Claw Pact **Primer**

Pioneer Blink Competitive Counters Creatureless Enchantment Exile Prison Value Engine Yorion, Sky Nomad

Kelvin-escesare

Enchantment (30)

• 4x Chained to the Rocks
• 3x Demonic Pact
• 1x Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip
• 4x Fires of Invention
• 4x Leyline Binding
• 2x Lithoform Blight
• 1x Nine Lives
• 1x Oath of Kaya
• 3x Pacifism
• 1x Skybind
• 1x Solemnity
• 1x Sphere of Safety
• 1x Temporary Lockdown
• 1x Trial of Ambition
• 2x Witness Protection

Artifact (4)

• 1x Sorcerous Spyglass
• 3x Wishclaw Talisman

Land (36)

• 4x Blood Crypt
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 3x Drowned Catacomb
• 4x Fabled Passage
• 4x Godless Shrine
• 1x Island
• 4x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mountain
• 2x Plains
• 4x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 4x Savai Triome
• 1x Shambling Vent
• 2x Swamp

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Karn, the Great Creator

Instant (1)

• 1x Leave / Chance

Companion (1)

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Harmless Offering
• 1x Necromentia
• 1x Supreme Verdict

Creature (2)

• 1x Skyclave Apparition
• 1x Yorion, Sky Nomad

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Sideboard

Artifact (7)

• 1x Damping Sphere
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x The Immortal Sun
• 1x The Stone Brain
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

Creature (3)

• 1x Archon of Sun's Grace
• 1x Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
• 1x Yorion, Sky Nomad

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Rest in Peace

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Oketra's Last Mercy
• 1x Storm's Wrath
• 1x Supreme Verdict

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Displacement Wave
• 1x River's Rebuke
• 1x The Elderspell
• 1x Thought Distortion

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Lich's Mastery
• 1x Mirrormade
• 1x Shark Typhoon

Creature (1)

• 1x Archon of Sun's Grace

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ashiok, Nightmare Muse

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Mainboard Discussion

There are so many combos/synergies, it's too hard to describe without a chart

Of the combos described above, the most important are Wishclaw Talisman one-card combo (see below), Yorion, Sky Nomad and Skybind infinitely blinking each other (repeatedly triggering all our ETBs and also exiling X permanents equal to how many enchantments we control), and donating Demonic Pact. Additional details about the combos:

Wishclaw Talisman is a one-card combo:

• Just tutor Skybind to blink Claw back to our board. Now we can tutor an enchantment every turn and play it, blinking Claw back with Skybind trigger.

• After setting up Claw + Skybind:

  • Double tutor flash trick: Claw can actually tutor two cards in a turn without giving to our opponent. We simply tutor something end step and play an instant speed enchantment to blink Claw back.
  • Double tutor copy trick: (1) Tutor Mirrormade copying Claw. (2) Tutor and play another enchantment. (3) Blink Mirrormade with Skybind trigger. (4) Mirrormade returns copying an enchantment. (5) Blink original Claw with Skybind trigger.

• For using Claw without downside (or even upside), we can tutor Displacement Wave (if X >= 2, we bounce Wishclaw too), Teferi, Time Raveler (bounce Claw), Hostage Taker (exile and replay Claw), Ashiok, Dream Render (opponent can't search). In a pinch, we can tutor for something with Claw and use Sorcerous Spyglass/Pithing Needle to deactivate Claw.

• Fires of Invention greatly speeds up this combo. If we don't have Fires but already have 3feri, Hostage Taker, Displacement Wave, or Skybind, we can simply tutor Fires with Claw and then use the other card to get Claw back.
• Sometimes we can just use Claw as regular old Demonic Tutor. Giving our opponent Wishclaw doesn't matter if we already won the game.

Nine Lives is a powerful prison piece on its own, and typically if we tutor it with Claw, it time walks our opponent 2+ turns (since there are no relevant answers to Lives). Additional combos:

• Nine Lives + Solemnity: If we tutor Lives with Claw, our opponent might tutor something to try speed up their clock. Then we use Claw again to tutor Solemnity for the soft lock.
• Nine Lives + Sphere of Safety: If our opponent can still attack, it's a 9 turn clock.
• Nine Lives + Harmless Offering: Let Nine Lives accumulate up to 8 counters, then donate. Then we can simply deal a few damage to win the game
  • Nine Lives + Harmless Offering + Displacement Wave: The spicier way to win
  • Nine Lives + Harmless Offering + Teferi, Time Raveler: The spiciest option. With Nine Lives's sacrifice trigger on the stack, donate it with instant speed Harmless (using 3feri's +1). Opponent loses the game instead.

Links

Streamer SquaChief helped take this to its first 5-0 finish (league results), among many other good league results.

Also check out Modern Claw Curse **Primer** and the O.G. Claw Prison **Primer** featured by SaffronOlive.

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position in Pioneer Combo 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	1 year
Splash colors	UR
Legality	This deck is not Pioneer legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 2 Mythic Rares 54 - 10 Rares 5 - 3 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	80
Avg. CMC	3.23
Tokens	Copy Clone, Goblin Shaman, Human 1/1 W, Illusion X/X U, Pegasus 2/2 W, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	2) Pioneer: Brewing, Pre cool, Frontier, Competitive Pioneer