Pioneer Tier List

A Consistent Disruptive Midrange Deck: Rakdos Midrange runs cards with looser synergy, each strong on their own. It has returned with a more dedicated approach to disrupting the opposing hand and game plan with minimal bad topdecks compared to other midrange Pioneer decklists.

An Aggressive Explosive Bodies Deck: Spread the aggro with as many “free” creatures as possible. Use Plotted creatures, sagas,  and Burning-Tree Emissary to flood the board all at once, pulling as maximum damage out of Atarka’s Command and Reckless Bushwacker. Gruul is more resilient against lifegain and targeted removal than other aggressive builds.

A Consistent Tempo Aggro Spells Deck: Draw cards, discard cards, and kill creatures with low cost spells while filling the graveyard. Izzet Phoenix is packed full of cantrips and cheap interaction, delve spells to keep cards flowing, and recursive threats that count the number of spells played per turn. Phoenix can always dig up what it needs while applying pressure.

A Synergistic Tempo Drain Deck: Jund Sac’s spells are rarely powerful on their own, but together they generate a myriad of different engines for dealing damage, drawing cards, and draining the opponent. Jund Sac runs creatures that sacrifice themselves, generate sacrificial permanents, and ultimately provide a lethal burst of damage or slowly bleed an opponent to death.

A Resilient Stompy Ramp Deck: The word “ramp” doesn’t really describe how much mana this deck can quickly make. Put permanents with green mana symbols onto the battlefield, some of which start the game in play and many of which attack, in devotion to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Untap it, generate huge amounts of mana, draw, and deploy huge creatures.

An Interactive Value Tempo Deck: Kaito and Moon-Circuit Hacker keep cards flowing and turn into real threats with a few emblems, with numerous other creatures that generate value or clear the board every time they return to play via ninjutsu. Cheap interaction spells keep the game plan safe, and Mutavault is a strong finisher with a few ninja-pumping emblems around.

A spin on Selesnya death and taxes style lists, this is a disruptive creature deck. It uses taxing effects such as Thalia or Anointed Peacekeeper to slow opponents down, or exile effects such as Skyclave Apparition to remove threats. The deck often uses elves to ramp to a quick Collected Company on the opponent’s turn to interrupt their gameplan, then close out the game with beats.

An Aggressive Explosive Prowess Deck: 16 Prowess/”Prowess” creatures all get a little extra size out of already efficient cheap spells. Monstrous Rage its ilk can’t burn a player directly, but translate to 5+ damage each for one of the fastest possible Pioneer kills. Burn Together(Callous Sell-Sword) with Heartfire Hero offers an explosive combo finish

Midrange toolbox list that uses its namesake, Enigmatic Incarnation, to tutor powerful creature threats and answers to the board. The list saw a recent resurgence in popularity on the back of a boost from the Overlord cycle printed in Duskmourne. This cycle allows the enigmatic player to cast the overlord for its impending cost, then cheat a much higher CMC creature into play.

A Midrange Graveyard Combo Deck: Greasefang is back! Use the namesake Greasfang to reanimate a large vehicle for a semi-lethal attack! Red rummaging replaces the traditional green self-mill spells for stronger value cards like Fable of the Mirror Breaker and Fear of Missing Out. This makes for a less consistent combo and a much stronger midrange plan B.

A Consistent Traditional Burn Deck: Boros Charm brought a strong imitation of Modern burn to Pioneer, with 20 of it’s fastest red creatures, 20 of it’s most efficient burn spells, and 20 lands. Deal early damage with hasty must-answer threats, occasionally aiming burn spells at creatures. When the opponent is low enough, fire the last few spells directly at their face.