On 20th November 2024, the Discord Points Panel released a survey to receive feedback on the Fall 2024 points update announced on October 23rd, 2024. The findings are as follows:
Rate of Changes and Format Direction
Of the 120 responses to the survey received, over three-quarters of the respondents felt that these changes were pushing the format in the right direction, with less than 10% of respondents actively unhappy with the changes. It was noted by many that the choice to experiment with adding more ‘fair’ cards to the points list was very welcome.
The desire to expand the size of the points list is one of the clearest results of this survey. More than three-quarters of respondents expressed a desire to expand the points list at approximately the current rate (3 cards per year) or to expand it at a faster rate. The largest group indicated that the more cautious approach the council is currently taking was preferred, with many clarifying later in the survey that it was mostly less than five cards that they felt needed pointing. Even those who indicated they were not happy with substantially more cards added to the points list often clarified later that they did indeed want some cards added to the list.
While the feedback on the specific changes was broadly positive, the respondents were also quite polarised.
Thassa’s Oracle (7 → 6)
The most common sentiment was that Thassa’s Oracle being reduced was a positive change but overall had little impact. Thoracle saw almost no play in many metagames due to being underpowered, and many players went further to say that Thoracle was likely still underpowered at 6 and should be lowered to 5. There has been a minimal uptick in play rate since this change; however, many players noted that Thoracle’s low play rate was partially due to boring and unpleasant play patterns rather than raw power level. Some even noted that Thoracle should not be reduced because of the negative play experience.
This feels fine for now, haven’t experienced a lot of reactionary changes to my local meta in response to points change.
Oracle surely is the best combo card out there, and it may just have been underplayed lately. Yet I don’t think the Update will change that. Thus I think it’s fine :).
I do not think difficult to interact with combo pieces being reduced is healthy for the format
7 points did seem extreme. Could maybe see this at 5 depending on what extra answers are printed in the future.
Strip Mine (2 → 1)
The lowering of Strip Mine was the most well-received change of the three. While there were some calls for caution in enabling more non-games through mana denial, the broad sentiment was that punishing 4- and 5-color decks was a clear net positive for the format. Strip Mine also assists in keeping powerful utility lands like Urza’s Saga, Karakas and Tolarian Academy in check, as Strip Mine becomes closer to just a second Wasteland with the play rate of basic lands going down. The substantial buff to aggro decks was also noted, as increased access to Strip Mine allows aggro to more easily get under the various midrange piles in the format before they can land their game winning threats. While not being the primary goal of the change, it was also noted that a buff to lands combo decks was very welcome as those decks have been lagging behind other options.
Great change. Helps punish the growing number of 4-5c decks
Makes me more interested in this card splashing in aggro decks, while W6 Lands doesn’t actually gain/lose points with the pointing. Good change
I think making strip mine more accessible for aggressive decks is a good change.
Seems too strong on the surface but given the way the meta has become 4C soup it has certainly been a good change to at least try and reign in 4C decks.
Wrenn and Six (0 → 1)
This was by far the most controversial change of the three, although many respondents still viewed this as a positive change. There was a strong sentiment that, while pointing Wrenn and Six was a positive change, most would have rather seen other cards like Minsc & Boo, White Plume Adventurer, or Psychic Frog pointed before Wrenn and Six. The goals of hurting 4c midrange were still acknowledged by a substantial portion of respondents, and many were pleasantly surprised to find that Wrenn and Six was still seeing play in decks like Jund Midrange since these changes.
“I wish there were more cards like Wrenn and Six to point. Card advantage engines are very strong, and they feel weird to point since most of them are creatures that die a lot easier than Wrenn.”
While I do think this card needed to get pointed to bring strip to 1, it wasn’t my highest priority. Good pointing but more work needs to be done.
An interesting way to take a shot at spearmint and Czech pile while leaving RGx strip mine decks power neutral, makes sense in context but leaves a card on the points list that is outmatched in power by many unpointed cards.
“The one I was less excited about. Didn’t feel like a problem to me and there are dozens of other cards that have as big of an impact or more”
Unfortunately, much of the feedback received indicated confusion as to the reasoning behind these changes. Some responses went as far as explicitly criticising the communication of the council. It was noted that the explanation for the changes was not posted on a widely accessible online platform, such as the official website or the announcements tab on the official Discord, leaving many players unaware of any reasonings for these points changes. As an example, the following comments were made regarding the change to Wrenn and Six:
‘Don’t fully agree/understand this one, but I think it’s probably fine’
I couldn’t find an explanation for this change so while I’m uninformed, I don’t think [Wrenn and Six] needed pointing personally’
‘This change makes no sense and there was no sound logic or reasoning presented for the change.’
‘This just shows how slow and out of touch these points changes are.
Metagame Analysis
The most stark result from this survey is the overwhelming sentiment that four color midrange decks like Czech Pile and Jeskai Green continue to be overrepresented in the format and are too powerful, with over 60% of respondents mentioning this specific issue. There is a strong feeling that the incentives to play two or fewer colors are lacking. Two of the most commonly mentioned underperforming archetypes are low color aggro decks, such as Red Deck Wins and Death & Taxes, and traditional control decks, including Blue Moon and UW Control. These responses strongly reinforce the view that color-creep is an issue in the forefront of the minds of the playerbase.
Some other decks were mentioned as potentially overperforming including: Time Vault, Reanimator, Nadu Combo and Initiative/Mox Midrange decks. However, these were mentioned at a much lower frequency than the complaints about 4c midrange. Many of the archetypes that were considered to be underperforming included classic combo decks, such as Doomsday, Pattern Rector, Cradlehoof, and Lands Combo.
Conclusion
Overall, the format is considered to be relatively healthy, and most players seem to be in favor of the direction that the recent points changes are taking the format. A key desire for the future of the format is to incentivize fewer colors, to continue the ongoing efforts to remove outdated cards from the list, and to continue to experiment with adding more good stuff cards to the points list. Players have expressed the need for improved communication, in order to reduce confusion and to keep players apprised of the goals and reasons behind points changes.
Goals of the Points Changes
The broad goals of these points change as stated by the council and summarised by the DPP are as follows:
Thassa’s Oracle -1 (7 → 6)
Thassa’s Oracle is an A+B combo deck that is very compact, but it has very little redundancy and tutor overlap. Many tutors cannot get both sides of the Thassa’s Oracle + Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation combo, and those that can are often quite slow and telegraphed, such as the transmute spells. As Tainted Pact is practically necessary to ensure enough density for the combo, Thassa’s Oracle was, for most intents and purposes, an 8 point combo deck.
Compared to other A+B combo decks such as Time Vault and Flash, both of which sit at 7 points, it is arguable that Thassa’s Oracle is both slower and less consistent. The faster versions of Thassa’s Oracle tend to assemble the combo via Doomsday, and a number of Doomsday Pilots have opted to drop Thassa’s Oracle entirely for Black Lotus and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. The Thassa’s Oracle combo also does not synergize with much of anything, and as such, it is hard to build a strong core around the combo itself. Many pilots of Thassa’s Oracle decks describe it as lacking strength compared to other options.
The goal of this change is to bring Thassa’s Oracle + Tainted Pact in line with the rest of the other 7 point A+B combo decks. Hopefully, this gives Thassa’s Oracle the chance to be a viable non-graveyard, non-artifact combo alternative for brewers to explore.
Strip Mine -1 (2 → 1)
The councilors had unanimously voted for Strip Mine to 1 during the June update but decided to delay its implementation until more information had been gained about how other changes, notably the addition of Ancient Tomb to the points list, would affect the metagame. Prior to the printing of MH3, 2c Aggro decks using sol mana had been abundant. A common spread at the time was Mana Crypt/Mox/Strip Mine, so immediately implementing the reduction to Strip Mine would effectively negate the increase to Ancient Tomb within that point spread.
Since then, low color aggro decks have had some issues keeping up with the staying power of newly printed threats. Four color midrange piles have benefited most from new printings and rarely suffer from mana issues when their mana base is left untouched. In addition, decks utilizing powerful lands such as Tolarian Academy, Urza’s Saga, and Gaea’s Cradle have been a strong influence on the format in the form of decks such as Time Vault or Nadu.
The goal of lowering Strip to 1 was to give some power back to lower color aggro decks. Strip Mine functionally acts as a second Wasteland a large portion of the time, and the goal was to allow decks to attack high color decks by giving them more agency in disrupting their opponent’s manabase.
Wrenn and Six +1 (0 → 1) ADDED
One of the difficult struggles for the format in recent years has been the proliferation of four and five color “good stuff” decks. As modern design trends towards more pip-light cards and self-contained engines, it becomes easy to splash all of the most powerful cards into one deck, often backed up by a blue core of cantrips for consistency and countermagic for universal interaction. Unravelling what makes these decks tick is a challenge, as every card functions well on its own. Because these cards are good in all decks, there is always the danger of unintended splash damage to lower color decks.
The goal was to find a card which hit these 4-5c decks while trying to minimize the damage dealt to lower color variants. Hitting a blue card would impact low color blue decks such as UW Control or Izzet Tempo which avoids the goal of trying to reduce the reasons to splash colors. Wrenn and Six was identified as a potential card that helped to hold these high color piles together. While W&6 is fine in lower color decks, the consistency it provides is much more valuable in 4-5c, and the hope is that it would minimally affect low color decks such as Gruul Monsters.
As a two mana card, W&6 comes down early and provides card advantage by returning a land every turn – a play pattern that has only become more powerful since the printing of surveil lands. With a W&6 in play, a 4-5c player will never miss a land drop and have perfect mana for the rest of the game, ensuring ultimate consistency when the drawback of playing so many colors should be inconsistency. In addition, with W&6 in play, the theoretical counterplay of manabase disruption via Wasteland or Strip Mine is nullified. As a planeswalker, W&6 dodges much of the most efficient and common removal in the format.
While Strip locking is arguably a very slow and uncommon gameplan in 2024, there is a real danger of accidentally being able to set up a Strip lock simply because W&6 is a strong standalone card outside of the lock. With Strip going to 1, this gave another incentive to finally add W&6 to the points list to help lower the occurrence of accidental Strip locks. This also serves to discourage the same 4-5c decks that are the target of these changes from trying to pick up Strip themselves due to this incidental synergy.
Conclusion
This is an experimental change, as it has been a long time since a non-combo permanent was added to the points list. However, the council has been encouraged by both the July survey and feedback from the DPP to try adding more ‘fair’ one-point cards to the points list. These three changes were voted on unanimously and you can expect slightly more contentious votes and changes through 2025.
The role of the Discord Points Panel is to gather data and capture community sentiment, assisting councillors by providing connections to Canlander sub-communities around the world.
Current members:
Cyclopes8 – Moxfield
Impulse27 – Moxfield
Vaaste (Myself) – Moxfield
Feel free to DM or @ any of us on the Discord if you have any questions, thoughts or concerns.