Did we all think it was just going to be Control, Midrange and Phoenix?
Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor is in the books. Pioneer hasn’t been the focus of competitive magic for a few months now so all eyes were on this Pro Tour. Would the format just be blue-white, Rakdos Midrange and Phoenix or would new exciting decks pop up?
The Pro Tour did not disappoint! New decks, new tech and old favorites were all found at this Pro Tour!
Rakdos Vampires
Let’s be honest, we all knew this was how the article was going to start. This was not only the Pro Tour-winning deck, but the deck that took Twitter by storm. So what is Rakdos Vampires?Pioneer
Rakdos Vampires
Market Price:$530.21
Maindeck, 60 cards
Sortsort deckCreature (14)
- 4Bloodtithe Harvester
- 2Dusk Legion Zealot
- 3Preacher of the Schism
- 1Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
- 4Vein Ripper
Planeswalker (4)
- 4Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
Sorcery (6)
- 2Duress
- 4Thoughtseize
Instant (5)
- 1Bitter Triumph
- 4Fatal Push
Artifact (2)
- 2Smuggler’s Copter
Enchantment (4)
- 4Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Land (25)
- 4Blackcleave Cliffs
- 2Blightstep Pathway
- 4Blood Crypt
- 3Cavern of Souls
- 2Hive of the Eye Tyrant
- 4Mutavault
- 1Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
- 2Sulfurous Springs
- 2Swamp
- 1Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
Sideboard (15)
- 1Bitter Triumph
- 2Damping Sphere (Retro Frame)
- 2Duress
- 1Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- 1Krenko’s Buzzcrusher (Extended Art)
- 4Leyline of the Void (Extended Art)
- 1Liliana of the Veil (Borderless)
- 2Path of Peril (Extended Art)
- 1Rending Volley
This is a Rakdos midrange deck looking to use the Vampire synergies of Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. Every mode on Sorin is used here to great effect. The increasing of power and lifelink lets you win races and board stalls. Sacrificing a Vampire to deal three damage and gain three is an amazing way to answer obtuse cards and also give your deck some real reach. It really creates some complicated board states for the opponent, as they sometimes see the Sorin on board and have to consider themselves at three less life, making combat extremely challenging. Speaking of challenging, let’s get to the card that puts this deck over the top: Vein Ripper.
Vein Ripper
Murders at Karlov Manor, Mythic
Vein Ripper is a new card from Murders at Karlov Manor and is the new premium threat to put into play off Sorin. Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas described the deck as “Show and Tell,” A popular Legacy deck which also sneaks in incredible large game-winning creatures. At first glance, Vein Ripper doesn’t look it fits the bill. However, as you start to see this goliath in action, it becomes clear very quickly how strong this card is. A 6/5 flyer is not bad on its own, basically killing your opponent in three turns when combined with Sorin. It then has whenever a creature dies, each opponent loses two life and you gain two. This is a huge swing in all racing situation, and actually compares very favorable to another large flying black creature that jumped into Pioneer recently in Archfiend of the Dross. Both attack for a huge chunk and are great threats in this deck. However, like the great Billy Mays says, “but wait, there’s more!” Vein Ripper also has ward – sacrifice a creature, which at first glance is powerful and exciting but also in practice very hard for decks to deal with, especially control decks, where this creature is often just untargetable. Thanks to the drain ability, it basically is always good for four damage and four life, which is actually a great fail case.
It’s also not like we’re filling the deck full of other awful Vampires to make these two cards work. Bloodtithe Harvester has been a staple of the Rakdos deck for years now. Preacher of the Schism is another great rate Vampire that helps tie the room together.
For the most part, this deck is looking to play a normal Rakdos midrange game. Interact with the opponent early, play to the board and eventually us a card to take over. This deck still has the core of Rakdos: Thoughtseize, Fatal Push and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Those cards do a lot of work in making sure this is a real deck that is here to stay.
Heroic
Simon Nelson piloted this deck to his fourth consecutive Pro Tour/Worlds Top 8, which is a feat that has never been accomplished, so I want to give him a huge shoutout and props to that. He actually has five Top 8s in the last seven Pro Tours or higher events he has played. It’s actually unreal and shows that he is one of the greatest to ever do it and clearly one of the best players of our time.
So why did one of the best players around register a deck like this? I reached out to Simon and he said it all started with trying to find a deck that was good against Amalia Combo and ended up testing this deck, since your pump spells stop the combo from ending and create a forced draw. After starting down this path, they found out that Heroic was just a good deck.
Pioneer
Boros Heroic
Market Price:$179.87
Maindeck, 60 cards
Sortsort deckCreature (16)
- 4Favored Hoplite
- 4Illuminator Virtuoso
- 4Monastery Swiftspear
- 4Tenth District Legionnaire
Sorcery (8)
- 4Ancestral Anger
- 4Homestead Courage
Instant (18)
- 4Defiant Strike
- 1Gods Willing
- 4Loran’s Escape
- 4Monstrous Rage
- 2Reckless Rage
- 1Sejiri Shelter
- 2Spikefield Hazard
Land (18)
- 4Battlefield Forge
- 1Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
- 4Inspiring Vantage
- 1Mana Confluence
- 3Needleverge Pathway
- 1Plains
- 4Sacred Foundry
Sideboard (15)
- 1Damping Sphere (Retro Frame)
- 1Get Lost (Borderless)
- 1Jegantha, the Wellspring (Extended Art)
- 2Light of Hope
- 2Reckless Rage
- 2Rending Volley
- 4Showdown of the Skalds
- 1Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (Extended Art)
- 1Torch the Tower
When you think about the format, something like this hasn’t been on people’s radar for a very long time. About two years ago, it popped up as a Mono-Green killer, but basically disappeared after that. However, it’s still a brutally fast and efficient deck that puts your opponent on the backfoot very early, so if you’re a deck with little interaction, you need to be going very fast or hope the Heroic player stumbles if you’re going to win, which to be fair is a real problem this deck has a times. You are a “combo deck” in a lot of ways, and if you don’t have a creature, you’re going to be in a bad spot.
Showdown of the Skalds
Kaldheim, Rare
This actually segues us perfectly into one of the things that pushed people away from this deck early: how it struggles versus decks with tons of spot removal, with Rakdos Midrange and Izzet Phoenix being two of the top examples. While that hasn’t changed, it’s not as bad as players made it out to be when you bring four Showdown of the Skalds. This card gives you some serious grinding potential and allows you to out card advantage these decks.
Heroic is a fast and brutally efficient deck that is going to crush decks like Amalia and Lotus Field while not being totally dead in other matchups. If you like attacking, this is the deck for you
Jeskai Creativity
Pioneer
Jeskai Creativity
Market Price:$576.39
Maindeck, 80 cards
Sortsort deckCreature (3)
- 3Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Planeswalker (6)
- 4The Wandering Emperor
- 2Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Sorcery (7)
- 2Supreme Verdict
- 4Indomitable Creativity
- 1Farewell
Instant (17)
- 4Dovin’s Veto
- 3Lightning Helix
- 2No More Lies
- 2Get Lost
- 3Prismari Command
- 2Memory Deluge
- 1March of Otherworldly Light
Enchantment (11)
- 2Chained to the Rocks
- 4Omen of the Sea
- 1Shark Typhoon
- 4Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Land (36)
- 4Raugrin Triome
- 2Jetmir’s Garden
- 1Savai Triome
- 4Steam Vents
- 4Hallowed Fountain
- 4Sacred Foundry
- 1Castle Ardenvale
- 1Plains
- 1Island
- 1Mountain
- 4Sulfur Falls
- 1Mana Confluence
- 3Clifftop Retreat
- 3Stormcarved Coast
- 1Xander’s Lounge
- 1Glacial Fortress
Sideboard (15)
- 1Yorion, Sky Nomad (Extended Art)
- 3Temporary Lockdown (Extended Art)
- 1Shark Typhoon
- 1Silence
- 2Krenko’s Buzzcrusher (Extended Art)
- 2Rest in Peace
- 1Summary Dismissal
- 1Mystical Dispute
- 1Lithomantic Barrage
- 1Farewell
- 1Ovika, Enigma Goliath (Showcase) (Step-and-Compleat Foil)
While this deck didn’t make the Top 8, it did have a great run with multiple lost win and ins. Which some players would take as a bad sign, but personally strikes me as a deck that was putting itself in a position to succeed.
This is a brand new player to Pioneer. The core idea of the deck is to play a much more grindy game with Creativity than the previous builds, due in large part to No More Lies and Lightning Helix being added to the format. This early game interaction lets you bridge to your late game, meaning you can play these longer, grindier games that previously you couldn’t. It’s much better to think of this deck as a control deck. Even last year’s Creativity deck was much more combo-oriented than this deck, using cards like Impulse in lieu of card advantage to have a more consistent combo. It’s a bit more clear that this is just a value deck when you take a look at Atraxa, Grand Unifier as the hit.
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Phyrexia: All Will Be One, Mythic
Yorion, Sky Nomad is a bit of an odd one here, as the deck is now larger and has a harder time putting Atraxa into play. Combine that with Yorion’s ability to flicker Atraxa and you get an overwhelming amount of value. However, just flickering things like Omen of the Sea has proven to be great value for a card like this while also helping smooth out the draws in the early game. Cards like The Wandering Emperor also help you survive the early game and pivot into an incredibly powerful late game with Yorion as you can have double activations turns.
Team Sanctum of All piloted and innovated the deck and it’s clear a lot of work went into figuring out how to win games and have the least amount of win conditions possible, which is something I am very impressed with. It can be tempting to slam your deck with ways to win but Creativity is just so many more copies of these cards which opens up your sideboard to some unique plans as well.
Krenko’s Buzzcrusher
Murders at Karlov Manor, Rare
Krenko’s Buzzcrusher is one such example. Despite being an 80-card deck, you have a pseudo-six copies of this card in our deck, making it a great plan for Lotus Field, as you can play with a good bit of confidence knowing you’re be able to execute this plan. You can even flicker them late in the game to keep your opponent off any hopes or dreams of winning the game.
One card I know players were curious to see was Ovika, Enigma Goliath and so I went out and talked to the players of the team at the Pro Tour. They said they wanted another threat against extraction effects like Necromentia or Deadly Cover-Up so they could still win and in more grindy matchups in general. Additonallly, they wanted another card to be able to just hard cast, as the games often went very long, which makes a ton of sense. Ward – pay three life and three mana is a huge cost, while also being able to go very wide.
If you’re a fan of control but are bored of playing Azorius in Pioneer, this might be the deck for you.
The Pro Tour has shaken up Pioneer forever, and we could go on with the innovations, but for now, get excited for Pioneer RCQ season in just a month!