One of the most underrated but beloved formats in Magic: the Gathering is Pioneer. Additionally, one of the most generally well received products that Wizards of the Coast releases each year are the challenger decks.
Traditionally, these are Standard decks, but they often will release a supplemental format as well, Pioneer included. Well today, a image for the challenger deck cycle for Pioneer was leaked over on Reddit.
A New Challenger Approaches
There are typically 4 challenger decks in each release, and this cycle is no different. Here is the image of the leaked decks, and we’ll briefly talk about each deck.
The 4 decks that we have here are Azorius Artifacts, 4 Color Combo, Naya Winota, and Rakdos Sacrifice. Each of these are contenders in the Pioneer format, which is very cool to see and definitely on par with the rest of the deck releases in the past. We don’t have the full deck lists yet, but we can generally talk about the decks in the metagame.
Azorius Artifacts
The Azorius Artifacts deck is all about going fast. It’s an aggro deck that aims to abuse cheap artifacts and various buff effects to make them bigger. We also utilize
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Companion — Each permanent card in your starting deck has mana value 2 or less. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
Lifelink
Once during each of your turns, you may cast a permanent spell with mana value 2 or less from your graveyard.
to great effect as well since pretty much all of our permanents are sub 2 mana.
4 Color Combo
Next up, we have 4 color combo, or
Jeskai Ascendancy
Jeskai Ascendancy
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap those creatures.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
Combo. This deck involves getting in play a Jeskai Ascendancy, turning our lands into creatures with
Sylvan Awakening
Sylvan Awakening
Until your next turn, all lands you control become 2/2 Elemental creatures with reach, indestructible, and haste. They're still lands.
and casting a bunch of cantrips and cheap spells to buff them up to attack out for the win.
Naya Winota
Third up is Naya Winota. This deck’s namesake card is Wintoa, Joiner of Forces, which is used to cheat out some pretty beefy creatures. There’s a bunch of small dorks like
Elvish Mystic
Elvish Mystic
{T}: Add {G}.
and utility creatures like
Prosperous Innkeeper
Prosperous Innkeeper
When this creature enters, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
Whenever another creature you control enters, you gain 1 life.
to help trigger winota, and then we aim to hit some bigger threats such as
Tovolar’s Huntmaster
Tovolar’s Huntmaster
When this creature enters, create two 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
and
Avabruck Caretaker
Avabruck Caretaker
Hexproof
At the beginning of combat on your turn, put two +1/+1 counters on another target creature you control.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
.
READ MORE: You Have to Try These 3 Spicy Standard Decks to Dominate the Ladder
Rakdos Sacrifice
Lastly, we have Rakdos Sacrifice. If you’ve played Standard or Historic in any shape or form, in the last couple years, you’ll know this deck well. It wants to sacrifice it’s creatures for value and damage. This is most likely going to be a good base to build upon, as Jund Sacrifice is the more optimal list right now.
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These are very cool decks, and once the official lists get published, we’ll be covering upgrades for those decks that you can pick up, so be sure to stay tuned for those.