Pioneer Prowess

Pioneer Aggro Haste Prowess UR (Izzet)

Hardhitta7

Creature (18)

• 4x Monastery Swiftspear
• 4x Soul-Scar Mage
• 2x Dreadhorde Arcanist
• 1x Dreadhorde Arcanist
• 4x Sprite Dragon
• 3x Stormwing Entity

Land (19)

• 2x Island
• 4x Mountain
• 2x Riverglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Riverglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Riverglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 4x Shivan Reef
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 4x Steam Vents

Instant (14)

• 2x Dive Down
• 4x Opt
• 4x Shock
• 4x Wild Slash

Sorcery (10)

• 4x Crash Through
• 4x Expressive Iteration
• 2x Treasure Cruise

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Sideboard

Enchantment (4)

• 2x Alpine Moon
• 2x Fevered Visions

Artifact (2)

• 2x Soul-Guide Lantern

Instant (9)

• 2x Ceremonious Rejection
• 2x Magma Spray
• 2x Spell Pierce
• 3x Aether Gust

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Deck Goal/Budget

This will be my first Pioneer deck, I’ve never played the format before but the shop I’m gonna start going to has a tourney every Sunday.

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The goal of the deck is to get down some prowess threats early and pump them up with card draw spells and burn. It’s a pretty simple prowess deck.

The sideboard is what I need the most help with. I just went on mtggoldfish and looked at the top decks and built the board from there. I know it’s almost impossible to build a sideboard when you don’t know what your meta is gonna look like so I just tried to cover all the bases.

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Still working on getting some Brazen Borrower and more Spirebluff Canal so please don’t suggest them.

Burn

Every Prowess deck needs some burn spells, whether to take out early blockers or just to go face. The damage adds up quickly.

The format doesn’t have Lightning Bolt so I have Wild Slash and Shock which are pretty much the same card. Bonecrusher Giant is burn plus being a threat. Prismari Command can do a bit of everything, burn, loot away dead cards, ramp/fix mana, or destroy artifacts. It is 3 mana though so I’m only running 2x.

Card Draw

Card draw and cantrips are important in a Prowess deck, they trigger prowess and let you chain together spells.

Opt is the best cantrip I know of in Pioneer, and Crash Through is another cantrip that also has some added benefit of giving your threats trample.

Expressive Iteration is just an excellent card, it’s even seeing play in Modern Prowess. It can help you hit your land drop on turn 3 as well as trigger prowess.

Cut Treasure Cruise for Light Up the Stage . TyrantofTales played my list on stream and I noticed Cruise was stuck in hand a lot. I watched claudhiohmtg play a slightly different list of his own and he had Light Up the Stage instead so I’m going with those now. It’s super easy to get Spectacle here. (RIP my old bordered Treasure Cruise s)

Threats

This is the most important part of the deck imo. You want low cost threats that can deal damage quickly.

Monastery Swiftspear is a very good 1 drop. Haste is important in this deck.

Soul-Scar Mage is handy against big creatures, basically giving your burn spells wither. It’s also a 1 drop which the deck needs.

Stormwing Entity only costs 2 mana 95% of the time and comes with evasion. The scry is nice as well. Plus it’s just big compared to the other creatures in the deck.

Bonecrusher Giant acts as burn and a threat, a 4/3 attached to a shock is nothing to laugh at, but I’m sure I don’t need to explain how good adventure cards are. It’s a threat that can also trigger prowess.

Sideboard

The sideboard is where the deck needs the most help, since I’ve never played the format before. I know it’s almost impossible to make a good sideboard without knowing what your local meta looks like.

I just went to mtggoldfish and looked at all the top meta decks and constructed a sideboard to help against those decks. Kinda tried to cover all the bases until I can make a more local meta oriented board.

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Tormod's Crypt is good against Phoenix and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger . It can also be brought in against Lurrus decks but probably not worth it there. I’m unsure if this spot should be Soul-Guide Lantern or crypt. Crypt is a free prowess trigger but Lantern is better overall.

Alpine Moon is for the Lotus Field deck. Don’t know anything else I would bring it in against.

Ceremonious Rejection is mainly for the Karn, the Great Creator decks. It can counter Karn or most of the things he grabs from the board.

Fry is to deal with Narset, Parter of Veils . I’m not sure which other Planeswalkers are played in Pioneer. Not sure what else it hits but could come in handy.

Magma Spray is just another burn spell for small creatures. Like mana dorks and such. It really shines against the recur-able threats in mono-black aggro like Bloodsoaked Champion , Scrapheap Scrounger , and Dread Wanderer . It can also help against Lurrus decks.

Lava Coil can take care of some bigger threats the deck normally has problems with like Steel Leaf Champion and Omnath, Locus of Creation .

Spell Pierce is just a catch all, good against counter spells, Planeswalkers, and removal spells.

Aether Gust is good against 5-Color Niv, Kroxa, mono-green, and Lovestruck Beast . Among other things.

Fevered Visions I copied from claudiohmtg. It’s good against control decks. It’s a non-creature threat that doesn’t die to sweepers. It’s also my favorite card of all time.

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Top Ranked	Achieved #15 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Pioneer 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Pioneer legal.
Rarity (main - side)	23 - 4 Rares 20 - 7 Uncommons 10 - 4 Commons
Cards	61
Avg. CMC	1.88