Changes Effective June 11th, 2018:
Imperial Seal decreased from 2 points to 1 point
Natural Order decreased from 5 points to 4 points
Tainted Pact decreased from 1 point to 0 points (REMOVED)
Worldly Tutor decreased from 1 point to 0 points (REMOVED)
Below are the justifications for the following changes:
Imperial Seal – Decreased from 2 -> 1
Watchlist post: Imperial Seal does not receive much love in Canadian Highlander. While it does make the rare appearance, it is quite possibly the least played pointed card. While availability may exacerbate the issue, power level is arguably a stronger deterrent than pricing for players casting Ancestral Recall and Moxen. Sharing many of the weaknesses of Personal Tutor (with the added weakness of matching poorly vs. Goblin Guide and friends), it does offer a level of flexibility that allow it to slide into certain combo shells. Altogether, it doesn’t match up favourably against other points options, and thus is up for a points decrease.
Voting 5-0 (Unanimous):
Adam: Yes
Jeremy: Yes
Jonah: Yes
Spencer: Yes
Wheeler: Yes
As stated in the initial Watchlist post, Imperial Tutor comes strapped with several glaring faults. Between the inherent weakness of Black in Canadian Highlander, the general inconsistency of combo in a singleton format, and the absence of Instants in Portal Three Kingdoms, you’ll find that Imperial Seal isn’t even the best at being Imperial Seal. Imperial Seal has had it rough over the years, and while the council will be keeping a close eye on the cheap tutor, we are comfortable with lowering it from 2 points to 1 point.
Natural Order – Decreased from 5 -> 4
Watchlist post: While expansions of the past few years have given other creature combo strategies a wide variety of tools to work with, Natural Order (and by extension CradleHoof) have been left out of the conversation. This lack of new tools, coupled with the dominance of UR(/x) strategies have put Natural Order in an awkward spot to say the least. Going from regular tournament appearances, to rare sightings in the wild have drawn the attention of the council. While some would argue decreasing the points on turnabout card does not lead to “better Magic”, it says a lot when the premier Natural Order deck has decided to commit to other options, leaving no other available home.
Voting 5-0 (Unanimous):
Adam: Yes
Jeremy: Yes
Jonah: Yes
Spencer: Yes
Wheeler: Yes
At 5 points, Natural Order only found a home in CradleHoof, which in turn was struggling to hold relevance in Canadian Highlander. While the council does not necessarily believe in bailing out archetypes looking to retire, we do believe in allowing every pointed card holding some competitive viability. Therefore, in an effort to reintroduce a competitive Green archetype into the fray, as well as increasing the diversity of decks willing to pay the cost of the card, Natural Order has been reduced to 4 points.
Tainted Pact – Decreased from 1 -> 0 (REMOVED)
Watchlist post: Saying Tainted Pact requires heavy deckbuilding constraints would be an understatement. From opening yourself up to Wasteland and Blood Moon, to tearing through any resources for recovery if your combo plan goes array, there are a handful of legitimate worries that have caused this card to mostly go unplayed. The few appearances of Tainted Pact have come in the form of multi-coloured midrange strategies, often looking for a specific piece of disruption or a game-ending threat. While undeniably strong, Tainted Pact is deserving of a discussion on whether or not it remains on the points list.
Voting 5-0 (Unanimous):
Adam: Yes
Jeremy: Yes
Jonah: Yes
Spencer: Yes
Wheeler: Yes
To put it bluntly, Tainted Pact is not a very strong Magic card. While it certainly has powerful applications, there is quite a big difference in being able to do something powerful and having the means to do so with enough frequency to be deemed powerful. The limiters of Tainted Pact end up cornering it into a niche selection of archetypes without a strong competitive presence, and the council looks forward to setting this Odyssey rare free.
Worldly Tutor – Decreased from 1 -> 0 (REMOVED)
Watchlist post: Since its addition to the points list last year, Worldly Tutor has been absent from tournament tables, with rare appearances touted as a mistake not to be repeated for future events. While initially included as a safety valve for decks such as Flash-Hulk or Hermit Druid, Worldly Tutor is seen as far too weak to be included on the points list.
Voting 4-1:
Adam: Yes
Jeremy: No
Jonah: Yes
Spencer: Yes
Wheeler: Yes
As represented in the 4-1 split, the removal of Worldly Tutor comes with some hesitation. Providing any additional strength to Flash-Hulk; paired with the recent release of Spellseeker, should be approached with caution. However, it is the majority votes belief that the individual power level of Worldly Tutor does not warrant a place on the points list.