Point Updates
Update for 1st august 2025
(as announced by Thomas Ribet on Facebook)
New Points Assignments:
- Control Magic 3pts (+1)
- Old Man of the Sea 1pt (+1)
- Guardian Beast 1pt (+1)
- Drain Life 1pt (+1)
- Pestilence 1pt (+1)
- Earthquake 2pts (+1)
- Falling Star 2pts (+1)
Cards Removed or Reduced in Points:
- Sylvan Library 0pts (-1)
- Mishra's Workshop 0pts (-1)
- Timetwister 0pts (-1)
- Wheel of Fortune 0pts (-1)
- Sol Ring 2pts (-1)
- Demonic Tutor 2pts (-1)
- Balance 1pt (-1)
- Black Vise 1pt (-1)
With 15 changes in total, this update represents the most dramatic shift we’ve ever proposed. Four new cards enter the list, four are removed, and the overall points total decreases by 1 (a net of -8 points and +7 points added). Notably, this is the first update since the creation of 7pts in April 2020 that the total point count has decreased (FYI: the original list introduced 63 points - 29 cards; we now sit at 73 points - 42 cards).
This update is designed to really shake up the format and refresh the metagame. After listening to extensive community feedback, it became clear that the format was "solved," with little evolution over the past 2-3 seasons. Our previous “one-step-at-a-time” approach was no longer sufficient to sustain player full interest through another season of 7pts.
Here’s a detailed breakdown and rationale:
Previously at 2 points, Control Magic has been the most played blue card, especially since many players dropped Mana Drain after last year’s increase. Appearing in 71% of blue decks and representing a significant part of the meta (30%), it’s always fantastic whether you are ahead or behind. So recognizing its power, we unanimously decided to increase it to 3 points.
Demonic Tutor was primarily played in MonoBlack and BR Midrange decks. While lowering it to 2 points might seem counterintuitive given the prevalence of these two decks, the goal is to promote archetypes like UB and BW, which were underrepresented previously. In addition, we hope this encourages innovation and that it will open the door for prison and combo strategies to infiltrate the Top8.
In response to Demonic Tutor reduction to 2 points, Guardian Beast enters the list. The Beast/Chaos Orb combo is one of the most played, straightforward and brutal combos in the format. In addition, the creature itself is solid and easily splashable with only a single black mana which is problematic. Guardian Beast is already a staple in Tier One decks like MonoBlack and BR, so increasing its points feels appropriate. Just blame Demonic Tutor for that!
Alongside Guardian Beast, Old Man of the Sea enters the list. With a meta dominated by midrange decks, Old Man is a go-to-staple for all Blue decks. Costing only 3 mana, with a big butt [high toughness, difficult to kill], and high impact post-summoning sickness, Old Man does everything against weenie & versus all Midrange decks (hehe looking at you Preacher, Royal Assassin, Time Elemental, Orcish Artillery…). Its inclusion to the list signals a desire to enhance aggro decks and diversify blue decks options.
Drain Life and Pestilence are added for similar reasons: MonoBlack is a dominant and solved archetype. MonoBlack is the only deck to have access to four 0pt Xspells: Drain Life, Pestilence, Rocket Launcher/Beast combo and Howl from Beyond (underplayed if you want my personal opinion). Considering that all other Xspell are pointed (except Hurricane, for now…), we think this update should take a few % off MonoBlack. Of the two, Pestilence is the most interesting card to build around, it’s highly versatile and can fit in a variety of decks. However, after a very close vote, both are included to increase deck-building complexity.
Over 53% of decks splash Red and considering the over-representation of BR and UR decks, Earthquake and Falling Star are increased to 2 points aiming to nerf these heavily played archetypes and aiming to push aggro decks. Conversely, Pyrotechnics remains at 1 point due to its “more-late-game” nature. Though there was consideration to add Lightning Bolt to the list to diversify burn choices, we preferred to hold off for now. Red will still be played a lot and heavily splashed, we will never change that and this is not about eliminating Red either. We are aiming for more diversity and meaningful deck-building choices.
Mishra’s Workshop is now 0 point reflecting its minimal usage (only 2% of decks). Workshop has real limitations as it can’t be used to activate any key artifacts abilities such as Icy, Tomes, … We believe removing it from the list will foster creative exploration with aggro or MidRange builds based on a suite of Artifact creatures and we would love to see such decks in the format. Last, we think it is safer to reduce Workshop than Mana Vault as Mana Vault + Red or Blue Elementals/Flyers turn 2 or 3 felt a little risky. In addition, Mana Vault is much more versatile the longer the game goes.
Sol Ring is now 2pts. Same as Workshop, Sol Ring has appeared in only 2% of decks. It always felt very risky to enable powering out big spells turn after turn, however we also think that one of the core tenets in competitive 7pts deckbuilding is to assemble a balanced Coloured Mana Base. At 2pts, Sol Ring is now competing with the Moxen and we believe that most players may still favor coloured Jewels in standard aggro builds over Sol Ring. Saying that we are also hoping that new decks will emerge using the shear power of Sol Ring + Workshop. This may even reignite interest in utility cards like Shatterstorm, Gate to Phyrexia, Energy Flux or Steal Artifact!
Both Draw7s (Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune) are now 0 points! This is a bold and exciting move. Drawing cards is awesome, it’s symmetrical, random and fun. The format needs more draw engines and the format needs more answers to discard. New decks will try to abuse it. New decks will try to fetch key combo or prison pieces. Both Draw7s were not in the very first Points List created 5 years ago and they were quickly added after the very first update. These were much different times, predating WinCons appearing on the points list. With Draw7s back at 0 points, we are very excited to see all the innovative new brews the community has in store.
Sylvan Library is now 0 points. This is another bold choice, as Sylvan is frequently seen in aggressive decks (in RG weenie, BG Ostman fat dudes, or GU weenie strategies - recent Top8 finishers in the World Champs). We’re comfortable encouraging the weenie archetype a bit more. More importantly, with Sylvan at 0 points, we aim to promote new archetypes like mono-green artifact decks, Rubinia decks, and GW Geddon decks. The format needs greater variety, and pushing Green is one effective way to achieve that. Lastly, it’s also often said that not everyone plays Sylvan optimally, so let’s challenge that notion!
Black Vise is now 1 point. Previously, it appeared in only about 3% of decks, but we believe it’s a valuable tool in a midrange metagame. Yes Black Vise can be devastating turn 1, though late game it tends to have little to no impact at all. With both Draw7 spell now at 0 points, Black Vise will certainly see more play, but we expect the meta to adapt (potentially with increased use of Ivory Tower and artifact mass-removal cards).
Balance is now 1 point. Balance was raised two years ago as part of a broader effort to weaken midrange blue strategies. While Blue-White control decks continue to perform reasonably well and don’t lose much with this update (adding +1 for Control Magic, +1 for Old Man, and reducing Balance by one), we believe that further pushing other archetypes like GW Geddon and WR Midrange will better diversify the format and should automatically reduce the dominance of the Mono Black & BR decks.
To conclude, by promoting enablers (Draw7s, Tutors, and Fast Mana) while placing greater restrictions on powerful win conditions, this update aims to shake up the metagame by opening the door for new deck options and introducing more diversity and uncertainty into already established archetypes.
Thank you all for the ongoing feedback and for helping keep 7pts fresh and exciting. Happy brewing!
PS: other cards considered and discussed:
- Armageddon
- Moxen (especially Pearl and Emerald)
- Ashes to Ashes
- Hurricane
- Land Tax
- The Abyss
- Lightning Bolt
- Mana Vault
Update for 1st august 2024
(as announced by Thomas Ribet on Facebook)
- Armageddon 2pts (-1)
- Sol Ring 3pts (-1)
- Black Lotus 2pts (-1)
- Amnesia 1pt (+1)
- Falling Star 1pt (+1)
- Mana Drain 2pts (+1)
After last year’s increase to 3pts, Armageddon is now back to 2pts (-1). Armageddon can be perceived as an unfun and non-interactive strategy but we felt that the metagame with no Armageddon (only 1% of the field) only exacerbated the rise of Mid-Range decks and a loss of diversity in the Aggro builds and strategies in general. With that one-off threat back into the format we are hoping that White Weenies and its other variants (ErhnamGeddon, Pink Weeny…) may take more space and provide a natural predator to RG weenie which has been very successful and popular this past season.
Sol Ring and Black Lotus still see no play, we want them to be more viable in the format and so we are reducing both of them by 1pt. The Moxen are all 2pts already meaning that the competition is already very tight in that slot. Similar to Dark Ritual, we feel that Black Lotus makes total sense as a 2pts one-off speed burst available to all colours. An early Sol Ring can be more problematic, but with tougher point choices to make, we think it will only result in new builds (Shop decks) or forgotten strategies (mono-green) trying to abuse it. Saying that, in a Singleton format, we are comfortable that the randomness of having such limited coin-flippy-raw-speed-burst in your opening hand will not be problematic as a main strategy. Yes it may work occasionally but decks abusing these will most certainly require a solid main plan in order to be viable in the long run.
Blue is still one of the most played and most powerful colour. Providing some of the strongest spells, countermagic and some of the very best creatures, we acknowledge that it will never disappear from the format. By increasing Mana Drain to 2pts (+1), we are first hoping to blur the consensus regarding the optimum split in blue pointed cards. We think that players will have to really decide which main strategic play style and role they’re choosing when building a blue deck and that it will lead to more diversity amongst these blue decks. Secondly, similar to Control Magic (when it was 0 or 1 point), Mana Drain has become one of the main strategies of the mid-range decks during the past season. We don’t think it was healthy, skillful or fun anymore to simply have games decided by Draining into Mahamoti, Shivan or Amnesia.
For similar reasons, Amnesia is now on the points list because the mid-range matches were becoming less and less skill intensive when nearly everybody was running this “0pt Mind Twist”. Granted, Amnesia also suffers from Mana Drain going up to 2pts but we want players to think harder about which main role they want to endorse when deck-building.
Last, Falling Star joins the list at 1 point. Red is still the most heavily splashed colour and it’s a natural evolution from last time updates where multiple red staples entered the list. Falling Star sees play in all archetypes from Aggro to Prison and we want players to continue making tough deck-building choices and strategic decisions. We have no doubt people will get more creative and that red will never disappear from the format.
To finish, you will find below the agenda for this coming season:
- 1st August 2024: the new Points List is effective (and it must be used for the Summer League)
- September 2024 to July 2025: Expect about 6 online tournaments (all info on the 7pts Facebook group) with the first one most probably being organized by the NEOS in September
- September 28th-29th: Lyon’s Trophy OldSchool (rego here)
- November 2024: French National Cup in Paris with 7pts on the Sunday (exact date tbc)
- April 2025: Pinard’s Cup Oldschool in Bordeaux (exact date tbc)
- July 2025: 7pts World Champs in Madrid (exact date tbc)
- August 2025: Next Points List update (unless an emergency fix is required prior to that)
- For all tourneys this season, Milk & David McKiven created an awesome custom Ice Storm proxy as the main prize (Champ or Raffle). We will reveal the final design soon!
Happy summer holidays and good deck-building for this new season!
Discussions
Comments on facebook here.
Update for 1st august 2023
(as announced by Thomas Ribet on Facebook)
- Armageddon 3pts (+1)
- Disintegrate 3pts (+1)
- Balance 2pts (+1)
- Control Magic 2pts (+1)
- Earthquake 1pt (+1)
- Icy Manipulator 1pt (+1)
- Pyrotechnics 1pt (+1)
- Steal Artifact 1pt (+1)
- Mox Emerald 2pts (-1)
- Mox Pearl 2pts (-1)
- Mox Jet 2pts (-1)
- Channel 0pt (-1)
- City in a Bottle 0pt (-1)
This is by far the biggest points list change we’ve ever done in 7pts. Since the beginning of 7pts 3 years ago, our primary concern has been to maintain an easy entry level by not overwhelming newcomers with a long & complicated list of cards and many points or changes to remember. However, after some lengthy discussions with the players over the past few weeks, it has become clear that the 7pts community has now reached the level of maturity, commitment and expertise that enables us to push further the deck building decisions and metagaming strategies. For these reasons, the making up of this new list differs a little from our previous “one step at a time” approach and it also reflects that 7pts is a Live format that can be reshaped endlessly every season.
Red is still widely played & over-splashed because burn spells enable decks to swiftly change roles from defense/removal to offense/wincon. Red has been showing in 56% of the decks in our regular online tournaments and 88% of Top8 decks at the World Champs in Madrid (78% in the top23 decks and down to 48% in the bottom23 decks). For this reason, we not only decided to ramp up Disintegrate to 3pts (to the same level as Fireball) but we also decided to nearly double the number of red cards on the list by adding Earthquake and Pyrotechnics. Both cards are some of the best examples of Red versatility with peak CMC (Converted Mana Cost). Supported by some of the best creatures, we do not think that Red will disappear from the environment but we hope that these changes will create more diversity and bring new cards to the table.
All Moxen are now 2pts. The previous list with a mix of Moxen at 3pts & 2pts was never simple nor elegant. It was a little conservative because we did not think that Mono-Coloured decks needed any boost and also we did not want the format to only become a speed race. With now 40 cards on the list and more tough choices to make, we think that the format is now ready for building with Moxen or being prepared to play against them.
Armageddon is now 3pts (+1). Armageddon on its own is too often a game-win in an unfun non-interactive way. Also, in a format where the majority of the decks start operating from 4 lands, the “keep some lands in hand” strategy is not a reasonable solution to prevent the damages from a mid-game Armageddon. With Mox Pearl (read: White Weeny) and Mox Emerald (Read: Ramp, Birds, Elves…) going down, it seems logical to balance this with Armageddon going up.
Icy Manipulator. The Maze of Ith of the “Artifact gang” (ie: Tomes, Scepter, Fellwar, Aeolipile, Disk, Coffin…). We feel that the deck building, game dynamics and strategy can only improve from having less auto-include cards such as Icy. Similar to Maze of Ith, we targeted Icy because it is a card that offers a lot of options both in defense/offense, that only gets better the longer the game goes and that is present in nearly every deck. We feel this points update as a whole may be difficult for Control decks therefore we decided to not impact the artifact draw engines this time.
+1 on Balance, Control Magic, Steal Artifact. Thinking ahead and trying to predict the future environment, we anticipated that mid-range blue decks would still be a very potent competitor in the format. The power of these cards need no real explanation, same as Icy we feel that the overall experience can only improve from having less auto-include cards. The main driver for these changes is to create games and mirror matches that are less mechanical and less predictable. Adding more layers of mind-games and metagaming can only create a more dynamic and more exciting environment.
City in a Bottle 0pt. First, City in a Bottle is hugely different from Karakas because Karakas at 0pt would be a straight auto-include in every deck playing some amount of white. City in a Bottle saw less than 1% play. We feel that the decks who may want to run it will have to make some tough deck building choices and consequently probably play with fewer Arabian cards. Then, with most of the targets being absolute staples of 7pts, we feel that adding a new kind of removal is a good thing for the format. Bye-Bye: Drop of Honey, Army of Allah, Jihad, Cuombajj Witches, Juzam Djinn, Guardian Beast, Ifh-Biff Efreet, Erhnam Djinn, City of Brass, Desert, WakWak, Diamond Valley, Old Man, Kird Ape, Oubliette… With City in a Bottle potentially being a dead-draw in many situations, we feel it is a safe high risk/high reward removal that we are happy to see play again.
Channel 0pt. Seeing less than 1% play, Channel disappeared completely from the format as a direct consequence of Fireball and Disintegrate having gone up over the past few updates. The high risk/high reward aspect of the cards brings some level of randomness to the format and we think it deserves to see some play - the way it probably was initially intended for, such as: Turn2 play a bunch of fatties and cross my fingers. We know that the players are good sport when facing such epic random plays and, more importantly, we know that the format has the tools to handle such craziness.
To finish, you will find below the agenda for this coming season:
- 1st August 2023: the new Points List is effective (and it must be used for the Summer League)
- September 2023 to July 2024: Expect about 6 online tournaments (all info on the 7pts Facebook group)
- November 2023: French National Cup in Paris with 7pts on the Sunday (exact date to be confirmed)
- July 2024: 7pts World Champs in Madrid (exact date to be confirmed)
- August 2024: Next Points List update (unless an emergency fix is required prior to that)
Happy summer holidays and good deck-building for this new season!
Discussions
Comments on facebook here.
Update 1st august 2022
(as announced by Thomas Ribet on Facebook)
- Fireball 3pts (+1)
- The Abyss 2pts (+1)
- Hymn to Tourach 1pt (+1)
- Triskelion 1pt (+1)
- Library of Alexandria 3pts (-1)
- Mox Sapphire 2pts (-1)
- Mox Ruby 2pts (-1)
- Mishra's Workshop 1pt (-1)
Fireball and Disintegrate are still in the Top3 most played cards (after Maze of Ith). Red in general is still widely played & over-splashed because burns spells enable decks to swiftly change roles from defence/removal to offence/wincon. Disintegrate offers 2 quite unique abilities in 7pts (can’t regen & exile) and so we feel it’s the most interesting card of the two. For these reasons, we decided to ramp up the red X-spells again one step at a time and Fireball is now 3pts.
Hymn to Tourach was previously on the Points List and it was removed in November 2020. The reason for removing it back then was that X-spells were absolutely crushing the format (Braingeyser was only 1pt, Fireball & Disintegrate 0pt!) and we realised that Discard was a good tool to disrupt these late game back-breaking X-spells. Since then, the X-spells have been going up in points (Fireball is going up again this time!) and in parallel Black decks have become more & more popular and very powerful. Black is now showing in 50% of the decks, Mono Black is straightforward to build and we think that Hymn to Tourach back to 1pt will create more tension when deck-building and also it should bring down Black decks/splash below 50% of the metagame. Note: Mind Twist at 3pts is clearly on the watch-list but we decided to go one step at a time. Also, we think that Mind Twist and Black in general still has an important role to play in and against Control decks.
The Abyss (along with Moat) has seen less play over the past year. However, The Abyss is still showing in about 10% of the decks and 5-colours Control decks "Vogt" style have been repeatedly making Top16 and winning online Tourneys. Yes playing The Abyss in 7pts means making very radical deck building choices (like playing near creature-less) and yes we want prison & heavy control decks to be part of 7pts. However, we also acknowledge that The Abyss can be very frustrating and very unfun in a format where enchantment removals are very scarce and not available for all colours. Last, with Mishra’s Workshop going down we feel it is balancing out with The Abyss going up.
At 2pts, Mishra’s Workshop sees some casual play in only 5% of decks. As a 1-off and in a format where most very good artifacts require activation costs (Icy, Tomes, Coffin, Skull of Orm…) we want to try it out at 1pt. This may open some room for some new Shop/artifact heavy decks both in Control & in aggro which could be an interesting addition to the format. Artifacts can be super efficient but they are also weak and we think the format will adjust to that without too much struggle (see Champion’s deck in Madrid playing cards like Shatterstorm…).
Triskelion is the best creature in the format and it is played in nearly every deck (except maybe in White Weenie). It can kill itself so it is auto-immune to exile, stealing & copying. It is an efficient removal, a key combo engine, a colourless Wincon, there are many ways to recurse him back forever (Archaeologist, Reconstruction, Animate Dead/Skull…). The card is so good that in some Prison/Control decks it is the only Wincon and not too long ago, regardless of the power-creep, it was still a key staple even in Vintage.
In terms of deck-building, Triskelion at 1pt is functionally similar to Maze of Ith at 1pt: about 50% of the decks will probably still play it but deck building will be even more tense and the format more diverse as a result. With the exception of Shop decks (because Workshop is going down to 1pt), everybody will have to make some very meaningful choices and that’s the reason why we are confident that this is a great change for the format.
Library of Alexandria sees absolutely 0 play at 4pts and, we admit that this was somewhat a virtual ban. We are not big fans of dice-roll cards: “Oh it’s in my opening hand so I guess I win” but we acknowledge that such plays & situations are also a part of Oldschool Magic. At the same time, it is very possible that in 7pts, Library turn1 may not be a definite win either. The format has less redundancy than normal Oldschool, it has more room for poor or inefficient draws and without all the Moxen it is possible that Library in the first 4 turns often leads to some discard. Anyways, we think that some amount of Library can only widen up the overall experience of the format. Time to dust off your Candelabra of Tawnos & your Ley Druid!
Moxen have been an ongoing debate in 7pts since forever. The vibe of the format is what it is mainly because it is slower than normal Oldschool. In 7pts, decks have time to develop & to plan for the long term. Most decks rely heavily on less efficient high mana cost cards or more situational spells like we used to play back in the days and we really like this, we don't want the format to only become a speed race. Also, due to the nature of the format and the 1-off constraints on Duals & Cities, multicolour decks require more time to develop and to stabilise their mana base and so, as a consequence, Mono-Coloured decks have been consistently performing very well. For a long time, it was clear that reducing Moxen would only exacerbate this and favour even more the Mono-Coloured decks. Looking at the numbers more closely, both Mox Sapphire & Mox Ruby saw 0 play at all due to the high competition in these two colours. With Fireball going +1pt again, we feel it’s the correct time to open up the format and the deckbuilding to some more Moxen. Loyal to our “one-step-at-a-time” approach, we decided to consider the Moxen’s power individually rather than as a group. With 3 Moxen still at 3pts and Sapphire/Ruby now at 2pts, the list is not as simple and elegant as before. It is a little more complicated to remember, but we are confident that everybody here is passionate enough to understand the reasons and to remember why not all Moxen are pointed the same. To conclude, Moxen are now virtually at 2.5pts average which is probably the correct number. Some decks will now be able to play 3 Moxen which is a new meaningful strategic direction. Moxen are not anecdotal anymore and we believe it will broaden up the variety of builds and of course, we know that the debate is not over. ;)
Good deck-building & happy summer holidays!
Discussions
Earlier Updates:
The format was created in April 2020 and in the beginning there was more frequent updates until July 2021 in which the points stayed the same for a full year. The points should from now on probably only be updated once a year after the World Championship each summer.
See this Google Sheet for all point updates over time since the beginning.