Pioneer: 5 Decks with Secrets of Strixhaven

Secrets of Strixhaven is approaching. The new Magic: The Gathering set—and the second of only three in-universe releases of the year—takes players back to the magic school of Arcavios, this time to explore more of the world outside the campus as the story prepares for the climax of the current narrative arc.

Cards will be in players' hands this weekend during Prerelease. For Pioneer, the main new additions involve excellent support for Heroic strategies, while other archetypes like Golgari Midrange received several new tools from Witherbloom, and even new Mill support could help transform that strategy into a viable archetype in the format.

Boros Heroic Wide

Informed Inkwright can work as Young Pyromancer copies 5-8 in a dedicated list—whether in a Heroic variant or a version packed with cheap interaction and Impulse draw effects, like the old Boros Pia lists.

We take advantage of the interaction between Repartee and Heroic to try a less go big approach to one of Pioneer's most historic decks. Pyromancer and Inkwright flood the board while Phalanx Leader and Stirring Hopesinger increase all creatures' power with each spell. Since most of those spells draw a card in addition to their other effects, we can sequence three or more of them per turn.

To maintain the "free-win" potential, we kept Illuminator Virtuoso and Monstrous Rage, but we could swap them for a one-drop if we want to be more aggressive, or for Cori-Steel Cutter if we prefer a more individually powerful card.

Izzet Creativity

Izzet versions of Indomitable Creativity with Torrential Gearhulk gained new support in The Dawning Archaic—a payoff that also reuses spells from the graveyard and whose casting cost is achievable in a fundamentally Izzet Control archetype—and Visionary's Dance, which, alongside Gearhulk's ETB, puts eleven power on the board while providing hand filtering early in the game.

Golgari Demons

Golgari / Witherbloom was one of the color combinations blessed with new cards in the set. Among them, Tragedy Feaster is one of the main cards to watch. As if being a 7/6 with Trample and Ward for four mana weren't enough, Feaster is a Demon that easily enables Unholy Annex, and its drawback is fed by the enchantment, so the two have great synergy while Feaster closes out games quickly.

Beyond the new Demon, other specific cards deserve testing and attention. The pair of new Planeswalkers, Professor Dellian Fel and Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer, have powerful grindy abilities for Midrange strategies, and the new Witherbloom Charm answers Cori-Steel Cutter and other cheap permanents, while its other modes provide more staying power against Aggro and in grindy matchups.

Boros Ponza

Boros Ponza emerged earlier this year in Pioneer and gained two very efficient tools in the new set. The deck's game plan involves attacking the opponent's lands and forcing them to search for basic lands until Cleansing Wildfire and Price of Freedom turn into two-mana Stone Rains that draw cards.

In Pioneer, most two-color lists don't run more than four basic lands, and now Ponza gains Erode as cheap removal that accelerates the process of draining the basics from the opponent's list, even if it comes at the cost of speeding up their turns.

Maelstrom Artisan offers nonbasic land hate that doesn't replace the land on the board, at a decent cost for its abilities. Perhaps Krenko's Buzzcrusher is still the best option in that slot, or we could even go back to 80-card lists with Yorion, Sky Nomad and run full sets of each, but the new card is worth some testing.

Dimir Mill

Mill isn't the most competitive strategy in a Metagame with Greasefang and Arclight Phoenix, but Exhibition Tidecaller seems like a great reason to experiment with it now that we have a recurring, reliable enabler that doesn't demand too much from the deck: just run cheap spells, and each one comes with an attached mill effect.

Thoughtseize and Fatal Push are already established staples in black decks, and Drown in the Loch gets a significant boost in a Mill list. Even without them, current Pioneer costs are low enough that it can counter or destroy several of the format's main threats.

Cling to Dust serves as a safety valve against graveyard-dependent archetypes and doubles as a cheap cantrip, life gain, and a way to always have some action in the game through its Escape cost. To complement the plan, Maddening Cacophony triggers Tidecaller's Opus if kicked, while Jace, the Perfected Mind offers card advantage or a quick finisher in the late game.

That's all for today!

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Thanks for reading!