The First Pioneers

As the end of the Pioneer regional qualifier season draws to a close, The First Pioneers go over the most recent results from the last 2 weeks of events and talk about the future of the Pioneer format. While the majority of Pioneer players probably think that the format is fine, many people would be happy to see it change too. But what are the problems that Wizards of Coast needs to fix in Pioneer...

The First Pioneers aren't some group of jive turkeys. We're cooler than cool, hipper than hip, and if you want to play a card nobody else plays in Pioneer, we can dig it. In fact, we love to dig up new things to do in the format. After our last show's topic on Boros Convoke, we wanted to expand on Knight Errant of Eos' ability to "dig" for cards. Were there any other cards that could do the same t...

The Boros Convoke deck has made big waves in Pioneer over the last few weeks but not everybody has been able to wrap their heads around it. As with every other new deck that breaks onto the scene, at first it seems broken and unstoppable. But is it? Does it have any bad match ups? And what about its good ones? What are the main cards of the deck and what is the best deck list? This week The First...

This week The First Pioneers hop into the way back machine to revisit some of the best decks the Pioneer format has ever seen to talk about what made them tick, what the format lost when the decks disappeared, and what happened to the deck's cards when the deck was forgotten. We believe it's time to take another look at some of those past strategies and cards to see if they could have life once mo...

This Mother's Day, skip out on the flowers and candies and get her something special, like a break down of the Pioneer metagame leading up to March of the Machines Aftermath. She'll be grateful for your thoughtfulness and happy that you care (about Magic the Gathering). While short, the MOM metagame created a lot of innovation and added a lot of new lines of play to a wide variety of decks. But wi...

The paint on the cards in March of the Machines had barely dried when Wizards of the Coast decided to release Aftermath, a supplemental, undraftable mini set (but Standard/Pioneer legal). How will competitive players react to this set? Will they embrace the cards or will they dismiss them as an afterthought? The First Pioneers believe we should give some of them a try in the Pioneer format, but wi...

One of the biggest decks to come out of the Phyrexia: All Will Be One metagame was Neoform Atraxa. The deck joins a long list of powerful midrange strategies that can effectively combo out early into an Atraxa, Grand Unifier and take over the game with either a huge creature or incredible card advantage. While it might not be able to always play against the top decks of the format like Rakdos Midr...

Does Pioneer have an aggro problem? Absolutely, but it's less the cause of the problem and more the result of everything else. Recently The First Pioneers discussed how Combo decks in the format had taken advantage of Pioneer, and while midrange and control decks have been able to keep combo in check somewhat, the rise of these archetypes has totally pushed aggro out. But you might be saying "what...

Midrange and Combo players rejoice! Mother of Machines brings tons of new cards that can slip right into your existing decks in Pioneer, and some that are great for building around. Whether they'll end up being strong enough for competitive play is yet to be seen, but if you're itching to try out something new, The First Pioneers have a little bit for everyone. This episode we bring you no less th...

Wizards of the Coast has been giving us less of what we want and more of what we need in Pioneer, at least from my point of view. Gone are the days when one card would go into every deck. Nowadays where a card fits into the metagame has become more blurred. Cards that seemed unplayable in the format now find themselves as core cards of previously fringe decks thrust into the spotlight due to new c...

It's been a while since the Pro Tour flipped the Pioneer metagame on its head. We had a few new decks join the metagame, and a few others make a glorious comeback. But when the dust settled, where did that leave Pioneer? In our final episode before the Mother of Machine spoilers explode all over the internet, The First Pioneers talk about what has happened in the format over the last few months, w...

The Modern format has always been known for the strong power level of its cards. At the inception of the format there were a number of bannings and as more and more cards were added into the pool, those once powerful cards were now deemed disposable. Players who had shelled out top dollar for cards like Liliana of the Veil and Phyrexian Obliterator were finding that their favorite cards were becom...

This week we're shifting gears to focus more on the financial side of Pioneer as we discuss how people can play the format competitively while not spending an arm and a leg. The recent Pro Tour catapulted the Pioneer format to new heights but with that popularity some cards reached new heights in price as well. In the past we've focused on a few decks and tried to make budget versions of them in t...

With the fastlands in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, the Pioneer format finally finished all of it's enemy and friendly manabases (well all the relevant ones at least). We had complained on more than one occasion that the format wouldn't really be fair and fully functional until they all were printed. So now that we have them all, what has changed? Were our wishes granted? Did our manabase dreams come...

A combo deck won the last Pioneer Pro Tour. A few other combo decks have been showing up regularly in the format lately. Is Pioneer currently in a combo metagame? If so, do we need to be worried about it? This week The First Pioneers (+ Dreams of Ashiok) take a deeper look at the combo decks currently doing well in Pioneer, and also talk about the other ones that are very close to breaking into th...

Due to the popularity of our last Pioneer 101 episode on Angels and Vehicles, as well as the renewed interest in the Enigmatic Fires deck after the Pro Tour, we thought we'd do another breakdown this week to get people up to speed on all the new tech that people are using. And who better to talk about the deck than one of its most vocal supporters and champion of Enchanties, Dreams of Ashiok. Asid...

Pioneer was front and center on the biggest stage of Magic the Gathering last weekend: The Pro Tour. The excitement that had been building through the previous qualifier seasons finally boiled over into the mainstream. Tens of thousands of players watched the top Pioneer players in the world battle it out live on camera, and when all was said and done, ONE player remained: Reid Duke. But how did w...

While we wait for the upcoming Pioneer Pro tour to shake things up, The First Pioneers decided it would be a good idea to showcase two of the biggest decks to rise to popularity in the last season: Angel Company and Gruul Vehicles. One deck seeks to gain a bunch of life and sends legions of flyers over the heads of your enemy, and the other likes to go fast. Like really fast (and sometimes furious...

At first glance Phyrexia: All Will Be One might not have any obvious homeruns for the Pioneer format, but maybe that's a good thing? If we don't know where the cards go at first we'll just have to brew with them until we see where they fit! MTGO grinder and fellow lover of brews Conorman11 joins us this week to throw some new decks together and see what sticks. We start with some updates to crowd...

Will Phyrexia, All Will be One be another Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set for the Pioneer format with a huge impact, or be more subdued like Innistrad: Crimson Vow with only a handful of cards seeing any play? Returning guest Dreams of Ashiok joins us again this week to finish up what we started with our first reactions episode. Do the other cards in the new set have what it takes to reshape Pioneer? O...

With our Pioneer set review due out next week for Phyrexia: All Will be One, we thought we'd save ourselves some time by talking about what cards we think will have a big impact on the format like the reprint of the allied Fastlands, and also cover all the other things that MTG ONE is bringing to Pioneer. Special guest Dreams of Ashiok joins us again to talk about Toxic, Phyrexian mana, proliferat...

While everybody is currently focused on the future and what the next set will bring for Pioneer this February, we thought it would be a good idea to look back. We did a few episodes on Explorer last year and how it inches ever so closer to a normal Pioneer format, but before Explorer was a thing everybody was playing Historic. I was one of those people and while everybody was out there trying to w...

The year 2022 started very unassuming for Pioneer but it ended up being one of the most eventful years since the format's inception. We had tons of break out cards, new decks appeared, some old ones returned to the metagame, there were bannings, and through it all The First Pioneers were there cover it. There was so much going on in Magic the Gathering you might have confused what did and did happ...

She's making a list, and checking it twice, going to find out who's naughty or nice, She-oldred is coming to town. She knows when you are drawing, She gains life while she's awake, She know if your removal is goodorbad so be good for goodness sake.   - Phyrexian Holiday Song   It's that time of year again, and I don't mean me trying to write horrible music lyrics related to Magic the Gathering. No...

While our 150th episode probably deserves more pomp and celebration, there is simply too much going on in the world of Pioneer to take a week off! With the Explorer Anthology 2 dropping on MTG Arena this week, we're guessing there are more than a few of you wondering if you can finally play your favorite Pioneer decks on the client. The new anthology drops 24 new cards into Explorer, and while som...