I’m enjoying my cEDH arc, but Pioneer, Pauper, and Modern received a shakeup in yesterday’s B&R announcement. Constructed formats can become stagnant during the winter months as there are fewer large tournaments due to the holidays.
Karn, the Great Creator is banned. Mono Green is hobbled by this change, but will also no longer have a target on its back. Thanks to Nykthos Green will still be able to spew large amounts of power on the battlefield, but will have to rethink the end game. It’s not currently a deck on my radar when making card and deck selection choices.
I personally like the change because Pioneer suffers from an optics issue. Green is not a dominant deck thanks to the metagame warping around its power. This can give other decks a chance to shine.
Geological Appraiser is banned. The new combo deck on the block. There wasn’t sufficient time for the metagame to adjust to a one-card combo, but did offer unhealthy play patterns. Good riddance.
Smuggler’s Copter is unbanned. A historically problematic vehicle that will directly port into Pioneer. I’m happy to see Copter in Pioneer as it’s due to create a shakeup. It can go into most decks which leads to many pilots giving it a shot.
I’m a huge fan of Rakdos Midrange in Pioneer looking to see if Smuggler’s Copter has a chance to shine:
Rakdos Midrange was already set on 3-drops thanks to Bonecrusher Giant, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, and Graveyard Trespasser. It’s now full at the 2-drop slot with Bloodtithe Harvester and Smuggler’s Copter. This leads me to want to play more 1-drops as that’s the last remaining slot with flexibility.
I like the synergy between Smuggler’s Copter and Kroxa. Another option to build the deck is to continue using Mutavault as it’s a creature to crew the Copter. The vehicle upgrade is also more synergistic with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.
Go for the Throat is a loser as artifact creatures will become more prevalent. It might also be reasonable to play Abrade in the maindeck.
Overall I’m hopeful for the future of Pioneer and excited to play a tournament!
Fury is banned. Rakdos Scam was clearly the best deck in Modern. Don’t get me wrong, I was having fun winning above-average amounts with the deck, but it wasn’t very interesting. There’s still an opportunity to scam with Grief and Living End still gets to exist in the current iteration. Fury was holding back small creature decks for the last couple years and I’m happy to see it go.
Up the Beanstalk is banned. While Up the Beanstalk wasn’t dominant thanks to Rakdos Scam, it would have been a big winner in the future metagame. Wrenn and Six was soft banned with the presence of Up the Beanstalk which still gives an early engine to control decks.
I’m looking forward to playing Temur Rhinos again now that I can justify playing something other than Rakdos Scam. Here’s the list I’m going to begin exploring:
Tishana’s Tidebinder is a new addition to Temur Rhinos. It’s able to stifle cascade triggers and fetch land activations making it highly disruptive. The wizard creature type helps round out the deck with Flames of Anor.
The Fury ban hurts Rhinos to an extent, but there’s enough pitch spells. It’s not clear that Rhinos should have been so low on Force of Vigor thanks to the power of Urza’s Saga decks. Living End, a natural predator of Rhinos, also receives a boost from fewer Dauthi Voidwalkers in the metagame.
Monastery Swiftspear is banned. Mono Red is one of the best decks in Pauper and receives a downgrade. This will by no means destroy the archetype and still likely remains the top deck. Weakening a deck so far on the speedy end of the spectrum may allow for other decks to compete more favorably.
Gavin Verhey also did a great job highlighting the Pauper ban decision:
I’ve been content playing the strongest blue spells alongside key black cards for problematic matchups with Dimir Terror. It has a favorable Mono Red matchup thanks to Unexpected Fangs. Here’s my frontrunner for RIW’s Pauper 1K in February:
Sixty card formats were all getting stale and these bans will provide the jolt they need. I’m looking forward to seeing the evolution in the coming weeks.
