"Miss Highwater: Sign Here, Die Later"

 "Miss Highwater: Sign Here, Die Later"

by:

Virgilio F. De Leon Jr., MD

Black is getting some really great toys next year, and Miss Highwater will be among them.

She is a four-mana creature with a 5/3 body and Menace. But it's her text box that really caught my attention. At first glance, her ability seems fair. The more you think about it, though, the more you realize just how unfair it can become.

Miss Highwater is, appropriately enough, a Demon Lawyer/Advisor. And like any good lawyer, she gives your opponents something that looks attractive in the short term while quietly setting up the long game in your favor.

Here's how it works.

When Miss Highwater deals combat damage to a player who doesn't already have a contract counter, that player may discard their hand and draw seven cards. At face value, that sounds like a pretty good deal. You are essentially giving an opponent a fresh hand of seven cards.

Of course, there is a catch.

That player then gets a contract counter.

And that's when things get interesting.

The Contract gives you a very strong incentive to make sure that player eventually leaves the game. If a player with your contract loses the game, the artifacts and creatures they controlled are copied and end up under your control.

All their mana rocks?

Yours.

All their big, beefy creatures?

Yours.

All the other toys they spent the entire game building?

Congratulations. They're now part of your collection.

Meanwhile, your opponent is sitting there waiting for the next game while you continue playing with a significantly stronger board position.

And Miss Highwater has Menace.

That means she has a pretty good chance of connecting with multiple opponents throughout the game, potentially putting contracts all around the table.

Which brings us to the really fun—or really evil—part of the strategy.

You don't necessarily have to be the one who takes out the player with the contract.

You just have to convince everyone else that they should.

Politics suddenly becomes a very important part of the deck. Give someone seven fresh cards, put a contract on them, and then quietly encourage the rest of the table to deal with the problem you just created.

The trick, of course, is making sure that you aren't the problem they decide to deal with.

Miss Highwater isn't just offering contracts.

She's creating incentives.

And in Commander, there may be nothing more dangerous than an incentive that makes everyone else do the dirty work for you.