What have you been playing?
Pioneer forum
Posted on Jan. 11, 2020, 8 a.m. by Argy
What Pioneer decks have you been playing at your LGS?
What have been their good and bad matchups?
I've played Mono Blue Ensoul and Mono Red Burn.
Ensoul has done very well. Only real problem for it was Mardu Vehicles.
Burn I didn't play as aggressively as I should have. It did very poorly.
I've made some Sideboard changes to the Burn deck, and practiced with it a tonne, so I'll see if I can do better with it this week.
Although, if Azorius Control is being played, the Blue deck is a better match up.
Decision time!
I've been playing Pioneer Esper Planeswalker Control and so far I only lose to eight whack. I think throwing some Cry of the Carnarium in the side would make it a better matchup, but turn two swing for ten is hard to deal with.
January 12, 2020 7:26 p.m.
Epidilius, I am looking at the 8 Rack list. How are they swinging for 10 on turn 2?
January 13, 2020 9:13 a.m.
Argy, I have been playing mono blue devotion. The list that you see posted most often wasn’t getting the job done. I swapped the set of Curious Obsession out in favor of a play set of Wizard's Retort . In this deck is basically Counterspell . I also removed things like Spell Pierce and Dive Down . There just weren’t enough moment’s where they go the job done. I added in more Brazen Borrower and went to a full set of Harbinger of the Tides . Even if I am not bouncing and tapping a lot of stuff for tempo plays I am usually playing my stuff at opponent’s end step so I can leave counter mana up for things I honestly cannot deal with.
I find control to be a decent matchup for me most of the time, as long as I keep Teferi, Time Raveler off the board. I can outlast most of my burn matchups.
Things I have trouble beating are dredge and Gruul aggro. As long as I can stick a Grafdigger's Cage , I can close out games 2 and 3 against dredge with minimal stress. Against the Gruul deck, I can slow them with Tidebinder Mage , but between Gruul Spellbreaker and Embercleave , I have trouble keeping my life above 0. Steel Leaf Champion is also stupid good against this.
January 13, 2020 9:31 a.m.
capriom85 thanks for the detailed answer. It was very interesting.
Epidilius I'd like to know how 8 Whack is hitting for 10 by Turn 2, as well.
January 13, 2020 8:59 p.m.
Daveslab2022 says... #7
8 wack can attack for 10 utilizing any one drop they play (I’ll use Foundry Street Denizen as my example)
T1 FSD, T2 Burning-Tree Emissary , Burning-Tree Emissary , Reckless Bushwhacker and that is 14 damage. 5 from FSD, and 3 from everything else.
With no 1 drop it’s 9 damage. With any other 1 drop it’s 11.
If you drop 1 burning tree emissary, you hit for 8.
January 13, 2020 9:07 p.m. Edited.
Pretty much what Dave said. At my LGS there is a burn player, 8 whack player, a mono black aggro player, a Kethis player, and a guy who has yet to bring the same deck twice in a row.
Burn is a piece of cake. Any of the life gain spells spell the end for the deck, Jace, Architect of Thought takes away a lot of its power, even just hitting a board wipe on T4 is often enough.
Mono aggro is also pretty easy to beat (even before the Copter ban). I treat the matchup like burn, focus on gaining a bit of life and killing their creatures, and eventually grind the win.
Kethis is usually pretty bad game 1. The best thing I can do is focus on killing Kethises and hope they stall. Game 2 I bring in RiP and Ashiok and if I land either I tend to win. The bans have made the deck a lot worse as well.
8 whack is definitely the hardest. The path to victory I've found here is mulligan to removal spells, and then take out their most efficient beaters. But the explosive hands this deck can have are insane. I think it can actually win T2 with a nut hand and no opposition (and my T1 is usually "Play this tapped shock land).
The guy who brings new stuff has brought in Azorius control, delve, and an emerge deck. Control was tight, but I finally landed a little Teferi and snowballed to victory. Delve was hard. The 3/3s that can be cast from exile were hard for me to deal with. I won in 3, but it was pretty lucky. I don't really remember how emerge played out (it was the first deck he brought), but I won in 3.
January 13, 2020 10:06 p.m.
Epidilius does the Burn player not use Rampaging Ferocidon ?
That's how I stay ahead of the life gain in Approach of the Second Sun decks.
I have also found that a lot of Burn decks aren't really Burn these days.
They run a lot of Creatures instead of the brilliant 3 drop spells that deal 4 damage.
Daveslab2022 I did not take Burning-Tree Emissary into consideration.
Makes sense.
I have six 1 drop spells in my Burn deck that can deal 2 damage. I wonder if that would help by getting rid of the first Creature?
January 13, 2020 11:18 p.m.
The burn player runs Tibalt instead. I think it's a fair replacement, since it doesn't die to my Oath of Kaya or a lot of my removal spells.
January 13, 2020 11:47 p.m.
Well that seems like an inconsistent situation, but even when you see it, I think the only thing you can do is hope for a hand with at least 2 cheap removal spells like Fatal Push and Cast Down , land to cat, and some draw stuff to refill you. That’s a rough beat, though.
January 14, 2020 7:23 a.m.
Epidilius I go with Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh Flip in my deck.
It's not unheard of for her to deal 9 damage in one turn.
She's also great for killing other Planeswalkers.
January 14, 2020 12:50 p.m.
Ive played lots of decks (FNM regularly). Was playing Monogreen ramp. It was ok but only 2-2 usually. Monoblack aggro was better 3-1. Played Monored devotion. Could be good but sometimes land was an issue, requiring several mulligans to get a playable hand. Might try UR phoenix or monored prowess next. The pioneer meta is so varied (and fun) now, sometimes it depends on matchups as to how you go.
January 18, 2020 5:17 a.m.
Big Fat green creatures. its been solid every game i've played so far... it has crushed every aggro deck i've played against except one match vs monoblack aggro. every (nonmana dork) creature hits the board as a decent sized threat and it just keeps running thru. i wanna see how i do against some of the newer decks tho and my local metagame isn't diverse enough to test better
February 4, 2020 5:52 p.m.
magwaaf what are the main decks being played at your LGS?
February 6, 2020 7:30 a.m.
depends on the store. alot of red aggro/gruul aggro/monoblack. there's a few other control decks and a phoenix deck. the store im going to sunday all i've seen is soulflayer, monoblack aggro (nonvampire), alot of random crap.... and some uro deck i smashed too fast to see it do anything
Daveslab2022 says... #2
My buddy has the U/w fliers deck and a home brewed Jund Midrange at our LGS. U/w deck is powerful, Jund is meh.
January 11, 2020 1:38 p.m.