Pioneer launched with a diverse metagame that made targeted sideboarding difficult, so early sideboards developed full of generically broad answers and largely traditional sideboard cards. Cards like Noxious Grasp, Duress, Negate, and Unravel the Aether are common, as they allow for easy tuning against a variety of decks. As the metagame stabilizes, we have the ability to choose narrower and more focused cards to beat the best decks, but that space is somewhat underdeveloped. So much of our reaction to a deck’s success is to discuss and anticipate banning that we can lag behind in scouring the archives for answers. Today, I want to go over some of the top Pioneer decks and look at the cards that I expect to be most effective at attacking them.
Over the last two weeks, Mono-Black has risen to the top of the format as the deck to beat, as evidenced by its occupying almost 20% of the metagame according to MTGTop8.com, so I’ll start there and then move on to the other top decks according to their metagame breakdown.
Target: Mono-Black Aggro
Mono-Black Aggro is an amazing deck. We’ve seen decks like this before, but the last deck that was anything like this that I can think of that was even close to widely being considered a top archetype in any format was Black Devotion in Theros Standard. This deck has a lower curve and much more aggressive focus. To my mind, this deck is essentially built around Castle Locthwain and Mutavault, and the best way to support those cards together is to have a low curve of aggressive creatures, since you want to empty your hand and Mutavault is best as an aggressive card.
(As a side note, it’s amazing how much Pioneer is driven by special lands. Most of the best decks are just the best shells for cards like Mutavault; Castle Locthwain; Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx; Field of the Dead; and to a lesser extent Sanctum of Ugin and Westvale Abbey.)
Mono-Black Aggro has good, cheap maindeck interaction in Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Murderous Rider, and Rankle, Master of Pranks along with resilient threats in Bloodsoaked Champion, Scrapheap Scrounger, and Smuggler’s Copter. Night Market Lookout is surprisingly good in races and Knight of the Ebon Legion fights well against opposing creatures. “Disruption plus pressure” is the basic algorithm for beating combo decks, and after this deck sideboards up to eight one-mana discard spells with Rankle at the top end, it really exemplifies that. I believe this deck is currently keeping combo decks built around cards like Wilderness Reclamation, Fires of Invention, and Jeskai Ascendancy in check.
So how does one beat this deck?
Grinding them out is difficult, since so many of their threats come back and Mutavault and Smuggler’s Copter live through sweepers and Castle Locthwain keeps threats flowing. This means you need to focus on ending the game or going way over the top (which ends the game). While I haven’t played the matchup, I expect Mono-Red to fare pretty well against this deck, as Mono-Red historically runs over black aggro and cards like Abrade, Searing Blood, and Goblin Chainwhirler look like they line up pretty well against this deck.
Mono-Green similarly looks like it could outclass this deck, but the popularity of sideboard cards like Noxious Grasp and Blightbeetle seem to currently put black on top.
I also imagine a white-based aggro deck built around cards like History of Benalia and Venerated Loxodon should line up well against this deck, but I haven’t really seen that attempted (side note: Mutavault is probably better than Benalish Marshal).
Those are good strategic answers, but if you already know what archetype you want to play, you’re probably looking for a tactical answer, a sideboard card that lines up really well against this deck rather than a deck that you choose because it has a good matchup against Mono-Black Aggro, and I have some ideas.
First, we see that this archetype is getting somewhat inbred, with players turning to cards like Fourth Bridge Prowler, Dark Betrayal, and even Infernal Reckoning to get an edge in the mirror. Those cards line up well and anyone with black mana can use them, though you benefit less from Fourth Bridge Prowler if you don’t have Vehicles. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is another popular option that’s exactly the kind of thing you want against this deck, a big trump that can turn the corner quickly.
For everyone else, I believe the best colorless cards against this deck are Ratchet Bomb and Aethersphere Harvester.
Ratchet Bomb in particular should be used more by green decks that have a problem with Blightbeetle, as it offers a reasonably clean answer to it that also lines up reasonably well against the rest of their deck, and it’s a versatile enough card that you’ll likely find use for it in other matchups. Aethersphere Harvester lines up extremely well against their deck because a lot of their offense comes from 3/3 flyers in Rankle and Smuggler’s Copter, and it costs enough that they have to find a way to trigger revolt to Fatal Push it. Lifelink is also clearly fantastic against them. I think Aethersphere Harvester, since it can be used by basically any deck with creatures, might currently be the most underplayed sideboard card in the format, particularly while Mono-Black Aggro is the deck to beat.
White deck’s best options are Apostle of Purifying Light, Devout Decree, and Surge of Righteousness for really dedicated hate. I don’t generally like advocating for five-mana spells against aggro decks, but the fact that a five-mana creature can’t be Fatal Pushed or Duressed might be enough to make me consider Lyra Dawnbringer and Archangel Avacyn as good ways to turn the corner against them if I have the early-game covered. Still, I’m worried about their inevitability. Enchantment based removal like Silkwrap or Detention Sphere also works relatively well against black, but that’s not going to turn a matchup around. As for gold cards, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper is also pretty appealing.
If you’re looking for blue cards that line up well against black, I don’t have great news for you. I’m not sure what you’re hoping for. Bounce and counterspells don’t match up well against one- and two-mana creatures. Maybe you’ll be excited to learn that Sensory Deprivation is legal and a playable answer against some of their threats that could buy you some time? Honestly, the best blue card I can think of against them is Tempest Djinn. Maybe The Scarab God? If you’re interested in hearing me out on gold cards, there’s some hope for Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver if you back it up with cheap removal.
Red’s generally looking to win this matchup strategically just by going under them, but in addition to the cards I mentioned above, Anger of the Gods and Glorybringer seem pretty good.
The best green cards I can think of to combat this archetype specifically are Atzocan Archer and Ishkanah, Grafwidow. I imagine you’re already playing Ishkanah if your deck supports it, but Atzocan Archer could actually be a pretty respectable upgrade for some decks.
Moving on to the next big player…
Target: Field of the Dead
Castle Locthwain offers a lot of extra late-game power, but for inevitability, it has very little on Field of the Dead. Against Mono-Black Aggro, you’re trying to stay alive and then turn the corner, but against Field of the Dead, you want to either kill them as swiftly as possible, shut down their engine, or win in a way that ignores their Zombies.
Killing them is straightforward, and you should know how likely your deck is to do that. Presumably this involves a combination of early creatures and burn or evasion. Similarly, winning in a way that ignores their Zombies, such as by comboing off with Jeskai Ascendancy, isn’t really going to be a sideboard plan. That will beat them Strategically if it beats them. Again, I’m trying to focus primarily on beating them tactically, and that generally means shutting them down. How can we do that?
Alpine Moon is a clean answer to Field of the Dead’s Zombie generation. It’s fragile, but if you don’t believe your opponent will be prepared for it, it can steal a game by crippling the functionality of their deck. Virulent Plague accomplishes essentially the same thing.
Unmoored Ego and Crumble to Dust are the most reliable ways to answer all of your opponent’s copies of Field of the Dead. Unfortunately, every other card in Pioneer that’s like this can’t hit lands.
You can use Ashiok, Dream Render or Aven Mindcensor to prevent Hour of Promise and try to stop your opponent from finding Field of the Dead, but those aren’t very reliable, particularly in the face of Once Upon a Time and Elvish Rejuvenator.
It won’t always solve the problem, but cards like Field of Ruin or Casualties of War that answer lands can certainly help against these decks.
If these tools aren’t available to you, your best bet is just going to be increasing your effective pressure, and creatures with both haste and evasion like Rankle, Master of Pranks; Questing Beast; and Glorybringer (can anyone cast Mantis Rider?) are likely the best ways to do that.
Target: Green Devotion
Despite a downtick lately, Green Devotion is still among the top decks in Pioneer. Because the deck plays entirely to the battlefield, sweepers are highly effective against Green Devotion. This means cards like Anger of the Gods, Kozilek’s Return, Radiant Flames, Kaya’s Wrath, Supreme Verdict, and Ritual of Soot are all great.
One-mana removal to kill their Elves is a good start, but still just a one-for-one trade, and you’ll need more than that to avoid getting run over by their planeswalkers, which are also their best tools against sweepers.
Blightbeetle has emerged as likely the best card in the format against this deck despite vulnerability to a preemptive Walking Ballista, which is not surprising since the Ballista can be killed and then this deck as typically constructed has no answer to the Beetle (see: previous suggestion to include Ratchet Bomb).
Noxious Grasp is the best removal spell on rate against them because it can kill their planeswalkers, and Massacre Girl also seems like a pretty good sweeper, since the body pressures their planeswalkers after clearing their board.
Continuing the theme of answers to creatures that can also attack planeswalkers, Hunt the Hunter has seen some adaptation to combat the mirror match. Setessan Tactics is another option, but I think the games snowball enough that this seems less appealing to me.
I think cards like Liliana, the Last Hope and Plaguemare that attack Elves, but only too late to really matter, are very much the wrong way to approach the matchup, and I wouldn’t generally advise bringing them in even if they’re in your sideboard for other reasons.
Target: Azorius Control
While it hasn’t gotten as much attention from what I’ve seen, Azorius Control is fairly popular. This deck’s primary removal is Azorius Charm and Supreme Verdict, typically supported by Blessed Alliance and Cast Out. The rest of the deck is mostly card draw/selection (usually Opt and Dig Through Time) plus planeswalkers (Jace, Architect of Thought; Narset, Parter of Veils; Elspeth, Sun’s Champion; Teferi, Time Raveler; and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria) and counterspells (especially Absorb and Syncopate).
My list of cards that first come to mind as good against this deck is remarkably similar to a list of cards in Mono-Black Aggro: Thoughtseize, Duress, Vehicles, recursive threats, Castle Locthwain, and Mutavault. Tireless Tracker, Elvish Rejuvenator and Field of the Dead also seem pretty good to me. Still, this deck has some results, so it’s likely better than I think it looks in these matchups.
In the “if you can’t beat them, join them” space, cards I’d most want in my deck against this deck include Teferi, Time Raveler and Dovin’s Veto, as well as Mystical Dispute. Any Gideon or creature-land also seems useful as a way to pressure their planeswalkers. Lumbering Falls in particular appeals here, though I admit that that would be an unusual sideboard card; still, you might consider prioritizing it over other lands if you’re concerned with beating Azorius Control.
Repeatable card advantage engines like Treasure Map, Arguel’s Blood Fast, and most three-mana planeswalkers are always good against this kind of deck, as are flash threats.
This is a well-rounded, yet extremely typical control deck. Attacking them should largely rely on conventional wisdom.
Target: Izzet Ensoul
Izzet Ensoul is the Pioneer take on Affinity. Cheap artifact creatures with artifact synergies make them hit hard, and a bunch of Shrapnel Blasts add reach. Most of the times this deck connects, it’s going to take a big chunk of your life total, even though it typically plays around ten one-power creatures. Between Ensoul Artifact, Skilled Animator, and Ghostfire Blade, attacks are typically going to pack a punch. However, these attacks all require a real investment. Typically, they need multiple cards together to function. Even Smuggler’s Copter requires another creature (not that that’s a difficult bar in this deck).
The result of this is that sweepers and lifegain are relatively ineffective compared to how good they typically are against aggressive decks, but spot removal goes a long way. Infernal Reckoning is by far the best removal spell against them, followed by Unravel the Aether because both ignore Darksteel Citadel’s indestructibility while answering any of their threats, but any Shatter or Naturalize effect will serve you well, as will Fatal Push or Legion’s End. Even a bounce spell like Brazen Borrower is fantastic here.
This deck has a pretty high threat density. This isn’t like Hexproof where you can sometimes beat them by answering their one threat because the rest of their draw is all Auras. This deck won’t fold to a single removal spell, even if that spell generates a clean two-for-one. They’ll reliably just create another large threat.
That means you need to be racing and using your removal to win the race, where it will function as a big tempo swing in addition to source of card advantage, or you need a lot of removal to stop each of their attempts to generate a bit hit. You also really want your answers to be both cheap and instant to have the best chance against Metallic Rebuke and Stubborn Denial.
If you have a difficult matchup here and few slots, you can try to use a higher impact-card like By Force, but that’s a much less reliable approach.
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I believe that covers the most popular decks at the moment. While the format seems to me to be largely driven by aspects of lands other than tapping for a single mana, I don’t know that the card pool really lets you exploit that. Instead, you still need to focus on interacting with spells out of most decks, but I’ve covered some overlooked cards that help with that here.