Pioneer: 5 Cheap Decks to start playing in 2025

Getting into the Pioneer format can seem like a challenge for new players, especially when it comes to building a competitive deck without spending a lot. However, with a strategic selection of affordable cards and a certain level of understanding of how the format works, it is possible to build efficient lists with potential for growth and later investment.

In this article, we present five Pioneer decks that cost less than $100 and are ideal for players who want to start venturing into the most accessible eternal and competitive format of Magic, in addition to being extremely affordable lists to buy or rent on Magic Online, with a total value of less than 50 TIX to start participating in Leagues and independent events on the digital platform!

As usual, I emphasize that prices in Magic: The Gathering are variable: cheap cards in one region can be expensive in others and vice versa, in addition to the temporality also affecting how accessible a deck or card is based on the success that some of its pieces have and, consequently, the increase in demand for them on the secondary market!

Mono White Humans

Humans is a deck that is very present in Pioneer and that benefits from the fact that most of Magic's creatures are humans, increasing its growth potential with each expansion. Today, it is not at the top of the Metagame because its deckbuilding concessions place it in a more limited space than Selesnya Company, but it is still an archetype capable of establishing results.

Its game plan involves the famous “White Weenie”, that is, playing one creature after another every turn and benefiting from their interactions. In this list, Thalia’s Lieutenant and Coppercoat Vanguard provide a boost in power for your creatures, while Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Brutal Cathar disrupt your opponent’s plays.

The most expensive card in the list is Adeline, Resplendent Cathar - which just received a reprint in JumpStart Foundations - and it is worth its price, as it grows quickly in the game and significantly speeds up the clock alongside Brave the Elements, often leading to victory. If you don’t want to invest that much initially, Benalish Marshal is an option.

Boros Convoke

Boros Convoke follows a strategy similar to Mono White Humans, but forgoing creature synergy in favor of spells synergy: Thraben Inspector and other artifact-creating creatures pave the way for a play of Gleeful Demolition followed by Knight-Errant of Eos or Venerated Loxodon on turn two, with Imodane’s Recruiter on the following turn for a quick win.

This deck is very fast and occasionally wins games for free, but it suffers a lot from common cards in Control variants like Temporary Lockdown or Sideboard pieces like Anger of the Gods and Path of Peril. It excels more in non-interactive games and punishes your opponents' bad hands, forcing them to mulligan more aggressively.

Mono Red Burn

Burn is a nearly ubiquitous archetype in Magic and Red Aggro is the strategy with the highest longevity rate in the history of the game: just a selection of cheap creatures and damage and/or pump spells, and you have enough for it to work.

Today, these decks are divided between Rakdos, Gruul and Boros variants, but the classic Mono Red is still an extremely viable option in the Metagame: Boltwave has given it a new look by offering an improved Lava Spike, totaling up to 12 three-damage spells for one mana alongside Skewer the Critics and Wizard’s Lightning, in addition to Monstrous Rage which we can also categorize as an additional three damage.

Slickshot Show-Off is by far the most expensive card on the list, costing approximately 60 dollars in the set. It is possible to play without it, but its list is much worse because we do not have good substitutes with such explosive potential (Festival Crasher is the closest), and much of the success of red decks in Pioneer today is due to this creature whereas using the Mice package might make the deck more expensive.

Azorius Spirits

Spirits is an archetype that is constantly evolving. The current versions try to go a little further in the attrition with Enduring Curiosity and The Wandering Emperor. In the list above, we took the path of going to Tempo and mixing some elements of Mono Blue, such as the insertion of Geistlight Snare and Curious Obsession.

The plan of this list involves counting on the synergies of its creatures added to the effects powerful ETBs like Spell Queller and Skyclave Apparition and stack them with cheap counterspells to protect them while we draw cards with Curious Obsession.

Golgari Soulflayer

Soulflayer has never reached the top of Pioneer and lives on the fringes of the Metagame, with some occasional results in Leagues and smaller events, but which also receives new additions as expansions come out that, eventually, can culminate in a more competitive version.

Our plan involves casting Soulflayer quickly, preferably with Zetalpa, Primal Dawn and Cragplate Baloth in our graveyard, to grace it with a keywords soup that make it very difficult to respond to and capable of winning games in two or three turns.

Every other creature we have has some ability relevant to the “combo”: Deep-Cavern Bat offers Flying and Lifelink. Sylvan Caryatid offers Hexproof and Urborg Scavengers function as extra copies of our key card in the list.

To discard the pieces we draw during the game, Collective Brutality and Bitter Triumph function as enablers that interact with the opponent's resources, while Grisly Salvage and Say Its Name feed the graveyard - even with the addition of Altanak, the Thrice-Called as an extra threat that we can play in longer games and/or if we get lucky.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!