Effective, September 1st, 2026:
Increases
- Enlightened Tutor from 0 to 1
- Spellseeker from 0 to 1
- The Fantasticar from 0 to 1
- Tolarian Academy from 1 to 2
Next update: December 1st, 2026
Intro
In the June points announcement, we stated that the meta appeared to be healthier and more diverse following the January and March updates. Since then, there has been an increase in voiced concerns from the community about the strength of combo and the strain it puts on the metagame. A common sentiment is that several different combo decks are currently top tier due to having varying amounts of too much speed, resiliency, and consistency. When those decks appear in a local meta simultaneously, many players find it challenging to tech against them categorically when tailored card and deck choices are not universally applicable. In turn, the council investigated which decks were overperforming relative to their playrate, which aspects of those decks were unreasonable, and what was addressable through pointings.
Black Lotus storm decks were marked for scrutiny within internal council discussions due to them only losing one point (The One Ring) in the previous two point updates when most other top performing decks lost two points after increases to The One Ring, Tamiyo, and Mystical Tutor. This relatively light adjustment combined with the printing of The Fantasticar has led to a large increase in success for Lotus Breach (+150% in Winner’s Archive count since June 1st and counting), as well as the emergence of a new payoff-dense Regrowth Storm deck. These storm decks possess blistering speed through Black Lotus, resiliency through multiple alternate plans (using cards like Yawgmoth’s Will, The Fantasticar, and Oath of Druids), and consistency through a density of flexible tutors like Enlightened Tutor and Demonic Counsel. They were a major focus for pointings in this update.
Bant Time Vault has slightly increased in success rate from June to September compared to March to June, rising from 4.1% to 5.6% of all top finishes, the highest among all decks. While most games in most matchups tend to end on thin margins where every resource and decision from both players matter, the deck sometimes produces absurd fast mana starts fueled by cards like Mana Vault, Tolarian Academy, and untapping effects that produce an unstoppable and insurmountable mana advantage too early in the game. These starts often convert into free wins, and the council believes they occur a little too frequently from a deck that is also highly flexible and stable in its capacity to play normal interactive games.
Flash Hulk is often lumped in with storm and Time Vault decks as part of the top tier of combo decks in the format. It has lost two points in the prior two points updates (Merchant Scroll to 1 and Mystical Tutor to 2). Although slower than storm decks and more all-in than Time Vault, Flash Hulk remains a strong contender due to the difficulty of interacting with the SamCat pile.
Nadu is often treated differently than these other combo decks, as creature removal is easier to include into decks as a countermeasure. However, Nadu has seen a surprising amount of success despite this perception, partially coinciding with an increase in the adoption of the Seekerwalk package since the lowering of Time Walk in March. While not the primary focus for this update, the council recognizes that these decks are poised to benefit from the pointing of other combo decks and were included in the discussions for this update.
Our goal is to reduce the pressure exerted on the format by the highest profile combo decks so that we can better monitor the state of the format throughout the fall season and make final corrections for the year with ample time for players to adjust before their various year end events. There will be one more update for the year which will come into effect on December 1st, to be announced one day prior.
Enlightened Tutor from 0 to 1
Voted 7-0:
Ben – Yes
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – Yes
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
A prominent pain point of facing combo decks in Canadian Highlander is when they are too fast. Combo decks are slowed down in 100 card singleton because they have to tutor for their combo pieces, but one mana tutors such as Enlightened Tutor are cheap enough that they allow combo decks that use them to get under opposing interaction. Enlightened Tutor grabs key combo pieces and accelerants such as Black Lotus, Time Vault, or Lion’s Eye Diamond, protection and interaction pieces in the form of Defense Grid, Static Prison, or Portable Hole, or powerful alternate win conditions such as Urza’s Saga, The One Ring, or The Fantasticar. New printings continue to improve the flexibility of Enlightened Tutor as a potent toolbox effect that contributes to the speed, resilience, and consistency of these artifact and enchantment based combo decks. For this reason, the council aims to slow down these combo decks by pointing Enlightened Tutor.
Spellseeker from 0 to 1
Voted 6-1:
Ben – Yes
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – No
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
While storm and Academy based decks are the main focus of this update, the council decided it would be remiss to ignore the strength of Flash Hulk and to leave it unaffected as other noncreature combo decks received pointings. Although expensive as a 3 mana tutor, Spellseeker is one of only a few tutors capable of finding both Flash and Protean Hulk (via Summoner’s Pact) and provides flexibility for the deck to assemble its A+B combo. As a creature, it also serves as a way to convert an extra creature tutor into a tutor for Flash. Pointing Spellseeker helps to mildly reduce the consistency of Flash Hulk by making it harder to find either half of the combo with one card.
Spellseeker also has a storied history in creature combo decks due to the Seekerwalk combo. Although the Seekerwalk combo is vulnerable to many forms of interaction, it represents a one card win condition with 6 mana. Since Time Walk was reduced to 5 in March, there has been an uptick in Nadu decks including the Seekerwalk combo, as all of the pieces have other valuable uses, and it offers an additional source of pressure to force the opponent to keep interaction available once the Nadu deck reaches 6 mana. Nadu has been a strong deck in many metagames and is expected to benefit from the other changes in this update, so rather than revert the Time Walk change, adding a point to Spellseeker brings the cost of the Seekerwalk combo itself back to 6 points as a light adjustment to Nadu decks.
The Fantasticar from 0 to 1
Voted 6-1:
Ben – Yes
Evan – No
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – Yes
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
The Fantasticar is a powerful alternate win condition across a variety of combo decks. All it requires is a small amount of mana and the ability to cast four noncreature spells in a single turn. In an eternal format, there is no shortage of zero and one mana spells, including a variety of mana positive spells. While it is a bit tongue in cheek to say the Fantasticar is good with the heavy hitters of the format such as Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, Mana Vault, or Moxen, there are several decks built entirely around utilizing these cards which can slot in the Fantasticar seamlessly.
The Fantasticar is particularly potent in storm decks which already seek to cast many spells in a turn. It does not use the graveyard, and if deployed early, it can allow a deck to play around counterspells since the Fantasticar does not care if any of the noncreature spells resolve, only that it is on the battlefield when the fourth spell is cast. This allows storm decks to pivot to another win condition to avoid commonly played forms of interaction, making it a challenge to find meaningful ways to combat these decks without resorting to highly specific strategies.
Although the Fantasticar has only been out for two months, it has proven its strength in that short time period. While Canadian Highlander is naturally insulated from ritual density as a singleton format, it is relatively trivial to “crack” the Fantasticar as early as turn two or three. The council believes that the Fantasticar would continue to be adopted by more archetypes if left unpointed and that its play patterns are too strong to remain at such a low cost of inclusion.
Tolarian Academy from 1 to 2
Voted 7-0:
Ben – Yes
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – Yes
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
The points list is not a direct comparison of the power level of individual cards. However, when comparing one point cards, Tolarian Academy stands out as one of the most powerful cards ever printed. Tolarian Academy demands dedication to artifacts, but the payoff for that dedication is so high that entire decks have been built around it. Academy is a beloved card and somewhat unique to our format, given that it is banned in nearly all others. Its popularity and ability to draw new players to Canadian Highlander allowed it to remain at 1 for years.
While Academy has been a strong roleplayer in the format for a long time, there has been a rise in the success of Time Vault decks able to leverage a powerful core of artifact and land synergies over the past two years. Time Vault has been the most successful deck of 2026 despite numerous attempts to reign in its power through pointing Tamiyo, The One Ring, Balance, and Urza’s Saga. The main core of Time Vault, Academy, Saga, and Mana Vault provides a unique combination of explosive mana generation alongside land and artifact synergies. This allows Time Vault to exhibit both fast combo starts and grindy midrange engines, both of which require different responses from the opponent. The current construction of Time Vault uses Academy to great effect to subsidize the cost of impactful 4+ mana value spells, enjoying a far greater degree of success than past shells without Academy. This has led the council to choose Academy as the appropriate target for breaking up the current core spread. The goal is to force Time Vault decks to make decisions on how much they want to index into fast mana versus land and artifact synergies.
While Time Vault was the primary concern for the pointing of Tolarian Academy, Paradox Academy was also discussed while voting. Paradox Academy is often overlooked in comparison to Time Vault, but the deck is still powerful and highly successful, rating as the 5th most successful deck of 2026 and the 2nd most successful combo deck in the year thus far. For these reasons, the council deemed that Paradox Academy was also worth affecting in this update and believes that it will be able to absorb the increase due to the flexibility of choice in point spreads for the deck, as there is no single central card demanding the bulk of the deck’s points.
Other cards that were voted on but did not pass:
Demonic Counsel from 0 to 1
Voted 1-6:
Ben – No
Evan – No
Kelvin – No
Josh – No
Robin – No
Sacha – No
Spencer – Yes
Yawgmoth’s Will from 0 to 1
Voted 5-2:
Ben – No
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – No
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes