Five Pioneer Budget Multicolored Decklists: Allied Colors

Continuing my article series dedicated to Pioneer, let's recap:

In the first article, I analyzed the Pioneer Challenger Decks, and I demonstrated how it is possible to gradually improve them to their most competitive version.

On my second article, I presented the format's current Metagame, explaining how each of its main decks work and their key cards.

And on my most recent article on the format, I've made five budget monocolor decklists that you can use to present the format to your friends, or to set it up and play it yourself in your local community.

In today's article, I plan to continue the work of crafting and presenting budget decklists that players can build to play Pioneer in their local store, to have fun with friends, or even compete in your store or community events, and in all, I have ten lists to show you, one in each color combination.

However, in order not to make the reading unreasonably extensive, I'll be introducing the allied color decks today!

As I mentioned in my previous article, there is no consensus on what a budget deck is because each player has their perception of what is a maximum value that a list should have.

Therefore, I need to establish my own Budget rules for these lists and, for that, I use as a basis the average price of Challenger Decks currently (US$ 40), as my target audience with this article are players who are interested in Pioneer, but aren't willing to pay the product's price to have a deck, and it's important to present fun and functional alternatives for these players.

Below are the rules I chose to follow to produce these decks:

— The final price of the deck must be cheaper than a Challenger Deck, with a difference in value that is relevant enough not to be too close to the closed product. This price is considered at the time I post this article.

— The lists cannot be mechanically equal to one of the Challenger Decks, as I would just be building a worse version of an existing and ready to play right out-of-the-box deck.

— All lists were either built by me or adapted from the content creator Saffron Olive, from MTGGoldfish, and all of them have been tested to be functional and have good consistency in the sequencing of their plays.

— One thing I need to explain to my non-Brazilian readers is that the lists were built based on the Brazilian price tags, which means some prices might differ a bit from other countries or regions throughout the world, depending on which marketplace you use to build these decks.

Regarding multicolored decks, there is an even greater deckbuilding challenge: The manabase needs to be functional, but not too expensive.

For obvious reasons, Shocklands, Fastlands, and Pathways are off the lists, and in most of them, Checklands will also be left out to maintain established value standards, which on occasion may mean that the list is mechanically great, but their manabase might delay its game occasionally because some lands enters tapped or have some specific condition.

Fortunately, Commander Decks do an impressive job of increasing the availability of lesser-played lands, such as the Tango Lands from Battle for Zendikar, or the Reveal Lands from Shadows Over Innistrad, and other lands have received a significant number of reprints such as Scry Lands, or not being so widely used as to be expensive, like the Cycling Lands from Amonkhet.

However, all the decks presented here would be much better with a more robust manabase that supports their mana and speed requirements, but we are working with a monetary value limitation that prevents some inclusions, but I will always try to use the best combination of lands as possible at the proposed value, and you can replace them in whatever way you see fit to keep it at the monetary value you are proposing to invest in, I just reiterate that this comes at a cost in consistency.

While not a great choice for every list, there's a land that offers temporary colorfixing that enters the battlefield untapped, making it very useful for casting certain cards with strong color requirements at the right timing without slowing you down:

Aether Hub may not offer permanent colorfixing, and I'll add that a starting hand with Aether Hub being your only source of colored mana tends to be pretty bad, but they do offer the speed that some decks need to operate well and at the right time to cast certain spells, so there will be multiple lists using some copies of the card.

That said, let's talk about the decks:

Starting with Azorius, and with nothing less than an 80 cards deck, we have Azorius Yorion.

As a note before explaining the deck's objective, you can reduce the number of cards to 60 and use the fourth Yorion, Sky Nomad on maindeck. In this case, I recommend reducing the Control and Teferi's Tutelage package and focusing on a version exclusively with creatures and without Dream Trawler, including cards like Whirler Rogue to create a more aggressive stance with Yorion.

Although I don't run maindeck counterspells, I consider Azorius Yorion a Tapout Control, where you use your mana efficiently every turn to gain value and prolong the game long enough for your card advantage to be greater than the opponent's clock.

For this, we have means to abuse powerful ETB effects with Charming Prince which, in addition to blinking a creature, can also filter the top or gain 3 life to hold the Aggro decks, and Yorion, Sky Nomad, which in addition to being a large, evasive body, reuses all the effects your permanents have upon entering the battlefield, often offering an immeasurable amount of value.

Both cards have a weird interaction with each other, where you can use Charming Prince's ETB when he returns to the battlefield to blink Yorion, Sky Nomad and make him return on the next end step, which can then blink your permanents back on the next End Step, including Charming Prince again, creating a loop of ETBs between turns.

In the creatures package, we have a powerful base with ETBs that help you get card advantage or hold the game long enough.

Thraben Inspector creates a token that can be sacrificed to draw a card, and it's a good one-drop that doesn't lose its usefulness in late-game.

Skyclave Cleric will commonly be used as a land drop, but it's still a 1/3 body that offers 2 life on ETB.

Reflector Mage can return a creature to your opponent's hand, and they can't cast that same card on their next turn, and combinations involving Reflector Mage and Charming Prince might easily give you some extra turns.

Finally, Elite Guardmage was my choice instead of Cloudblazer because the list lacks four-drops while it has seven other cards at 5 mana and, despite drawing one less card, it offers a good body that might be useful to increase the clock.

We also have permanent ways to deal with the opponent's threats, with Portable Hole dealing with any permanent costing 2 or less for one mana, while Baffling End, despite dealing only with creatures, can be abused with Yorion, Sky Nomad, as I can mention thousands of occasions where I'd rather deal with a 3/3 Dinosaur than another worse threat.

Finally, to remove higher cost permanents, we have Elspeth Conquers Death, which can also be replayed with Yorion to exile multiple threats, while also serving to delay opponent's plays and to return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield.

With an 80-card deck and a budget manabase, and being a control-oriented list, we also need ways to filter our draws and help speed up our game plan and/or secure our land drops.

The Birth of Meletis fulfills several functions very well: it grants a Plains to our hand, creates a 0/4 token that blocks several creatures, and gains 2 life to survive a turn against Burn.

Omen of the Sea is essentially a Preordain that can be repurposed by Yorion, Sky Nomad and creates absurd snowball effects if blinked with multiple copies.

The Celestus is a quirky but very interesting addition to help speed up and fix the deck's mana, while also having an ability to sculpt your hand throughout the game, and it interacts well with both finishers.

Teferi's Tutelage is a much more fun than necessary addition, as it has an ETB that allows you to draw one card and discard another, while also serving as an wincondition, milling their deck's cards with an effect that interacts well with other cards.

By the way, it's important to note that you can use The Celestus or Teferi's Tutelage to discard a creature and then reanimate it with Elspeth Conquers Death, which is very useful with Dream Trawler or Yorion himself.

Dream Trawler is the finisher we have, and it's an evasive, hard-to-kill threat that offers card advantage and few decks can get back into play if you untap with it for two turns and with many decks lacking means of dealing with a creature with Flying and Hexproof these days, this card manages to win many games on its own.

I'm not sure how good these Sideboard numbers are, but I wanted to keep a high amount of 4-ofs so that the deck can have access to more than one copy per game, as this is an 80-card list.

Sentinel Totem is your graveyard hate, with an ability that has utilities with blink effects. Soul-Guide Lantern would be another option, but it's at a higher price these days.

Shatter the Sky may deserve a spot on the Maindeck, but I preferred to keep it on the Sideboard, as we have many creatures we want to blink with Yorion.

Dovin’s Veto is the default counterspell we can use for more interactive games or troublesome combos, and can be replaced with Negate to lower the price tag

Finally, Pearl Lake Ancient is a creature that cannot be countered, has flash, is easy to protect on its own, can be reanimated by Elspeth Conquers Death and wins the game in a few turns if stays on the board, an ideal alternate finisher against Control decks.

We run Port Town and Irrigated Farmland as our duals, as they interact well with each other and Irrigated Farmland can be cycled on late-game. We also have a playset from Aether Hub for the reasons mentioned at the beginning of the article.

In general, I like this list, and there are plenty of upgrades for it: in addition to better lands, Skyclave Apparition works great with blink effects, while planeswalkers like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria might have a spot as well, and Agent of Treachery is also another mighty card that can be reused multiple times to take control of your opponent's permanents.

One archetype that I, personally, play in an optimized version is Dimir Rogues, and I've already had some good results with the archetype at events like Pioneer Royale.

Dimir Rogues is essentially a Tempo deck that seeks to take advantage of the number of cards in the opponent's graveyard to establish an advantage with its own cards, a tactic that I admit is not good against some of the format's Tier 1, as they interact with their graveyards.

Because of this vulnerability, I try to bet less on the possibility of making my opponent mill cards quickly with Ruin Crab and/or Merfolk Windrobber, instead betting on creatures that are individually good but are better than according to how the opponent's graveyard grows.

Thieves’ Guild Enforcer is your ideal one-drop and will make your opponent stack cards in their graveyard quickly, making it a 3/2 for one mana with ease.

Soaring Thought-Thief is our “lord”, and increases the power of your rogues after a set number of cards are in your opponent's graveyard.

The advantage of these two cards is that they are castable on the opponent's turn and are good threats on their own if the opponent doesn't interact with the graveyard itself, as you can just play these cards and then protect them until you win the game.

As for non-Flash threats, we have Glint-Sleeve Siphoner as a low-cost creature that adds a constant card advantage if it stays on board, and which isn't easily blocked if you play your removals well, and interacts with Aether Hub.

We also have Nighthawk Scavenger as a creature that grows significantly, and can win the game on its own if well protected, or turn a game against aggro; it is the equivalent of a Murktide Regent by the standards of what this list purports to do, with its proportions, of course.

Since we don't have Thoughtseize, we need other ways to interact early game and know how to play around what the opponent has, and a card like maindeck Duress isn't entirely bad as it will handle a removal, in addition to offering information and adding a card to their graveyard, something important for the other cards on the list.

Agonizing Remorse has a similar purpose for two mana, but offers the ability to exile a problematic card from the opponent's graveyard or hand, such as Arclight Phoenix or Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger.

We also have other efficient ways to deal with creatures, like Fatal Push as a low-cost removal, while Power Word Kill deals with bigger creatures.

Anticognition is very useful in dealing with opponents who tap out to cast large threats, while becoming a hard counter to Planeswalkers and Creatures in late-game, and Drown in the Loch doubling as both counterspell and removal, performing both functions with excellence on this list.

For card advantage, I've opted for cards that handle both graveyards: Into the Story is better when the deck manages to follow its natural plan, where it will normally draw four cards for four mana, but Dig Through Time only cares about your graveyard, and allows you to select two cards to put into your hand, often as good as or even better than if you drew four cards.

Both can be cast at Instant-Speed, which is why I chose Dig Through Time over Treasure Cruise.

As this is an archetype that tries to play using as much mana as possible every turn, I tried to opt for a combination of lands that could enter untapped with some frequency, with Sunken Hollow and Choked Estuary interacting well between them and with basic lands, while Aether Hub enters untapped and also adds energy for Glint-Sleeve Siphoner.

On the Sideboard, we have a mix of generic answers and efficient cards for this deck:

Mystical Dispute and Negate are very useful against blue decks in general.

Aether Gust helps deal with the red or green decks, while Legion's End is great against small creatures, and against Kroxa as well.

Crippling Fear is a one-sided sweeper, essential against Aggro and Spirits. Finally, Cling to Dust is a mandatory addition (and possibly deserves some maindeck slots, but Dig Through Time already feeds on our graveyard), as it deals with the most diverse problems that we may have with recurring threats.

As for upgrades, cards like Thoughtseize and Brazen Borrower would make it much better, as they interact with excellence with everything the list purports to do, and cards like Liliana, the Last Hope and Agadeem's Awakening could help to recur your creatures during attrition matchups.

You probably remember this deck from the Ravnica-Ikoria Standard days, before Cauldron Familiar was banned, and in case you don't, consider yourself lucky because Cat-Oven decks are pretty tedious to play against on digital platforms.

However, we can't deny that Sacrifice lists have their place on Pioneer and have several interesting synergies with older cards or newer releases, and therefore it brought this version of Rakdos Sacrifice, an attrition deck with explosive openings and plenty of synergy.

What this list aims to do is use its sacrifice and recurrence engines to create death and sacrifice triggers with Mayhem Devil and Zulaport Cutthroat, dealing constant damage to the opponent while getting some value from the sacrifice effects.

The most common and consistent combo involves sacrificing Cauldron Familiar with Witch's Oven, then sacrificing the Food token created by the artifact to return the creature to the battlefield, dealing 1 damage to the opponent (plus any additional triggers from other creatures) each time you loop.

We also have the creatures that return from the graveyard for two mana along with Priest of Forgotten Gods, which allows you to sacrifice two creatures to add two mana, draw a card and make the opponent sacrifice a creature, and then you can use this mana to return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield.

In addition, the creatures used by this combination have bodies relevant enough for aggressive openings against opponents, which can give the first points of damage, or forcing the opponent to be less aggressive due to the possibility of losing on the next turn due to other sources of damage that the list has in addition to combat.

Other means of recurrently sacrificing permanents are also present, with Woe Strider being a relevant body for three mana, which can be recast from the graveyard, and also offers a way to sacrifice your creatures repeatedly at no cost while filtering the top.

And we also have Pauper's latest staple, Makeshift Munitions, originally released in Ixalan, and can be used with available mana to sacrifice your creatures and your artifacts to deal damage to the opponent or clear the board of small creatures, interacting very well with the Food tokens produced by Witch's Oven, and this deck usually doesn't have a problem prolonging the game long enough for four or more activations in a single turn.

Midnight Reaper is our way of obtaining card advantage while operating our plan, and it's an absurd threat alongside any of the engines above, while Zulaport Cutthroat triggers or Food tokens help maintain the life total even with multiple draw triggers.

Finally, there's no way not to build this deck without using the most menacing combo the archetype has ever offered to the opponent: Claim the Firstborn and any sac outlet essentially turns the card into a removal that deals significant damage to the opponent by attacking with their own creature, being devastating when cast on creatures with very high power, and significantly breaking block maths.

Here, we also bet on mixing Tango Land with Reveal Land to make the manabase work relatively well, and we use a set of Evolving Wilds, as it interacts with Mayhem Devil and this 1 point of extra damage done by a land can make a significant difference.

On this list, we also have a companion, Jegantha, the Wellspring, who essentially enters the deck because there are no concessions the archetype needs to make to run it, as no card with two identical colors is attractive enough for its game plan.

Duress is the default form of interaction we have in the absence of Thoughtseize, and it's a great way to handle the opponent's answers.

Angrath's Rampage serves as a Planeswalkers removal, while also interacting well with Mayhem Devil, while Feed the Swarm can handle Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void.

Finally, Go Blank is a standard option against other decks that also tries to abuse graveyards.

For this list, upgrades include the addition of green to build Jund Citadel, a Sacrifice deck with a similar base, but that tries to use Bolas's Citadel to deal 20 damage to the opponent with Mayhem Devil.

If you like trying to win quickly and winning the match at inopportune moments or against unprepared opponents and combat-focused combos, Gruul Energy is the deck for you!

The archetype's goal is relatively simple: you want to accumulate enough energy to activate Electrostatic Pummeler multiple times, making it a huge creature.

As Electrostatic Pummeler's power usually starts very low, having ways to increase it is often a way to speed up the game: Ghor-Clan Rampager, Invigorated Rampage and Collision // Colossus increases Pummeler's power by 4, meaning that just two activations on the card will be enough to make it deal 20 damage.

Don't forget that Ghor-Clan Rampager is also a creature, and you can cast it if you feel like it, but for the most part, it's best used as a pump spell.

Invigorated Rampage is also great for opening up possibilities for dealing damage with other creatures, as most of them have a relevant amount of power:

Voltaic Brawler and Bristling Hydra are two creatures that can deal a significant amount of damage, in particular Bristling Hydra, as it grows permanently with its activations, as well as having a built-in protection which brings us to our other "combo".

It's not uncommon for this list to adopt another victory route that involves boosting Voltaic Brawler or Bristling Hydra's power and attacking for 16 or 18 damage in a single turn with Temur Battle Rage and winning the game, as commonly, the first damage points will be dealt by other creatures or by the opponent's Shocklands.

And to protect any of the combos, we have Blossoming Defense, where it has many proactive properties to be replaced by Snakeskin Veil, as +2/+2 on this list can make a huge difference when attacking and using Temur Battle Rage or pumping Electrostatic Pummeler.

A relevant exclusion from the aggressive creatures package is Longtusk Cub, and despite the option to increase the opportunity for a creature with 4 power to attack, guaranteeing a significant amount of mana and Bristling Hydra on Turn 3 seemed more important to me, which led me to choose Servant of the Conduit.

And to guarantee land drops and accumulate energy, we also have a card that has been banned from Standard in the past, Attune With Aether.

As this is a relatively cheap list to build, it is possible to make a good investment in the manabase, I chose Rootbound Crag and Game Trail as they are the cheapest untapped lands currently, but it is possible to include some copies of Cragcrown Pathway.

On the Sideboard, we have options for different situations.

Garruk's Harbinger allows extra reach with a creature that protects itself from black removals, has 4 power and can also trigger explosive sequences with a pump + Temur Battle Rage

Scavening Ooze works against graveyard decks, and can also grow significantly in longer matchups.

Lava Coil and Abrade are ways to interact with opponent's creatures, and it's possible that this list needs more interactions.

Finally, Mortal's Recluse protects your creatures from removals, including sweepers, and is replacing Heroic Intervention, a much more comprehensive card to protect your creatures, but also much more steeper.

Honestly, I don't know what could be done to give better upgrades here, and it's possible that Electrostatic Pummeler's package would be sidelined to follow some Gruul Stompy gameplan.

I admit that Goldspan Dragon would be an absurdly strong card that could win games on its own the same turn it came into play.

Finally, an archetype that always looked promising, but never had the opportunity to make its way into Pioneer, and that suffered collateral damage from Walking Ballista's banning were the Hardened Scales decks, the which curiously makes it a viable option for my budget proposal.

This deck's gameplan isis to have Conclave Mentor and/or Hardened Scales on the battlefield, and then use cards that enters with +1/+1 counters or add +1/+1 counters to permanents to make your creatures huge in a short time.

For that, we have two categories of creatures, and the first is creatures that put +1/+1 counters on themselves.

Scavenging Ooze is much better on this deck than most other archetypes that play it maindeck, as it can add multiple +1/+1 counters to itself separately, triggering Hardened Scales and Conclave Mentor for each activation.

Jadelight Ranger can filter the top of the deck while triggering Hardened Scales up to two times, which can be a 6/5 or larger creature for three mana.

Hooded Hydra makes a great Hangarback Walker equivalent (which isn't included in the list due to budget restrictions), entering with X +1/+1 counters, and putting in that same amount of 1/1 tokens when dying, something that can be used beneficially by our other creature category.

Creatures that put +1/+1 counters on other creatures.

Luminarch Aspirant must be answered in this deck, as it significantly grows any creature with a Hardened Scales in play, and can even feed itself with its +1/+1 counters, being a 3/3 creature on turn 2, and 5/5 or greater on turn 3.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade adds two +1/+1 counters to up to two creatures when it comes into play, generating a significant power boost and immediate impact, and turning any creature with +1/+1 counters into a mana dork, something important to cast Hooded Hydra or speed up Verdurous Gearhulk.

Speaking of Verdurous Gearhulk, this card can win the game on its own by adding four +1/+1 counters among any number of creatures, making it the most impactful play on the list when sequenced correctly, or when the opponent removes Hooded Hydra and leaves its tokens in play.

As there is not much room for interactions, we use cards that are synergistic with the main strategy, while also serving as removals through fighting.

Dromoka's Command lets you choose two options out of four, such as preventing damage from a spell, making the opponent sacrifice an enchantment, or the more recurrent: putting a +1/+1 counter on a creature and making a creature you control fight an opponent's creature.

Inscription of Abundance doesn't have the same versatility of options, but it's still good at serving as a permanent pump or removal, and can be used in late-game as a buff, removal, and lifegain.

This deck's manabase is a bit odd, including a Check Lands playset, as they are relatively cheap at the moment, but instead we use Arctic Treeline as our second set of dual lands.

The list needs untapped lands on turns 2 and 3, and this makes Sunpetal Grove essential for consistency and Arctic Treeline interacts well with Sunpetal Grove, while other better lands would raise the price tag.

The archetype has some very demanding color requirements, there are times when it needs GW on turn 2 followed by 1GG on turn 3, which made me prefer to avoid an Aether Hub playset, using only two copies for the occasional manafixing.

On the Sideboard, we have Knight of Autumn (which I almost added to the maindeck, but Jadelight Ranger looked more interesting because it filters the top and grows twice) to deal with artifacts or enchantments, while also serving to gain life against Burn or to establish pressure.

We also have Conclave Tribunal and an additional copy of Inscription of Abundance as removals, plus Snakeskin Veil as a protection that works well with its game plan and Inspiring Call to not only give indestructible to creatures, but it also allows you to draw a significant number of cards, ideal for dealing with sweepers and play against Midrange/Control decks.

Cards that could go in as upgrades obviously include Hangarback Walker as another permanent that adds several tokens to the board if destroyed, and could also include a copy or two of The Ozolith to transfer counters from a dead creature to another creature, plus an improvement to the manabase and sideboard choices.

Overall, this list seems pretty complete compared to "optimized" versions, with its only problem being playing "too fair" in a world where Aggro decks resort to Collected Company.

Finally, a list I built during the production of this article, and I ended up not including above as it seems a bit generic, but definitely worth mentioning Rakdos Aggro, created in the molds of the deck that Javier Dominguez played to win the World Championship in 2018.

The list essentially works like an Aggro-Midrange with aggressive creatures that offer some value once they come into play, or are recurring threats, combined with a Planesalkers package that offer card advantage, coupled with several efficient removals.

This deck was once competitive on Pioneer for some time, but ended up losing ground as the format got faster and with the inclusion of Companions. There are other directions that can be taken with this list, and I believe it is possible to get good results from it and with more optimized versions as well, cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Hazoret the Fervent could make a big difference, such as Kolaghan's Command and/or Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger could have a place on the maindeck.

That was my presentation of five budget decklists for you to play Pioneer at your local community, store, or invite your friends to get to know the format.

In the next article, I'll bring the five lists of the enemy color combinations!

Thanks for reading!