Amalia and Sorin Banned in Pioneer: Top Decks Now

Amalia and Sorin Are Now Banned in Pioneer, so What Decks Round Out the Top Tier?

With Amalia and Sorin banned in Pioneer, discover which decks now lead the top tier. Perfect for competitive players adapting to the new meta.

Wizards brought out the hammer this past Monday, and we are absolutely feeling the effects across multiple formats. For today, I would like to go over how the metagame of Pioneer is starting to sort itself out, what we can expect going forward, and maybe even see if we can reach a consensus on what the best deck currently is. Even if you aren't sold on there being a "best" deck yet, it is safe to say that creature-based decks are currently dominating all of the challenges that we are seeing so far from MTGO. From the most recent two challenges that we have available, one to eight metagame saw all of the decks be creature-based, while the other had four of eight decks centered around creatures for their win conditions. Not all of them were aggro - although a good bit of the better performing decks are - but even when they weren't aggro, the decks still used a combination that in some way puts a ton of creatures on the board and swings for a ton of damage. It is evident that decks with twenty or more creatures are currently thriving, and the only thing they really have to worry about right now is board wipes. We are even seeing a new archetype come into play in Selesnya Aggro. I personally think that right now, Izzet Phoenix is the best deck. It is always present in top finishes currently, and it often still performed well before the bans. We will take a look at that deck, and then I will tell you about another one that I think will be cracked wide open pretty soon. No matter what way you slice it, however, creature decks are claiming a large metashare.

Izzet Phoenix

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This list is your standard good Phoenix build. It was played pretty heavily before bans, and it will see even more play now. The play patterns in the deck become a little more straightforward now because we are, at least for now, a little bit more narrowed down in what the best decks are. Phoenix has been around long enough that we know what the good cards are, and what it does. I'll spare you a full breakdown of the deck that you've likely heard plenty of times. Just know that Arclight Phoenix does a lot of work, and cards like Crackling Drake come in from the sideboard to also get in for tons of damage, and the format often doesn't allow it to be easily removed. We can check on a newer addition to the sideboard that we are seeing now, as the deck becomes more prevalent.

Ashiok is phenomenal in the mirror, because it mills spells off the top of the deck and exiles the opponent's graveyard. It is a pretty straightforward shutdown of the deck, as it cuts off Phoenix coming back, and it makes it so that the opponent cannot easily delve for Treasure Cruise. There were plenty of calls for that card to get banned as well, and some would argue that Cruise is a stronger card than Phoenix in the build. Either way, Ashiok shuts down both of them, and can be the mirror breaker that's needed in a Phoenix heavy meta.

What Other Decks are Sneaking Up On Us?

Mono Green

Mono Green was a deck that really started to make a comeback at the end of the Pioneer RCQ Season, and then its metagame share died down shortly after that. Now, since Amalia and Sorin are gone, Mono Green is another creature-based combo deck that is going to make its own waves - and it's already starting to. It didn't manage to make the top eight in either of the most recent challenges after the bans, but there were three separate lists that made the top sixteen in one of the challenges. That event had 93 players, so it is safe to say that the deck had a pretty good win rate in Swiss, and all of them were maybe one win or one draw away from making top eight. I believe that the best Mono Green list hasn't been found yet, and when it is found, we will all be in for a rude awakening. Banning Karn from the deck was fine, but the fact that Nykthos and Kiora are still able to stick around means that the creatures will run wild, and they will swing for 30+ damage out of nowhere when they have the pieces aligned to win the game. I think that Mono Green is something people should watch out for, and something that needs to be respected when making sideboard decisions.

My most immediate solutions for these top two decks that I'm seeing are obviously board wipes. In Waste Not, we run Path of Peril and Extinction Event. There is an argument now for Shadow's Verdict to be relevant, as we also want to be able to exile. Leyline of the Void is another one that is a simple solution, although some of the decks we want to use it for often have easy ways of dealing with enchantments.

Sacrifice Decks

Another deck that is making a comeback is sacrifice. This is showing itself in two different forms. We see the traditional Rakdos Sacrifice, and once again, that deck had a top eight appearance as well. There is a newer list, however, that is Jund, and the reason for that is that it uses Ygra, Eater of All to amass ridiculous amounts of value while they are sacrificing everything. It still also runs Mayhem Devil, so it gets residual value there as well. Some of the new Talent Enchantments from Bloomburrow also greenlight the deck once again. This is another reason that I would like to bring in either Shadow's Verdict, or Leyline of the Void to the sideboard in decks that I play. I believe that exile effects will become increasingly relevant as we move forward. There is even an argument to start bringing in Necromentia to sideboards again, because we are going to know very soon what the most problematic cards are, and the meta is expected to be narrow enough for it to be clear what we need to deal with in all of our matchups.

I hope this metagame update was useful to you, and we will be having one for Modern very soon!

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I am a Magic The Gathering competitive player, and streamer. I specialize in homebrew decks. My favorite formats are: Standard, Pioneer (Explorer on Arena), and EDH. I first started playing MTG in 2001, and have played on and off since then.

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Explore the impact of recent card bans and unbans in MTG Modern. Discover the new metagame shifts and standout decks in this evolving format.

Checking in on MTG Modern After the Recent Bans (and Unbans)

We are almost two weeks out from the recent bans in Modern, and there is now enough data to see if anything has really changed. Banning cards like The One Ring and Amped Raptor was an attempt to level the playing field in a format where it seemed as if it was difficult to win if you didn't play those cards. Both cards were two of the most popularly played nonland cards, and it was getting to the point where player sentiment about the format was increasingly poor. Wizards knew that they had to do something, and they also needed to do something that kept things interesting after banning two powerful cards. To keep things fresh, Wizards also unbanned Splinter Twin, Green Sun's Zenith, Mox Opal, and Faithless Looting. This seems to be somewhat reasonable so far. All of the cards light up different archetypes, and this was a clear effort to breathe life into the format. Now that Wizards has made their intentions clear on what they wanted to see out of the format, it begs the question: Has anything actually changed? Most Popular Cards in the Format Post-Bans Although it is refreshing to not see The One Ring as the most commonly played card in the format, there are still some of the usual suspects that round out the top ten most played nonland cards. Long story short, the energy decks are still the most popular, and the cards that are staples within the lists unsurprisingly are the most commonly played nonland cards in the format. Oddly enough, it appears that Mardu Energy has now become more popular than Boros Energy, which is an interesting shift.

A Product Change is Coming to Play Booster Boxes, and People are NOT Happy

Although we are still getting used to the new cards brought to us by Foundations, we have begun to get announcements about the next Standard-legal set, Aetherdrift. Aetherdrift will be the first set to come out in 2025, and it will also be the first Universes Beyond Standard-legal set. For those who aren't familiar, Universes Beyond sets are the ones that do not exclusively involve the traditional MTG characters and planes, although they can still be incorporated. What they do for the characters in the Universes Beyond sets is to have somewhat of a crossover between MTG and another universe in popular culture. We have seen them do Lord of the Rings, Assassin's Creed, etc. What is unique about the Universes Beyond sets going forward is that they will now be Standard-legal - something that has not been the case up until now. In fact, almost all of the Universes Beyond sets were strictly Commander, Legacy, and Vintage-legal up until now, with the exception of Lord of the Rings also being legal in Modern. That is a change that we did know about , however, but the latest updates follow up on the new changes that we will see starting next year. Changes to Play Booster Boxes So what is this big change? How will it affect MTG?

The Overlords Have Spoken! GRUUL is Surprisingly Fun!

It's no secret that in Standard we have some absolutely monstrous creatures right now. There are multiple ways to cheat them out, and the most immediate one that comes to mind is reanimator. With Foundations, we also get a bit more access to ramp, and the overlords from Duskmourn have been pretty impactful in the format as well. So the idea is that we can center a deck around having a bunch of enter-the-battlefield effects or attack triggers that allow us to commit some serious shenanigans. In Gruul Surprise, we are going to cheat out the big guys as best we can, be it ramp, or with a card that says we can simply put them on the board. Since we can sometimes do this at instant speed, it insulates us against board wipes, and allows us to set up one-turn kills. The idea is that we can get around control decks and punish opponents who didn't leave up any blockers. We are also looking to ping our opponents for tons of damage just by having creatures enter under our control. Since we are playing 7 overlords, we are also going to play Up the Beanstalk because it will allow us to draw a bunch of extra cards. OK, I have hyped up this fun deck enough. Let's take a look at the list! The addition of Llanowar Elves has really helped this deck to be more consistent and possibly try to keep up with the fast meta. We have access to the smaller board wipes that deal with aggro decks, while not killing all of our stuff. The deck does a great job of going over the top and running away with the game if left unchecked. Most of the time, playing against it feels like a ticking time bomb. We are able to deal pretty significant damage that forces the opponent to be very selective with when they attack, and when they leave up mana for removal. Let's take a look at some key cards. Relevant Cards

Reviewing the Standard Metagame and the Domination of Aggro

We are a couple of weeks into Foundations, and it feels like the meta is starting to respond. There were some good staple creatures added to the format, and we even got back some nostalgic burn spells. Midrange is still pretty good, but the decks are forced more and more into a sideboard plan that is almost entirely geared toward dealing with aggro. If you hadn't noticed how prevalent aggro has become recently, it now accounts for 74% of the decks that are listed in major tournaments in Standard. The most recent MTGO Challenge actually featured an entire top 8 consisting of assorted aggro decks. One could make the argument that some of the decks were more tempo than aggro, but the decks have aggressive creatures nonetheless, and they also all tend to have a low curve. We could also conclude that the addition of Llanowar Elves makes the Golgari decks that much faster, and then in some instances they could have been considered an aggro deck. Mono red is also taking up more and more of the competitive metashare, and is positioning itself as a deck to be reckoned with ever since its strong showing at the World Championships. We will look over some of the archetypes in Standard right now that are consistently performing well in challenges and other tournaments. Red Deck Wins This has remained a relevant deck for over a year now, and has endured many changes. It seems that the deck can always find a worthy replacement once a card either rotates or becomes subpar. There are a few new burn spells in Foundations, so it has become evident that burn could be here to stay for the next few years. It's going to be strong most likely for as long as Bloomburrow is in Standard. I think this is good for the game, and lines up with what Wizards wants. You want people to get into your game and garner new players with Foundations, so why not make sure mono red is good? It is one of the preconstructed decks on Arena, and it is one of the easier archetypes for a new player to learn. It lines up with everything that they want, and also allows for newer players to have a positive experience with a good deck that can win games early on in their journey. It is also pretty helpful that a lot of the cards are on the cheaper end. Just make sure you save up for your sideboard - Screaming Nemesis is steadily climbing and could get to fifty bucks soon!

The BEST New Deck to Play with Pioneer Masters!

Pioneer Masters is coming in December, and we officially have some spoilers. We won't go over all of the new that were announced recently, as there aren't quite enough to devote an entire article to yet, but we have some good news that confirms the inclusion of key decks and archetypes into the explorer format that will eventually convert to Pioneer on Arena. Something that we have to consider is that Explorer on Arena is far from actually being Pioneer. There are a ton of cards that are missing, and in turn, there are very powerful decks from the format that we have never seen on Arena before. If you don't play Pioneer in paper, or in MTGO, you may not have ever heard of some of the stuff that's coming. I have some advice: prepare yourself. There will be a brand new meta after Pioneer Masters hits Arena, and Explorer will look nothing like it did before. Today I have a deck that I believe to have an incredibly high power level, and also one of the decks that I believe to be the most consistent in the format. It has the best removal possible, has a spell that tutors and allows you to cast the spells for free, access to five colors, and some powerful creatures and planeswalkers that allow you to close out the game. Let's take a look at Niv to Light. Niv to Light is a deck that has been played for a few years in Pioneer, and it seems to get updates here and there. There are some new cards from Foundations that are seeing play in the deck, and I'm not sure if that is the final version of it, or if people are simply trying out some of these new cards. What I will say is that the deck has been doing very well in some of the recent Pioneer challenges on MTGO, with this list winning one just a few days ago on the 23rd. If you aren't familiar, there is a key combo in the deck that actually allows you to tutor out a seven mana planeswalker and cast it for free, amongst a plethora of other value spells. We'll take a look at that particular combo, and then other key cards of the deck. Relevant Combo Cards

This Deck is on DEMON TIME

We went into Foundations knowing that the demon deck was a top archetype in Standard, and even in Pioneer, but the question still remained: with new cards coming, would it still be good? And if it's still good, what could we do to make it better? Foundations gives us some key cards that almost appear to be made for the deck, and we won't scoff at that. The set is made to be a basis for many different archetypes, so it was nice that we got some decent demons with our core set. Something we'll have to worry about going forward is all of the other decks that will be popping up. We will be vigilant about our sideboard choices and stay prepared to make the changes that are needed. We do have some cards in the sideboard from the new set, so let's take a look at the deck itself that will show us main deck and sideboard additions from Foundations. We are following the previous demon archetype, but now we are able to be a little bit more well-rounded, and we have cut down on some of the cost by building the deck in paper. One could also argue that the deck has a better mana curve, as the previous version ran 10 four drops. Since we took out two copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, that lowers the cost of the deck by about $150 USD. While some argue that we have taken out one of the best cards in the format, we are also helping the deck stay more true to its goal, while making it more accessible to newer players.

Checking in on MTG Modern After the Recent Bans (and Unbans)