As many of you will probably be aware, I have been really getting into the new Pioneer format over the last few months. Being a fun and fresh eternal format, it has led to some wild brews as everyone seeks to discover the ‘best’ deck in the format. I have been having a ton of fun playing in online leagues and the occasional FNM (when I’m not working, which seems to be most weeks) and I think it is safe to say that Pioneer’s launch has been a huge success.

But just because the format is far from ‘solved’, it doesn’t mean that Pioneer hasn’t been evolving. With regular Banned and Restricted announcements and everyone seeking to take down the latest flavour of the week in terms of brews, Pioneer has changed more than a bit since it was introduced. For an example of this, let’s have a look at one of my pet strategies, Burn.

Be aggressive.

When Pioneer was first announced, many players quickly tried to find the most aggressive deck they could build. This was because at the start of any format, aggro deck is king. By punishing players that stumble as they try to get their combo’s off have mana troubles, you can quickly get a few wins under your belt before anyone has had a chance to really explore the format.

The deck that many (including myself) jumped on, was Red Deck Wins. RDW, as it is more commonly known, has long been one of my favourite strategies. I mostly try to stick to more ‘Burn’ style builds prioritising direct damage spells over creatures, as these have always seen me right in Modern and Legacy. At first, it seemed that this would be the case in Pioneer also, as I was quick to rack up quite a few wins in MTGO leagues with the below build.

So, all was sunshine and roses for me, right? Well…

And then it all went wrong.

About a week or two ago, my results suddenly started to take a nosedive. Where once I could easily go 3-2 or better in any league I joined, suddenly I was finding it hard to even pull off more than a single win in a five-round event. I tried tweaking my list, adding new cards the meta seemed to need and even splashing for other colours to try to improve the overall performance of the deck. Yet, no matter what I tried, my results with the deck still suffered.

So I asked myself the question we all end up asking when are once well performing brew stops been as good as it once was: why is my deck so bad?

Overall, I believe the problem was threefold. Firstly, while there are many cards the deck shares with its more impressive Modern cousin, Pioneer Burn simply doesn’t have the same level of redundancy that Modern and to a lesser extent Legacy versions of the deck have access to. While Modern Burn can run around twelve to sixteen Lava Spike effects, Pioneer can only really run four to eight and even then they come with caveats. Instead, we have to run strictly worst cards like Wild Slash and Lightning Strike which, although good, simply can’t compare to being able to reliably dome your opponent with three 3 damage spells on turn three.

This wouldn’t be that much of a problem if it wasn’t for point two, something I like to call self-damage. In Modern it is very common for your opponents to do a sizable amount of damage to their own life total, what with all the fetching and shocking that goes on. I have often joked that the best turn one play for Burn is for your opponent to crack a fetch, play an untapped shock-land, and then Thoughtsieze you. This is even true in Legacy, were cards like Ancient Tomb are often played to gain access to fast mana.

But as the traditional fetch-lands like Windswept Heath are on the Pioneer Ban list, players have had to work out different ways to fix their mana bases. This has led to a format where more and more players are moving away from multiple shock-lands and are instead finding alternatives that, sadly, don’t have the same effect on our opponent’s life total. Lastly, there is a scary amount of incidental life gain going around these days, with cards like Oko, thief of Crowns and Gilded Goose being a real problem when you are trying to do a lot of damage with one-shot effects.

As a result, traditional Burn has simply become less viable in the Pioneer meta. This makes the red mage in me very sad. But luckily there is a silver lining to all of this. You see, while doming your opponent might be less than an optimal way to ensure victory, the more creature-heavy versions of RDW have shown to be more robust as the format has evolved. And lucky for me, there is a particular tribal deck that just so happens to fit the bill.

Goblins for the win.

With just a cursory glance at the available card pool, it is obvious to see that Pioneer has a lot of great Goblins. With format-defining cards like Goblin Piledriver and Goblin Rabblemaster alongside solid curve-fillers like Foundry Street Denizen and Goblin Instigator, it’s not hard to imagine a deck that you could build for yourself. In fact, we already brewed a deck back when Pioneer was first announced based around Atarka’s Command. So, I decided to drop the Burn and instead pick up the Goblins in the hopes that my performance would improve. I started with the Atarka Goblins deck we built, but I wanted to make some alterations based on my testing of the format.

Firstly, I dropped the Burning Tree/Bushwhacker combo in favour of a more ‘go wide’ strategy, hoping to make more use of the aforementioned Atarka’s Command. Legion Warboss helps in this regard, pumping out 1/1’s every turn with his best mate Goblin Rabblemaster. I also wanted to try something a little more explosive at the top end, so I swapped out the Goblin Ringleader for Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. Lastly, I added a playset of Stoke the Flames for the surprise 4 to the face, because you will never truly kill the Burn player in me.

When I was finished, my deck looked like this.

So, we have a pretty sweet looking deck that has the potential to steam roll our opponents by turn four. But is it any good? Well it just so happens that the very week I put the finishing touches to the deck, there was a Pioneer event scheduled to take place at IQ Gaming in Huddersfield (which isn’t too far from where I live) and what’s more, I had the day off.

Into battle we go.

When all competitors had assembled, we found ourselves numbering nineteen. This would mean that we would be playing five rounds of Magic with a cut to top 8. From the looks of things there was a decent number of unique and interesting decks being piloted by quite a few accomplished players, including our very own Chris Vincent who was fresh off playing at the latest Mythic Championship. So, you know. No pressure.

Round One vs U/G Enter the Infinite

Ok, so when I started this match, I had no idea what my opponent was up to. At first, they played a bunch of elementals like Healer of the Glade and Leafkin Druid, and I was under the impression they might be on some form of Simic/Temur Elemental build. I felt reasonably comfortable with this assumption when they played a Tamiyo, Collector of Tales and named Risen Reef. Then I saw what they milled, and the penny dropped. Flood of Tears, Omniscience and Enter the Infinite told me this was some form of self-mill, with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries as their win condition. This was confirmed when my opponent managed to pull it off before I could out-aggro them.

Lucky for me, the next two games went much better for the goblins and it all came down to one card in particular. Goblin Piledriver was a force to be reckoned with in these games, mainly due to the fact it has protection from Blue. There were many times were this little two mana creature was just unstoppable, with my opponent’s creatures being unable to block it. Teamed up with a Rabblemaster and a Legion Loyalist, the Piledriver was able to but on some serious pressure. Despite my opponent’s best efforts (and more Fogs than I would like to see ever again) I was able to win back to back games and take the match.

Result: 2-1

Round Two vs U/W Midrange

In round two I found myself against fellow Team MoM member Chris Vincent and his U/W Midrange deck. Unfortunately for me, Chris knew exactly what I was running (having asked him for advice on our group cast) with him even joking that he would keep a hand that had a Thraben Inspector. Luckily for me, I was able to get what could be only described as the nut draw in game one, and was able to get a quick win before Chris could mount too much of a defence.

In game two we had a much closer game, with cards like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and History of Benalia posing real threats. However, since these cards only produced token creatures, I was able to use Legion Loyalist to sneak through a ton of damage. Even though Chris was able to deal with my first copy with a Deputy of Detention, I was lucky enough to top deck a second copy and teamed it up with a Bloodrushed Ghor-Clan Rampager for the win.

Result: 2-0

Round Three vs W/U/B/G Legendary

Round three brought yet another interesting deck that at first, I couldn’t identify. My opponent appeared to be playing lots of solid spells in all the colours but red, headed up with Oko. This meant my opponent had life gain on tap and that was going to make this match an up-hill struggle. However, despite this I was able to put some serious pressure on, getting them down to five life. Then when they tapped a Mana Confluence to crack a food token, I used Stoke the Flames for lethal.

In game two I managed to have pretty much the same run, quickly getting them down to four life (sadly with no Stoke the Flames in hand this time). Then, they revealed their game plan. Using a combination of Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Mox Amber, and Kethis, the Hidden Hand to mill their library, they played a Jace, Wielder of Mysteries (yeah, two Jace self-mill decks) and drew from an empty library.

However, in game three I didn’t allow them to pull that same trick again, using a combination of Goblin Rabblemaster and Ghor-Clan Rampager to get in for lethal the turn before they were able to put the combo together.

Result: 2-1

At this point I was on nine points and tied for first, and if I ID’d my last two rounds, I was assured a spot in the top 8. My opponents were of a similar mind, and so I was able to relax for the last two rounds of the swiss.

Top 8 Round 1 vs R/G Monsters

Unfortunately, my opponent for the first round of the top 8 was on Gruul Aggro, a deck that in testing was not a favourable matchup for me. Both of us were on the aggressive plan, but my opponent’s creatures were just naturally bigger without having to resort to combat trickery. This would mean I would have to draw really well in order to make sure I could get in the relevant damage before they could get Questing Beast and Glorybringers on the board.

Sadly, this was not to be the case, and after two very quick games my tournament came to an end.

Closing thoughts.

Even though I was knocked out in the first round of the top 8, I was really happy with my performance overall. It probably helped that in the first three rounds of the tournament I faced decks that ran a lot of Blue spells and creatures. This made my Goblin Piledriver a threat my opponents didn’t really have an answer for. Other standout cards include Legion Loyalist, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Ghor-Clan Rampager out of the sideboard.

I still think there is some work to be done to improve the deck. I really want to try out Embercleave on a Piledriver or Rabblemaster in place of Ghor-Clan Rampager, and I think I could make some room for one or two Reckless Bushwhackers to make their return. In fact, by doing so I could drop the green splash entirely and just go mono-red. Maybe something like this?

Just a thought. What do you think? Should I drop the green and pick up a few Embercleaves? Why not let me know about it in the comments below. While you’re there, you could like and subscribe to keep up to date with all we do here at Master of Magics. We also have a Patreon, so if you want to support future content on the site, please consider becoming one of our Patrons. Just $1 a month would do so much to help us create more of the content you enjoy.

If you have any ideas for new and exciting decks you want me to look at, you can contact me directly @MTGTengu over on Twitter. Lastly, a massive thank you to IQ Gaming for putting on a great tournament. I’ll be sure to try and get to the next one. But until next time, remember: no matter the game you play or where you play it, good luck and have fun.

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