How Will Magic Arena Implement Pioneer Masters and What Should We Expect?

MTG Pioneer Masters was initially announced, or at least teased, way back in July of 2020 in the Magic Arena State of the Game Article. This was a huge deal because the one thing that a lot of the community has been asking for is to open up what formats are on Arena, and this was looking like it would be the very first step to doing that. Then in September of 2020, after the release of Amonkhet Remastered, we learned that we would be getting Kaladesh Remastered sooner, and that Pioneer Masters was being pushed back, stating that they had learned a lot about Historic as a format, and learned from the release of Amonkhet Remastered. How will Magic Arena implement MTG Pioneer Masters, and what should we expect in the set?

MTG Pioneer Masters: Sets in Pioneer

Pioneer is comprised of sets starting with Return to Ravnica, and extending into any new standard sets that come out. But if we take a look at the full set list, we can actually see that we’re not that far away from having all of the sets in Magic Arena already. Currently we’re only missing the following sets:

• Eldritch Moon
• Shadows over Innistrad
• Oath of the Gatewatch
• Battle for Zendikar
• Magic Origins
• Dragons of Tarkir
• Fate Reforged
• Khans of Tarkir
• Magic 2015
• Journey into Nyx
• Born of the Gods
• Theros
• Magic 2014
• Dragon’s Maze
• Gatecrash
• Return to Ravnica

Pioneer Masters is supposed to be a set that incorporates cards all Pioneer legal sets into 1 to help bring the format to Magic Arena. Even though we aren’t far away from completing the sets in general, there’s going to be a lot of cards that are going to end up being cut from the set to make a reasonably acquirable set.

Any More Remastered Sets?

Since we haven’t heard anything about Pioneer Masters since January 2021, and Kaladesh Remastered released back in November 2020, are we going to be getting another Remastered set release before Pioneer Masters? This is an entirely realistic option for Wizards of the Coast as it buys them more time to refine Pioneer Masters and gets something out to the player base for Historic. Not to mention, with Historic Anthology releases, we see some of the cards from the Pioneer sets included which helps to add some of the mechanics and cards to the game progressively. This also opens up spots in the final set to be able to accommodate other cards. I’d imagine as well that designing and implementing a “remastered” set takes a lot less time. I wouldn’t be surprised if we say Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered be announced within the next couple months.

MTG Pioneer Masters: What to expect

What specific cards that we can expect in Pioneer Masters is going to be all speculation as we have really no information about the set. We can guess that we won’t see reprints of cards that already exist in Magic Arena, as those would waste slots that could go to more useful and loved cards. We can also guess that at the very least, we’ll be seeing printings of cards from played decks in the format, so that people can actually get into playing the format. Of note, Wizards mentioned that there most likely would be more than one Pioneer Masters sets, so I’d guess that the first one will be cards that are competitive and in popular decks in the format, and the second would be more geared towards backfilling the remainder of the cards that didn’t make the first set. Below, I’ll list off some cards by color that we could expect to see enter the game.

WHITE:

• Selfless Spirit
• Chained to the Rocks Chained to the Rocks Enchant Mountain you control
  When this Aura enters, exile target creature an opponent controls until this Aura leaves the battlefield. (That creature returns under its owner's control.)
• Gryf’s Boon
• Ethereal Armor

BLUE:

• Thing in the Ice Thing in the Ice Defender
  This creature enters with four ice counters on it.
  Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, remove an ice counter from this creature. Then if it has no ice counters on it, transform it.
• Treasure Cruise Treasure Cruise Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
  Draw three cards.
• Dig Through Time
• Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy {T}: Draw a card, then discard a card. If there are five or more cards in your graveyard, exile Jace, then return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner's control.

BLACK:

• Collective Brutality Collective Brutality Escalate—Discard a card. (Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
  Choose one or more —
  • Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose an instant or sorcery card from it. That player discards that card.
  • Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
  • Target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Lifelink
  If a nontoken creature an opponent controls would die, instead exile that card and create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
  {2}{B}, Sacrifice another Vampire or Zombie: Put two +1/+1 counters on Kalitas.
• Hero’s Downfall
• Read the Bones Read the Bones Scry 2, then draw two cards. You lose 2 life. (To scry 2, look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom and the rest on top in any order.)

RED:

• Monastery Swiftspear Monastery Swiftspear Haste
  Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
• Eidolon of the Great Revel Eidolon of the Great Revel Whenever a player casts a spell with mana value 3 or less, this creature deals 2 damage to that player.
• Skullcrack
• Bedlam Reveler
• Wild Slash

GREEN:

• Sylvan Caryatid
• Courser of Kruphix
• Chord of Calling Chord of Calling Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
  Search your library for a creature card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
• Eldritch Evolution Eldritch Evolution As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
  Search your library for a creature card with mana value X or less, where X is 2 plus the sacrificed creature's mana value. Put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Exile Eldritch Evolution.

MULTICOLOR:

• Bring to Light Bring to Light Converge — Search your library for a creature, instant, or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell, exile that card, then shuffle. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
• Spell Queller
• Guild Charm cycle (eg Boros Charm)
• Abrupt Decay
• Wear // Tear
• Notion Thief

COLORLESS:

• Alhammarret’s Archive
• Elder Deep-Fiend
• Emrakul, the Promised End
• Kozilek, the Great Distortion and other Eldrazi
• Hangerback Walker

LAND:

• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• Mana Confluence
• Pain Land cycle (eg Caves of Koilos
• Tango Lands (eg Cinder Glade)

–

This is obviously a very small selection, but most of these are cards that are appearing in top competitive decks that we don’t have in Arena already. Some are fan favorites, but have been competitive in the past.

Personally I can’t wait to hear more about this set. Despite Pioneer having a lot of the same cards that we play with on Arena now, there’s some additions that I can’t wait to get my hands on. Are you excited for Pioneer Masters, and when do you think that we’ll get the set announcement? Let us know in the comments!

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