In Pioneer, fetchlands are banned, which probably justifies the absence of archetypes that try to splash Treasure Cruise, in addition to the huge target graveyard decks currently have in the format, but Consider offers a way to streamline cast these spells while offering a powerful card selection and a low-cost spell to return Arclight Phoenix and/or transform Thing in the Ice, or untap your creatures with Jeskai Ascendancy, and the cantrip essentially performs the same function for Delve spells as a Fetchland would by filling one extra card on the graveyard along with it.Īlso, while everyone was talking about banning these two spells, Izzet Phoenix lists began to adopt Temporal Trespass, along with Galvanic Iteration to partially reproduce, and for a much lower cost, the interaction Standard players do with Alrund's Epiphany, except for the part where our birds are 3/2 creatures with Haste. The inclusion of Consider didn't help much either, as these spells are banned from other formats because decks have a great facility to fill their graveyards due to fetchlands and low-cost spells, and an enormous facility in splash colors through the perfect manabase that Fetchlands + Shocklands provide. Lately, we've been talking a lot about Delve spells bans on account of Izzet Phoenix being the best deck of the format, while Dig Through Time archetypes such as Control decks aren't far behind in Pioneer's top rankings, essentially creating a scenario where basically all the blue archetypes need to be using some of these spells. That said, below are eight cards that are currently on my Pioneer Watchlist:Īs expected, the Delve spells top my Watchlist because they match many of the standards by which I judge, as these are cards that are banned from a variety of competitive formats, have a problematic history, are played in one or more of the best decks in the format today, and have effects that are not found so efficiently in the rest of the format. So keep your pitchforks down, as I am not yet pointing out my particular judgment about Pioneer's health, as this matter demands a more profound analysis and much more grounded in facts and statistics than this exercise proposes. The format is currently in a relatively well-diversified state, and despite all the talk we have about Izzet Phoenix or Winota decks, I don't think this is the specific time to be debating bans as it's the beginning of the Innistrad: Crimson Vow season, and we need to take a moment to assess the direct impact the new set will have on the format, as we've seen with the rise of archetypes like Humans recently, and I plan to comment a little more on the current state of Metagame within a few weeks. However, I strongly emphasize that this article is not intended to point out that any card should be banned from Pioneer at the present time.

Today, I've chosen to bring eight cards that, I believe, have the potential to eventually break Pioneer in some way or become over-represented in the Metagame, consequently leading to its ban. Cards that have a history of two-card combos in other formats (including Commander). Cards that are naturally broken, but don't have the necessary support or enabler to do so. Cards capable of patterning the deckbuilding of different archetypes. Cards that are present in several decks, even among the best decks of the format. Cards that create dangerous game patterns capable of breaking the Metagame with specific support. Cards that have powerful and unique effects not easily found in the rest of the format. Cards that have a problematic history in Competitive Magic. In my particular list of cards that can be broken in the future, I average about fifteen or twenty that are on what I call the Watchlist, and they break into the following categories: Therefore, it is possible to perform an analysis based on our memory of cards and mechanics that could be potentially dangerous in the future, as the format receives new additions each year. However, it is also a format with fewer cards to keep in mind than Modern, for example. Pioneer is a very extensive format in cards, mechanics and archetypes. Rather than trying to analyze a particular deck, introduce the Metagame, or elaborate on the current state of the format, I'd like to try an imagination exercise with my readers. Today, I will be featuring a different article than usual.

Faceless haven pioneer