Points Announcement: Marvel Spiderman

Psychic Frog (+1 to 2)

Psychic Frog has firmly cemented itself as the second-most powerful card from Modern Horizons 3 and is making more of a case for itself to beat Nadu with each passing event. While the rest of the cast are competing solidly it has become apparent that Cats, Eldrazi, Lhurgoyfs, premium removal Spells and powerful lands are simply not as good as the innocuous little Frog.
Psychic Frog has been a consistent terror at all stages of the game, in a variety of decks. While having a natural home in UBx midrange strategies, it was also heavily played in combo and Reanimator decks until it received its first point. Since then, it has remained a staple threat for decks looking for individually powerful cards while keeping its role as a reasonable back-up plan for combo decks with a spare point.

We believe that this additional point will finally give players pause when building their decks and promote diversity within archetypes as players adjust their lists to either accommodate or eschew the card.

Reanimate (+1 to 2)

Reanimate has been used as a filler point for Black midrange decks with an extra slot for a while now, especially with the printing of Troll of Khazad Dum. Providing a reliable threat in the majority of game states for very little mana investment would be somewhat appropriate for a 1 point card.
However, the impact that Reanimate’s ubiquity has on the format is much higher than the surface level power of the card. Acting as a form of graveyard hate, giving decks access to unique effects stapled to cards in the opposing deck (alongside Thoughtseize) and being a meaningful toolbox in the mid to late game when many creatures have unique and game-warping impact all lead to an incredibly powerful and flexible card that asks very little to nothing of you.

We believe a second point on Reanimate will achieve a few things. By reducing the frequency that players will see the card, graveyard hate will be less impactful overall and allow for more sideboard slots to be opened up. This will also improve the power of graveyard reliant decks like traditional Reanimator strategies, which have fallen off by making Reanimate a more meaningful deck construction choice rather than a default inclusion in all black midrange decks. This tension will reward players who accurately predict metagames, both when choosing the sideboard slots for their deck and when they correctly determine the right time to sleeve up Atraxa due to lax deck construction.

Tinker (+1 to 2)

When Tinker was de-pointed to 1 in the Outlaws at Thunder Junction update in April of 2024, we were seeing a substantial decline in its usage compared to historical trends. Additionally, the format as a whole was relatively hostile to spells of this nature, and the payoff for committing to Tinker was limited to Bolas’ Citadel, as the vast majority of alternative options were unimpactful.
This also occurred in a period where several archetypes were quite dominant and had relative strangleholds on the format. Many versions of Highlander in the times since have seen one or two dominant decks and a large group of tier 1.5 decks, none of which ever included Tinker.
While many decks have propagated since then, and the format has evolved a lot, certain factors created a need to reopen the discussion. Modern Horizons 3 was printed and introduced a lot of powerful Colourless cards, and recently Tezzeret, Cruel Captain entered the format in Edge of Eternities adding power to natural friends of Tinker such as Mana Vault and Grim Monolith.
Storm has also had a resurgence and we would like the choice to be “Tinker Storm” rather than straight Lotus/Will/Tendrils to be a more costly/deliberate one.
How common Tinker decks are may also be causing undue pressure on other decks to be Blue or Black in order to access the permission/hand disruption needed to interact with the threat Tinker poses. We hope that these decks being a bit less common/powerful opens up some deck design space.
It is possible that Tinker’s moment of obscurity as a 2 point card was also due to players simply forgetting it’s power and that its time as a 1 point card may have served as a reminder which will encourage some pilots to continue making use of it at 2.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer (+1 to 2)

Ragavan was depointed not long ago (April of this year), in an effort to help aggressive Red decks that had struggled to survive after Modern Horizon 3’s release and the pointing of several RWx pointings. Reviewing the wealth of options available to players looking for cheap threats, we ended up pointing most of them, including Nethergoyf and Tamiyo, to encourage deckbuilding tension.

While Ragavan has not been dramatically overperforming, it is showing up a lot, and the loss of Misstep as a clean answer each deck had access to may have weighted things in favour of the Monkey. It could also be that Grixis and Jund being dominate decks is simply creating an environment where Ragavan is naturally powerful.

Ultimately Ragavan saw very little play at 2, and may fall into a space where it’s very strong at 1, and mostly absent at 2. We have also put two points on Grixis in this update and feel that is sufficient at this time. We are also keeping an eye on the other 1 drop threats at the moment, as well as the methods and cards players use to compensate.