Pioneer is a relatively new constructed format for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering that was laun꧙ched in October of 2019. Unfortunately, the onset of the COVID pandemic resulted in this format taking off very slowly. At the time of its release, there weren't many alternatives to playing Pioneer in paper, so the format's growth and player base were greatly stunted.

Thankfully, the world has returned to normal life for the most part, and that means more players are picking up Pioneer with each passi🤡ng week. Some have even called it the "new modern". Furthermore, the introduction of the Explorer format to Arena has garnered even more interest 🔯in this burgeoning constructed mode.

Pioneer Basics

Like most other constructed formats, Pioneer consists of one-on-one games where you build a minimum of sixty card decks with the option of including a sideboard of up to fifteen cards. You are limited to a maximum of four copies of a single card to your deck and matches are played out in a best-of-three series.

Arena doesn't have Pioneer ju✃st yet, however it will soon enough. For the time being, Explorer serves as Arena's Pioneer format as older card sets are slowly introduced to the Arena card pool. Once all of the older sets are released🍌 on Arena, Explorer will officially become Pioneer.

What Cards Are Legal?

Pioneer legal cards include all cards released in expansion sets and core sets from Return to Ravnica onward. In other words, all cards printed in primary products since October 2012. Like all constructed formats, Pioneer does have a ban list that prevents the pl🧸ay of certain cards from these sets. Below is a table with all banned cards as of December 4th, 2023.

Why Is Pioneer Different?

This is a fast format where turn-four kills are possible. However, they're rather rare in comparison to a format like Modern. In fact, the best decks in Pioneer are much more midrange-oriented. As a whole, Pioneer features a lot of back-and-forth interaction between players as each of you attempts to leverage small advantages toward a victory🌠.

Pioneer is the closest constructed format to Standard that you'll find (aside from Pauper if a local game store happens to hav🧜e it). Consequently, players only familiar with Standard have no better place to dip their toes in than this format.

While Pioneer is similar to Standard, ther൲e is a notable increase in the power level of many decks. Combo decks in particular (Abzan Amalia, Abzan Greasefang, and Lotus Field) may prove a n🎃uisance at first, but they are indeed beatable with the right sideboarding techniques.

Key Decks In Pioneer

Rakdos Midrange

This is your typical Rakdos Midrange deck that uses hand disruption, removal, and the best creatures in both colors to outmaneuver the opponent. Rakdos Midrange has a chance against any other deck in the format, but playing it well does require the pilot to understand what other decks are trying to do. It's difficult to properly stop the opponent unle🎐ss 🅷you understand their strategy.

Boros Convoke

This is an aggro deck that goes wide really fast using a ton of efficient one-mana creatures like Thraben Inspector. It then uses those creatures to abuse the convoke mechanic with Knight-Errant of Eos and Venerated Loxodon. However, the truly key card here is Imodane's Recruiter which allows you to finish opponent⭕s seeminglyꦗ out of nowhere thanks to its enter-the-battlefield trigger.

Azorius Control

Players who like old-fashioned control strategies circa Standard in the decade of 2010 will greatly enjoy this brew.Azorius Control wants to whittle away all of your opponent's resources using counterspells, planeswalkers, and sweepers before finally taking over the game thanks to draw spells and late-game win conditions like Shark Typhoon.

Mono White Humans

Pioneer is arguably the best-constructed format to play single creature-type or typal decks in at the moment.

This is one of the easier decks to pilot in the format, and its aggressive creatures can quickly end a game against any opponent who stumbles. Adeline, Resplendent Cathar is the all-star of this deck, and hands wh🎶ere you don't draw her will unfortunately feel much weaker than those where you do.

Angels

Another single creature-type deck, Angels makes use of the well-known card Collected Company to cheat some cheeky synergies out early.

Players who dislike losing to aggressive decks need to look no further than Angels as this build contains a lot of incidental life-gain effects. The addition of Kayla's Reconstruction to this decꦦk has ♏given it some much-needed staying power.

Abzan Greasefang

The big bad combo deck of the metagame. This isn't a tru♓e combo deck as enacting its combo doesn't win you the game on the spot, however, it pretty much might as well.

The idea here is to use a connive trigger or Grisly Salvage to place a Parhelion II in your graveyard. Then, you reanimate the vehicle the next turn with Greasefang, Okiba Boss, attack, and create a nearly unbeatable 🔜advantage.

Izzet Phoenix

Chock full of removal, draw spells, and conditional counterspells, Izzet Phoenix wins by repeatedly returning copies of Arclight Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Players who enjoy casting instant and sorcery spells machine gun style will absolutely love this deck. It does have some rather confusing lines of play at times though, so be sure you know what you're signing up f𓂃or.

Gruul Aggro

This is an aggro deck that makes use of early mana ramp, vehicles, and saga enchantments to attack from many different angles.

Esika's Chariot and Smuggler's Copter are the stars of the show in this deck, but Reckless Stormseeker also makes quite a display of just 𒊎how powerful the haste k🌺eyword can be.

Abzan Amalia

The newest combo deck to enter the metagame. Abzan Amalia has quickly proven its power after winning the Pioneer Showcase Qualifier in December. Some fear that it may take over the format. The combo involves having Amalia Benavides Aguirre and Wildgrowth Walker on the battlefield, then triggering an infinite loop by casting another card that explores.

The result: a board wipe that clears the way for a lethal 20-power attack from Amalia. The reason this deck is so feared is that it plays fine as an aggro deck without the combo as well, providing multiple avenues to victory.