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Keeping you up to date with what is new, interesting and powerful in the Magic the Gathering Pioneer format
Episodes
Monday Nov 28, 2022
Monday Nov 28, 2022
The Bard Class deck in Pioneer has been on everybody's radar for a while now, but it's yet to be played in large numbers. Part of this is probably because many people don't understand how the deck works and how to play it, so in this week's episode The First Pioneers invited ClaudiohMTG on to talk about it and to explain why it joins a larger family of combo decks in Pioneer.
While Bard Class is more of a storm deck that goes off and creates an overwhelming advantage on board for the win, the other combo decks in Pioneer have different ways of winning. After defining what we believe being a combo deck means, we break down every combo deck in the format, starting with the mainstays like Lotus Field and Parhelion, and then introducing some newer ones such as the Acererak Infinite Dungeons combo and the Storm Herald Combo that broke out at recent Pioneer events during the Regional Championship season.
Whether you're a combo player looking to try something new, or somebody trying to understand all of these combo decks in Pioneer so you're not 'caught with your pants down' in the next tournament, you don't want to miss this episode!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
You can find our other episodes on the Untap Leagues website as well! https://untapleagues.com/author/the-first-pioneers/
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
We had a huge weekend for the Pioneer format last week as hundreds of players from all over the world gathered in their countries and other central areas for their Regional Championships. To make sense of it all, we invited Dreams of Ashiok onto the show again to talk about the top 8s, the meta break downs, interesting decks, and what the future holds as other countries plan to hold their events in the coming weeks. We also covered a number of smaller events that took place last Saturday and Sunday such as the God of Pioneer 9 in Tokyo, and the 10K events that took place on the second day of the regionals.
If you're interested in seeing what Brother's War cards made it in this new Pioneer format, want to see how the metagame shifted, or want to understand all those new and interesting decks, you don't want to miss this episode!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
You can find our other episodes on the Untap Leagues website as well! https://untapleagues.com/author/the-first-pioneers/
Monday Nov 14, 2022
Monday Nov 14, 2022
Not going to lie, brewing Pioneer decks with Brother's War cards has been some of most fun I've had in a long time. Don't listen to the people saying that the Brother's War set won't have an impact on the format. Sure, your top tier decks like Rakdos Midrange or mono white humans might not get a lot of new toys to play with, but the sheer amount of enablers for previously fringe decks is mind-boggling. Wizards of the Coast continues to fill Pioneer with more and more strategy specific cards and the result will breathe a lot of life into the format. The top 8 and top 16 deck lists on Magic Online or at a weekend open might not change much, but I expect a lot of people to try out new stuff at their local game stores or at smaller tournaments.
Today's brews focus on: Mono Black Aggro, Colorless Aggro, Mono White Blink, Green/White Scales, Blue/White Soldiers, and Green/Red Elemental Ramp. We also featured some listener made decks as well! If you're looking for some fun new decks to play with, try out our brews and then pop into our Discord and let us know how they were. You're also more than welcome to share your own brews in our decklist channel!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
You can find our other episodes on the Untap Leagues website as well! https://untapleagues.com/author/the-first-pioneers/
Monday Nov 07, 2022
Monday Nov 07, 2022
I for one welcome our robot overlords to Pioneer and hope they have a good time. Following up our last episode on Artifacts in Pioneer, we finally got a look at all of the new artifacts and have found quite a few that could find a home in the format. But that's not all. The First Pioneers go over every card in each color worthy of seeing play and talk about all their implications. Some people playing the popular decks in the metagame might be a little disappointed in the set but we believe that the decks in the fringes are going to get a lot more playable cards and that this could really shake up the Pioneer format. Stop in to see which decks we think are going to be the winners and losers from this set, and be sure to check out our Top 5 as well!
If we missed one of the cards you really liked from Brother's War, stop in to our discord and let us know!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
You can find our other episodes on the Untap Leagues website as well! https://untapleagues.com/author/the-first-pioneers/
Monday Oct 31, 2022
Monday Oct 31, 2022
With many people expecting the new Brother's War set to bring a number of playable artifact cards to Pioneer, we thought now would be a good time to look into the format and see just how many playable artifacts there are. Look at any eternal format in Magic the Gathering, and you can find some iconic artifacts: Sol Ring in EDH, Metalworker in Legacy, Aether Vial in Modern, but what comes to mind when you think of Pioneer?
In this week's episode we go over which artifacts in Pioneer are vying for that recognition, talk about what kind of artifacts the format is missing, and also make a wishlist for the rest of the Brother's War set and what artifacts we'd like to be reprinted into Pioneer from older sets. If you're wondering what more artifacts means for Pioneer, don't miss this episode!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
You can find our other episodes on the Untap Leagues website as well! https://untapleagues.com/author/the-first-pioneers/
Monday Oct 17, 2022
Monday Oct 17, 2022
It never stops. Somebody is always calling for a card to get banned. It doesn't matter what format it is, but somebody loses to a card and suddenly they are being loud and vocal online, calling for it to be removed from the format. Pioneer seems like it's a rather balanced format, but some people will never be satisfied until a card is gone. If the card gets banned, is it the end of the line for your deck though? Not necessarily.
In this week's episode The First Pioneers are joined by MTGO grinder DreamsofAshiok and talk about how decks could survive a banning. It wouldn't be the first time that a card was banned and a deck bounced back. There have been a handful of decks that have done so, and we discussed how they were able to keep going after losing a key card. We cover all of the cards people are currently calling to be banned, as well as some others that people don't like and dive deep into what kind of ripples these bannings would create.
And if you stick around until the end of the show we also talk about cards we think could be unbanned to give more decks a chance of winning in the current metagame. See if one of your favorite banned cards get mentioned!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
You can find our other episodes on the Untap Leagues website as well! https://untapleagues.com/author/the-first-pioneers/
Monday Oct 10, 2022
Monday Oct 10, 2022
It's only a matter of time until Pioneer comes to the MTG Arena platform, and the announcement of Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered and the next anthology coming out early next year and late this year brings us one step closer to this realization. Yes there is still a problem with dusting and adding another 50+ rares and mythics to use your wildcards on will only exacerbate this problem, but there is also the excitement of adding new decks to the Explorer format and being able to emulate your favorite Pioneer decks any time and anywhere.
So what would a good Shadows Over Innistrad block set need to include to make Pioneer players happy? In this week's episode The First Pioneers pick what commons, uncommons, rares, and mythics we'd love to see in the set, and also discuss which cards should be added into the next anthology or as part of this set.
Wondering what decks might finally become viable in Explorer? Curious as to how many few cards after this set are going to be needed to make Pioneer on Arena a reality? Don't miss this episode then and be sure to check out our Twitter or Discord later if we didn't mention one of your favorite cards from the block!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
You can find our other episodes on the Untap Leagues website as well! https://untapleagues.com/author/the-first-pioneers/
Monday Oct 03, 2022
Monday Oct 03, 2022
Are the new Pioneer challenger decks for 2022 any good? Are they worth picking up? Are they playable right out of the box? In this week's episode The First Pioneers break down each of the decks and talk about what we liked, didn't like, and also what opportunities were missed. While they will undoubtedly have an impact on prices (especially the the uncommons) and make Pioneer more accessible overall, there is definitely a lot to be improved on before the next iteration of Pioneer Challenger decks come out in the future. After listening, be sure to stop in to the Discord or leave us a message on Twitter about what cards you would have liked to see in these decklists as well as what you didn't like in them.
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
Monday Sep 26, 2022
Monday Sep 26, 2022
"Omae wa mo shinderu"
Magic the Gathering is a game of numbers. Do you have enough cards left? Do you have enough life left? And most importantly, do you have enough time left? Do you keep playing when you're dead on the board or do you give up and move on to the next game? How do you know you're dead? While deck choice is important for any tournament you go to, knowing when to move onto your next game to better your chances to win the round is also an important skill.
That being said, Pioneer is not a turn 2 or 3 format most of the time. While there are decks that can kill quickly, some can go on for longer and as the clock ticks down you have to make the decision if you should keep on playing or try to do better in the next match. In this week's episode The First Pioneers talk about how to recognize those unwinnable situations in Pioneer when you're "Already Dead", but also what you can do to bring yourself back from the brink of death, as well as what the best cards to stabilize you in each color are.
Be sure to stop by the Discord afterwards to add your own two cents about what cards leave people dead on board, and which cards can save you!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Pioneer is a flawed and imperfect format, but that's not going to stop us from playing it. Sometimes we get to play the best cards available to us, and other times we have to suck it up and play cards that ... kinda suck. That's one of the format's greatest charms in our opinion, that there isn't one card that's an auto include in every deck. Sometimes you have to play a card that isn't great because there simply isn't anything better for the situation. And don't even think about NOT running this card, because if you do you run the risk of the entire deck coming apart. For better or worse, you're stuck with this card until something better is printed in Pioneer.
Martin Porter (aka Harry13SCO), star of such First Pioneer hits as "Your Deck Sucks", joins us in this week's episode to talk about what cards in the Pioneer metagame kinda suck, really suck, and some that are actually really good! Are you playing a deck without any bad cards? Are you forced to play bad cards in your deck? And does playing with bad cards reduce your chances of winning or just make you have to work a little bit harder? We answer these questions and ask even more, so don't miss this week's episode!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/SBRF8DH
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtgPioneer