Brewing Spike Beans in Pioneer

What can we learn from Aspiringspike's Cascade Beans and a bunch of lists

Over in Modern, Aspiringspike created noise and seems to have changed the meta with a really strong run with his Cascade Beans list. As far as I can tell, the big innovation in his take was running Bloodbraid Elf in addition to Shardless Agent to up the consistency of hitting Beans while maintaining some board presence (quick aside, I do not particularly follow Modern, so sorry if I get anything wrong or over assign innovations to Spike).

I ended up watching a fair amount of Spike’s videos of the deck and tweaks he has made. You can watch the videos on his Twitch or YouTube. If you want to get up to speed quickly listen to him on this recent episode of The Dive Down. I believe this is the most current version of the deck.

So of course as I am watching all this extremely powerful looking Beans gameplay, I am asking myself: “How can I make this work in Pioneer?”

What makes Aspiringspike’s deck strong?

There are three key components to the deck that stand out:

1. Source of massive card advantage- Beans

2. Reliably casting the card advantage source every game- 12 “copies” of Beans with Shardless and Bloodbraid

3. Ability to turn card advantage into massive mana advantage- The evoke elementals and Leyline Binding

Writing this up, it made me realize Phoenix (the current strongest deck in Pioneer) has the exact same formula.

1. Source of massive card advantage- Treasure Cruise

2. Reliably casting the card advantage source every game- Consider, Opt, Sleigt of Hand, Pieces, and Prankster to reliably find Cruise

3. Ability to turn card advantage into massive mana advantage- Phoenix, Lightning Axe, and Demilich

So there is almost certainly something to this formula

However, for Brewing Beans in Pioneer, if you look at Aspiringspike’s list a rather obvious problem jumps out: almost none of the cards are playable in Pioneer.

Most notably the beating heart of the deck that makes it so strong, the cascade cards and the free spells, most certainly do not exist in Pioneer.

But let’s not let that stop us, because there still could be something there at the Pioneer power level.

Source of Massive Card Advantage

Beans!

Reliably Casting the Card Advantage Source Every Game

This is where things start to get tricky in Pioneer. We have two options:

• Ways to dig or tutor for it

• Pairing Beans with another card advantage source

For an example of a deck with both of these bullets in action with a different card advantage engine, look at this recent trophy Golgari Enchantment deck by David discussed on the recent Faithless Brewing episode.

It has two card advantage engines in Setessan Champion and Lord Skitter’s Blessing. It also has Oath of Nissa to dig for Champion. That combination of cards gets us to 11 sources of card advantage engine, which is similar to the 12 sources of Beans that Spike is running.

So how do we make this level of redundancy happen with Beans in Pioneer.

Ways to dig:

• Consider, Opt, Sleight of Hand cantrip package (like I run in my Beans deck discussed here)

• Impulse- for a more instant speed interactive deck

• Commune with Spirits and/or Seed of Hope

• Moon-Blessed Cleric (a card that seems terrible to me, but Enigmatic players keep trying to convince me is good)

Obviously there are several others, but I am looking here for cost efficient ones. At the point you are doing something like Beseech the Mirror you are likely better off finding something else. In general, “high velocity” decks will likely be the best solution.

Pair with other card advantage engine:

There are a bunch of possibilities. The best place to look is existing proven ones. So cards like Treasure Cruise, Fable, Bring to Light, etc. But there definitely could be others that are more synergistic with what the deck is doing.

Ability to turn card advantage into massive mana advantage

This is where we will face the main constraint in Pioneer as we are very limited in sources of massive mana advantage.

Let’s look again at the Sultai Bean Prowess deck I trophied with through this massive mana advantage lens.

Treasure Cruise is clearly good from a massive mana advantage perspective. However, it is really a second card advantage engine and we need to make sure we have mana advantages that affect the board.

Stubborn Denial and Fatal Push are both mana advantage cards if small because they are both well above rate cards.

The key mana advantage that affects the board card is Stormwing Entity. A 3/3 Flier with Prowess and Scry 2 for two is definitely above rate. However, watching Aspiringspike’s lists in action made me realize it is not nearly far enough above rate.

At two mana it’s above rate, but it is not really worth three mana, so let’s say it is worth 2.8 mana. We paid two mana for it so only gained 0.8 mana advantage.

Now lets look at the other mana advantage creature in the deck: Tolarian Terror. Terror is better than a three mana card, but would be overcosted at four. So let’s say it is worth 3.3 mana. But critically we can potentially cast it for one mana. That is a 2.3 mana advantage, nearly 3x Stormwing Entity’s. That is the kind of mana advantage that is starting to look more like what Spike was doing in his list.

So what are some of the other huge mana advantage cards out there.

• Hearth Elemental

Will likely go in the same deck with Terror. A vanilla 4/5 is let’s say worth 2.6 mana, so that’s a 1.6 advantage.

• Lightning Axe

A very pure example of trading card advantage for mana advantage. Let’s say this is a 2.0 mana effect so that’s 1.0 advantage.

• Leyline Binding

One of the only cards from Spike’s list we can consider running and definitely should consider. The effect is let’s say worth 2.6 mana so that’s a 1.6 mana advantage.

• Sky-Blessed Samurai

4/4 Flier for one seems good. A 4/4 flier is probably something like 2.8 mana, so that’s a 1.8 mana advantage.

• Murderous Cut

  

A 2.1 mana effect for one mana so a 1.1 mana advantage

• Tasigur

A 2.9 mana creature so a 1.9 mana advantage.

• Herald of Anguish

  

This is something like a 4.5 creature that can be potentially played for 2 mana, so a 2.5 mana advantage (though part of this being higher, is Improvise is one of the weaker ways here to “cheat” on mana).

• Writhing Necromass

A 3.0 mana value creature for one mana creates 2.0 in mana advantage.

• Overwhelming Remorse

A 2.6 mana removal effect for one creates 1.6 in mana advantage

• Hollow One

Vanilla 4/4 is probably something like 2.4, but you can’t argue with free! So that’s a 2.4 mana advantage. Realistically in Pioneer, it’s going to be very hard to get the free, but casting it for one seems doable so I would view this more as a 1.4 mana advantage.

There are certainly others out there, but I think this is a useful framework for thinking through which cards to add to a Beans deck. You need to make sure you are getting sufficient mana advantage to pull back into the game after spending your early game setting up the engine.

Some Decklists

The Instant and Sorceries Build

Some real tension here between Hearth + Terror and Treasure Cruise. I tried a league with a version of this list with only one Cruise and felt I lacked enough card advantage (though it was weird league where I faced 3 UB Narset Control decks, which is a tough matchup to say the least). So I am going to try the above version next, with the theory being just play powerful cards and figure it out.

I think with refining, something like this has a lot of promise.

The Enchantment Build

Ok, I had very high hopes for this build because of Up the Beanstalk being an Enchantment so it would synergize with the other enchantments matters cards. But it looks more like a pile than I would want (I mean maindeck Authority of Consuls does not inspire confidence). I think it’s really hurting for one more Enchantment themed set. Still, there are some very powerful things going on here and that are Pioneer power level, so I could see it performing surprisingly well.

The Artifact Build

I have never got a Herald of Anguish deck to work (but others have), so take this list with grain of salt. But it feels like there is some powerful stuff going on here.

My big concern is the deck will start off slow, setting up its engine, and then lack pull back into the game effects. Improvise does not enable multi-spelling to pull back in the way Affinity does.

It does have some clear strenghts. The pairing of Blood Fountain and Herald makes for something very difficult to grind against. And if you get to the trading one for one mode the life gain off Battle at the Bridge can make it very difficult for your opponent to close out the game.

The Creatures in Yard Build

This list is quite speculative but seems very promising. 66 cards is probably not right, but I am worried about milling out before being able to get the kill and Tyvar does have some tutor like properties in this build.

Things that will require testing are: is there enough closing power, is there enough card advantage, is the velocity right, is the balance between sac fodder and enablers right, what do you want in the sideboard. So basically a ton to refine with this kind of deck that has a lot of moving pieces.

What I really like about it though is it has a very low curve, the cards all seem reasonably powerful in the context of this deck, and there are some interesting sideboard options.

The Bard Class Build

I don’t think this list will be particularly good. But more wanted to put it together to highlight what the thinking in terms of “how do I turn high card advantage and velocity into massive mana advantage” and Bard Class is one of the most powerful sources of a massive amount of mana advantage when it is going off.

This build is a midrange deck, so you are not relying on combo-ing with Bard Class at third level. Makes it lower upside than traditional Brad Class builds, but the hope is substantially raising the floor by being far less dependent on Bard Class.

The Midrange Pivot

All of the decks above are taking the lessons from Aspiringspike’s list and trying to do something “unfair” with Beanstalk. However, the most reasonable thing to say is likely: “Spike’s deck’s power all comes from the free evoke elementals, and there is nothing remotely close to them in Pioneer in terms of power level”.

That points to a different direction if there is going to be a home for Beanstalk in Pioneer, which is a more midrange or control option. The more control side is where we are seeing it in Pioneer in Enigmatic and Bring to Light lists and in Standard in the Bant Control lists.

I see it being good in GBx lists, with some of them leaning more midrange. I have tried a few Up the Beanstalk + Invoke Despair lists and they have gotten generally strong results. I think two 4-1’s and a 2-3. Here are the next couple lists I am looking to try.

The idea here is that Binding of the Old Gods and Golos can find Triomes to act as your Leyline Binding enablers without have to rely on an “everything comes into play tapped” manabase. Then from there it is a bunch of good value and interaction cards and will play on the more controlling end of midrange.

Along, similar lines I took this build in a more ramp/domain direction here.

Both of these lists look quite promising to me, especially after they get refined a bit.

Brew some Beans

The core lesson to take is the one from my Pioneer Brewing Hacks article: if a card is strong in Modern, we should take note and try and make it work in Pioneer. There is a lot to learn from the various Beans lists going around in Modern as there have been way more games of them played than there have been games of Beans played in Pioneer.

However, Pioneer presents a different set of constraints, so we need to learn from the principals powering those decks and see if we can make those principles work for us in Pioneer.

Beans is also a card we will need to keep in mind with every new set. Any new 5+ mana card with cost reduction will be something we need to take note of.

Best luck with your Beans brewing and I look forward to encountering those brews in the leagues and seeing them in the deck dumps.