Bob and Doug McKenzie reenacting the duel scene at the end of the 1980s movie of the same name. It is, in fact, a hundred-card singleton format of Magic that’s about sixteen years old—so even older than Commander as far as hundred-card formats go.

Note that the points list is moving from a 7-point list to a 10-point one as of January 1, 2016. Several of the most powerful cards are rising in points as a result, but this will give deck-builders more choices as they build.

But why hasn’t anyone really heard of Canadian Highlander until now, and why is it spreading like wildfire? I interviewed Liam Coughlan, with input from Jeremy White. Coughlan and White are two of the many caretakers of the Canadian Highlander format. They help run the website and social-media channels, and between the two of them, they are a veritable font of knowledge regarding the subject.

I’ve also interviewed Marshall Sutcliffe, whom you may know as one of the voices of Magic on the Pro Tour. He’s largely responsible for bringing this fun format to the attention of Wizards of the Coast employees, and from there, it’s spread like wildfire.

Following the interview, I’ve included two sample decklists for those who’d like to jump into this highly entertaining format with both feet.

How Did Canadian Highlander Spread?

“I think that there have been a couple of catalysts that have really helped spur the growth of the format,” says Coughlan. The first and foremost is certainly Marshall Sutcliffe, who came to Victoria for the Magic Origins prerelease, played the format with a few locals, and decided that it was great. He has exposed a variety of other prominent Magic personalities, and as a result of the exposure, an increased number of people have been interested.”

“I then took my new Magic passion to the coverage team,” he says. “Randy Buehler built a deck, and we started playing. Then, Corbin Hosler, Matt Mendoza, and Rich Castle built theirs. Now fully converted, I started bugging some of the people at Wizards, mainly Blake Rasmussen, Nate Price, and Trick Jarrett, about building decks in this sweet new format. They started building their own decks and playing against each other, which I thought was awesome.”

Other than introducing the influential Sutcliffe to the game, Coughlan also points toward the Canadian Highlander community’s own efforts as a big reason why the format is so popular at the moment. “The second shift is that, as a community, we have recently put a much larger emphasis on trying to get information about the format out there for the public to see,” says Coughlan. He points to three Internet-based resources for Canadian Highlander for people who may have heard about it from Sutcliffe first. A podcast called There Can Be Only One, the Canadian Highlander website itself, and a daily stream on Twitch.

Canadian Highlander Works on Magic Online

It doesn’t hurt that, unlike other community-created Magic formats that have specific ban lists, life totals, and so on, Canadian Highlander is easily played on Magic Online. Simply follow the point restrictions and create a Freeform game with Canadian Highlander in the notes line. Let a few friends know on Twitter, and you’ll have a game in no time.

“The format being playable on MTGO has been invaluable for me as a player, who just recently moved away from Victoria but wanted to continue playing,” says Coughlan. “A small community has begun to develop there that includes some Wizards employees and coverage members. It's been a terrific resource in allowing players who do not live in areas with an established Canadian Highlander community to play and get interested in the format.”

Coughlan also points out that it’s also nice that many Canadian Highlander staples are much cheaper as singles on Magic Online than in paper form, which certainly lowers the barrier to entry.

Why Canadian Highlander and Not another Format?

Why are people gravitating toward this format in particular? Coughlan believes it’s because almost every card in Magic is legal, with a 10-point system in place for some of the best cards in the game. “Though the points list is by no means perfect, it is consistently monitored and updated,” says Coughlan. “As a result, it provides a play environment where a player has the opportunity to do powerful, exciting things whilst not having an obviously best strategy.”

In fact, Canadian Highlander might closely resemble the Magic you played with friends when you first started playing long ago. Says Coughlan: “Marshall Sutcliffe and other players have refereed to Canadian Highlander as “Just Magic,” because other than the deck-building constraints, it is identical to any game you might play.”

What Canadian Highlander Decks Are People Playing?

Sutcliffe’s favorite deck is a value deck in Sultai colors. “I knew I wanted to play so many of my favorite cards from the past like Preordain, Mulldrifter, Man-O'-War, Vendilion Clique, Enclave Cryptologist, et cetera,” he says. “I also knew I wanted to play Ancestral Recall since I only play a little Vintage and that seems like a card I needed to have in my life.”

“I chose Painter's Servant and Grindstone for my combo, as they went well with my tutors (like Trinket Mage and Muddle the Mixture) and were colorless,” he says.

Sutcliffe also points toward a green Elf ramp deck with Craterhoof Behemoth as a finisher, a deck that he saw on the Canadian Highlander website—and also a deck from noted deck-builder Nate Price: a G/W Hate Bears variant.

And of course, you can check out a vast resource of competitive Canadian Highlander decks at the official website.

What follows is something completely different, but all too familiar for Legacy players: R/G Lands.

Sample Decklist: R/G Lands

Legacy players will immediately recognize this deck archetype as one that uses many lands to great effect. It runs a lot of lands, as befits the title of the deck, and has several win conditions, chief of which is Thespian's Stage plus Dark Depths. Once Thespian's Stage copies Dark Depths, you make a 20/20 legendary indestructible flying creature named Marit Lage that can easily finish games. Absent this combo, you can also win with Titania, Protector of Argoth and an army of 5/3 Elemental creatures that she generates—or simply by ramping into a big spell like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.

Lands ? Canadian Highlander | Steve Horton

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Den Protector
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Primeval Titan
• 1 Tilling Treefolk
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 1 Titania, Protector of Argoth

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Nissa, Worldwaker
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Spells (44)
• 1 Crop Rotation
• 1 Dangerous Wager
• 1 Desperate Ravings
• 1 Realms Uncharted
• 1 Burning Inquiry
• 1 Control of the Court
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Gamble
• 1 Goblin Lore
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Land Grant
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Magmatic Insight
• 1 Reap and Sow
• 1 Reforge the Soul
• 1 Restore
• 1 Scapeshift
• 1 Sylvan Scrying
• 1 Tempt with Discovery
• 1 Tormenting Voice
• 1 Wheel of Fortune
• 1 Wild Guess
• 1 Winds of Change
• 1 Abundance
• 1 Burgeoning
• 1 Choke
• 1 Exploration
• 1 Fastbond
• 1 Manabond
• 1 Molten Vortex
• 1 Seismic Assault
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 1 Chalice of the Void
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Horn of Greed
• 1 Mox Diamond
• 1 Seer's Sundial
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sphere of Resistance
• 1 Thorn of Amethyst
• 1 Zuran Orb

• Lands (45)
• 5 Forest
• 5 Mountain
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Copperline Gorge
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Dust Bowl
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Fire-Lit Thicket
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Glacial Chasm
• 1 Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Raging Ravine
• 1 Riftstone Portal
• 1 Rishadan Port
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Taiga
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Terrain Generator
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Treetop Village
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 1 Karakas
• 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
• 1 Dark Depths

Buy This Deck

• 1 Strip Mine (3 points)
• 1 Fastbond (1 point)
• 1 Sol Ring (4 points)

Sample Decklist: Bant Heroic

Who’s to say that the extremely fast and powerful Heroic deck type of the previous Standard format couldn’t translate well into Canadian Highlander? It’s certainly an inexpensive option capable of very explosive starts. And not being limited to Standard blocks means you have access to some interesting enablers. Give this one a try for a few pennies on Magic Online, and see how it works for you. (It’s more than a few pennies if you track down the exact mana base; the deck will certainly work fine without the expensive fetch lands.)

Bant Heroic ? Canadian Highlander | Steve Horton

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Abzan Falconer
• 1 Akroan Skyguard
• 1 Avatar of the Resolute
• 1 Battlewise Hoplite
• 1 Bramblewood Paragon
• 1 Champion of Lambholt
• 1 Cosi's Trickster
• 1 Dawnbringer Charioteers
• 1 Fabled Hero
• 1 Favored Hoplite
• 1 Hero of Iroas
• 1 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
• 1 Meletis Astronomer
• 1 Monastery Mentor
• 1 Phalanx Leader
• 1 Quirion Dryad
• 1 Sage of Fables
• 1 Sage of Hours
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Scute Mob
• 1 Seeker of the Way
• 1 Setessan Oathsworn
• 1 Tethmos High Priest
• 1 Undergrowth Champion
• 1 Vanguard of Brimaz
• 1 War-Wing Siren
• 1 Wingsteed Rider
• 1 Hangarback Walker
• 1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
• 1 Jenara, Asura of War
• 1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch

• Spells (32)
• 1 Ajani's Presence
• 1 Defiant Strike
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Dromoka's Command
• 1 Emerge Unscathed
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Gods Willing
• 1 Leap
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Shadow Rift
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Triton Tactics
• 1 Valorous Stance
• 1 Viridescent Wisps
• 1 Warriors' Lesson
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Angelic Gift
• 1 Aqueous Form
• 1 Armadillo Cloak
• 1 Cloak of Mists
• 1 Grasp of the Hieromancer
• 1 Invisibility
• 1 Luminous Wake
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Ordeal of Heliod
• 1 Ordeal of Nylea
• 1 Ordeal of Thassa
• 1 Rancor
• 1 Stratus Walk
• 1 Unflinching Courage
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (37)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Island
• 2 Plains
• 1 Alchemist's Refuge
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Moorland Haunt
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Tundra
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Bastion
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 1 Serra's Sanctum

Buy This Deck

• 1 Treasure Cruise (1 point)
• 1 Sol Ring (4 points)
• 1 Enlightened Tutor (2 points)
• 1 Mystical Tutor (2 points)

That’s What It’s All Aboot

So now you know all about this fun and exciting format. Why not introduce it to your local card shop? And if you play on Magic Online, tweet at @canhighlander or open up the #CanHighlander chat on Magic Online and the fine folks behind the game will be more than happy to help you find opponents. Who knows? This thing could become bigger than maple syrup.