MOM: Top 15 Cards for Pioneer

Two all-stars and how to think about the praetors

I’ve gone through a range of emotions about the set, going from down on it to quite excited for it.

The power level just seemed low relative to recent sets, but after going through the full spoiler a few times there is actually a lot to work with here. The cards are especially geared towards the kind of midrange with some synergies decks that I love to brew.

Also, there are two all-stars that I think have high odds of transforming pioneer. So let’s get into the top 15!

15. Vorinclex

I initially dismissed all the praetors (or is it Praetor?). But the more I thought about them, two jumped out as meaningful players for brewing in Pioneer. They kind of hit on a couple related concepts I use in my brewing. Specifically, “win more” is an outdated concept. It’s hard to win a game of Magic, so you want to be doing something very powerful.

What this translates to is I’m always looking for unexploitable cards that can win the game on their own relatively quickly. Unexploitable means Rakdos midrange can’t easily trade up on them (either mana or card advantage) and other decks can’t ignore them.

If you look at a lot the format’s top decks they really only got there when they added this combo of unexploitable + wins the game. Mono Green jumped to top tier when it added the Karn-board combo. Rakdos jumped when it added Sheoldred (wins the game and has proved way less exploitable than I thought it would be). This is also why you’ll frequently find me brewing Kroxa lists unexploitable + wins the game quickly.

So to the Praetors, the interesting thing is that their flip modes are designed to win the game and there are two of them where the front is unexploitable. They are slow, but since they can win the game the rest of your deck can be focused on interacting with your opponent with the praetors as your win con and that is a powerful option for brewing.

Vorinclex, has solid stats and is 3 for 1 for 5 mana, which is on rate for fringe playable, but likely not good enough without the flip. I’ve seen comparisons to Elder Gargaroth, which misses the role of the two. Gargaroth is massively exploitable (i.e. 5 mana dies to 2 mana doom blade), so it’s role is sideboard card for when opponent won’t have removal.

The other comparison is Cavalier of Thorns which is clearly better in Mono-G because its synergistic package with Nykthos + Storm is a better win the game plan.

What we’re looking for is a new deck with Vorinclex as top end that provides value, board, presence, and win con all in one package. Maybe this is finally the card we need to make a Golgari midrange (splashing Fable) deck work.

Also, I promise the rest of the card write ups will be shorter than this one!

14. Sheoldred

Basically everything I wrote above except in a better midrange color, with a better effect on the front. I’m particularly excited for this in Dimir control midrange (including with a card below), but could see this in every black color pair. Some of this will depend on how hard getting the opponent to 8 cards in yard, but this is not a card you play for a short game of Magic, so I imagine you’ll find windows.

Honestly should be higher on the list, but I just wrote a bunch on the Praetors in general so logical grouping and all that.

13. Guardian of Ghirapur

I love blinking for value. The problem with Charming Prince is the body is kind of meaningless, but is a big enough investment that you can’t plan to use it as sac fodder. Guardian is at least a real body. Also, unlike Prince it blinks Esika’s Chariot. I could see this in some kind of CoCo ETB deck or a GW version of the vehicles deck.

12. Sunfall

I think this card is being totally slept on. Exile is huge and it leaves additional value behind. As someone who never plays UW control and plays way too much Orzhov and Boros control, it really opens things up to have a top tier wrath in white that’s not UW locked.

11. Kogla and Yidaro

This is kind of 6 mana 7/7 “ETB Destroy target nonland permanent” in colors that have ramp and typically have to go to colorless for this kind of effect. Seems like it could be something.

10. Seed of Hope

Consider is what, one of the top 5 cards in Pioneer, top 10? Doesn’t take much for a worse version to be quite good. This card also has one thing I think people tend to underrate in cards and one they overrate, both of which make this card better than it may seem.

The underrate is incidental life gain. Two life here is meaningful, it will buy you an extra turn here and there, which tends to really matter in a knifes edge format like Pioneer.

The overrate is thinking you always need to hit on effects like this. You’re likely running this in a deck that treats the graveyard like fuel and the card is only one mana. When I miss with Fallaji Archaeologist I just say to myself one mana closer to Treasure Cruise. I’m not saying it’s ideal to miss, but I see people saying how many permanents to hit 95% of the time and I’m saying how many to hit 75% of the time. It’s fine to lose some games to bad luck here if it’s in the pursuit of something powerful.

Also, seems like this will work well with Adventures and we’re about to head back to Eldraine.

9. Wrenn and Realmbreaker

Ok, so seeing this right after Seed of Hope kind of makes me realize a lot of my brews and ideas revolve around fueling the graveyard. I think Jace the Perfected Mind is great and seriously under explored in Pioneer. In particular the -2 fueling Treasure Cruise while also leaving behind a permanent the opponent has to slow their game plan to interact with.

Same basic principal with Wrenn here. The color may be a problem, but getting two -2 activations for three mana is potentially big advantage over Jace.

8. Ichor Drinker

This is the most my style card in the set. Cheap, multiple game objects, can get value by it going straight to the graveyard, black which is the most game object hungry color. But I’ve been drawing up a bunch of lists and find myself cutting it or only running one, so may not be as strong as I initially thought. It’s the card in the set I’m second most interested to get a feel for how it plays.

7. Deeproot Wayfinder

I am committed to making a top tier ponza deck. Play this on two, play Field of Ruin on 3, blow up their land, search for land to play removal to clear their blocker, hit with Deeproot and return Field to the battlefield.

The upside of a two drop that can run away with the game if left unchecked is extremely appealing in general. We will have to see if we can make that upside a reality given that it is not trivial to connect or to reliably have lands in the yard.

6. Invasion of Amonkhet

This is the only Battle on the list, but it single handedly has me excited for Battles as a concept. I think the game plan here is control the board and then eventually find a way to flip Battle (Shark, Hall of Storm Giants, Sheoldred, New Sheoldred, Yorion) to help fully turn the corner in the match.

Other synergies- Plays great with Yorion. In Yorion colors, good effect to blink, Yorion can flip in one hit, and in real long game the Lazotep Convert copying Yorion is great.

IoA also turns on Drown in the Loch, if it can lead to a 4x Drown deck that’s not Rogues that seems big. In more speculative territory makes new Sheoldred’s activation more reliable to hit and new Sheoldred will be good at flipping this.

5. Rona, Herald of Invasion

Has the Retraction Helix + Mox Amber combo. Also, Legends decks in general are making a splash and could see this in one of those. I’m planning on trying out Greasefang 4 color Legends list on the back of this…just need to find out how to fit in Slogurk as well.

Real chance the Retraction Helix combo proves very strong and this ends up the clear most impactful card in the set, but we’ll get feedback around this fast as seems like a lot of people are looking to brew it.

4. Volcanic Spite

I have this theory that part of what makes Izzet Creativity a good deck is that Fire Prophecy is just a good card on its own. Volcanic Spite is a meaningful upgrade to the point I could see non-Creativity decks running it. Like are we sure Bonecrusher is better than this in Rakdos Midrange? Also, gives Creativity decks an upgrade on this effect + access to more than 4 of this effect, which is a big upgrade.

3. Chrome Host Seedshark

This card is so good, opens up so many new deck angles, and has so many possibilities that I’m kind of paralyzed by it and haven’t drawn up any lists. Fortunately, Faithless Brewing is saying this will likely be their first card they work on, so I’ll wait for those early returns before diving in.

2. Corrupted Conviction

And now the big 2, both of these next two cards I’ve sketched out lists that look extremely strong to me.

We now have Village Rites, Deadly Dispute, and Corrupted Conviction. One way of looking at it is this card won’t matter because Village Rites already sees minimal play.

To me it’s the opposite that these decks were held back by not having sufficient density of this effect. The core issue is sac is an A + B deck, “good thing to sac” and “sac outlet”. 8 sac outlets is not enough and these high velocity sac outlets are perfect because they set up future A + B combos. Now we’re up to 12 of this effect and a lot of doors open. I suspect these decks ideally want 15-20 of this effect but we’re now close enough we can make up with other cards.

There is also a set of decks where Village Rites is substantially better than Deadly Dispute: think things like Kroxa, Dreadhorde Arcanist, Akroan War, no artifact fodder. Corrupted Conviction will open those up more by having Rule of 8 of this effect.

1. Omen Hawker

With Nykthos Omen Hawker functionally makes 3 mana from a one drop. That is massive upside potential and way beyond Pioneer power level. That means this is something we need to seriously engage with it.

I’m also a devoted U Devotion player, so couldn’t be more excited. I’m going to be trying Wizard Class + Biomancer combo. Unctus Combo. Wizard Class and Unctus combo both jammed in the same deck. And of course Risen Reef + Master of Waves combo. I can’t wait to see how this card plays in practice.