Effective March 2nd, 2026
Main write-up by Josh (Cyclopes8), Kelvin, and Evan Pepper with additional notes provided by other councilors.
- The change in point philosophy established in January 2025 has been largely successful.
- Those changes have contributed to an environment where combo and Jeskai/(x) were the power outliers of the 2025 season.
The goal of our Spring pointing is three-fold. The council is taking a cautious but meaningful approach with the following intentions:
- To reduce the ability to grind and the resilience of top tier combo decks.
- To force a decision point for blue based decks within their points by addressing one of the power outliers from the color, aligning with the philosophy shift that took place in 2025.
- To reassess the January 2025 pointings with the intention of reducing pointed cards with low play rates and of promoting archetype diversity.
We want to reinforce that this cautious approach is intentional. Our goal is to ensure that the combo and Jeskai/(x) archetypes are not eliminated from the format by acting recklessly, and we will continue to monitor how the format responds to these changes. We are also committing to updating the community every quarter with communication regarding the state of the format.
Lastly, we want to restate the requirements for a points change, given the increased size of the council after expansion.
- For a card to be added or removed from the list, near consensus is required (6 votes in favor, 1 vote against).
- For a card to change its value when already on the list, a simple majority is required (4 votes in favor, 3 against).
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student: 0 -> 1
Voted in 6-1:
Benjamin – Yes
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – No
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
The high average quality of threats, removal, counterspells, card selection, and card advantage engines have led to blue control’s dominance in recent years. Among these categories, cheap card advantage engines are the most problematic by ensuring control finds enough matchup-appropriate answers and breaking card parity with opponents to win via attrition. While Ancestral Recall, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and Psychic Frog have all been pointed to curb this dimension of strength, the continued overrepresentation of blue control in the winner’s meta indicates further action is required.
Tamiyo is a 1-mana card advantage engine that grants control decks attritional mana sinks to never tap out, as well as a win condition that neuters aggressive clocks when flipped, all while rarely trading down on mana. By removal-checking opponents on turn 1, she polarizes games at too low of an opportunity cost by threatening to bank inevitability if unanswered in a specific manner, as blocking her is rarely possible during early turns. Pointing Tamiyo would lower the early game power of Recall and Time Vault decks while remaining a viable option for Moxen and Time Walk spreads.
The One Ring: 0 -> 1
Voted in 7-0:
Benjamin – Yes
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – Yes
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
The One Ring (TOR) has quickly become one of the premier card advantage engines in the format. Notably, TOR has seen significant success in Breach, Time Vault, Citadel Storm, and Paradox Academy as a secondary axis in winning the game by outpacing resources. When placed within these decks, coupled with untapping effects like Manifold Key, TOR presents card advantage that is unmatched.
It is important to note that while TOR is played beyond these decks, with the success of combo over the past 12-24 months, we find it prudent to force combo pilots to make new decisions when deck building. Due to the lack of comparable designs and the card being so potent in nature, we strongly believe TOR will continue to see play at 1 point.
Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes: 1 -> 0
Voted in 7-0:
Benjamin – Yes
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – Yes
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes (M&B) is a powerful card. It offers an incredible degree of pressure, resilience and flexibility and frequently ends the game within 1-2 turn cycles of it resolving, if left unanswered. That being said, M&B is a four mana card which can be interacted with in many ways. While M&B is still one of the best 4 drops in the format, it has stiff competition with the abundance of cheaper threats printed since MH3. Cheaper threats make protecting a planeswalker increasingly difficult, especially an expensive one like M&B. Every deck gets better at fighting the board as new threats are printed, and M&B no longer feels unique or unmatched as a top end threat.
M&B has been played to moderate success since being put on the points list in 2025; however, decks rarely choose to splash for the card in the current landscape. Choosing to sleeve up green and red in a deck is a moderate commitment that should allow access to a powerful top end card. The bar for pointing a four drop in a format with decks capable of winning as early as turn two or three is exceptionally high, and the council believes it to be safe to release the hamster for those willing to play sorcery speed 4 drops.
Thassa’s Oracle: 6 -> 5
Voted in 4-3:
Benjamin – No
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – No
Sacha – No
Spencer – Yes
While Thassa’s Oracle (Thoracle) is a card with a lot of history in other formats, it has seen little success in Canadian Highlander. The simple fact is that Thoracle is quite cumbersome to assemble and execute compared to other combo and combo-control options. Thoracle is usually paired with Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact, resulting in a pip-intensive, sorcery speed combo with non-overlapping card types. Thoracle decks are required to rely heavily on transmute cards or generic tutors, which are slow, painful, or pointed. With Tainted Pact, Thoracle is effectively a 7 point combo, yet pales in comparison to other 7 points combos such as Flash Hulk, which can combo at instant speed for less mana, or Time Vault, which has much higher tutor density, greater redundancy, and the ability to leverage artifact synergies. Thoracle is also hard to justify at such a high point total when compared to other combo-control options such as Slushie (control with Underworld Breach) or Scapeshift which require far fewer points for their combo pieces.
Thoracle jumped from 2 to 7 in 2021. The format has changed significantly since that time, and Thoracle has seen almost no success since its lowering to 6 in October of 2024. Thoracle offers a different spin on combo-control decks as well as an alternative route for various creature combo shells. Although Thoracle has been the boogeyman of other formats, it has not had the results to warrant sitting as one of the highest pointed cards in this format, so the council has decided to lower Thoracle to 5.
Time Walk: 6 -> 5
Voted in 7-0:
Benjamin – Yes
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – Yes
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – Yes
Time Walk is an iconic card that has fallen out of favor in the last year. While Time Walk’s ceiling is high, it is much less consistent than its closest comparison, Ancestral Recall. When used fairly, Time Walk usually requires other engines to already be in play to leverage the card to its full potential. These characteristics have led to a low adoption of Time Walk in fair shells despite offering 2 additional points over Ancestral Recall. Time Walk also competes with double Mox spreads in fair decks, where the early burst of speed is often favored over the value of a late game extra turn spell.
It is worth mentioning that many decks seeking to utilize Time Walk are interested in Mystical Tutor to find Time Walk or in The One Ring to use as a payoff for taking extra turns. As both Mystical Tutor and The One Ring have increased in points, the council believes it to be safe to lower Time Walk despite its high ceiling. Time Walk decks tend to be more proactive, and the council hopes that lowering Time Walk will encourage further exploration in decks using Time Walk and promote diversification in blue shells.
Other cards that were voted but did not pass:
Tolarian Academy: 1 -> 2
Voted 3-4:
Benjamin – No
Evan – Yes
Kelvin – Yes
Josh – Yes
Robin – No
Sacha – No
Spencer – No
Wrenn and Six: 1 -> 0
Voted 3-4:
Benjamin – Yes
Evan – No
Kelvin – No
Josh – No
Robin – Yes
Sacha – Yes
Spencer – No