The Brothers’ War previews have just begun, and in that time Pioneer has produced some really great innovations. However almost all come from a singular archetype: Beatdown, otherwise known as Aggro. While normally not thought of very highly by most players, the goal of Magic is to make your opponent dead, and these decks do that in spades. Aggro has …
Magic Banned and Restricted assessment: October 2022
Wizards of the Coast updated the Banned and Restricted list on Monday, which naturally led to the kind of discussion that always comes up when this happens — whether the update hit everything players wanted. Naturally, some players ended up happy while others wondered if this approach was enough. Many players expected bans across Pioneer and Legacy, too, with additional …
Mono Green Devotion Guide for Pioneer
Pioneer has given players a lot to talk about since the first Regional Championship will ask that players compete using the format. Yet in the months since that announcement, as players searched for something that could bring them the coveted victory, one deck has stayed on top of the metagame: Mono Green Devotion. Since this summer, the deck has been …
Dominaria United: Five updated decks for Pioneer
To commemorate Dominaria United releasing next week in paper and this week on Magic Online, we are going over five decks featuring new cards for the Pioneer format. These archetypes range from familiar faces to possible new contenders, so they should prepare players for the new challenges ahead of them. Jeskai Ascendancy Jeskai Ascendency is one of the cards people …
Five cards to watch from Dominaria United
Preview season for the fall set is in full swing, and the player base is rejoicing as new, exciting Dominaria United cards are revealed. Today we’re going over some of the ones to keep your eye on with the set coming out in just a few short weeks. Founding the Third Path This saga is a card with interesting ramifications. …
Combo in Pioneer: August 2022
Combos are an often inescapable part of older formats, even though they have been largely stamped out in the Pioneer format. Inverter of Truth, Underworld Breach and many more cards ended up banned by Wizards of the Coast to help keep the format in line with their vision. However, despite the company’s best effort to keep combo decks down, they …
Explorer Anthology 1 Closes the Gap to Pioneer
When Magic: The Gathering Arena launched Explorer, its stated purpose was to ease players into Pioneer by aligning the formats over time. A key part of this process are anthologies — a specifically curated collection of cards injected right into Arena, available for purchase as a whole. And now, three months after Explorer’s release, Explorer Anthology 1 is here. But …
Pioneer Tier List: August 2022
It has been just more than a month since our last tier list for Pioneer. A lot has changed in that time, back when people scoffed at Arclight remaining a top deck after Expressive Iteration’s ban and when mono-green was a force in the format that few could answer. Multiple new decks and innovations on old decks have developed, and …
A Winner’s MTG Mentality: Preparing for Tournaments
As the Regional Championship Qualifier season gets into full swing, many people will be playing in more competitive MTG tournaments than they have in a long time. As players return to paper Magic, it is important that they come back with the right mentality. Like anything else in life that involves competition, if you want to win, you’ll need to …
Expressive Iteration’s domination of Magic formats
Expressive Iteration is in every top deck in every format it’s legal in. If you go and check the data, Standard, Modern and Legacy are all run by the best card draw spell printed since Treasure Cruise. Pioneer, a format where Treasure Cruise is legal, recently banned Expressive Iteration. So, how is this little uncommon that didn’t even get noticed …