Rakdos Prowess

《Leyline of Resonance》 is certainly one of the flashiest cards of the whole set and certainly the one that has been talked about the most. With a bit of luck and the help of cards like 《Cacophony Scamp》, 《Leyline of Resonance》 can enable turn 2 kills and that is powerful for Pioneer. However, what I did not see coming was how good one of the tricks got printed along with it.

《Turn Inside Out》 is perfect to pair with 《Leyline of Resonance》 while still enabling fast kills and is a functional card in the Pioneer prowess decks.

Rakdos Prowess

Rakdos Prowess was already cemented as a decent deck in the format before Duskmourn, but now I think it now a bit better, and having a combat trick that can become a 2/2 creature does help. That doesn’t necessarily mean Rakdos is the best deck or even among the best, but it means it will be able to punish whatever strategies that do not take the fast kills into account.

Enigmatic Incarnation

I will group these two because they have the same home in Pioneer: 《Enigmatic Incarnation》. 《Overlord of the Hauntwoods》 is simply perfect for this deck because not only it does play extremely well with the 《Enigmatic Incarnation》 shell but also singlehandedly makes 《Leyline Binding》 a one mana removal spell. Again, this one was relatively predictable.

《Overlord of the Boilerbilges》 is the 6 drop that is often chosen right now to be able to bridge into the usual 《Atraxa, Grand Unifier》 out of the 《Enigmatic Incarnation》 decklists. I think this one wasn’t as clear as 《Overlord of the Hauntwoods》.

One subtle thing 《Overlord of the Boilerbilges》 does for the 《Enigmatic Incarnation》 decks is making 《Fable of the Mirror-Breaker》 better. Sure, this multiformat superstar is also very good here since you can sacrifice it to 《Enigmatic Incarnation》 and use the treasure fairly well.

However, one thing you could feel playing with 《Fable of the Mirror-Breaker》 in 《Enigmatic Incarnation》 is that the 《Reflection of Kiki-Jiki》 itself was often a bit mediocre. Overlord turns this into a threat that will finish the game if they both happen to be on the battlefield on the same turn in a situation where you can activate your Reflection.

Enigmatic Incarnation by Jonathan Lobo Melamed

Mardu Reanimator

It doesn’t stop there, though. Duskmourn has also brought us one of the biggest reanimation targets ever printed, as it’s powerful enough to compete with 《Atraxa, Grand Unifier》. Enter 《Valgavoth, Terror Eater》.

Mardu Reanimator

This is how a reanimator deck looks right now in Pioneer. Powered by the usual suspects like 《Fable of the Mirror-Breaker》 and 《Bloodtithe Harvester》, now the deck also picks up the new 《Fear of Missing Out》, which means it can play 12 value creatures that also synergize with the reanimating plan. It’s easy to underrate the impact of having four additional pieces like that in decks that are trying to achieve a combo.

《Valgavoth, Terror Eater》 is chosen here over 《Atraxa, Grand Unifier》 as a four of. It is unclear which one is better, but it truly depends on the matchups. Against decks like Phoenix or Jund Sacrifice, 《Valgavoth》 is certainly better since the exile clause can singlehandedly destroy those strategies, while 《Atraxa》 sometimes was simply overpowered.

I think the biggest weak point 《Valgavoth》 presents is how mediocre it is vs specifically Azorius Control, as they can simply cast a sweeper. If the metagame is heavy in those decks, cheating 《Valgavoth》 into the battlefield is a bad idea, but if 《Arclight Phoenix》 decks are the most played ones, I could see 《Valgavoth》 being better even in decks like 《Indomitable Creativity》.

Abzan Greasefang

Now, I didn’t see this one coming. 《Say Its Name》 is very good in Abzan Grasefang, a deck that has significantly powered up recently thanks to different new cards like 《Cache Grab》, an improvement from the already powerful 《Grisly Salvage》.

Abzan Greasefang

You can see a decklist like this and tell why 《Say Its Name》 is somewhat appealing. The biggest difference between it and cards like 《Cache Grab》 is that it can let you play the same 《Greasefang, Okiba Boss》 again and again, as you don’t need to choose from the milled cards when deciding which creature to pick up. On the other hand, three cards is way less than five. The surprising part here is the part where this deck can grab 《Altanak, the Thrice-Called》.

While this type of card have often been sort of a non-competitive build-around, this time I think it can be strong enough. The biggest reason here is that our deck is already built in a way where we want to mill ourselves relatively fast, so milling some copies of 《Say Its Name》 isn’t that rare. And 《Altanak, the Thrice-Called》 is not exactly easy to deal with. More precisely, 《Arclight Phoenix》 decks will need to cast at least two 《Lightning Axe》 to answer our creatures, and even if they do deal with 《Altanak》, we would still draw two cards.

《Overlord of the Balemurk》 goes very well here as to complete the self-mill package, but I think is good for different reasons than 《Say Its Name》.

On a surface level, we are more or less trading the ability to pick up lands with 《Grisly Salvage》 for the Impending mode on the Overlord. Pioneer is a relatively fast format and therefore it can sound like this mythic is not as good as it is. However, there is a subtle dynamic when playing a combo deck like Greasefang and it is that they can delay the game if they want to.

For example, if we are playign against an interactive deck and we already have 《Parhelion II》 in our graveyard and 《Greasefang, Okiba Boss》 in our hand, we can go for the combo. Then, our opponent can cast their answer – a counterspell or a removal spell – and then we move forward with the game.

However, as the combo players, we can elect to not play our combo card, and this will create a dynamic where our opponent has to stay with their mana open on the next turn. Now this usually doesn’t end that well for a deck like Greasefang because there aren’t many good topdecks for it other than a 《Thoughtseize》 in such a situation.

What if we have an 《Overlord of the Balemurk》 with some counters waiting to wake up and take over the game? Then we put our opponents in a tricky situation, where they have to be careful to not lose to the Overlord.

There’s a world where 4 Overlords are certainly too much, but I think they are good enough to deserve at least some slots. They also can be cast for 5 mana which isn’t that much and they do curve fairly well with 《Esika’s Chariot》. I think Greasefang is probably the archetype that improved the most with the new set, as these cards really fit well into the shell.

Mono Black

Last but not least, a deck based on Unholy 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》 has been showing up recently on Magic Online and I think there is a lot of potential there.

Mono Black

While also featuring 《Unstoppable Slasher》 from Duskmourn, this deck is clearly built to use 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》, and I think it accomplishes that goal very well.

《Archfiend of the Dross》 has been around the format already for a while, seeing play in both Rakdos Midrange and Rakdos Vampires, so it’s a natural fit here with Annex to go with 《Bloodletter of Aclazotz》.

A key point here with 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》 is that it’s not necessarily that bad even if it deals 2 damage to you every turn. It is sort of a 《Phyrexian Arena》 that draws an additional card in the form of a 6/6 demon that costs 5 mana. Once you play eight discard spells, it is actually a strong card against decks like Azorius Control or mostly any kind of combo deck that isn’t attacking our life total. And if they are, our demons and removal spells are likely pretty strong.

I think this makes it so this is an archetype that has a game against everything, which is quite appealing considering how different some Pioneer decks are to each other.

I think this deck likely to take the space 《Waste Not》 decks used to have in the format.