This past weekend was an action-packed NRG Series event that featured a large Modern tournament, and a large Pioneer tournament. Given that I have a good bit more knowledge of Pioneer as a format, and that it is Pioneer RCQ Season, I wanted to go over the results for this, and examine the interesting results that we had in this tournament. It was won overall by Azorius Control, and I found that to be particularly interesting because it is an archetype that is not often played currently in Pioneer, as there are so many aggressive decks that are popping up that can deal with it efficiently. There are also a lot of discard decks that can sniff out the relevant answers that Azorius often has. I think it is really something to take note of, because we could see this deck become more popular in the next few weeks. Something else that I believe to be noteworthy is that the tournament took place in St. Louis, Missouri. The reason I think this is relevant is that MTG Events seem to have different results in different parts of the country - at least on this scale. In all of the RCQs I've been to and seen results for in my home state of Pennsylvania, I haven't even seen Azorius make top 8. I think it speaks to the different player bases that we have all across the country, and the world. Although this deck won, Mono Green Devotion took second place, and the rest of the top 8 was rounded out by the usual Amalia, Phoenix, and various other meta aggro decks, the deck that I really wanted to focus on that is something we haven't seen too much of before is Izzet Ensoul. This deck took third place in the event, and appears to be pretty well positioned overall. The deck is capable of doing ridiculous amounts of damage and killing the opponent very early in the game.
The deck largely centers itself around having an indestructible artifact land that they can enchant go make it a creature with five toughness. Sounds like a silly concept, but in the pioneer format, it is incredible effective against most decks. It requires them to have exile or an edict effect, and they can't simply kill it with damage. Since it runs blue, it also is able to out-tempo the opponent with efficient counter spells that can allow their damage to get through, or at least to protect their indestructible creature.
Relevant Cards
This is one of the cards that allows the deck to explode for tons of damage out of nowhere. Most of the time people are so concerned with the fact that a random artifact became a five power creature out of nowhere, that they completely forget to play around this card too. The deck also does a great job of efficiently putting artifacts onto the board with the plethora of two for ones that it has.
This is the main card in the deck. We are looking to enchant Darksteel Citadel, and we can enchant it as early as turn two. It won't be ready to swing, but we can get it ready for up to 10 damage on turn three with Shrapnel. The deck ideally wants to ensoul onto this land because it is indestructible, but it won't hesitate to put it on any artifact, especially if the opponent does not appear to have any answers for what is about to happen.
This is another spell that can immediately be a good top deck and allows the deck to be pretty resilient. We can cloak the top card of the library, and the creature that is creatred will have ward. It also can't be blocked! Even if the opponent does manage to remove the cloaked creature, we can also pay to pick up the coat, and then simply recast it. I think this is the card that really green lights the deck. Yes, ensoul on the artifact was a cheeky combo, and shrapnel allowed for great damage, but this is the card that can really close it out in the late game when we need to get through with the final damage.
This card in here as a three of is something that makes everyone think twice. The best part about the tempo and pressure of the deck is that they can't really afford to think twice. It is often a scenario where you simply have to cast your removal into open blue mana and just pray that they don't have the efficient tempo counter. This allows the deck to protect it's creatures, deal with possible discard spells, or possibly even counter a planeswalker that may look to take over the game.
Possible Bad Matchups for the Deck
Ensoul is an aggro/tempo deck. It wants to win quickly before the opponent can stabilize, and overwhelm them with large creatures that popped up out of nowhere. Although the biggest threats in the deck have five power, there are some decks that have larger creatures who are able to profitably block ensoul's large threats. This can definitely create a problem, as the ensoul deck has to rely on damage based removal, and since all of the spells in the deck are pretty cheap, they aren't doing tons of damage. This ensoul deck lost in the semifinals at NRG to Mono Green Devotion. That makes sense, because Mono Green is one of the only decks that can get huge creatures on the board and stabilize themselves with them faster than the ensoul can animate their artifacts.
The deck also tends to struggle against discard decks, particularly Waste Not, because of both the efficient removal, hand disruption, and a plethora of edict effects. Waste Not is also a deck, that if allowed to stabilize, easily amasses much more value than the ensoul deck. It is definitely a matchup, however, where ensoul can win from bad draws, or general inefficient play from the Waste Not opponent. The biggest thing about the ensoul deck is that it always has a chance, because it is ready at any time to do heaps of damage out of thin air. Some decks are happy to play their three mana creature or planeswalker on turn three, while ensoul is ready to hit you in the face swiftly for ten damage.
