Pioneer: Saving the Format Might Require Aggressive Bans

The phrase "Pioneer is dead" has been uttered quite frequently since the confirmation that the format is out of the competitive ecosystem of Pro Tours and Spotlight Series for the second consecutive year in 2026.

At this point, the prevailing sentiment among much of the audience that plays more competitive 1v1 events is that it's not worth investing time and resources in the format—and they may be right.

We've mentioned this problem before: Pioneer lacks a sense of identity since Standard extended its rotation time to three years. If we look at the current Metagame, some strategies like Mono Red Aggro are too similar to the archetypes that exist and/or have recently received bans in Standard, coupled with decks like Rakdos Midrange and Izzet Phoenix, which have functioned as pillars for years, either due to the lack of innovation that few reasons for competitors to try something new causes or because recent additions always contribute in some way to these strategies remaining at the top.

Pioneer is also a victim of social media: Magic consumption patterns have also changed, and a "safe and static" format no longer meets the demands of the community: players want new things, dynamism, the ability of each expansion to impact the Metagame, and, for content creators, the possibility of always having a topic and/or strategy to discuss and keep engagement high.

Today, the conversation needs to shift from doomsaying to thinking about solutions. After all, how can we save Pioneer?

One of the solutions I presented recently was for the format's community to mobilize: have more online presence on social media, play the Challenges events on MTGO, invest in more ranked matches on Magic Arena, and create demand in local stores and independent organizations to create Pioneer events—although these are necessary steps, there still need to be reasons for the community to mobilize and convince players from other formats to return to Pioneer.

Enter Wizards of the Coast. At this point, it seems reasonable to consider that it is in the company's interest for Pioneer to eventually cease to exist, as it no longer meets Hasbro's expectations of how a format should promote its product — as mentioned in another article, the plan might involve creating an exclusive environment for Universes Beyond in the coming years — but considering that this is still a format that the company intends to give a chance to promote at some point, it is also up to them to make the decisions to turn it into an attractive environment.

Because it is too similar to Standard and basically contains the leftovers of everything that was "unpleasant" in the format recently, Pioneer is not attractive, and the only solution to revitalize it starts from the principle of actively working to make its competitive environment unique and innovative — this can be done in two ways: the direct insertion of cards into the format with a kind of Pioneer Horizons or aggressively banning cards from the format to force substantial changes in the competitive landscape.

Given the low probability of the first case — this would involve a product for 2027/2028 that could fail even with a die-hard player base after three years of abandonment — the solution for Pioneer involves a general cleanup. Ban ten, perhaps more, cards for players to rebuild and, perhaps, return to the origins: making monthly bans and unbans to regulate the Metagame and create something new and exciting.

Aggressively banning cards is a risky decision. On the one hand, it is necessary to create something for the external community to get excited about and become interested in Pioneer again, but, on the other hand, there is a considerable portion of the public that may not like the idea of ​​having their deck banned — from an abstract point of view, the best time to intervene heavily is now, when few players are actually investing financially in cards for in-person tournaments, while most of the audience that plays in Challenges rents decks or has a content creator account, and Magic Arena has its own wildcard refund policy for bans.

Therefore, the suggestions below should happen while Pioneer remains in its current state and cannot take too long. Something in the next six months would be ideal, as there is little to no expectation that the November 10th update will focus on doing this maintenance.

The Red Decks

Let's start with the elephant in the room: red is the most consistent color in Pioneer today, and Mono Red Aggro is the most popular deck. Its structure basically consists of the Mice package (Heartfire Hero, Emberheart Challenger and Manifold Mouse) with Monstrous Rage and Screaming Nemesis to punish blockers and Sunspine Lynx as a finisher that punishes the greedy mana base of a format without Blood Moon.

In this case, the problem is that Pioneer's Mono Red Aggro is the sum of everything that was troublesome with the archetype in the last Standard season, and therefore no player is interested in a format where the most popular deck is a steroid-fueled version of the strategy they were stressed out facing for months.

The ban, in this case, should serve two purposes: to remove the cards considered troublesome from the format while making Pioneer's Mono Red mechanically distinct from Standard: Heartfire Hero and Monstrous Rage are obvious choices given their reputation, and perhaps Manifold Mouse would be another option to completely dismantle the Mice package.

Screaming Nemesis is a design mistake. Permanently blocking life gain is too punitive an effect when this is one of the most effective ways to combat aggressive archetypes. It's possible to leave it in, but the card is a little too efficient at what it does and negates the potential of several three-drops, such as Tersa Lightshatter.

Another case for debate is Sunspine Lynx. Personally, I believe the card plays a fundamental role in a format without Blood Moon and its presence in the Metagame has contributed to the creation of archetypes in the last two years.

Furthermore, a four-drop is far from being a "problem" for Red Aggro, and its "lock" effect against life gain is much less harmful than Screaming Nemesis.

The Black Midrange Dilemma

Rakdos Midrange and Mono Black Midrange are the most powerful "fair" strategies in the format, except that they have occupied this position for a long time, and there are debates about banning Thoughtseize and/or Fatal Push to reduce their presence in the Metagame.

Formats with good answers accommodate better threats. One of the chronic problems of Standard is when the pace of threats does not match the potential of the answers, and Pioneer, as a non-rotating format, cannot suffer the same fate — Thoughtseize and Fatal Push are essential tools to police the format and allow for diversity of possibilities and strategies across all spectrums.

Cards that I would remove from Midrange decks — and that would affect more decks than just them — are Mutavault or Unholy Annex. The combination of the two together is too good at generating card advantage and only served to leverage a strategy that was already naturally strong.

Due to the nature of both and the need to differentiate Pioneer from Standard, the hammer should fall on Unholy Annex, opening up space for other sources of card advantage. Mutavault, however, offers risks with Lorwyn Eclipsed and any other set that has interactions with creature types, but this is also a huge attraction for testing archetypes focused on this category and may pave the way for Faeries and other "tribal" decks in the format in the future.

Looking at Rakdos Midrange, the "combo" between Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Bloodtithe Harvester combines two very efficient cards in one place, and it would be logical to consider banning one of them.

In terms of power level, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is the stronger card, and we could even categorize it as a design problem, but while it is a core piece for Rakdos and, like Screaming Nemesis, overshadows other options, it is a glue for Pioneer's Goodstuff decks — removing it from the format would affect a category that doesn't present the same similarity problems with Standard today and doesn't overly dominate the Metagame.

Therefore, Bloodtithe Harvester, which has a triple function as a threat, removal, and hand filtering, would be the card that could be banned to weaken Rakdos Midrange, allowing other archetypes in this category, with other color combinations, to also have their space.

To Clip the Phoenix's Wings

Izzet Phoenix is another historically consistent archetype in Pioneer because, every year, it has managed to complement the graveyard-reliant plan with Arclight Phoenix and Treasure Cruise with better cards and more powerful mechanics — weakening it is a challenge because Phoenix players will always find a way to rebuild it.

Banning Arclight Phoenix doesn't seem like a wise option given the historical value of the deck in Pioneer: it has existed since the first week, has had periods of ups and downs, and the reason it's in its current position is due to the quality of support it receives, and not a key card in the strategy.

Quality is also the problem when defining interventions in this case.

My picks would be the cards above: Cori-Steel Cutter is another design mistake, and the artifact's gameplay proposal is absurdly interactive with Izzet Phoenix while demanding very distinct answers: artifact hate for Cori-Steel, graveyard hate for Phoenix, and also a cheap sweeper for the tokens created — this is a card that shouldn't exist outside a set like Modern Horizons.

As a bonus, banning Cori-Steel Cutter would also address the problem of Prowess decks, which, despite not being as popular as Izzet Phoenix, have shown consistent results every week.

Treasure Cruise is one of the poster children and attractions for playing Pioneer, but it's not a good attraction: it technically only works in Prowess decks with blue (which currently use Cori-Steel) and in Izzet Phoenix, while other strategies like Azorius Control have even abandoned Dig Through Time in favor of more effective draw engines and/or those consistent with their game plan.

A ban on Cruise would directly affect Izzet Phoenix without completely killing it and/or without removing its dependence on the graveyard: for the cost of one more blue mana — which matters for an archetype trying to sequence spells — it easily accommodates Dig Through Time as a source of card advantage.

But would these two cards be enough? Izzet Phoenix is ​​too resilient in making its engines work, and, therefore, there is another card whose banning could considerably affect its consistency.

Between Opt and Sleight of Hand, in addition to the new Heroes’ Hangout, Izzet Phoenix already has enough cantrips, and there are still the inherent issues of Artist’s Talent — which we could consider banning, but we would harm a version of the Lotus Combo in the process — but Consider does a little bit of everything that the archetype needs, and if Ponder and Preordain were banned in other times of Modern for adding too much consistency, perhaps Consider deserves the same fate in Pioneer.

The Combos

Another inherent issue in the format is the breadth of Combo decks, which some players consider a problem. Most Pioneer combos are easy to answer but have great potential to adapt to the Metagame, and if we have to weaken them for the sake of diversity, it is necessary to choose some sacrifices.

The combo of Ygra, Eater of All with Cauldron Familiar wouldn't be an issue if the archetype were entirely dedicated to it, but Sacrifice decks are Witch’s Oven strategies that, incidentally, now have a "combo-kill".

It is possible to choose to ban Witch’s Oven and force Ygra and Cauldron Familiar to function without their main mechanic. However, Sacrifice strategies play a fundamental role in serving as a safety valve against the go-wide Aggro decks of Pioneer, and one of the reasons to avoid bans in a deck like Boros Convoke is the ease of responding to it and other similar strategies with Mayhem Devil.

Greasefang, Okiba Boss lists are easy to answer with graveyard hate and instant-speed removals, but there is a major dissatisfaction from the MTGArena public regarding the card's combo with Parhelion II, which functions as a two-turn win. Banning the vehicle would force Greasefang to find alternatives like Valor’s Flagship while still being able to reuse Esika’s Chariot and similar cards for value, making it much closer to a Midrange deck.

Lotus Combo is very study and skill-intensive to master, but if we weaken the other strategies, including the Aggro decks that should be able to beat it in a race, it's possible that it will become the troublesome deck of the Metagame — in this case, banning one of the untap effects would help reduce its consistency.

Among them, Vizier of Tumbling Sands would be the most logical, as it replaces its owner's hand and is not targeted by traditional Counterspells, but Pore Over the Pages is a more dangerous and less "replaceable" card, since effects that untap three lands with a single spell are much less likely than another spell that untaps one land or permanent.

Preventive Bans and Watchlist

Finally, there is the selection of cards that represent some danger to the Metagame and/or could be abused in some way if the status quo of Pioneer were to suffer this upheaval, placing them in a preventive ban or watchlist category.

Mono Green Devotion is currently underperforming due to the speed of less interactive strategies. Removing so many Red Aggro decks could bring it back with troublesome levels of presence — there's no way to solve this problem without banning Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.

With more Universes Beyond sets coming out every year, Relic of Legends (and Mox Amber) become more powerful cards because they have a major number of Legendary creatures compared to traditional sets. Today, Relic already interacts with Arachne, Psionic Weaver to create an infinite ETB combo, and nobody knows what other possibilities might arise by the end of 2026.

Up the Beanstalk is another design mistake and a motivator for Big Mana decks. If Niv-to-Light, Domain Ramp, or Four-Color Goodstuff become too strong by weakening Aggro and Izzet Phoenix, banning Up the Beanstalk and perhaps Leyline Binding would help solve the problem.

Finally, Vivi Ornitier and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron are the cause of Standard's problems today, and the only reason they don't do the same in Pioneer is because Izzet Phoenix is ​​a better deck. With a weaker Phoenix, Izzet Cauldron would be an option — a preemptive ban on Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, from which nothing good will come in the long run, would solve the problem, but Vivi Ornitier could become an issue in Prowess lists and would require attention.

While the bans proposed above may be considered radical and even capable of interfering with the format's identity, a complete transformation of Pioneer seems the best way to save it from the fate of the old Extended: a complete overhaul would excite players again by creating the new challenge of solving the metagame, and with the right maintenance at the right time, it would be possible to keep it fresh, thus guaranteeing an attractive environment for establishing tournaments, independent events, and creating more demand for Wizards of the Coast to pay attention to the format.

Thank you for reading!