Pioneer: Selesnya Badgermole Company - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

With the recent Banned and Restricted update and the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pioneer is beginning to experience some changes due to the reduced fast clock of Mono Red Mice and other Heartfire Hero decks.

While some prevalent strategies continue to dominate the Metagame, Selesnya Company has become a rising deck with a new variant, running Badgermole Cub as another payoff for mana dorks, allowing the inclusion of Ouroboroid, whose potential in go-wide strategies has been proven in Standard and is finally arriving in the non-rotating scene.

Maindeck

The eight mana dorks are essential to ensure we can jump from one to three mana on turn three; however, Badgermole Cub allows us to play Collected Company more consistently or better sequence our three-drops on the turn following its entry to dominate the game as early as possible.

Collected Company is a classic Pioneer staple which has also been a cornerstone of some Modern archetypes in the past. Here, we aim to maximize the value of its instant speed by using efficient ETBs to interact with the opponent.

Although it doesn't fall within the scope of Collected Company, Ouroboroid has become one of the best Payoffs for lists with Badgermole Cub, as it transforms mana dorks into threats and amplifies the power of all creatures in play each turn, almost always demanding an immediate answer.

Ensuring our opponent has trouble responding is part of the process of winning the game: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben makes any non-creature spell cost more, punishing even cheap removal spells and archetypes that try to sequence many cantrips or pumps in the same turn.

Archon of Emeria also “taxes” the opponent's mana, causing nonbasic lands to enter tapped, as well as limiting the number of spells both players can use per turn, “locking” cards like Cori-Steel Cutter and Arclight Phoenix.

Enduring Innocence is our source of card advantage. Since we can use creatures both in our main phase and at instant speed, it's common to get two card draws per turn cycle from it, in addition to Lifelink being great in games against Aggro.

Skyclave Apparition is our main board interaction and deals with any permanent of four or less value without returning it to the opponent if it leaves the game, being essential to deal with Monument to Endurance, Witch's Oven, Cori-Steel Cutter, some Planeswalkers, among others.

To complement the interaction, we have copies of Werefox Bodyguard to remove a creature from the board at instant speed and Aven Interrupter to protect us from sweepers and other troublesome cards for one turn — usually, this one turn will be crucial to winning the game against Combo or Control.

We are an aggressive deck and very reliant on colored mana; therefore, we use as many untapped duals as possible in the format without worrying too much about basic lands, even complementing them with Starting Town as another flexible source of mana.

Sideboard

In the non-creature slots, Deafening Silence is a powerful hate spell against Prowess, Izzet Phoenix and also holds off the Lotus Combo and/or other archetypes that sequence many cards in a turn for the lowest possible cost.

Seam Rip is our main board interaction against other Aggro decks and also resolves cards like Cori-Steel Cutter or Sigarda’s Aid.

The extra copies of Werefox Bodyguard mainly come in against Aggro, where we can respond to interactions by sacrificing it to gain life that can hold the opponent's clock for a turn.

On the other end of the spectrum, Aven Interrupter works best against very mana-hungry decks and/or those that run too many sweepers.

Surrak, Elusive Hunter is our main tool against Midrange decks, as it punishes spot removal while fitting within the scope of Collected Company and our list. The body with Trample also makes a difference alongside Ouroboroid.

Aven Mindcensor finally has its place in Pioneer due to the rise of Scapeshift decks combined with the birth of Hammer Time with Cloud, Midgar Mercenary. It's also useful against Niv-to-Light and can work against Emergent Ultimatum.

Gruul Prowess

IN

OUT

Rakdos Midrange

IN

OUT

Orzhov Greasefang

IN

OUT

Izzet Phoenix

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Scapeshift

IN

OUT

Nykthos Ramp

IN

OUT

Hammer Time

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

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

Thank you for reading!