In my opinion, Demonic Tutor is very clearly superior to Imperial Seal, which is banned. Personally, I think Demonic Tutor is better than Vampiric Tutor but I can totally understand someone preferring Vampiric.
I didn't even realize at first that those tutors are banned while DT is legal. What a strange banlist.
Oh, and another reason for the low number of players may be the start 1 h earlier!
PLEASE, if anybody would like to join, but can't because of the 1 hour:
Post here! We only changed it because nobody rejected it.
The old time wasn't really good for me and this one still isn't, but I'll try to make it when I can.
Sounds good overall, but while we're altering ban lists, I don't think Grindstone needs to be banned (nor Entomb, but I'm not objective on that), especially if we're going to have DT banned. The Painter-Stone combo is only a little easier to pull off than Helm of Obedience-Rest in Peace for example and that one beats Eldrazi, too. Also, to be clear, MTGO Highlander is a 100 card format as well?
Of course when they remove the format, the only enforcement of deck construction rules is based on a gentlemen's agreement, though we definitely should use some kind of standardized ban list, and that Highlander one looks fine to me (I have no interest in Canadian highlander- points systems for deck construction are inelegant and kind of arbitrary). I agree about Brainstorm and Ponder, they really did not need to be banned- I think the logic behind banning them was that they're just auto-includes if you're playing blue, but they're not so powerful/warping IMO that they need to be banned. I'm ok with banning Pod, I really do think that it's powerful enough. I know you made a case for banning Ranger of Eos, I could go either way on that, but apparently it's legal in Highlander.
I don't think Entomb needs to be banned (because I like my reanimator deck) but I see they're considering unbanning it.
I for one don't find commander to be an acceptable replacement. The ban list is a complete joke (Primeval Titan banned, Sol Ring legal?! and that's just one of many examples). It is not a format that makes sense for 1v1 play at all (IMO). There have been attempts to remedy that with the French banlist but I think the current MTGO singleton 100 variant is the best one.
I would play the same s100 format, it would just have to be done in freeform or vintage.
I didn't even realize at first that those tutors are banned while DT is legal. What a strange banlist.
The old time wasn't really good for me and this one still isn't, but I'll try to make it when I can.
I don't think Entomb needs to be banned (because I like my reanimator deck) but I see they're considering unbanning it.
I would play the same s100 format, it would just have to be done in freeform or vintage.