Points Changes
Effective as of the announcement (16/04/2023) (Please confirm with your tournament organisers that they are using the updated points)
- Survival of the Fittest -1 (1 to 0)
- Protean Hulk -1 (1 to 0)
- Flash +1 (2 to 3)
EXPLANATION:
Highlander overall has seemed to find a more steady state after the major update earlier this year. Fast mana and initiative continues to be a powerful thing to be doing, but it’s also not clearly overperforming anymore. The lack of major events since cancon means that it’s difficult to get a clear picture, but the metagame seems to have settled into a balance of archetypes, and we’re moderately happy with the impacts of the previous announcement.
This means there’s no major changes this announcement, but we’ll be keeping an eye on the results from masters to see how things shake out.
- Survival of the Fittest -1 (1 to 0)
Survival is another card that has been on the points list for a very long time, and one that we’ve had discussions about in the past. While it’s time as a tutor has long passed, it still allows some very powerful combos utilising vengevine and hollow one.
Given that those decks haven’t been showing up, and that it’s not a package you can easily slot into other decks without really building around it, given the number of cards required.
We’re letting survival go free and we hope that it encourages people to experiment with some new archetypes.
- Protean Hulk -1 (1 to 0) & Flash +1 (2 to 3)
Small clean up of the points list, nothing to see here.
These two cards have shared their points for as long as they’ve existed in the format together. While they’ve moved around a lot, they’ve gradually come down from the 4 points each they were once upon a time.
While in theory this stops people playing ‘fair flash’ that wasn’t realistically a thing that was being done, and this might let people play bubble hulk, or other non-flash hulk combos if they really want to. Mostly we’re taking one more card off the very long 1 point card list.
Watchlist Changes
- +1 Seasoned Dungeoneer / Caves of Chaos Adventurer
- +1 Minsc & Boo
Removed from watchlist: Black Lotus
The initiative remains a powerful effect, and when combined with fast mana effects, and powerful deck. We’re reasonably happy with the place it has in the metagame, but we’re continuing to keep an eye on it. If further action is required, these two cards stand out as the two that are significantly better than the subsequent initiative creatures.
Minsc & Boo on the other hand is an extremely powerful planeswalker, and it’s ascent to 1 point has done little to curb the amount of play it sees, or the ability it has to decide games. We’re keeping an eye on it, and the overall performance of the RG decks in general in the coming months.
