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5 New Pioneer decks to try after the release of Dominaria United
Dominaria United was released a few weeks ago, but it has already had a very big impact on Pioneer , bringing new archetypes and strengthening others. This week I'm going to talk a little about 5 decks that have gained important tools to compete with the other tiers.
Elves
Starting with a historic game tribe that has seen play in practically all existing formats: Elves!
https://mtgdecks.net/Other/elves-decklist-by-lucas-giggs-1453869
In Pioneer, one of the best turn one cards you can play is Llanowar Elves/Elvish Mystic, and this deck really takes advantage of that, whether it's making a Steel Leaf Champion to put huge pressure on the opponent from the get-go, or simply doubling up on threats in the early turns. The deck existed before Dominaria, but the addition of another lord really took the deck to the next level, making it more explosive and resilient. Also, Collected Company is still a great card and in this deck it ends up being optimized by the synergy between the cards.
The deck also benefits from Nykthos' incredible power, making really unfair plays like activating Elvish Warmaster's ability to increase the power of all your Elves, summoning a legion of Elvish Clancallers to strengthen the power of your whole tribe, or simply swallowing your opponent in card advantage with the help of Realmwalker. There's no doubt that it's a deck that has become more respected and is showing that it can be one of the format's top decks.
Paradox Combo
https://mtgdecks.net/Other/temur-paradox-decklist-by-lucas-giggs-1453871
This deck is not as simple as it seems and requires a great deal of skill from its player to make it work. Often you will have cards that are individually weak, but together create a powerful synergy that wins many games.
It's funny to note that in this list, the author chose not to use any Llanowar Elves or Elvish Mystic to speed up the plays in turn one and focused more on the synergy between the artifacts and cards like Adventure Impulse to find the combo pieces.
An interesting addition to Dominaria United was Meria, Scholar of Antiquity, who serves as a kind of Urza in this deck, making your other artifacts mana rocks and having the ability to play cards from the top of your library, making it hard for you to run out of gas during the game.
In addition, Karn continues to be excellent in the format and in this deck he becomes very important, fetching combo pieces from the sideboard or even cards that make your opponent's life much harder, like God Pharaoh's Gift.
5 Color fires of invention
https://mtgdecks.net/Other/5c-fires-of-invention-decklist-by-lucas-giggs-1453867
Every now and then Yorion Fires pops up as a contender in some tournament, but it's never really been one of the top tiers in the format. Dominaria brought us an excellent card for the archetype that has great synergy with the deck's purpose: Leyline Binding.
Thanks to the presence of several Triomes and Nylea's Presence, the enchantment can be cast for just one mana. She solves a lot of problems the deck has trouble dealing with, especially planeswalkers. And later, when we have Enigmatic Incarnation in play, we can sacrifice it to bring some bomb to the battlefield, being an Agent of Treachery or a Titan of Industry.
Eldrazi Aggro
https://mtgdecks.net/Other/gr-eldrazi-decklist-by-lucas-giggs-1453870
We've had some attempts at Eldrazi decks in the format, without much success. But the presence of Karplusan Forest brought something that many archetype players have been clamoring for for years: the ability to speed up the plays, making Elves on turn one and also having more lands that generate colorless mana.
Mateusf34 is a close friend, an excellent player, and, like me, a lover of colorless monsters.
This list has the best we can want for an archetype list: aggressive, with midrange elements, cards that win games by themselves and that are difficult to answer with Reality Smasher and Hazoret. If you like decks like this, I strongly recommend you play some games.
Golgari Midrange
https://mtgdecks.net/Other/golgari-midrange-decklist-by-lucas-giggs-1453868
I couldn't write this article without mentioning the card that's had the biggest impact on the format so far: Liliana of the Veil.
The card has seen a lot of play in Modern and there's no reason to think it would be any different in Pioneer. It's been appearing a lot in decks like Rakdos Midrange and Monoblack Devotion , but Golgari Midrange has been appearing in some Magic Online tournaments and now it's gotten a lot stronger thanks to the planeswalker.
The deck plays a lot like its older brother Rakdos, but with more efficient removal like Abrupt Decay (good against Liliana herself). It also improves your match against control decks, which are usually a pain for midrange decks. It's been impacting the meta so much that many decks have started running very specific cards against it, like Nullhide Ferox and even forgotten Loxodon Smiter .
Final words
Dominaria United was released a few weeks ago, but it's already made a huge change in Pioneer, strengthening existing decks and bringing new archetypes. This is great, the format was really needing it. See you next week!
If you liked this article maybe you will also find interesting on of the following ones The Lost Caverns of Ixalan: Best Pioneer and Standard Cards, March of the Machine: Most Promising cards for Standard and Pioneer
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Hi, my name is Lucas de Almeida Hervás. I'm 31 years old, married, and I live in Indaiatuba/SP, Brazil. I've been playing Magic the Gathering since 2009, but I've been making a living off of it since 2019 through leagues and tournaments on Magic Online. For those who don't know me, I'm 2.17 meters tall, hence the nickname "the tallest Magic player in Brazil."
