Welcome back to Neat-Decking for the second go-around. I got a good amount of positive feedback on the first one, as well as some things I can do better, so I appreciate everyone for reading and offering advice. I’m excited to continue it and, for Pioneer at least, I have a lot of compelling entries this week. 

Standard

Since I’m sticking to MTGO league results, Standard isn’t exactly littered with a plethora of results. Most Standard league postings have somewhere between 8-12 lists so I might have to find a way to broaden my scope for Standard. I think there are probably a lot of interesting standard brews out there but I want to make sure the results are at least slightly credible.

Modern

I only found one deck I wanted to talk about for Modern this week, but I do want to set a ground rule. Any deck containing any copies of The One Ring is incredibly unlikely to appear on Neat-Decking. It’s a stance I think I have to take as the card is certified not neat.

I don’t want to say never, because only a Sith deals in absolutes, but for a One Ring deck to end up on here, the other 56 cards would have to be awesome. So Modern grinders will have to choose between registering The One Ring or having a chance to be featured on Neat Decking. Hopefully they choose wisely.

Now then, as for the one Modern list this week, it’s exactly the kind of build I see in the deck dumps that makes me go “how in Garfield’s name did this 5-0?” This quite frankly doesn’t look like a deck that should be able to do that but Yriel is just out here doing the dang thing. When was the last time we’ve seen Renegade Rallier and Voice of Resurgence in Modern?

This deck rules, though. White Orchid Phantom is my favorite MH3 card and it’s showing up with regularity, and this is one of the few times we’ve seen Birthing Ritual show up. I was skeptical of the card, and I still am, but I think I like it here thanks to the mana value spread. Also 16 actual lands is crazy, even with 6 MDFCs. It’s a good kind of crazy though.

Rameison also got the trophy with a pretty similar list in Thursday’s dump.

Rameison adds a light blue splash for Shardless Agent, and it’s pretty cool to see Shardless Agent used relatively fairly.

Pioneer

Okay, when I said I didn’t have a Standard deck to talk about, that was kind of a lie. This is one of my favorite archetypes of Pioneer decks, which is the Standard deck ported over to Pioneer to get a better manabase and stronger cards. 

Rakdos Aggro has been making waves across Pioneer this week, putting up many 5-0 league results and even finishing in second place in the Sept. 2 Challenge, piloted by L1X0, whose list is featured here.

While this is an aggro deck, it’s an aggro deck with a backup plan. The card Callous Sell-Sword that released in Wilds of Eldraine has given players maybe the most playable Fling-effect we’ve ever had, so if simply attacking in with a frequently buffed creature isn’t getting the job done, simply throw it at your opponent’s face with the Burn Together half of Callous Sell-Sword. 

The creature base is entirely standard legal, but porting it over to Pioneer gives better mana like I mentioned, access to Jegantha as a companion, and more pump spells, such as Titan’s Strength and the recently-rotated Ancestral Anger. Pioneer also lets players get Kumana Faces Kakkazan, which was one of the very best cards in Standard before rotation and remains a Pioneer staple even after. Add on Fatal Push and Thoughtseize as sideboard tools and you’re off to the races.

I like when Standard decks make the jump to Pioneer, as it feels like what Pioneer should be about, so most Standard ports that put up results will find their way to Neat-Decking. 

Our next list, piloted by poiu45, is a 4C Midrange deck with the goal of ramping into Atraxa with the help of Spelunking and Astral Cornucopia. This is almost another Standard port, with Omnath, Escape to the Wilds, and Yorion, along with a much improved mana base doing the heavy lifting. 

There is a lot to take in here. Three copies of Mazemind Tome, three copies of Lumra with the Streets of New Capenna Fetch Lands, two copies of Annie Joins Up in the 75, and a whole lot more, including the two copies of Worldsoul’s Rage that serve as an additional win condition for the deck. Zacama is also hilarious to see in these lists, and I’m a sucker for a good sideboard Cavern of Souls to keep people honest.

This is not my kind of list at all, but it has a lot of cards that you do not normally see in the Pioneer League deck dump so I’m here for that. 

We’ve seen Transmogrify/Indomitable Creativity style decks be successful in Pioneer many times, but this Boros Transmogrify list piloted by atarka711 is bananas. 

This is also kind of a Standard port, as it takes a bit of inspiration from the Mono White Token deck that’s been around, mainly with the inclusion of Caretaker’s Talent, but supplements it with more recently rotated cards in Wedding Announcement and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, the latter of which was of course banned in Standard. 

Transmogrify into Atraxa also gives the deck more of inevitably and card advantage than the Standard list has access to. 

But the real reason I’m talking about this deck today is that atarka711 included two copies of Huatli, Warrior Poet in the sideboard. When was the last time anybody has ever thought about this card, let alone thought about registering it in a PIoneer league, let alone actually registering it? This is a classic example of the iconic AspiringSpike tweet. I love it. 

MTGO user Selekt is just coming at us with some good old fashioned Mono-Black Midrange. I have to respect it. Mono Black has been around for a while now, but you most often see it in the form of Waste Not, but Selekt has no time for that and just wants to play the good stuff. 

Not playing Red (or White or Green like I try to cope with) does take away some powerful card options, but it gives you a much cleaner mana base and lets you run more utility lands, and Selekt does that, actually stealing a bit of the package from Waste Not, with Sunken Citadel and six Field of Ruin effects, to go with Castle Locthwain and Hive of the Eye Tyrant. 

While I’m not the biggest fan of Invoke Despair or Archfiend of the Dross as cards, I am aware I’m in the minority opinion and frankly we haven’t seen Invoke Despair prominently for a long enough time that I am a little happy to see it return. 

Props to MikeyCoppola365 for brewing this one up, because it is an absolute doozy. 

Elusive Otter and Slickshot Showoff are pretty excellent threats to put a Curious Obsession on, while Emberheart Challenger gives you additional card advantage and Heartfire Hero and Monastery Swiftspear get large. Slip Through Space is also a card that I have never seen before, but I really like it in this list, as it lets you deliver a huge finishing blow or lets you put Obsession on one of the creatures without evasion to let you connect, also generates you some nice card advantage.

One nice thing about decks like this as well is that, since everything is so cheap, you can afford to run a low land count, which in turn makes you cantrips better because it draws you more gas. You probably don’t really want or need more than three lands with this deck.

One thing I would like to see, however, is a green source in here to actually cast the adventure part of Elusive Otter. I was originally going to suggest cutting the Rockface Village for a Stomping Ground, but I like having a way to trigger Valiant on a land. Still, I think a single green source would give this deck a tiny bit more oomph for a relatively low cost. 

And for my last deck this week, I’m ending in a similar way. Tulio_Jaudy saw the GW Company decks take over last week and thought “How can I make this crazier?” 

Well, the answer to that was to add 20 cards, Yorion, some Eldrazi and Vaultborn Tyrants and Smuggler Surprise. 

This list is borderline unhinged. Fierce Empath lets you run six-plus mana silver bullets, and Smuggler’s Surprise and Prosperous Innkeeper are there to let you play them more easily. 

There are four Loxodon Smiters in the sideboard. Armada Wurm is in the deck at all. There is just so much to be in awe of here. This deck is a peak example of why I started this series. 

–

And that’ll do it for this week’s Neat-Decking. Pioneer players are up to a lot of nonsense post-ban, and I have a feeling Pioneer will continue to carry this list, especially given my added stipulation of Modern decks. I do need to figure out a better way to find Standard lists, so if anyone has any suggestions on that or wants to offer up decks I missed, please find me in thegathering.gg’s discord server @adolce95. Other than that, I’m looking forward to sharing more lists next week.