Strixhaven Exit Interview: Pioneer

Welcome to Stirxhaven Exit Interview week!

If you missed Srixhaven First Impressions week, various members of the SCG Staff shared their thoughts on their Top 5 Strixhaven cards in each format before having the opportunity to play with them. With Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms preview season complete, we thought it would be fun to have those same folks update their lists now that they’ve had the opportunity to play with Strixhaven for the past few months and share what they got right, what they got wrong, what surprised them, etc.

On Tuesday, we knocked out Standard and yesterday we Brainstormed our way through Historic. Today, we’ll knock out Pioneer and tomorrow is Modern. The same scoring system we had in place for Strixhaven First Impressions week will be in place here so that we can get an idea of what card ranked in what place in the aggregate to close out each article. The scoring system is as follows:

• 1st — 5 points
• 2nd — 4 points
• 3rd — 3 points
• 4th — 2 points
• 5th — 1 point

Today, once again, we kick things off with Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir champion, Ari Lax!

Ari Lax

Previous List

1. Elite Spellbinder
2. Vanishing Verse
3. Clever Lumimancer
4. Silverquill Silencer
5. Sedgemoor Witch

New List

1. Elite Spellbinder
2. Expressive Iteration
3. Vanishing Verse
4. Clever Lumimancer
5. Whatever

My initial guesses were pretty much spot on. Elite Spellbinder, Vanishing Verse, and Clever Lumimancer are all consistent players in the format, with Lumimancer finding a great home in Boros Heroic decks.

I think the reason I talked myself out of Expressive Iteration in this format despite liking it for Standard and Modern was the two-color aspect of the card in a really monocolor promoting format, but it looks like Iteration has overcome that by a large margin. I’m not sure why it isn’t a clean staple in Izzet Phoenix, but the other uses of the card like the recent Omnath Jeskai Ascendancy innovation have been more than impressive enough.

That fifth spot is a bit of a throw away though. You could say a lot of cards deserve the discussion, but are any of them seeing play? Prismari Command isn’t even in the Indomitable Creativity lists since they are focused on getting a double Polymorph with The Locust God and Sage of the Falls.

Todd Anderson

Previous List

1. Vanishing Verse
2. Expressive Iteration
3. Galazeth Prismari
4. Elite Spellbinder
5. Callous Bloodmage

New List

1. Expressive Iteration
2. Prismari Command
3. Elite Spellbinder
4. Vanishing Verse
5. Rip Apart

Of all the cards in Strixhaven, Expressive Iteration has captured my adoration and loyalty. It has far surpassed all my expectations in all formats. Turns out that drawing two cards for two mana is pretty good! In Pioneer specifically, it has helped Izzet Phoenix get back on the map. Izzet Phoenix has long been a part of Pioneer, but hasn’t really blown anyone’s socks off because you don’t have Faithless Looting. It’s always been a great deck against opposing creatures. Thing in the Ice was always particularly brutal at punishing me whenever I played Mono-Green Devotion.

Prismari Command is solid, sees play in Izzet Phoenix, and is a fine utility spell in virtually any midrange or control deck that can cast it. As we get into older formats, the modal spells always tend to get a little better because the “oddball” choices start to shine. In Pioneer, using the Shatter effect of Prismari Command is excellent sometimes. It’s one of the reasons Kolaghan’s Command sees as much play as it does. The fact that you can get a one mana rebate on the card is also pretty sick.

Elite Spellbinder has shown just how good it can be in virtually all formats. Turns out that a creature with a disruptive package built in is pretty good, and gets significantly better when you put aggressive stats and evasion on it. I’ve lost to Flickerwisp in Legacy enough to respect a 3/1 flyer with a bunch of text on it. In Pioneer specifically, Selesnya Company is one of the better decks. There are plenty of three-mana creatures to hit off Collected Company, but Elite Spellbinder is one of the best because it actively engages with your opponent and disrupts their ability to claw back into the game. Taking away their ability to cast a sweeper like Supreme Verdict on time will often be the difference in winning or losing a game.

Vanishing Verse is one of the better removal spells in the format for decks that can cast it. With Mutavault and now Faceless Haven legal, monocolored strategies exist in high numbers. Vanishing Verse should be able to take care of most problematic permanents for only two mana. Of course, the downside is that you will occasionally get punked by a Sprite Dragon or something, but that’s a small price to pay for a card that covers so many bases. As long as you mix your spot removal accordingly, Vanishing Verse will be a potent addition to any arsenal that can cast it.

Rip Apart sees a lot of play in the sideboard, but hasn’t really broken into maindecks yet. I expected it to be versatile enough to be a viable option for aggressive strategies, but I guess there just aren’t enough good artifacts and enchantments worth sacrificing the ability to point your burn spell at their dome. As a sideboard option, it does something I’m very happy with: being good in just about every situation. Sideboard cards that play like Naturalize will often get stuck in your hand if your opponent doesn’t play the card you’re specifically worried about. I’m glad we have more versatile sideboard options that allow us to tag a variety of problematic cards.

Dom Harvey

Previous List

1. Clever Lumimancer
2. Vanishing Verse
3. Culling Ritual
4. Magma Opus
5. Prismari Command

New List

1. Expressive Iteration
2. Prismari Command
3. Elite Spellbinder
4. Magma Opus
5. Vanishing Verse

In a set with little to catch the eye, the breakout star didn’t even make my initial list. Expressive Iteration has overperformed here as in every other format despite the specific conditions of Pioneer, which lacks the density of cheap spells that power up an early Iteration in older formats but also lacks the card draw that competes with Iteration, making it more important. Expressive Iteration is the type of card that only improves as more cheap cards enter the format and decks become more refined; the Four-Colour Jeskai Ascendancy deck that took the Pioneer Showcase by storm last weekend was the brainchild of Tristan Wylde-LaRue, the biggest Iteration fan I’ve ever met.

I gave an honourable mention to Prismari Command as an enabler for Indomitable Creativity, which has recently put up a few results, but it has shined in Five-Color Niv-Mizzet and elsewhere as a versatile card that can smooth out your mana and/or draws at once. There are few important artifacts in Pioneer but Prismari Command is now a big reason that any artifact can never become too important.

Past that, we’re just grading on potential. I thought Vanishing Verse would slot neatly into Five-Color Niv-Mizzet but it hasn’t been adopted widely there and there’s no other obvious home. I’ve listed Elite Spellbinder and Magma Opus higher as their ceiling in specific shells is higher and they may play a big part in making those decks viable. If Selesnya Company successfully makes the jump from Historic to Pioneer or the Torrential Gearhulk + Magma Opus combo takes off, that’s a bigger deal than a marginal upgrade to Abrupt Decay or Dreadbore. 

Shaheen Soorani

Previous List

1. Reject
2. Vanishing Verse
3. Eureka Moment
4. Prismari Command
5. Elite Spellbinder

New List

1. Go Blank
2. Expressive Iteration
3. Elite Spellbinder
4. Vanishing Verse
5. Prismari Command

Strixhaven has not had the impact on Pioneer that I thought it would.  The older the format is, the less likely a new Standard set will come and rock the metagame boat.  Pioneer may include a few more sets than Historic, but I was confident that a few of the Strixhaven cards would change the game up some in both.  Three of the cards survived the transition from old list to new, even though there may be some controversy in my decision-making process.

Vanishing Verse is a great Magic card, regardless of what the metagame data displays!  Standard, Historic, and Pioneer all suffer from three-color deck consistency, which makes a powerful Orzhov card get tossed aside with little regard.  There are some Five-Color Niv-Mizzet decks that include Vanishing Verse and Prismari Command, the latter being less frequent, but that isn’t enough play for a card that can handle a swath of the format’s threats.  As live play gets closer to being a reality, I expect the metagame to shift, and hopefully with more control users that would take advantage of both multicolor removal spells.

Elite Spellbinder is the last card I got right, noticing it quietly assisting white-based aggro and midrange decks across the format.  It’s a well-designed threat that will see play for many years to come and it makes me sad to say that.  Creatures like these can do some heavy damage to blue enthusiasts, making me rarely root for their success.

The top two cards of my new list had one surprise and one mental misstep.  Expressive Iteration is a card I had initially on all my lists but removed after discussing its mediocrity with a few friends of mine.  It turns out the card was as good as I initially thought, even though my resolve was weak when it came time to rank it.  It adds true card advantage to Izzet-based decks for a small upfront cost, making it a multi-format staple.

My number one card is Go Blank, which I never saw coming.  Many black-based aggro decks started off with it in the sideboard but have quickly begun moving some copies to the maindeck.  Dealing with graveyards in Pioneer is huge, especially with the added disruption bonus.  Spending one card to take out two, then hitting a graveyard, is a deal for the aggro commander.  This is another card I will likely never play, but I’m glad my colleagues have a supplemental discard spell, that none of us saw coming, to join the ranks of Thoughtseize.

Ross Merriam

Previous List

1. Elite Spellbinder
2. Vanishing Verse
3. Baleful Mastery
4. Mavinda, Students’ Advocate
5. Rip Apart

New List

1. Elite Spellbinder
2. Expressive Iteration
3. Vanishing Verse
4. Prismari Command
5. Clever Lumimancer

Hitting on number one certainly feels good, though you could argue for Expressive Iteration ahead of Elite Spellbinder. It’s seeing play in multiple successful decks — Izzet Phoenix and Four-Color Jeskai Ascendancy — where Spellbinder is mostly seen in Selesnya Company. But until I see the Ascendancy deck stay around, I’m giving more credit to the creature for elevating a new archetype.

I also think it’s the less replaceable of the two, since Selesnya doesn’t have many powerful disruptive creatures to choose from, while there’s plenty of solid two-mana cantrips available. Maybe I’m a bit biased by my first list but I’m putting Paulo on top.

The next two are solid removal spells for the format, with Vanishing Verse finding its way into Niv-Mizzet Reborn decks. Normally these decks like to play a wide range of answers, but Verse is flexible enough that you often see three copies of the card, a strong endorsement. Command, however, is a roleplayer in those decks, usually seeing play as a singleton. It lets you ramp into Turn 4 Niv-Mizzet when you don’t have Sylvan Caryatid, and late-game you often have plenty of excess lands or awkward answers to pitch to the Looting mode as you’re looking for more gas.

Last on my list is Clever Lumimancer, which proved to be the strong addition to Boros Heroic that I thought Mavinda would be. Rather than go for the more powerful card, players opted for the cheaper one, offering the deck the critical mass of cheap threats necessary to move away from Feather, the Redeemed and play Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion. I don’t know why I thought anything else would happen. Curves always get lower as card pools increase, never higher.

It’s a shame that WotC is reducing support for Pioneer, because the format still has so much potential. It’s just a victim of the timing around the pandemic. Here’s hoping that we’ll see it rebound in the future.

And now, without further ado, the SCG Staff’s Top 5 Strixhaven cards for Pioneer are now…

5. Go Blank — 5 points

T-3. Prismari Command — 11 points

T-3. Vanishing Verse — 11 points

2. Elite Spellbinder — 19 points

1. Expressive Iteration — 22 points

Cya back here tomorrow to review Strixhaven’s impact on Modern!