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Mono-Black is one of Pioneer’s oldest archetypes, and has continued to be a mainstay. It’s an aggressive strategy that utilizes cheap, resilient creatures like Bloodsoaked Champion and Dread Wanderer to get the ball rolling, while using the most powerful interaction spells in the format in Thoughtseize and Fatal Push to drive your threats home. Just in case your smaller creatures …

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. …

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 …

A sideboard to your deck. A paintbrush to your canvas. A hammer to your smithing. …That’s all I got. Sideboarding is important because your maindeck can’t cover everything. Sometimes you need some fine-tuning to cover weak points against a match-up, a particular card, or even a player! Sideboard cards can vary from high impact but narrow answers — such as …

And just like that, the landscape of Pioneer has changed. Felidar Guardian, Leyline of Abundance, and Oath of Nissa are banned. According to WotC, Copycat and Green Devotion decks were the winningest decks since the format’s inception; cards from these decks needed to be banned to ensure Pioneer’s health. What’s interesting about these bans is that they sidestep cards that …

When the Pioneer format was announced last week, I was initially reserved. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as it was so sudden. Plus, I was already so neck deep in Modern and Standard, that I wasn’t sure if I could put time into another format. But after about twelve hours, I fell in love with Pioneer. All of the …