MTG Pioneer: Brazil Regional Championship Recap & Top Decks

Recapping the Regional Championship in Brazil

Explore the top meta decks from the Regional Championship in Brazil. Discover the evolving Pioneer metagame and key strategies in Magic: The Gathering.

As we ramp up for The MTG World Championships, we also have a few major events before. Right now, the biggest events are the Regional Championships, where the format is Pioneer. This past weekend, and this upcoming weekend, we have competitions from Brazil and Washington D.C. Today we will go over the results from the past weekend, and my favorite deck from the event. We have been waiting for events such as this one to see what decks emerge as the best so that we can work closer towards having a "solved" meta both after bans and a new set that came out. The meta from this event was certainly interesting compared to events before bans. I think one of the most noteworthy things was the fact that we didn't see any Phoenix in the top 8, or even the top 16. I will review a few of the top 8 decks for you, and we will have a brief analysis of the finals matchup. Then I'll go over my favorite deck from the top 8.

Top 8 Results

Let's take a good look at the overall breakdown from the top 8 in regards to meta share for each deck. Rakdos Prowess had three decks in the top 16, and it was the most well-represented archetype in the elimination rounds. It also had two decks in the top 4, but they were unable to beat Enigmatic Fires and Azorius Control, who ultimately ended up playing in the finals. Jund Sacrifice also made it into the top 8. That was a result that was expected to a degree. Another deck that is emerging is Rakdos Transmogrify, and that also found its way into the top 8. The deck that I was most happy to see in this top 8 was Rakdos Midrange. It basically is a Mono Black deck that runs Fable and Bloodtithe Harvester.

Something that was really noteworthy is that there was another deck in the top 8 that finished 5th, and the list has somehow been wiped from the internet. I haven't actually seen this before, and I am not sure if it pertains to a disqualification (usually they would still tell you what the deck was), or if somehow they accepted a request to not have this deck listed anywhere. There is conjecture that the deck is definitely spicy, and it was so broken that they didn't want other people to know about it. I've looked far and wide, and I cannot find that deck anywhere. If I do come across it, I'll be sure to share. For now, let's take a look at the finals!

Azorius Control vs Enigmatic Fires

Enigmatic Fires is a deck that is slowly taking over the new meta that we have in Pioneer. It appeared to have finally met its match in Azorius Control in the finals of the RC. The main reason that it is so tough to defeat Azorius is due to the premium removal that the deck has. Enigmatic Fires relies on keeping a lot of enchantments on the board, and the Azorius Deck has so many different ways to either remove these enchantments or counter them. The deck also has plenty of board wipes, and it is able to follow up with multiple points of pressure once the board is clear and the opponent has no cards in hand. I do believe that Fires has the best opportunity to high roll, but if the tempo is stifled, it isn't too difficult for Azorius to stabilize, because Fires doesn't exactly kill the opponent quickly. They are both grindy decks, but it was evident that Azorius was able to win this weekend simply due to having access to the best removal available. Both of these decks have a high power level, and are very capable of top finishes in high-leverage events. I don't want to dwell on them too much, as they are not quite my style - so let's now take a look at another deck from the top 8 that I thoroughly enjoy: Rakdos Midrange.

Total Cards:

Like I stated above, it is basically a Mono Black Midrange deck that adds some good red cards. One of the really fun tricks in this list is being able to copy Archfiend of the Dross with Reflection of Kiki-Jiki in order to have two 6/6 flyers able to swing on one turn. The deck has great access to removal, as it can also deal with artifacts. It does a great job of amassing extra value each turn, and can grind out many of the different decks in the format.

Rakdos Midrange Loss in Quarterfinals

It looks like the deck finally met its match in the quarterfinals against a Rakdos Prowess deck. One of the things that stuck out to me was the fact that the deck does have plenty of removal, but wasn't taking advantage of one of the better red removal spells.

Magic the Gathering Card - Torch the Tower - MTG Circle

I believe that the deck could have benefited from using more copies of this, because it exiles the Heartfire Hero so that it cannot deal damage equal to its power to face. I think that having two or three copies could have made that a better matchup. Notably, the Rakdos Midrange deck does not run any copies of that in the sideboard, so it likely made it tough in a post-sideboard situation. The aggro deck ended up defeating midrange 2-0 in the quarterfinals, so it unfortunately did not get any better even when on the play. When we are talking about winning games on turn three, it is difficult for anyone to really get set up, and it is likely the reason why these aggro decks had such a strong performance. Both of the decks in this matchup were undefeated in the swiss rounds, so we know that they were both piloted well, and that they got hot at the right times. Even though they both ultimately got defeated in the elimination rounds, making the top 8, however, is nothing to sneeze at, and we love to see a midrange deck represented within that field.

What's the Next Major Event?

Next up we have the Regional Championship in DC on October 5th, and I will be competing in that one! You can expect there to be a very diverse meta, and I personally expect to see Phoenix represented more in this field. We will see how things go, and you can surely expect a recap of that from me as well!

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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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Revitalize your Magic: The Gathering Standard deck with Aetherdrift's zombie cards! Discover powerful synergies and fun strategies in this casual deck tech.

Zombies are Coming back from the Dead with Aetherdrift

Whenever I see the word "Zombie" in a new set, I always like to revisit the archetype a bit in order to see if anything could be good. I decided to raise these zombies from the dead due to some cards that I saw from Aetherdrift, and I thought that we could at least make a deck that is fun, and who knows, it may be competitive too. We have received decent support lately with cards like Gisa, The Hellraiser. Although she isn't a zombie herself, she creates them every turn, and acts as a lord for them. Not to mention, the ward cost on her makes it so that she adequately fills out the top end of our list. She will help us immensely with swarming the board with skeletons, and efficiently rebuilding after board wipes. There are also going to be some ways to play our zombies from the graveyard, whether it be re-casting or embalming. Since we have the opportunity to raise our dead, we have to give it a shot. There is too much flavor that entices me. This will be my mono black list for the new set, as I think this is the best mono black deck to showcase as many new cards as possible. Any other mono black deck would likely just be adding one or two cards into an already good mono black deck, so I wanted to give you as much as I can with the new cards showcase. Without further ado, let's check out the deck! As you can see, we have plenty of lords in the deck. We are going to make these vanilla zombies huge, both to use as infinite blockers, and to have a threatening attack. We also brought back Unstoppable Slasher for some extra fun, and to guarantee that we have alternate win conditions when needed. In typical zombie fashion, we also don't mind getting rid of some of our creatures if it produces extra value for us. We can get rid of one of our zombies to deal with any problematic creature with Final Vengeance. I chose this over Eaten Alive because it allows us to sacrifice enchantments too, and there are some useful enchantments that support our zombies, so that could prove useful too. There are new cards in the deck, so let's take a look at those. Aetherdrift Zombie Support Cards

These Aetherdrift Aristocrats are Racing to Victory!

We are coming to the end of spoiler season, and we are ramping up for early access for Aetherdrift. Almost all of the cards have been revealed, so Magic players are dashing to find the new deck that will work for them. This is an exciting time for creators as well, because it is our chance to make predictions on what the most impactful cards will be. We can straight up make a prediction, we can come out with a top 5 or 10, or we can theory craft new decks. I'm going to be dropping a few decks over the next couple of days that I think will be really fun to play in Standard, and that I will be playing in early access for Aetherdrift! Here is a look at the first deck I made that is an Orzhov Sacrifice Combo Deck! This new Orzhov Creation looks to take advantage of a lot of low-mana high-value creatures. We have multiple different sacrifice outlets, and a couple of different ways to interact with our graveyard. Most of the creatures are two mana value or lower, so we can even use a card from Foundations to bring them all back at once! We will draw a ton of cards, drain our opponent's life total, and have tons of blockers for the various aggro decks that we may come across. We can even punish the opponent for killing our creatures. The deck also features 23 lands due to the fact that our curve is pretty low, and we can operate pretty well with two or three mana. You might be wondering: "OK, so what is actually new about the deck?" We are looking to take advantage of the Start Your Engines mechanic that has been brought to us in this set. If you are unfamiliar with how that works, you can read my most recent article for a deep dive! For now, let's take a look at some relevant new cards from the set! Relevant New Cards

This New Mechanic in Aetherdrift WILL Have BIG Implications!

Aetherdrift is upon us, and everyone is ready for a refresh to the current Standard format. It's not particularly bad, but it could use a bit of a shake up. Foundations beefed up some of the archetypes that were already good, and it did so to the point that it is impossible to play a few matches in the format without seeing some type of Dimir. There are so many good different artchetypes of it currently that it is difficult to decide against playing it. Aetherdrift is bringing us a ton of vehicles, and it appears that this card type will force it's way into relevancy in the format. These new vehicles are announcing themselves with a little bit of flavor, however. There is a new mechanic that is coming to MTG that is called Start Your Engines. Initially, this mechanic didn't stand out to me too much. I had to take a bit of a deep dive into how it worked, and how to get to what is called "Max Speed" before I realized that we can do some broken stuff with this. Before I did my research, I went from thinking that it would be a draft-only mechanic, to thinking this might be the most powerful mechanic in the entire set. Let's take a look at how exactly Start Your Engines works, and then we will look over some examples of cards in Standard that should allow it to be ridiculous in all of the best ways. How Does Start Your Engines Work? This is an interesting one, and it fits in perfectly with the flavor of the set. We will have the Start Your Engines mechanic on a few of the cards, and it's ability instantly starts when the permanent enters the battlefield. If it is the FIRST Start Your Engines card played, it will instantly give you a Speed of 1. This is something that automatically happens as the permanent enters, and it is not a trigger that can be stifled, or fizzled by removing the permanent giving the Speed. Now, what I initially thought for this mechanic was that you got more speed by playing cards that had the Start Your Engines ability, but that isn't how it works, and I'm glad it's not that way. So how do we gain speed? In order to increase our speed past 1, we will have a trigger of an increase in speed once per our turn when an opponent loses life. What is pretty fun about this is that we do not need the permanent to stay on the board in order for the speed to increase. This means that the mechanic is comparable to The Ring Temps You from LOTR.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Recapping MTG in 2024

2024 was a huge year for MTG. It was a lot of things. Controversial, exciting, frustrating, promising, and refreshed. We saw some formats get ruined, then fixed, then ruined again. We saw some great changes to Standard that not everyone was fans of at first, but they seemed to quickly warm up to them. We saw Wizards effectively abandon a format in favor of propelling Standard into a more prominent position. We saw some great cards printed for Standard, and some promising things to come in the next year that were announced. Along with that, a fair amount of people were still bothered by the new trajectory of the format. Some are calling into question the longevity of MTG now with the heavy lean into Universes Beyond. A little bit of everything happened this year in the MTG world, and it was interesting if nothing else. On a personal level, it was also a hell of a year for me, as I took down two different events and grew a lot as a player. We are going to look at The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from this year! The Good I have to admit, I'm pretty excited that we have an infinite gain and drain combo in Standard right now. With Enduring Tenacity and Bloodthirsty Conqueror having made a lot of my dreams come true in my favorite format. Although the deck isn't the most viable in the format, it is incredibly fun to play, and I'm just happy that we had such exciting cards printed in the format. It leads to good card design going forward, and gives us promise for what's to come in the next year.

Want to WIN Games in Standard? Play These Cards!

People often discuss win rates when cards are included in a deck, or maybe win rates if a card is drawn during a game. There is even something to take from the percentage of decks a card appears in. Sure, we can say x and y are good cards to put in your deck, but what cards are truly the best? Which ones give you the best chance of winning a game after you cast them? We are going to look at those cards today. We are effectively examining the biggest bombs in the format. There is still a concept of not relying on one card to win the game, and using synergies to win. I get it. I would invite you to consider, however, even if you do not plan to play any of these cards, you should definitely be aware of what is a bomb that needs your attention in the format. Without further ado, let's check out the bombs in Standard, and see how insane their win rates are. Standard Cards with Highest Win Rate (When Cast) Note that this statistic is simply if the card was cast from someone's hand. It does not look at whether or not the spell was resolved. I think this has bearing on the outcome of the game as well. If it gets countered or removed, we know it is also that much more important. This is why I believe looking at win rate when cast is the best metric for the biggest threats.

This Deck is Giving Everyone PROBLEMS in Pioneer

This is starting to feel like déjà vu. Remember the last time a Rakdos Deck was extremely powerful and the most popular deck in Pioneer? Interestingly enough, it is another midrange shell with a powerful combo. What's different this time, however, is that the cards are a lot more fair. This list is a little bit more well-balanced in my opinion. There is no broken turn three "deal with a Veinripper or lose" in this deck. It simply uses all of the best midrange value cards so well and with such synergy that most decks in the format cannot keep up. Nothing in the deck really feels broken to the point where you could pick out what card to ban. A lot of the cards that are good in the deck are played in other decks, so bans could have adverse effects that aren't good for the format. Nonetheless, the meta will either have to adapt to it, or we will need to see some new cards printed that make another deck good, or there will possibly end up being a ban. Rakdos Demons currently takes up 46% of the metashare, and it has plenty of top finishes in every tournament that it's in. To put things in perspective, the next closest deck in the format when it comes to metashare popularity is a few decks that have 6%. Rakdos Demons has consumed the format, and it would be hard to find someone who would tell you that it isn't the best deck. What's nice about it is that it is also playable on Arena, and because of Pioneer Masters, we aren't even missing any cards. You can jam this on MTGO, or Arena, or in paper. Either way you spin it, this deck kills! What I find interesting about how this deck has developed is that the list only plays two actual demon spells now. We have moved past the other demons that were in the list that could make things a bit clunky. Now, the deck is much faster. It has a lot of plays on turns two and three, and plays threats on those turns that demand answers, as opposed to dropping bombs on turn four. This deck oddly enough, only has 2 four mana spells. It's astonishing how much the list has evolved, and also how aggressive it has become with the tweaks. You've likely seen a few of these lists floating around, as it has been a deck for a few months now, so I will go over a couple of cards that have been added to it recently that contribute to the aggressive nature of the deck. New Additions

Zombies are Coming back from the Dead with Aetherdrift