Points Announcement: Foundations

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker (+1 to 1)

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker has been the lynchpin in several decks in various archetypes. Unlike many other staples this card is a built in 2-for-1 which simply provides more than 3 mana’s worth of board presence. Fable fills various roles based on the matchup, it creates multiple bodies both of which are must answer threats while also providing card selection in between.
It has proven itself in various formats from Standard (where it was banned) to Legacy. In 7 Point Highlander it has shown up in Grixis, Blue Moon, Red/White, Eclipse, Time Walk combo, Initiative decks and more.
If all this still does not convince you, we will have you know that there were more copies of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker in the recent RC Win-A-Library side event than Brainstorm!

Psychic Frog (+1 to 1)

The card was put on the watchlist in the last update to let the community have the opportunity to brew and test with this card, since then having assessed the results of various large interstate and smaller local events it is clear to see that this card does a lot in any deck it calls home.
Players have slotted this into Grixis and Reanimator while also splashing for this in non-blue archetypes such as Jund, Mardu and Mono black which speaks to its strengths.
There has been much speculation that this card will be banned in legacy and a card of that pedigree is definitely worthy of a point.
Ultimately this card can be a “one card game plan” with some built in evasion and protection. For 2 mana, that kind of versatility should cost a point.

White Plume Adventurer (+1 to 3)

The Initiative…despite all the points still continues to be a pivotal mechanic that players choose to build their decks around and win with. We do recognise that putting a card to 3 points is a major change, this is the bracket that houses the moxen! But we do feel that this step needs to be taken to see deck building diversity in Red/White based strategies. White Plume Adventurer is very singular in what it does and there really aren’t any cards that can have as much of a warping impact on a game as a White Plume Adventurer when slammed into play either ahead of or on curve.
3 vs 4 is a very substantial change in mana cost which is why this card justifies such a large pointing separation from its contemporaries. Turn 1 from a Mana Crypt, turn 2 off a mana dork or Lotus Petal effect or just turn 3 on curve, these are all play patterns that cannot be achieved with other initiative creatures (without a Black Lotus or Dark Ritual).

Phalge, Titan of Fire’s Fury (+1 to 1)

Phlage has spent its early weeks on the watchlist similar to Psychic Frog and, similarly has proven its effectiveness. Phlage has put up impressive numbers in RWx decks as well the ‘Nadu Walks’ decks. Being on the receiving end of a Phlage being escaped from the graveyard with an exerted Arena of Glory definitely does not feel like a 0 point effect. There will be decks that are willing to pay a point for Phlage’s powerful effect on the game, but hopefully it wont show up automatically in every deck playing Red and White.

Gush (+1 to 2)

Gush has is common in Grixis decks while also showing up in Jeskai control, Blue Moon control and Prowess decks.
Alongside Lutri or Mystic Sanctuary in nearly any archetypes it can become a very mana efficient one card game plan that unless answered very quickly can overwhelm an opponent with card advantage. Gush is also extremely common in doomsday piles to increase their speed and reliability.
As you can see in the watchlist we will still be keeping an eye on the ‘Lutri Package’ by assessing the namesake’s performance in future events, however, we think Gush is more generally more powerful games and is currently only 1 point. It is also in general a card that speeds up a game whereas Lutri’s role in control decks generally leads to slower games.

Tolarian Academy (+1 to 2)

Eldrazi/Bots decks have continued to have success in the meta with multiple top 8 appearances. Given that most other decks will likely be receiving points, we want to give a commensurate pointing to these ‘big mana’ decks as well. This will have a certain impact on most Bots list and will impact some Eldrazi strategies. We are aware not all Eldrazi decks run Tolarian Academy, however, we at this stage not convinced that Eldrazi is a menace to the format that requires correcting and will likely lose power when players start allocating sideboard slots towards it. Academy is still an incredibly powerful build around card, decks that require it will find room to accommodate this point at the expense of some power. A pointing here also opens up the possibility of de-pointing Crop Rotation (see watchlist changes!) in the future which at present has always been stymied by the existence of Tolarian Academy at 1 point.

Forth Eorlingas! (+1 to 2)

We would like to keep a close eye on the performance of Forth Eorlingas! once the upcoming changes for this update have had time to settle in. It was a difficult decision to choose exactly which Red/White powerhouses to point but we did not want to give the archetype 4 points in one go. If Red White continues to be overrepresented in the format moving forward, Forth Eorlingas! is likely the next card receiving a point.

Lutri, the Spellchaser (+1 to 4)

Much like Red White decks Grixis has also put up phenomenal numbers since the last update and in fact the archetype has done so for most of 2024.
We have seen through various iterations of Grixis deckbuilding that Lutri remains the common thread, it was a fantastic way to turn the corner and gain card advantage and help close the game out.
We are happy with Lutri at 3 in Control and Blue Moon strategies and hope that the other points given to Grixis (and other UB core) decks will make more players diversify their deckbuilding choices and perhaps not “auto-including” Lutri in favour of more power threats.
If Grixis continues to be overrepresented with Lutri as a part of the core strategies we will revisit this pointing decision.

Demonic Counsel (+1 to 1)

When an efficient tutor enters our format, it goes without saying that the community has become tremendously excited for such a tool. Demonic Counsel is one of the more powerful ones in recent times, however, it does come with a downside of needing Delirium before being an unrestricted tutor.
We want to see in what ways players utilize a tutor like this and also where and how it finds a home in the format before acting on it.

Crop Rotation (-1 to 0)

Crop Rotation has been a lynchpin in lands decks for a long while, it also finds several powerful lands in non-lands centric decks, the utility this card provides is unparalleled considering also how efficient it is.
Its weakness has always been the risk that comes with casting this card: getting your Crop Rotation countered can be devastating which makes players think twice before including it in their decks (particularly with Mental Misstep in every deck). This has reflected in how much it has shown up recently (which is not a lot sadly).
But we are aware of the sheer power this card provides and that lands decks have received some de-pointing’s earlier in the year and we want to closely assess Crop Rotation’s performance after this update before pulling the trigger on this change.

Bolas’ Citadel (removed from watchlist)

Several concerns were raised for this card after Fastbond and Tinker were de-pointed in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction update. We moved this card to the watchlist straight away, after having 8 months of assessing this card’s performance we have not seen it put up the numbers to justify bringing this card up to a point.
We understand that the Tinker storm decks that Bolas’ Citadel would feature in are quite expensive to put together, but we have had enough high stakes tournaments in the past 8 months to rightfully expect decks like that to show up but the archetype simply has not performed at that level and we feel it is a safe decision to take this card off the watchlist, particularly with the pointing of Tolarian Academy