Points Announcement: Edge of Eternities

Mental Misstep (+1 to 1)

Yes it is finally happening! A card that would be described positively or negatively depending on who you ask. Pointing mental misstep is an ambitious change as it has the potential of having significant ripple effects: it could free up a slot in people’s decks that find it a must-play, or it could continue seeing play in decks that need as much free permission as possible. Needless to say we will be keeping a very close eye on the impact that pointing misstep can have on the format.
If this change ends up being a net positive for 7 Point Highlander then we will be happy with this update, but if it happens to have a negative impact then we will weigh our choices and a de-pointing back to 0 will be something that will be considered.
While the arguments are, among many players, already well known, the reasons for pointing this card include (but are not limited to): Mental Misstep producing huge early game tempo swings that favour the player who had the good fortune of drawing theirs. Mental Misstep is nearly impossible to ‘play around’ due to lack of colour identity or identifiable play patterns, its free, its essentially colourless, the normal ways of ‘telegraphing’ counter magic don’t apply to Mental Misstep. Mental Misstep is homogenising deckbuilding, even synergy decks that aren’t interested in this effect feel compelled to play it to counter opponents Mental Missteps. Lastly, while subjective, it often just feels unfun to have this ‘unearned’ advantage leveraged against you knowing that your opponent has likely made no strategic, pointing or deckbuilding decisions to earn their free counter magic, they just had it in hand.
We are aware of the many concerns and will be watching the implications of this change closely, however, ultimately the committee’s mission has to be boldness in favour of a better format and we’re not stopping now.

Psychic Frog (+1 to 2)

UBx continues to be a strong presence in the format, which is not inherently a problem, however, it has been persistently successful for a long period of time despite several pointing’s and its most well known variant (Grixis) has received new and powerful tools such as Cori-Steel Cutter.
There is a case to be made this Psychic frog is closer to 2 point card than 1. It has the same snowball potential as Tamiyo or Ragavan, however, it is harder to remove or effectively use combat to stop due to the ‘on demand’ toughness it can provide itself. It also has the ability to suddenly become as big (or bigger) than a Murktide if the game state calls for a quick finish.
Frog stands out to us as the most likely UBx core threat to deserve a point, productive community discussion is welcome on this one (or alternatives!)

Powerful 1 mana cards (???)

While we’re not convinced that Mental Misstep is certainly the dam wall holding back the flood, we’re not writing that possibility off entirely.

We’re aware of the concerns that unfair combos or snowballing one drops might take over games so we’ll be keeping an eye on them.

We are also not committing to pointing these cards as the reflexive solution to any uptick in play.

We will always be evaluating any changes through the overall health of the format and the solution will be targeted at whatever serves that end the best

To be clear, the list in the images shown is intended only to illustrate a point and is not exhaustive.