Pioneer: 5 Off-Meta Decks from the Secrets of Strixhaven Season

Pioneer has long had the feeling of a solved Metagame. Unlike Standard, it's not just an impression: the low visibility in Magic's competitive scene makes the task of innovating in Pioneer deckbuilding much slower than in other formats with RCQ seasons. Without innovation, players tend to go with the obvious—Greasefang, Izzet Prowess/Phoenix, Mono Red Aggro, and Golgari Midrange, which gained several tools with Secrets of Strixhaven.

Some players, however, still try to find room for innovation and manage to show results or notable performances in Pioneer Leagues and Challenges on Magic Online. In this article, we look at five archetypes that break away from Pioneer's established molds and have put up results on the platform since Secrets of Strixhaven's release!

Mono Black Control

A Mono White Control version, running removal, sweepers, and winning games with Fountainport, was one of the highlights of last season. Now, DeviantPenguin666 tries to replicate the feat with a Mono Black version, swapping white sweepers for Extinction Event and the new Withering Curse, and running Realm of Koh instead of Castle Ardenvale.

The strategy still revolves around keeping the board clean and winning the game gradually with tokens, but this list also includes Professor Onyx to turn each spell cast into a Syphon Life, while adding to the card advantage package. One advantage of the Mono Black version over the white variant is the ability to run four copies of Castle Locthwain, which makes it easier to maintain the resources without relying solely on Fountainport.

Dimir Bounce

Dimir Bounce has shown up occasionally since the Avatar season, but never enough to be seen as a more dominant archetype. Boomerang Basics and Cryogen Relic are among the best additions the deck has received in recent expansions, adding more consistency and making it very capable of going deep in Challenges—as proven by player Beicodegeia.

Boros Aggro

While categorized as "Boros Prowess" by aggregation systems, haruhilmi24's decision to include Lightning, Army of One and cards like Sheltered by Ghosts in the maindeck makes this Boros Aggro a notably distinct archetype from Prowess lists, and a bit more focused on having the edge in the mirror or in less interactive games than traditional variants.

Heroic Lessons

Mono White Heroic disappeared from the Metagame a few years ago, but player Hamuda decided to take advantage of the new Dig Site Inventory and the interaction between Illuminator Virtuoso and Practiced Offense—which increases all creatures' power but still triggers Heroic with Double Strike or Lifelink—to experiment with another approach made easier by Great Hall of the Biblioplex: using Guiding Voice with a toolbox of Lessons of various colors in the Sideboard.

Hamuda finished the Challenge with a 3-3 record, but the idea of splashing more colors in Heroic by flexing the Sideboard through a Lesson toolbox could be explored in future tournaments.

Esper Legends

Esper Legends is an archetype that shifts with each new set, bringing new legends and ways to take advantage of the subtheme with Rona, Herald of Invasion—with so many Universes Beyond sets coming out, it's natural for Legends decks to keep getting more support.

This variant bets on Momo, Friendly Flier to reduce the cost of legends with Flying, such as Aang, Swift Savior and Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn, whose Convoke ability enables more explosive turns with Rona, Herald of Invasion, while the Persist side gives resilience to your threats. The new Moseo, Vein's New Dean joins Eddie Brock in the recursive package, and the Jace Reawakened with Valki, God of Lies line remains in lists as an efficient "free win" button in some matchups.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!