Howdy folks! To update, rules team has kept with the modification rule, therefore the Heretic joker can only reduce a player’s hand down to King high (K-Q-J-10-8). As lowering a player’s hand rank raises it to the highest it could possibly be, that is the result, whereas raising a player’s hand rank puts it at the lowest possible rank it could be.
I hope that makes some sense to everyone, but it will be fully clarified in the updated rulebook, which will be up and active by this weekend!
As stated above, per the rule book of course, Hand Rank 11 always ties Hand Rank 11 (Dead Man’s Hand).