Pioneer: Azorius Lock-Flash - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

It's been a while since I wrote a Pioneer deck guide, and for good reason: the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed was too close to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — especially after the leaks — to focus on Metagames that could become too volatile and risk articles feeling outdated between sets. Plus, I had expectations of a ban in Pioneer during the last Banned and Restricted announcement.

The bans didn't happen, and Secrets of Strixhaven comes out in about two months, so we have a bit more time to evaluate formats and work with their gameplay. The upside is that now we have plenty to cover: from the Boros Ponza that Top 8'd a Challenge to strategies that might emerge from TMNT — today, however, we're going a bit into the recent past, when player newbarola went 8-1 to win a Pioneer Challenge with a new variant of Azorius Flash.

This was almost the same list the player used. My only change was swapping some slots for a full set of Rest in Peace, necessary for the Magic Arena environment, where the matchup against Greasefang, Okiba Boss feels much more frequent than on MTGO—after all, the platform's ranked ladder rewards free-win buttons and fast archetypes with more games in the medium term compared to grindier strategies.

As the name suggests, Azorius Flash is a deck built around playing on the opponent's turn. We run creatures with ETB effects that counter or delay their spells while applying pressure on the board. We are, in essence, the ones dictating the Tempo of the game. The differentiator in this list is the potential "lock" lines with Drannith Magistrate, a two-drop that stops players from casting spells from anywhere other than their hands.

Since Plot and Airbending exile spells and let you cast them for an alternative cost, what Magistrate does is nullify those spells as long as it stays on the board. Personally, I consider this line fragile and believe there are better slots, but I didn't win a Challenge in first place with this strategy, so there must be something to it.

Maindeck

The "lock package."

As we've mentioned, Drannith Magistrate stops players from casting cards from zones other than their hand. This includes exile, graveyards, or any other hypothetical space. With our creatures' ETBs, it turns them into Dissipates with bodies, but with the high cost that if it leaves the board, the snowball of spells can pile up.

Aang, Swift Savior, Aven Interrupter, and Spell Queller have almost the same effect, with different styles: when they enter, they exile an opponent's spell and impose some condition to cast it again. The highlight is Aang, who also interacts with the battlefield with his trigger and has an expensive (but possible) ability to transform and increase the whole board's power.

The Wandering Emperor does a bit of everything: creates threats, punishes blocks, removes creatures, gains life, and usually draws an attack or removal whenever it stays on the board.

Enduring Curiosity benefits from the fact that most creatures we run have flying to generate card advantage. On an empty board, a 4/3 can help close out games earlier.

On the card advantage front, Consult the Star Charts does enough at any stage of the game and helps dig deep for answers or threats in grindier matchups.

No More Lies is as good as a Mana Leak if your list supports the color combination. In Azorius Flash, it's even more important because we pair disruption with a clock, usually forcing greedier plays from opponents.

Spell Snare is a meta call; it could be any other card, but it saves some games against Cori-Steel Cutter and Badgermole Cub on the draw. In the worst case, countering an Emberheart Challenger on turn one can also buy extra breathing room.

The removal package benefits from flexibility. March of Otherworldly Light deals with artifacts, enchantments, and creatures at a low cost, or with the flexibility of exiling cards to broaden its scope, with the bonus of never being a dead card in your hand.

Soul Partition has a dual role between delaying an opponent's threat, potential lock with Drannith Magistrate, and we can even use it on one of our own creatures to reuse an ETB effect.

We can easily leverage Abandoned Air Temple since almost all our cards can be played at the end of the turn, letting us make decisions about whether it's better to answer something or increase pressure with the creatures we already have on board.

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire and Otawara, Soaring City round out the interaction package without needing to give up land slots.

In total, we have 16 duals between Hallowed Fountain, Hengegate Pathway, Seachrome Coast, and Starting Town, plus four basic lands for Field of Ruin. It's enough to not miss turns due to a lack of some colored mana type in most games.

Sideboard

Greasefang, Okiba Boss is on the rise, and Arclight Phoenix is almost always present in Pioneer. Rest in Peace remains the best answer in white against these strategies, and if we resolve one, we have enough protection and backups to prevent the opponent from easily answering it.

High Noon comes in against Phoenix, Prowess, and punishes Bring to Light and Lotus Field Combo, among a dozen other strategies. Maybe it deserves another slot, but two copies seem sufficient for now.

Dovin's Veto shines in Control matchups while being a more efficient answer than No More Lies against Prowess and Izzet Phoenix. It also works against Orzhov Midrange and other less creature-focused variants.

Mystical Dispute also works against Azorius Control. Its main role, however, is to punish greedier mana bases, especially Goodstuff piles or more traditional Midrange decks.

Change the Equation is the main tool against both Red Aggro and Selesnya Company. It can come in against Golgari Midrange, but I don't recommend it.

Seam Rip deals with small threats and also answers Cori-Steel Cutter or Badgermole Cub. It's our main removal against Aggro and can handle some specific Sideboard pieces, like Torpor Orb.

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Abzan Greasefang

IN

OUT

Izzet Prowess

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

Izzet Phoenix

IN

OUT

Selesnya Company

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!