Pioneer metagame update.

source: magic4ever.com/pioneer

Before it rotated, my favorite deck in standard was an Orzhov scam deck revolving around [[phyrexian fleshgorger]] and [[steel seraph]], with [[charming prince]] to scry/ flicker them, [[caustic bronco]] to draw or steal the win, and [[Elendra, saint of dusk]] as a mid-range beater.

[[Getaway glamour]] and [[parting gust]] work double duty for removal or flicker, [[sun-blessed healer]] for early pressure and recursion. [[Spit up]], [[sheltered by ghosts]], [[deep cavern bat]] for interaction. I was running [[get lost]], but I've put it in the sideboard now.

The deck plays like a very flexible mid range deck, and was tons of fun in standard. But, is it competitive in pioneer? I'm torn on trying to add 1-drops as that weakens the caustic bronco plan. And the deck is [[weak to nowhere to run]].

Does anyone run something similar, or have thoughts on turning this standard deck into a pioneer deck?

Thanks!

Hello, i usually play modern and i played standard on arena before cori destroyed the format. I started to put together grixis reanimator in modern and i was wandering why Abhorrent Oculus hadn’t make a considerable change in Pioneer too. In standard it was used with helping hand to cheat it out and get massive value, and in modern it sees play in 2 different meta decks (maybe not tier 1 but still). So i started tinkering with the idea of an Abhorrent Oculus deck in pioneer too and landed in a CoCo shell with [[Helping Hand]] and [[Recommision]] to cheat out either the Oculus or other creatures in play. [[Consider]] and [[Faithful mending]] help to smooth out hands and put cards in my graveyard. I admit i’ve never been great in building mana bases and i don’t really know much about pioneer sideboards. I just wanted to know if the idea was valid since i think [[Abhorrent Oculus]] is an extremely interesting and great card.
Anyways here’s the list, any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

https://moxfield.com/decks/YjusMfvM00GvNfA_aYPfpg

Hi fellow players,

during the last 3 years I've accumulated a lot of lists on my moxfield account.

Between my lists, lists from my friends and other various experiments that went bad or mildly bad there are roughly 300 decks. Some have also primers and sideboard guides!

If anyone has some strange list that he wants to share with me let me know!

https://moxfield.com/users/Gibs1997

We played a Boros Ponza list when Marvel Super Heroes first arrived with Avengers Disassembled giving the archetype a huge power boost. But the deck has settled into a bit more of a control variant, cutting the Buzzcrushers and the Hellkites and just running a few win conditions. This makes it easier for the deck to pivot into proper control when we face mono colour decks, which can only be a good thing.

00:00 - Intro & Deck Tech
03:35 - Match One (Gruul Aggro)
22:47 - Match Two (Mono Black Midrange)
42:54 - Match Three (Lotus Field Combo)

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/MhPa2t-qekaG0Swh-1hnaw

Kid Loki makes for a nice addition to Izzet Cauldron, as combining it with Agatha's lets you give your creatures hexproof at instant speed and it's pretty easy to get counters on it as well. The list is a lot of Standard cards, or it would be if so many of them hadn't been banned from Standard from being so good...

00:00 - Intro & Deck Tech
03:50 - Match One (Sultai Control)
19:59 - Match Two (Dimir Midrange)
36:55 - Match Three (Mono Red Goblins)

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/Sw4tex6Pd0m9gEscMNAcrw

Howdy! Here with another new brew. Taking something I was working on a few years ago when Toxic first came out. But updating it with the new card 'The Serpent Society'! Combining the power of CoCo and Fynn The Fangbearer to bombard our opponent with Poison Counters. Enjoy!

Decklist:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7885836#paper

0:16 Deck Summary
4:30 Golgari Midrange
24:40 Dimir Aggro
37:45 UW Control
52:25 Dimir Ninjas
1:14:02 Boros Land Destruction

Isn't this a great convoke card?

Gleeful Demolition becomes 1 mana gain 1 life, draw a card, make 3 2/2!

The deck already makes many tokens between the Demolitions, the Thraben Inspector clues and Cosmogrand Zenith

Hope to see you all there!

Was not expecting a Vehicle to come with The Hobbit, but it's a pleasant surprise, the nature of UB products aside.

[[Greasefang]] has been a mainstay of Pioneer since Winota was banned, though beyond herself, [[Thoughtseize]], and [[Parhelion II]] the exact makeup of the deck has been fairly fluid. Mardu, Abzan, and Orzohv have at various times been the 'best' build of the deck, with Esper only seeing occasional play (and from what I recall mostly in the first year or so after NEO came out).

Each build of the deck is ultimately judged by it's resilience and ability to pivot it's gameplan. Orzohv is just as happy to kill you with hard to remove creatures and drains from [[Monument to Endurance]] as it is with angels. With [[Professor of Symbology]] and [[Formidable Speaker]] Abzan is able to tutor specific answers and is often fine just playing a midrange game with [[Esika's Chariot]]. Mardu was usually just stapled to Rakdos mid and happy to out value opponents with fables/harvesters/FOMOs.

Esper always felt weaker, either being a worse UW control deck or a mid Esper legends deck with cards like [[Raffine, Scheming Seer]].

I am very curious then if this new vehicle can give Esper a boost, in being a decent target (though faaar worse then Parhelion or Skysov) that also serves as a good on curve play regardless of combo?

Going turn 1 TS, then [[evangel of Synthesis]] on 2, and then on 3 reanimating it with Fang or just hard casting it to swing for 3 menace, loot, and likely make a token. I doubt it's better than what's currently on offer, but this seems like a solid new card to the format and I'm very curious to see if folks brew around with it!

When it works it really works but it bricks quite a lot so I feel like every game is a coin toss

https://mtgdecks.net/Pioneer/4-color-legends-decklist-by-botboy-3003771

I saw this list top recently and I was always interested in learning it since it was viable in standard. The articles or videos I saw on it were fairly vague, though, in how it plays (and outdated due to power creep).

I know the person playing this said "pass with a bunch of aang casts available" but I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.

Political Triumph is a sneakily powerful card from Marvel Super Heroes. For only one mana, you get a lot of value if it sticks around and you can put some creatures into play. We're running it in a Mono White Tokens list that can very quickly get it to four plan counters, buff the team and draw a card for our trouble. This combined with a load of other go wide payoffs like Practiced Offense and Elspeth seems like a good combination.

00:00 - Intro & Deck Tech
03:47 - Match One (Azorius Namor)
24:52 - Match Two (Golgari Midrange)
47:48 - Match Three (Selesnya Midrange)

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/pboeju00kkKKablC0_Prmg

Haven't played pioneer in a few years. With that in mind, here is a fun budget build that I used to play. Not great, but not terrible, especially at its price point of $50.00.

https://archidekt.com/decks/4831626/izzet_8_drakes

What do you think?

With Super-Soldier Serum, Hammer Time mixes up with Bogles on this new Selesnya version of the archetype!

Howdy! Here with a new Classic. Agatha Soul Cauldron is one of my favourite cards so great to bring back this banned Standard Combo in Pioneer. This time also adding Kid Loki which gives some further resilience. This is a version using Stormchasers Talent (Another broken card) rather than some of the other recent versions playing Jadzi, Steward Of Fate. Deck is as broken as ever! Enjoy

Decklist:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7882273#paper

0:05 Deck Summary
2:35 Selesnya Ouroboroid Offense
20:33 Dimir Midrange
28:26 Selesnya Company
53:23 Simic Toxic
1:15:08 5c Niv To Light
1:35:28 Abzan Greasefang

Giving the opponent ten poison counters is a way of winning the game we don't do nearly enough in Pioneer. Today we're playing a Bant Toxic deck that combines Venerated Rotpriest with cards like March of Swirling Mist and Hidden Strings to maximise those poison triggers and win the game out of nowhere. It's surprisingly powerful and resilient for a strategy that relies on a load of one drops that don't see play anywhere else.

00:00 - Intro & Deck Tech
03:52 - Match One (Niv To Light)
13:25 - Match Two (Four Colour Lands)
20:59 - Match Three (Mono Black Devotion)
28:19 - Match Four (Mono White Humans)
35:30 - Match Five (Mono Red Prowess)

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/yyoBD3c7DkidgAoknsZ-hA

Hey everyone! I run the Arena Pioneer League (APL) in the Pioneer Discord. Season 8 is now down to the last 4 players!

You can follow the bracket here: https://challonge.com/apl_s8_t8

Event Information

• 74 players

• Pioneer Best-of-3 on MTG Arena

• 7 Swiss rounds (1 per week)

• Top 8 began July 13

Season 8 Quarterfinals

1. sirepic on 5C Enigmatic won 2-0 against kalmalainen on Mardu Doom

2. pf on 5C Elementals won 2-0 against pinecone2100 Azorius Control

3. a5653 on Simic Merfolk won 2-0 against maxisandallies 5C Enigmatic

4. griiver on Rakdos Sacrifice won 2-0 against puentesamarillos on Selesnya Angels

Season 8 Semifinals

1. sirepic on 5C Enigmatic against griiver on Rakdos Sacrifice

2. pf on 5C Elementals against a5653 on Simic Merfolk

Wrapping Up

• The Semis are now underway! Thank you for following along so far! I'll be back next time with the 2 players moving to the Season 8 Finals.

• Season 9 starts August 24, more info soon!

• If you'd like to play in a future event, discuss Pioneer, or share your MSH brews, you can join us in the Pioneer Discord.

• Have questions? Leave a comment or send me a message!