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 with players still feeling out the last set, it might be some time before any of the Aftermath cards m...
May 08, 2023•59 min•Ep. 173
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 Midrange, it has shown itself not to be taken lightly and that it can take unsuspecting metagames by sto...
May 02, 2023•52 min•Ep. 172
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 about mono white humans?" Well, can you honestly name any other recent aggro decks in Pioneer that ...
Apr 24, 2023•53 min•Ep. 171
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 than 11 MOM brews for Pioneer! We have decks centered around +1/+1 counters, a never before seen triba...
Apr 18, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 170
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 cards. However, this doesn't always work out. Will Mother of Machines further expand the Pioneer meta...
Apr 11, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 169
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, where Pioneer was at the start of MTG ONE, and how this last season not only changed the cards we pla...
Apr 03, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 168
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 becoming more and more irrelevant due to new sets like Modern Horizons. If you had asked me at the start ...
Mar 28, 2023•51 min•Ep. 167
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 the $50 and $100 range, but we believe that has become unsustainable and unrealistic. Prices are goin...
Mar 20, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 166
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 true? In this week's episode The First Pioneers talk about what the full manabase means for the for...
Mar 13, 2023•49 min•Ep. 165
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 the top tiers of the metagame. But maybe you're not a combo player? Maybe you're hoping to learn how t...
Mar 06, 2023•47 min•Ep. 164
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. Aside from the new tech, Ashiok walks us through the core cards of the deck, the alternative cards you c...
Feb 27, 2023•53 min•Ep. 163
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 we get to this point? The new set, Phryexia: All Will Be One, went live barely a week before and even...
Feb 21, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 162
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). The Pioneer 101 series (which seeks to educate listeners about the ins and outs of decks in Pione...
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 161
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 favorites (Bard Class, Esper Parhelion, Enigmatic Incarnation) and then move into some really spicy ...
Feb 06, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 160
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? Or will the best decks in the format shrug off the challenge from these pesky Phyrexians? Be sure to ...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 159
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, proliferate, and everything else from the new set and how it relates to the Pioneer metagame. Be sure to liste...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 158
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 win, I was out there trying to collect cards that would be playable in Pioneer in the future when it ...
Jan 09, 2023•39 min•Ep. 157
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 happen this year in Pioneer, so with this week's episode we want to set the record straight and help eve...
Dec 26, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 156
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, the holiday's are just around the corner and instead of asking for presents this year the First Pionee...
Dec 19, 2022•43 min•Ep. 155
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 some of them are obvious inclusions for the Arena only Brawl or Historic formats, we feel like the majo...
Dec 12, 2022•48 min•Ep. 154
Continuing our tradition from last year, Kevin and I over at The First Pioneers own up to the mistakes we made on our Top 5 picks during our Pioneer set reviews (and also gloat about the picks we DID get right in 2022). While The Innistrad Double Feature set released in January, this years set reviews only included: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty The Streets of New Capenna Dominaria United The Brother's War While the Brother's War set only recently came out, we've seen enough results to remake our previ...
Dec 05, 2022•56 min•Ep. 153
The Bard Class deck in Pioneer has been on everybody's radar for a while now, but it's yet to be played in large numbers. Part of this is probably because many people don't understand how the deck works and how to play it, so in this week's episode The First Pioneers invited ClaudiohMTG on to talk about it and to explain why it joins a larger family of combo decks in Pioneer. While Bard Class is more of a storm deck that goes off and creates an overwhelming advantage on board for the win, the ot...
Nov 29, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 152
We had a huge weekend for the Pioneer format last week as hundreds of players from all over the world gathered in their countries and other central areas for their Regional Championships. To make sense of it all, we invited Dreams of Ashiok onto the show again to talk about the top 8s, the meta break downs, interesting decks, and what the future holds as other countries plan to hold their events in the coming weeks. We also covered a number of smaller events that took place last Saturday and Sun...
Nov 23, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 151
Not going to lie, brewing Pioneer decks with Brother's War cards has been some of most fun I've had in a long time. Don't listen to the people saying that the Brother's War set won't have an impact on the format. Sure, your top tier decks like Rakdos Midrange or mono white humans might not get a lot of new toys to play with, but the sheer amount of enablers for previously fringe decks is mind-boggling. Wizards of the Coast continues to fill Pioneer with more and more strategy specific cards and ...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 150
I for one welcome our robot overlords to Pioneer and hope they have a good time. Following up our last episode on Artifacts in Pioneer, we finally got a look at all of the new artifacts and have found quite a few that could find a home in the format. But that's not all. The First Pioneers go over every card in each color worthy of seeing play and talk about all their implications. Some people playing the popular decks in the metagame might be a little disappointed in the set but we believe that ...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 149
With many people expecting the new Brother's War set to bring a number of playable artifact cards to Pioneer, we thought now would be a good time to look into the format and see just how many playable artifacts there are. Look at any eternal format in Magic the Gathering, and you can find some iconic artifacts: Sol Ring in EDH, Metalworker in Legacy, Aether Vial in Modern, but what comes to mind when you think of Pioneer? In this week's episode we go over which artifacts in Pioneer are vying for...
Nov 01, 2022•46 min•Ep. 148
It never stops. Somebody is always calling for a card to get banned. It doesn't matter what format it is, but somebody loses to a card and suddenly they are being loud and vocal online, calling for it to be removed from the format. Pioneer seems like it's a rather balanced format, but some people will never be satisfied until a card is gone. If the card gets banned, is it the end of the line for your deck though? Not necessarily. In this week's episode The First Pioneers are joined by MTGO grind...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 147
It's only a matter of time until Pioneer comes to the MTG Arena platform, and the announcement of Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered and the next anthology coming out early next year and late this year brings us one step closer to this realization. Yes there is still a problem with dusting and adding another 50+ rares and mythics to use your wildcards on will only exacerbate this problem, but there is also the excitement of adding new decks to the Explorer format and being able to emulate your fa...
Oct 11, 2022•52 min•Ep. 146
Are the new Pioneer challenger decks for 2022 any good? Are they worth picking up? Are they playable right out of the box? In this week's episode The First Pioneers break down each of the decks and talk about what we liked, didn't like, and also what opportunities were missed. While they will undoubtedly have an impact on prices (especially the the uncommons) and make Pioneer more accessible overall, there is definitely a lot to be improved on before the next iteration of Pioneer Challenger deck...
Oct 03, 2022•47 min•Ep. 145
"Omae wa mo shinderu" Magic the Gathering is a game of numbers. Do you have enough cards left? Do you have enough life left? And most importantly, do you have enough time left? Do you keep playing when you're dead on the board or do you give up and move on to the next game? How do you know you're dead? While deck choice is important for any tournament you go to, knowing when to move onto your next game to better your chances to win the round is also an important skill. That being said, Pioneer i...
Sep 26, 2022•58 min•Ep. 144
