Pioneer’s Tier 2 Is Some Of The Most Fun You Can Have In Magic

I used to do a series of articles called “The Modern Bucket List.” It basically consisted of all the sweet, fun, and cool ideas that were possible in Modern but likely weren’t good enough to ever be close to Tier 1. Although I haven’t written one of those articles in a while, it hasn’t stopped me from keeping a close eye on what’s possible in Modern and that’s been extended to Pioneer as well. 

This weekend, I’m heading to CommandFest DC and, although Commander isn’t my thing, I do want to hang out with friends and play some Magic. I decided the best way to do that was to build a bunch of fun Pioneer decks. These are decks that I’ve had my eye on for a while, some of which I’ve actually played and refined and some of which I’ve even featured on our YouTube channel.

Consider this the Pioneer Bucket List.

The thing I’ve built the most around is Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven, despite the format basically never being in a place where slow, grindy resource accumulation is what decides who wins. 

Cat/Oven can be used alongside graveyard-centric cards like Prized Amalgam; with more artifacts and Emry, Lurker of the Loch (although that’s less appealing with Smuggler’s Copter out of the picture); and even with Trail of Crumbs and a grindier setup. It’s one of the best sacrifice outlets to use alongside Hangarback Walker and Stitcher’s Supplier, plus it’s compact, is easy on your mana curve, and has plenty of cross-synergies. 

What’s not to love?

I’m not bringing sideboards with me for these decks, although there are… certain exceptions. Just imagine that it’s disruption for combo and good removal for aggro and you won’t be that far off.

Anyway, the genesis of this deck came from wondering what I could do with Evolutionary Leap. Voice of Resurgence and Hangarback Walker were the two cards that came to mind, but Cauldron Familiar itself is very strong with Evolutionary Leap. From there, I had to decide on what direction to go and I chose to be as grindy as possible. 

Vessel of Nascency is a card I love building around. Delirium is a fun mechanic, as are the graveyard synergies as a whole. The fact that you can use it as a searching tool for combo pieces like Witch’s Oven or Trail of Crumbs is icing. 

With Evolutionary Leap, I wanted to maximize my hits. In this deck, you can guarantee that every single creature you hit will provide you value in some way and is also one you don’t mind sacrificing to keep the chain going. Cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, while powerful, aren’t what I’m looking for.

The other version of Cat/Oven is basically a Standard deck.

You could also take a graveyard-centric approach to this version with Vessel of Nascency and Ishkanah, Grafwidow, but I wanted to differentiate the decks from each other and give people a unique experience. 

Trying to curve Llanowar Elves into Mayhem Devil isn’t easy but this deck still does a pretty good job of it. More mana creatures and getting upgrades like Grim Haruspex and Liliana, Heretical Healer were what lead to me wanting to try this deck in the first place and I’m relatively happy with it. Liliana, in particular, is one of the best possible things you can be doing alongside Witch’s Oven and tends to overperform in general.

I also have a third Cat/Oven deck I’d like to share, although it’s not one I’ll be bringing with me. A person can only own so many Cauldron Familiars.

The idea of Cat/Oven alongside Collected Company, Grim Haruspex, and Liliana, Heretical Healer is appealing to me except for the lack of great two- and three-mana creatures. We could lean harder into three-drops with Mayhem Devil but Prized Amalgam is pretty sweet and I wanted to play Oko. Four colors seemed like a stretch, but with more artifacts and Spire of Industry, it could be doable. 

This deck is a little awkward because it doesn’t have enough self-mill or discard to make me happy about playing Prized Amalgam but we could easily slot in Satyr Wayfinder if we wanted to. Emry, Lurker of the Loch is also probably a two-mana card in this deck, which is fine but not ideal. Maybe Mayhem Devil over Oko is correct.

It sure is strange to play Collected Company and one-drops as our only green cards, but here we are.

Another favorite of mine is Arclight Phoenix.

Traditionally, Arclight Phoenix decks have used red-based removal as both cheap interaction and cheap ways to help return Phoenixes. There’s not necessarily any reason to be red specifically and there’s plenty of reason to think you can get by on blue cards alone. 

This version is more concerned about racing than it is playing longer games, mostly because you can’t permanently deal with what your opponent is doing. Thankfully, Merfolk Secretkeeper, Void Snare, and Creeping Chill do a good job of allowing you to race. 

Self-mill powering Treasure Cruise is very powerful but potentially disastrous if you don’t draw Treasure Cruise itself. Thankfully, we have a fifth copy in Dig Through Time and Mission Briefing, which will allow you to cast multiple Treasure Cruises per game with ease. Drowned Secrets is the main reason for being mono-blue and also allows you to power through your deck quickly. It can even be an alternate win condition in the face of graveyard hate.

Void Snare over Unsummon might seem weird but it’s a clean out to Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace in sideboard games, plus you do most of your spellcasting on your main phase because of Arclight Phoenix anyway. Regardless, being able to bounce Merfolk Secretkeeper is quite good and means that it’s very rarely a dead card.

When you’re casting multiple Treasure Cruises, it’s not uncommon for your hand to clog up with multiple Arclight Phoenixes and Creeping Chills. Having a discard outlet from the graveyard was of the utmost importance. I tried Radical Idea because it fit the Arclight Phoenix theme but sometimes discarding one card wasn’t enough. Stitchwing Skaab was the perfect answer because it’s basically like another Arclight Phoenix. Once I found that solution, I was very happy with the deck overall. 

Mono-Blue isn’t the only Arclight Phoenix deck I’m bringing either.

Non-blue Phoenix decks are rare but they’ve shown up on occasion. The main issue is that those decks are decent at bringing back their Arclight(s) on Turn 3 or 4 but rarely good at doing it again a few turns later. Sadly, this deck is more of the same. 

In the end, it might be stronger as a deck without Arclight Phoenix at all. You could make a case for Arclight Phoenix not accomplishing much in this deck because the clock isn’t relevant when you’re planning to win big with Emrakul, the Promised End and I mostly agree with that. However, it does give you a unique angle of attack against midrange and control, plus Arclight is good at keeping planeswalkers in check. 

Maybe leaning into the Pyromancer’s Goggles aspect of the deck with Thrill of Possibility, Fiery Temper, and Fall of the Titan would make Arclight Phoenix stronger and worthy of inclusion.

Draw cards, counter spells, etc. There’s always someone who wants to play this type of deck, so why not?

Versions of this deck were among some of my earliest Pioneer brews before I fully understood how broken the format truly was. Unfortunately, without direct answers to Oko and Nissa, something like this will constantly be at a deficit, especially with Wicked Wolf in the mix. 

Still, Young Pyromancer and Goblin Rabblemaster provide more than enough fuel for Stoke the Flames, so you just need to find a payoff. Jeskai Ascendancy fits that bill and even more so with Treasure Cruise still legal. There might be a stronger option, but if you want to relive old Standard, this is a fine gateway to do that.

This is another deck that’s close to being playable. You have disruption, a clock, card advantage, and good sideboard options. Losing Smuggler’s Copter certainly hurt but it hurt everyone else more. 

How many big things are too many? In this deck, there is no such thing. 

I’m actually kind of annoyed because we have words like “Reanimator” to describe bringing big things out of your graveyard but there’s a distinct lack of nomenclature for decks like Sneak and Show, Mono-Red Sneak Attack, and decks with Through the Breach, Unexpected Results, and Dubious Challenge. Someone needs to fix that.

Anyway, Pioneer oddly has enough overlap in the acceleration and the payoffs that something along these lines might be viable. Thoughtseize can be a pain but you have plenty of redundancy. Winning the game on Turn 3 is possible and creating virtual Turn 3 kills isn’t difficult. 

Adding green to the deck for Dragonlord Atarka gives you more game for the creature decks while also allowing you to sideboard Domri, Anarch of Bolas to decimate control decks. 

There are various Seasons Past / Dark Petition decklists out there but do we actually need the green cards? 

This deck is going to suffer against Simic Nexus and the like, but you can maindeck a copy of Lost Legacy if it ever became popular. Other than those sorts of issues, you have all the good disruption and removal in the format alongside one of the best tutors in Dark Petition. This deck could be legitimately great if it figures out the right configuration of cards each week. 

Ideally, I would have kept the deck more “pure” with fewer creatures but Gifted Aetherborn and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet are better against the creature decks than most of the removal spells are. You still have that Mono-Black Control feel of tutoring up a massive Corrupt at some point to stabilize you or end the game outright, so I can live with it. 

Sometimes you need a sideboard for best-of-one. If I were preparing for a tournament, I could easily shave some of these redundant sideboard cards, but they each seem like fun and relevant options. Locking your opponent out of the game with Teferi, Time Raveler and Possibility Storm or Narset, Parter of Veils and Day’s Undoing is an excellent dream and one that this deck makes reality. Even casting Karn’s Temporal Sundering would give me great joy. 

Realistically, this deck is very close to be playing and various iterations of it have put up decent finishes on Magic Online already. Some fine-tuning is really all that’s needed, which is what I’ve tried to accomplish here, at least with the maindeck. I still have some fun-ofs in my deck but some of those could easily become another copy of Mizzium Mortars, which would go a long way. 

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t propose at least one deck with Cryptbreaker and this isn’t the article where you should expect a “normal” Cryptbreaker decklist.

Overall, I haven’t found a payoff for the self-mill cards in Pioneer that can compete with things like Oko, Thief of Crowns and Nissa, Who Shakes the World. This list at least comes close. 

There’s not really a direct payoff for being (almost) exclusively Zombies but Cryptbreaker and Diregraf Colossus do matter. Diregraf Colossus, in particular, is important because it can become a huge threat that also enables The Great Henge. Molderhulk is the other piece of that puzzle and also has its own merit alongside Memorial to Folly. Once you produce enough threats, the back half of Driven // Despair will end the game easily. 

I could see a build of the deck that utilizes Gather the Pack over Vessel of Nascency or Satyr Wayfinder. Being able to use Vessel to find The Great Henge is appealing, as is being able to hit your land drops with Satyr Wayfinder. 

This deck could probably use some maindeck interaction like Abrupt Decay or Dark Salvation but it’s a great starting point and also some of the most fun I’ve had in a while.