Pioneer Tier List: Post-Players Tour Edition

Anthony LowryPioneer

This past weekend was yet another showcase for Pioneer, and it did not disappoint. With the Players Tour and Grand Prix happening in Phoenix, as well as the SCG Team Open and Classic in Philadelphia, there was no shortage of the Pioneer metagame on display. Some of the big questions going into the weekend involved Inverter and Underworld Breach decks. …

Humans in Pioneer

Felix SlooPioneer

At Players Tour Nagoya, I played Five-Color Humans. This probably wouldn’t seem odd if you assumed I was playing Modern, but no — I played Five-Color Humans in Pioneer. So, why did I register a Modern deck that was missing half its cards in a Pioneer tournament? At the start of my testing, I didn’t know what was good. I …

Escape in Theros Beyond Death Limited

Tom AndersonLimited

Hello, Magic players! We find ourselves a few weeks deep into Theros Beyond Death, and players have a lot of positive things to say about the set’s Limited environment. I’m one of those upbeat voices — Draft in particular has been great fun for me, both on MTGA and in paper. I also think that a HUGE part of that …

Pioneer Inverter Deck Guide

Michael RappPioneer

Editor’s Note: Inverter of Truth has been banned in Pioneer effective August 3, 2020. Last weekend, we saw the first round of Regional Players Tour events in Brussels and Nagoya. Dimir Inverter was the deck to beat in both events, and things didn’t go spectacularly well for those attempting to do so — Inverter took six of the sixteen potential …

Spirits in Pioneer

Hallie SantoPioneer

Dimir Inverter has been the talk of the Pioneer community this past week. It was the breakout deck of last weekend’s Players Tour events, earning Piotr Glogowski a second-place finish in Brussels and putting five players into the Top 8 in Nagoya. But Inverter’s dominance all but overshadowed another deck that put up results on both continents: Spirits, the deck …

Mono-Green Pioneer Deck Guide

Anthony LowryPioneer

When most players hear about a Stompy deck, they think ridiculously large threats. They think large power coming into the red zone against the rest of the format’s puny creatures. Stompy decks aren’t trying to play some attrition game or work their way around creature combat. They’re trying to run you over and laugh in post-combat’s wake…assuming there even is …

“Hurricane Harold”: Brewing with Storm Herald

Tom AndersonStandard

“This is the story of the Hurricane… and it won’t be over ‘til he wins a game…” Magic is an amazing creative outlet, which is a big part of how the game has found success over the past few decades. Casual players love formats like Commander for the freedom it grants to play whatever cards or archetypes they can think …

Brewing for Brawl: Calix Enchantress

Alex KatzBrawl

Theros Beyond Death introduces a new Therosian Planeswalker to Magic Story: Calix, Destiny’s Hand. Calix was created by Klothys, the god of destiny, to bring Elspeth back to the Underworld and restore order to Theros. As Klothys’ champion, Calix has a close relationship to the enchantment-based magic that keeps Theros running. His loyalty abilities reflect that, presenting an interesting deck-building …

5-Color Niv-Mizzet in Pioneer

Michael RappPioneer

Five-Color Niv-Mizzet is both one of the hottest decks in Pioneer and my personal favorite deck in the format. This deck can interact with your opponent with a wide array of disruptive spells until you can resolve a creature that generates value, such as Niv-Mizzet Reborn. The key is to get ahead on resources and then use those resources to …

Unsanctioned

Card KingdomProducts

What do you call the wackiest Magic format you can play at your kitchen table? Unsanctioned, of course! What is Unsanctioned? Unsanctioned is a new box set for Magic: The Gathering, but it’s a bit different from what you might expect. It features silver-bordered Magic cards not legal in regular tournament play, and which bend and challenge the rules of …