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Pioneer: Bant Auras - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

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Starting Town gave Pioneer Aura decks the tool they needed to play with a third color. Bant Auras takes advantage of a blue splash to expand their creature suite and add Curious Obsession and Staggering Insight for card advantage

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Starting Town is perhaps one of the most solid lands released in recent history. Being a mix of City of Brass with the Fast Lands cycle, it ensures that aggressive decks have access to the three or more colors of mana they use with ease, but with the drawbacks of the two cards that inspired it: it is not so good in slow games, and the damage it causes accumulates in the medium term.

Pioneer already takes advantage of several multicolored decks that have resurfaced with Final Fantasy. Esper and Mardu Legends lists have been doing well in Leagues, and recently, Bant Auras has been reappearing in Challenges with good placements — using Starting Town for a light splash of blue that guarantees, in addition to Staggering Insight, a new creature with Hexproof to take advantage of with Cryptomancer.

The Decklist

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This is the decklist that has been popping up in both Leagues and Challenges since Final Fantasy's release. This particular version was run by player Kako_Ferrer to take second place in the Pioneer Challenge on June 26.

With Starting Town and Mana Confluence, Aura decks now have access to a third color more easily, allowing them to find another potential threat with Hexproof in Saiba Cryptomancer, whose low cost and ability to protect another creature with its ETB makes it very flexible with Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice.

The third color also increases the amount of draw effects: Curious Obsession and Staggering Insight ensure our gas keeps running as long as we deal damage to the opponent, while still taking advantage of the combination of Ethereal Armor and Audacity to ensure that the damage connects.

Maindeck

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The “Bogles”.

Gladecover Scout is the most classic of Hexproof creatures in Pioneer and our ideal one-drop for every match, especially if accompanied by Ethereal Armor and Audacity or Curious Obsession.

Toadstool Admirer doesn't specifically have Hexproof, but the Ward Magic Symbol 2 on a one-drop tends to be enough to protect it until Sheltered by Ghosts makes it too taxing to deal with spot removal.

Saiba Cryptomancer is one of the main reasons for the blue splash. In addition to being another cheap creature with Hexproof, it can power up another target or itself, and serves as an instant-speed answer to protect Light-Paws.

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The Auras.

Ethereal Armor and All That Glitters are basically the reason Auras exist as an archetype. Gaining a power boost beyond what other enchantments already offer can make any difficult-to-interact creature get out of control rapidly, winning games in two or, at most, three combats.

Audacity is the Rancor at home. Same cost, power boost and Trample, but it doesn't return to its owner's hand if it goes to the graveyard. Ideally, we want to enchant the same creature that we used Ethereal Armor / All That Glitters with it.

Sheltered by Ghosts is our main board interaction to deal with blockers or troublesome permanents, and the Lifelink it offers is essential to hold Red Aggro's clock and be able to stabilize the race against them.

Staggering Insight also helps against Aggro with Lifelink, but its main function — and one of the biggest benefits of adding blue — is to offer more gas each combat with draws, since it is common for some damage to pass through each turn even when we are unable to finish the opponent.

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Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice is one of the main reasons to play Auras in Pioneer, being the equivalent of Kor Spiritdancer in the Modern version. Unlike its predecessor, this creature enables a kind of toolbox with enchantments instead of extra draws for each Aura, allowing micro-decisions that can greatly benefit its controller, or even win the game with a specific combination.

Among the tools in the toolbox, we have several one-ofs with a mana value of one or two to search for with Light-Paws:

  • Shardmage’s Rescue works as another protection at instant speed, or we can search for it to sequence another Aura after it resolves. Typically, this is done together with Audacity when we intend to enchant Light-Paws with a combination of Ethereal Armor and/or All That Glitters in the same turn.
  • Gryff’s Boon, Cartouche of Solidarity and Sentinel’s Eyes grant specific abilities for Light-Paws, either for to provide evasion and guarantee lethal damage, or to ensure that it survives combat. It's worth noting that Cartouche of Solidarity can also be picked to dodge Liliana of the Veil and Invoke Despair, but it doesn't work as well with Sheoldred's Edict.
  • Alpha Authority also makes it easier to pull lethal damage, but its main function is to grant permanent hexproof for Light Paws.
  • Curious Obsession provides another recurring source of card advantage and a small power boost, while Kaya's Ghostform protects Light-Paws from non-exile removal.
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    We're a fast deck in a format without Blood Moon, so we can afford to load our mana base with duals and lands that generate any color, since we hope to win the game before a Sunspine Lynx hits the board.

    Starting Town and Mana Confluence grant access to all colors, and the cost of taking damage to tap them can be overlooked by the Lifelink of our enchantments. However, it's advisable not to be too greedy with them.

    Razorverge Thicket, Seachrome Coast and Botanical Sanctum complement Starting Town in consistently accessing colors from the first few turns. We don't want to use too many of them in the late game, but ideally, we don't want to extend the matchup anyway.

    Temple Garden makes it easier to access Magic Symbol GMagic Symbol W without any extra conditions. It's common to prioritize other lands, but there are situations where it's the best choice for a land drop in the first turns, like if we only have Mana Confluence as a complementary on the second turn.

    Sideboard

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    Thoughtseize and the like are our worst enemies: the worst thing that can happen is to keep a hand with the right combination of Auras, lands and a creature, and lose that creature to a discard in the first turn.

    That's why the Leyline of Sanctity set is necessary to protect our threats from cheap interactions that don't depend on the board.

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    Stubborn Denial easily becomes a one-mana Negate in this list, but it is common to use it as a Force Spike against cards like Temporary Lockdown, cheap sweepers or even some effect that would make us sacrifice our enchanted creature.

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    Portable Hole is mainly for Aggro mirrors or against Witch’s Oven. The number of copies varies a lot from one deck to another, since we don’t want to lose consistency by adding too many cards in most games.

    Damping Sphere is our way of holding off the Lotus Combo, which can be faster than us, and ending the game before we have the opportunity to build our own Megazord.

    Wilt deals with Temporary Lockdown. This is the main target of the card, but we can also include other relevant cards, such as winning a turn against Parhelion II, or dealing with Cori-Steel Cutter.

    Sideboard Guide

    Mono Red Aggro

    IN

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    OUT

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    Mono Black Demons / Rakdos Demons

    IN

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    OUT

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    Izzet Phoenix

    IN

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    OUT

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    Azorius Control

    IN

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    OUT

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    Gruul Prowess

    IN

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    OUT

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    Lotus Combo

    IN

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    OUT

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    Wrapping Up

    That's all for today!

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

    Thanks for reading!