Points Announcement: Bloomburrow

White Plume Adventurer (+1 to 2)

The initiative mechanic has continued its dominance in the format over the last two major events and local weekly and monthly events, we want to continue down the path of pointing the stronger initiative cards. Its safe to say that White Plume Adventurer is the best of the lot being only 3 mana and being able to be accelerated out turn 1 in the turbo initiative decks while being playable turn 2 off of mana dorks in the “domainitiative” variants. Additionally its untap ability helps it be both aggressive and defensive while also catching some incidental value of mana dorks. The cheaper mana-cost and additional utility means it is head and shoulders above the other initiative creatures and this pointing recognises that power.

Undermountain Adventurer (+1 to 1)

The initiative dominance has warranted more points for the mechanic this update! We have come to the conclusion that the combination of Vigilance and 4 toughness makes Undermountain Adventurer the next best un-pointed initiative threat. Similar to White Plume Adventurer, being able to compete for the initiative in combat while also defending it is a marked difference from its peers. We hope that this and White Plume Adventurer getting points helps to curtail the mechanic’s exceptional performance in the format and makes it so including these cards comes with a cost of sacrificing other powerful inclusions.

Broadside Bombardiers (+1 to 1)

Broadside Bombardiers has just the right combination of keywords and abilities that push it over the edge into point-able territory. The way menace combines with how the the ‘boast’ ability works to remove blockers makes it very hard to interact with in combat, while being extremely punishing to anyone trying to match it on board presence. Being able to chuck a Scion of Draco for 14 damage to the dome (or any other incidentally high costed delve or evoke threat) is just the hilarious cherry on top. There are definitely some occasions this card feels like a 3 mana 2/2 that “should” be easy to remove, however, it has such unbelievably high highs often ending the game faster than any other possible card that it merits a point.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom (+1 to 1)

The bangers from pushed supplementary sets just keep on coming. Safe to say we all expected Modern Horizons 3 to have an impact on 7 Point Highlander, while a lot of cards have made their way into various archetypes over the month that the set has been legal, Nadu has caught our attention as uniquely powerful. The card is over-tuned in just enough ways that we feel pointing it is justified. Pointing a card this soon after release does not happen very often as we like to see players adjust to new cards. Nadu offers a pretty unique package as a serviceable midrange threat that will nearly always trade at parity with removal, evasion, reasonably high toughness that sometimes also wins the game on the spot with the assistance of any 0 mana equipment or triggered ability. We think people will pay a point for giving their decks this angle of attack and will feel good about doing so.

Lutri, the Spellchaster (+1 to 3)

Grixis and Blue Moon have been performing consistently at high levels since the past few announcements, they’ve both placed highly at both Cancon, Mana-clash as well as smaller local Win-A-Dual level events. Both archetypes also got very strong new tools from Modern Horizons 3 (Galvanic Discharge; Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student; Nethergoyf, Psychic Frog, etc.) and with other rivalling top decks getting points this update we thought it would be unwise to leave these decks untouched. At the moment the Lutri points package (Lutri, Mana Drain and Gush with Mystic Sanctuary) is becoming a default inclusion and we think its consistency is too powerful for its points. We hope that this pointing will encourage more internal diversity in these decks forcing players to choose between a spread of powerful 1-2 point threats or investing in the consistency the ‘Lutri package’ offers.

Demonic Tutor (-1 to 2)

Demonic Tutor is one of those cards that is synonymous with Magic the Gathering, Cards that search your library are called ‘tutors’ thanks to this card. Demonic Tutor has been a 3 point card for a while now, but despite being powerful has only really seen very fringe play. We feel the time has come to shave a point off of this iconic card to make its points match its power. We think existing powerful combo archetypes will likely continue to preference having two 1 point tutors, however, some less popular decks such as traditional storm or mono black might experiment with Demonic Tutor as an option.

True-Name Nemesis (-1 to 1)

True-name Nemesis is a powerful threat that has fallen from grace or infamy depending on how much you played or played against this card. What once used to be a mainstay of not just 7 Point Highlander but also a variety of legacy decks has been relegated to the side lines. There are still players who play True Name due to the straight-forward nature of the card, the printing of Pre-War Formalwear did cause a small uptick in the amount of play this card sees, we also acknowledge that the gameplay involving this card is not the most enjoyable for a lot of players. however, we feel these are not reasons enough to justify keeping this card at 2 points thus the de-pointing to 1.
We will of course watch this decision’s impact closely, there is a world where this becomes an auto-include in every blue deck, starts to warp the meta in an unpleasant way and we review the decision. However, we don’t think that’s going to happen.

Bolas’s Citadel (remains on the watchlist +1 to 1)

The Tinker de-pointing from the Outlaws of Thunder Junction announcement has produced exciting results, encouraging players to approach combo and artifact strategies from a new angle.
We outlined in the previous update that Tinker fetching up Bolas’ Citadel could lead to worrying play patterns, though storm and ‘wheels’ decks have adopted this combo we think it is strong, but not problematic at this stage. It has unique strengths, but also unique vulnerabilities. We will continue to keep Citadel on the watchlist for now until more data is available so we can decide if the power level is on par with other decks or if it requires a point to put it on parity.

Seasoned Dungeoneer (added to the watchlist +1 to 2)

Remember when we said that White Plume Adventurer is head and shoulders above the other initiative threats? Well there might be a challenger for that title.
Seasoned Dungeoneer has been called “Mini-Progenitus” in the past due to being able to completely bypass combat thanks to ‘protection from creatures’ to continue to pressure the opponent when you have the initiative or to reclaim it if your opponent was able to snag it away from you. It also provides card advantage or selection through exploring when attacking, this is a combination that feels extremely powerful. At this stage if the initiative continues to overperform we think Seasoned Dungeoneer to 2 is the next most logical point, however, we think we’ve got the balance right with White Plume Adventurer and Undermountain Adventurer.

Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury (added to the watchlist +1 to 1)

Phlage was a card that was very quickly recognized by the community as a potentially powerful addition to a variety of 7 Point Highlander archetypes mostly due to its obvious similarity to Uro, Titan of Natures Wrath. A card that provides slightly over-costed but solid interaction early on, then leads into more grind value or a quick clock in the late game is a recipe for success in our format. However, unlike Uro, four coloured pips is definitely a bigger ask without green and not drawing a card means Phlage doesn’t “fuel itself” for recursion. We recognize this and will be keeping tabs on Phlage’s performance over the months leading up to the Duskmourn points announcement.

Uro, Titan of Natures Wrath (added to the watchlist -1 to 1)

When Uro was added to the 2 point category it was an extremely formidable force in the then popular RUG tempo decks. Since then several things have changed around this card. Firstly, the format is faster and the presence of the initiative punishes players who want to spend three mana at sorcery speed to not impact the board. Secondly, there is simply way more incidental graveyard hate and exile based removal running around then there used to be; Territorial Kavu, Dauthi Voidwalker, Prismatic Ending, Leyline Binding, Endurance, the list goes on. We’re not willing to pull the trigger on this at this stage, however, we are watching Uro moving forward to see if its power still merits 2 points.

Fury (removed from the watchlist)

Since the previous update the level of play Fury has seen has dropped and there are a healthy amount of mana dorks getting sleeved up. It still sees some play in maindecks of certain archetypes especially in decks that involve Lutri in the sideboard or that can still run reanimate, however, other than these scenarios Fury has become more of a sideboard card. It’s also worth noting that the pointing of Lutri also has a small but meaningful collateral effect on Fury’s consistency in Grixis and Blue Moon.
We understand that the power level of this card is still quite high and will be keeping an eye on future events.

Channel (removed from the watchlist)

Channel will be removed from the watchlist. From our gauge of the community sentiment, the impression we get is that the games where Channel gets to do its thing are not the most engaging, and in the Lich’s Mirror case, often very time consuming.

Channel is ultimately still an incredibly powerful card with a unique effect Wizards is likely never going to print again. While “channel decks” aren’t particularly well positioned in our format right now doesn’t make this card any less powerful.