Pioneer: 10 Reprints we would like to see in the format

Pioneer has been gradually receiving reprints of old Modern and Legacy staples. From Liliana of the Veil to Pyroclasm and a dozen reprints in Foundations like Elvish Archdruid, the format has gained access to some iconic cards from Magic's history.

This pattern might continue in 2025 and extend into the next few years as well. Little by little, power creep is making it safe to insert specific staples that, at other times, would become too oppressive for the competitive scene of Standard and consequently Pioneer.

In this article, we list ten cards that we would like to see enter Pioneer in the next few years and speculate how they would help or change the format's Metagame!

Ajani Vengeant

Ajani Vengeant has had quite a history in the Magic's competitive scene. When it was released, it was used in some Standard lists, but it never became a staple - in Modern, on the other hand, it was a staple of Control decks for a few years and even became - along with Lingering Souls - a reason for a splash in Jund lists while Deathrite Shaman was legal in the format.

Wizards' current philosophy isn't a big fan of the idea of ​​locking up resources, and even less so of denying a player mana, but Ajani takes a long time to come into play and takes even longer to use his ultimate, and the real advantage of this card is how it locks down individual threats while offering a Lightning Helix or two, making it a fair option given the current Pioneer.

Decks like Bring to Light would benefit from it, and perhaps some Midrange or Control decks in Jeskai colors could find space for Ajani Vengeant, but it would have to prove itself as effective as The Wandering Emperor first.

Cursecatcher

The debate over what Merfolks needs to do to be a competitive deck in Pioneer usually revolves around three cards: Master of the Pearl Trident, Aether Vial, and Spreading Seas - all of which seem unlikely to see a Standard reprint. Aether Vial is far above Wizards' current power standard, Spreading Seas denies other decks mana for a very low cost, and Master of the Pearl Trident has an ability that is far removed from contemporary Magic design and offers an easy outlet for unimpeded attacking.

I recently played Merfolks in a few matches on MTGArena and Pioneer events and noticed how the deck's pattern itself has changed to adapt to Magic in 2024, where every creature needs to have a relevant ability, and at this point, they still lack high-quality cards in the early drops.

A Kumena's Speaker, even though it's a 2/2 for one mana, doesn't compare to a Heartfire Hero in other Aggro decks, nor to Bloodtithe Harvester or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and the same can be said for Cenote Scout. Today, what Merfolks need goes beyond just “a little more synergy”—their deck already has enough of that with Deeproot Pilgrimage and Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca—they need quality low-cost drops, and Cursecatcher would be an important first step in that category.

Death’s Shadow

It’s no surprise that Death’s Shadow makes this list when it’s my favorite card in Magic: The Gathering and one I had a long history with in Modern before the power creep of Modern Horizons II pushed it to the outer reaches of the format and forced it to make only occasional appearances.

Without Fetch Lands, Death’s Shadow loses much of the potential that made it the best deck in Modern during 2017: one of its attractions was being able to play with 4 or 5 Shock Lands alongside ten or twelve Fetchs to have a high consistency in correcting its colors and reducing its life in multiples of three, added to Thoughtseize, Dismember and Street Wraith to increase the self-inflicted damage per turn which would eventually lead for a lethal Temur Battle Rage.

Without these elements, it would have to rely on “bad” cards like Adanto Vanguard or Agadeem’s Awakening while not offering any advantage to its controller other than its body and in a format where every deck has a response or a very fast clock to deal with it.

Its best home would probably be in Rakdos Prowess lists, and even there it wouldn't do very well because of the deckbuilding concessions - I tried a version with Scourge of the Skyclaves and got good results with it, but that's because it's much easier to turn it into a 5/5 or higher when playing Aggro than it is to turn Death's Shadow into a 5/5 without Fetch Lands.

Still, Death's Shadow is a card I'd certainly like to see in Pioneer, and I'd spare no effort to try to make it work, even if it involved some whacky combo with Varolz, the Scar-Striped.

Gaddock Teeg

A long-time Modern staple, Gaddock Teeg is a card that protects Aggro decks or even sweeper combo decks like Supreme Verdict while also disrupting the casting of combo pieces like Karn, the Great Creator (now banned) or Control Planeswalkers like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and The Wandering Emperor.

It would be a risky addition, but it would solve some chronic problems we've faced in Pioneer in the past and may face again in the future while also safeguarding decks like Selesnya Company from having an extra turn before a sweeper and/or a turn with The Wandering Emperor.

With Lorwyn's return scheduled for early 2026, a reprint of one of the plane's most iconic legends with a huge competitive impact is a possibility.

Grim Lavamancer

Grim Lavamancer is a card we mentioned in the list of reprints we'd like to see in Foundations, but it didn't happen. The logic for the reprint, however, remains: Burn decks need more breathing room in games and non-Aggro red archetypes could take advantage of the card to hold down tough boards.

The curious fact is that Grim Lavamancer is an answer against the strongest red archetypes in the format today: Prowess. Responding to a Monastery Swiftspear trigger or dealing with Slickshot Show-Off without spending resources from your hand is a way to keep the speed of these archetypes balanced against what players need to hold them.

At the same time, it's also how Prowesss decks keep the damage flowing even when their all-in plan doesn't work, making it the ideal attrition piece for the current state of the Pioneer and Standard Metagame.

Lingering Souls

Lingering Souls has a similar history to Ajani Vengeant, being the motivator for players to opt for a splash in Jund and play instead of the archetype's traditional colors until before Siege Rhino was released in Khans of Tarkir.

Like Grim Lavamancer, Lingering Souls serves both to pressure the game state and to hold the game for a few turns. Four chump blocks might be all it takes to find a removal, sweeper, or card to win or turn the game around, while decks like Greasefang, Okiba Boss could use it for their midrange plan while making it more graveyard-reliant.

I have no doubt that this spell would change the way some lists and cards are evaluated for Pioneer and would cause substantial changes in the format's Metagame, possibly even forcing the splash on archetypes like Arclight Phoenix to extract value from it - and perhaps these are the changes that Pioneer needs today.

Silhana Ledgewalker

Bogles is a historic deck that has never had much space in Pioneer since the banning of Lurrus of the Dream-Den, regardless of the support it gains and the main reason is the lack of cheap creatures with the Hexproof ability available in the format, with only Gladecover Scout.

One important point, however, is that Hexproof is a non-interactive mechanic that is difficult to deal with for many strategies, and so having another one-drop like Slippery Bogle would be a problem in the medium term, so it is necessary to increase the costs to improve responsiveness.

But we are also talking about a Magic where everything needs to have a benefit beyond being a body on the board, and Silhana Ledgewalker fits that bill. For , it seems fair that it makes it harder to block in combat while also opening up space for players to use cards that deal with it before it can deal with the opponent - from sweepers like Temporary Lockdown to removals like Sheoldred’s Edict, there is no shortage of useful answers to keep creatures with Hexproof in check while opening up the opportunity for Aura decks to exist consistently in Pioneer.

Spell Snare

Like every competitive format, Pioneer has gotten faster. Recent bans have led to the rise of Rakdos Prowess, and while it is no longer the best deck in the Metagame, it remains the best Aggro*, dictating how lists need to be built to respond to the opponent at the lowest possible cost.

Spell Snare guarantees this category of response to blue, being a way to respond to Slickshot Show-Off, Bloodtithe Harvester or any other two-drop as early as turn one, and as the game's power creep increases in its lower mana scales, the more necessary it will be to have a card in this category in the format.

Spellstutter Sprite

Originally, Snapcaster Mage was on this list, but it was enough to look back at this card's history in Standard and Modern and consider its possibilities in Pioneer to make it clear that one of the best blue two-drops of all time might still be too strong for Pioneer.

Spellstutter Sprite, on the other hand, is quite strong without necessarily breaking the Metagame's standards. As someone who started with content creation talking about Pauper, I recognize its potential from a competitive point of view and, therefore, this would be an interesting card to see: the combo of Ninja of the Deep Hours with fairies is possible thanks to Dimir Ninjas with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares and Moon-Circuit Hacker, allowing us to reuse it to deal with several cards in the format while taking advantage of its synergy with Faerie Miscreant.

And even in a vacuum, Spellstutter Sprite is a Snapcaster Mage for Mental Misstep. There have been times when that was enough to see play in Pauper—back in the days of Arcum’s Astrolabe, it was the best possible answer to Ephemerate decks—and I’m sure Pioneer could have or already has times when that logic applies as well.

At the same time, without Bitterblossom or all the Faerie support that made it a staple in one of the most powerful Standard decks of all time, Spellstutter Sprite doesn’t feel oppressive enough to break the Pioneer Metagame.

Original Allied Manlands

We already have access to two cycles of enemy Manlands in Pioneer and one cycle of allied, but we still don't have the original Worldwake lands in the format.

Of these, the most likely to see play would be Celestial Colonnade and Creeping Tar Pit. The land would be an easy addition to Control lists and would also find a slot or two in Dimir Ninjas and variants, but the Azorius land - considered the strongest in the cycle - would have some challenges in the way: disrupting the synergies of the current version.

Celestial Colonnade offers a respectable clock for a decent cost, as does Hall of Storm Giants. However, when it comes in tapped, it slows down the deck and also lacks the necessary types to interact with Lay Down Arms, whose function of dealing with cheap or large threats has been essential in Azorius Control and turned Meticulous Archive into a current staple.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!