Canadian Highlander shares a lot of aspects with a lot of formats; its 100 card singleton nature with Commander, its card pool with Vintage, and decks and archetypes from all across Magic’s formats. The format does, however, have 1 defining feature, a feature that sets it apart, and in my opinion above, any other format, the points list.
The points list is Canlander’s answer to a banlist, but rather than restricting what people play it instead limits the power level of decks, while allowing every card to see play. In Modern for example, when Birthing Pod decks became too powerful, they banned Pod, meaning people had to find a completely different deck to play. In Canlander if a Pod strategy becomes too good, the points values of certain cards can change to stop that, but people can still play a Pod deck. I use this example because that’s exactly what happened last year! A Pod deck taking advantage of an infinite turns combo was proving too strong and so the points values of cards were changed. Time Walk went from 6 to 7 points, and Spellseeker from 1 to 2 points. Now you can’t play Walk, Seeker, AND Pod in the same deck, but you can still play all those cards in the format.
The points list is an ever-changing balancing act for the format but it does an incredible job at keeping the format fresh whilst not stopping people from playing the cards they love, so let's take a deeper dive into the points list, look at the most common reasons a card becomes worth pointing and how best to use our points!
Turns Out, Ramp Is Good?
As anyone who’s played commander will know, ramp is a very powerful tool that can absolutely warp games when seen at the right time (read, early). Due to ramp often being an effective way to get ahead of your opponents quickly a lot of the more powerful ramp finds its way onto the points list. The biggest examples of pointed ramp are the 5 Moxen, Sol Ring, and Mana Crypt, though there are others.
One of the most powerful things you can do in Magic is ‘cheat’ on mana costs, the game allows you to play 1 land on each of your turns and as such you’re expected to play a 4 drop on turn 4. There are plenty of cards in Magic that can set you a turn or so ahead: mana dorks, ramp spells, and mana rocks, but the best of the best can completely warp the game, as well as the format, around them. Every pointed mana rock in the format gives more mana than it costs, this means that not only do they get you ahead on mana in future turns, but also ahead the turn they are played.
The amount of mana that a card gives you is often correlated with the number of points that it has. As a comparison, the Moxen cost 3 points, while Sol Ring costs 4. Both cards accelerate you ahead 1 mana the turn they’re played, but in future turns Ring gives you 2 additional mana rather than 1 like the Moxen do. How consistently they give you that mana is also a factor; Mana Vault may accelerate you more than a Moxen or Ring do, but it doesn’t regularly untap and so sits at a measly 1 point, purely due to the fact that fewer decks want a one-off burst of mana over a consistent source.
The 1 card that doesn’t fit the idea of consistent mana being more point-worthy than single bursts is a little-known card by the name of Black Lotus. Lotus is by far the most powerful single burst of mana in Magic, but it also costs a whopping 7 points. Were Black Lotus solely a ramp card 7 points would be unreasonable, however, an important thing to understand about cards on the points list is that they aren’t in a vacuum. It’s not uncommon for cards to be pointed to some degree because of how they interact with other cards, Lotus being the prime example. Lotus on its own is already very good, but when you combine it with cards like Demonic Tutor, in a Storm deck, that combination of cards becomes unreasonably strong, and so points have to be allocated to stop that from happening.
What They Don’t Teach You In School
Speaking of Demonic Tutor, let's talk about another big chunk of the points list, Tutors. Tutors have always been strong in Magic, and in a singleton format they arguably become even more powerful, acting almost like second copies of a card. It’s a lot easier to find 1 card in 50 than it is 1 in 100. Tutors fall into a similar camp to Black Lotus, sure they can be used ‘fairly’, finding a land drop or removal spell for an opposing planeswalker, but the vast majority of the time people are using them to find a kill spell for a player, not a planeswalker. While Demonic Tutor does often do a great Sylvan Scrying impression it’s much more likely going to find a Tendrils Of Agony at the end of a Storm Players pop-off turn.
When it comes to why Tutors are pointed it often comes down to 3 factors: when, where, and what. When can you cast it? Where does it put the card? What card(s) can it get? As a point of comparison let's look at 3 similar, but differently pointed tutors; Imperial Seal, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor.
Imperial Seal is a single point, it’s a sorcery and therefore can only be cast on your turn, it finds any card, but it puts it on top of your library. Vampiric Tutor is 2 points, it is an instant so can be cast any time, finds any card, but also puts it on top. Finally, we have the previously mentioned Demonic Tutor. DT is 4 points, is a Sorcery, also finds any card, but puts it directly into your hand! Seal and Vampiric when compared make a pretty obvious example that instant speed spells are much more powerful than sorcery speed spells, the fact you can Vampiric at any time makes it 1 point more, as well as much more playable than Seal. The interesting comparisons come when we bring DT into the discussion. DT is slower than Vampiric, finds all the same cards, but puts it directly into hand, which gets it a whole 2 more points. Canlander is a fast format and sometimes 1 turn can be the difference between winning and losing, so DT putting the card into your hand is a huge difference. DT also has no downsides, Seal and Vampiric, as well as the similarly designed Grim tutor all have life loss attached to them. Often life loss won’t mean much but against the quicker decks in the format that can be the difference between a tutor saving you/winning you the game, and death.
In a 100 card singleton format consistency is an important part of deckbuilding and Tutors are a very powerful and effective way of increasing that consistency. Tutors, perhaps more than any other subset of cards on the points list, help show why the list is so important, helping to not only keep the format from becoming homogenized but also balanced and fun
Halting The Storm
The last big subset of cards we’re covering today is Combo cards. Magi is full of ‘fun’ little interactions and combos, most of which are harmless, but some of which end the game very fast, and often very abruptly, in a casual format like Canadian Highlander these decks are certainly allowed but are certainly not ones that you want to give too much free reign to, lest they dominate the format.
There’s no real trick to why combo cards are pointed the way that they are, all are pointed because of how they interact with other cards but they can interact in many different ways. Some cards like Yawgmoth’s Will and Underworld Breach are banned because of the value they give often leading to either a massive swing turn or outright ending the game. A lot of Tutors often overlap into this section, such as DT being pointed at 4 rather than 3 in large part because of its domination of the format alongside Black Lotus in Storm decks when the 2 could be paired together. Similarly, cards like Flash and Protean Hulk are pointed the way that they are since they are often paired together as well, their pointing of 6 and 3 respectively meaning that you have an extra point to use, but not allowing you to include cards like Spellseeker to make the deck too consistent.
Combo cards are the prime examples of cards being pointed because of their ceiling. Sure you could build a fair Birthing Pod deck where Pod doesn’t feel worthy of its 2 points, but then you look at a full-on combo pod deck and there are chains that exist where Pod with near enough any creature and enough life/mana is an instant win.
The Best Of The Rest
Of course, not all cards in Canlander take up multiple points, a large portion of the list is taken up with a whole host of cards that only cost you a single point. These are the cards that often aren’t the most abusive cards, but are instead cards that it’s not a great idea to allow everyone to free role. The poster child of this in my mind is True-Name Nemesis. TNN is an incredibly obnoxious card in the right matchup, making combat incredibly awkward for any creature-based deck, and outside of dedicated combo decks a creature that would quite happily be played by the vast majority of Blue decks. In control it would allow you to keep the opponent’s creatures at bay, in tempo it’s one of the best threats in Blue. SO, in order to keep it from showing up in the vast majority of Blue decks, it has been allocated a single point.
TNN isn’t the only card like this, Dig Through Time/Treasure Cruise, Library Of Alexandria, Crop Rotation, Mind Twist, and so on are all cards that, were they not pointed, could easily become staples of their colours. The power level of these cards is nothing to scoff at and that combined with an interest in keeping the format diverse and interesting is why these cards often see themselves pointed.
Defining A Format
The points list is a system that very few formats implement, and understandably so as it can lead to some confusion, especially in competitive events. However, I do believe that it serves to give Canlander an identity and a balance that is incredibly unique to the format. It’s a system that allows you to play any cards you want, but also keeps you from going haywire, keeps the format open and fresh, but not overpowered or homogenized. The system isn’t perfect, and with WOTC continually releasing incredibly busted cards (see Oko and Opposition Agent especially) I feel there is very possibly room for some improvement, but keeping on top of a format as big and as complex of Canlander is incredibly difficult, and I think the Council does an incredible job. The format has been going for decades at this point and shows no signs of stopping. While the format may give you 10 points to play with, the most important point is to have fun!
Thanks for reading everyone! So sorry this took so long to come out, I will try my absolute best to get back to the usual 2 week Schedule from here on :) This was my final article in regards to introducing the format to people, from here on we get to talk about the fun stuff, starting with my incredibly on time review of Kaldheim! See you then!
Questions? Comments? Want to talk about the format? I’d love to hear from you! I can be found on Twitter @ForceOfWilko.
