About a week ago I played in my first ever paper Pioneer event, which was also my first event since living in Utah. I ended up spending the week before testing Pioneer decks on stream on Magic Online. I found a couple sweet ones among the 5-0 League lists, including a Midrange list from my buddy Bjorn, who was at the Magic Online Community Cup with me back in 2014.

The list I want to talk about today is one that really piqued my interest, however. It's quite similar to the Flash deck in Standard. This was a deck I loved when it was first created, and to see a similar iteration of the deck in Pioneer seemed even better. While it didn't go as deep on the "every card in the deck needs flash" theme, the spirit definitely felt similar. Oh, and it also had Black in it, which is just icing on the cake for me, as you're likely aware (#Sultai4Life).

This was the original list by Magic Online user conormc530 that they took to a 5-0 finish in a League.

Sultai Reclamation | Pioneer | Conormc530, 5-0, Magic Online League

• Creatures (13)
• 3 Brazen Borrower
• 3 The Scarab God
• 3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 4 Frilled Mystic

• Instants (17)
• 2 Dig Through Time
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 4 Censor
• 4 Growth Spiral
• 4 Sinister Sabotage

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Wilderness Reclamation

• Lands (26)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Island
• 2 Castle Vantress
• 2 Drowned Catacomb
• 2 Fabled Passage
• 2 Hinterland Harbor
• 2 Lumbering Falls
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Woodland Cemetery
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Aether Gust
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 4 Mystical Dispute
• 3 Scavenging Ooze
• 3 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Unravel the Aether

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I played the deck in about three or four rounds on Magic Online and only had one loss - to the Inverter deck. (Inverter of) Truth be told, I thought the deck would actually have a good matchup against the deck. (Spoiler: I did end up beating the Inverter deck in paper.) One of the best ways to deal with the combo is to counter the deck's combo components since they are both "enters the battlefield" triggers and removal is pretty useless once the triggers go on the stack. Well, counterspells we happen to have in spades, with an additional five relevant ones in the sideboard.

The main deck itself plays an impressive 12 counterspells, which is more than most any deck in Modern. Four of those, in the form of Frilled Mystic, are also a strong way to win the game.

Let's be honest, Wilderness Reclamation is a messed up Magic card. But when I played the deck, I didn't feel like we were utilizing it to its potential. Dig Through Time is also a messed up Magic card, but I didn't want to be delving away cards that I could eventually use to resummon the three Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath in the deck. Also, I was tapping 8 mana to draw two cards. We could do so much better with a card that lets us untap all the lands we've ramped into.

The morning of the event, someone suggested that I replace the Dig Through Time with Pull From Tomorrow. For those that don't know, Pull From Tomorrow is basically a mono-Blue Sphinx's Revelation; for X + 3 mana you net X cards. This was a game changer. Instead of looking at the top seven cards and picking two, I was just drawing the top seven cards. It was bonkers! I remember times I was drawing nine cards with a Pull From Tomorrow, and hitting the second one. Usually if you were able to fire off a Pull for five or more, you basically won the game on the spot. The same was never true for a piddly Dig Through Time.

It is worth noting that the ideal sequence of events for the deck is playing a Wilderness Reclamation on turn four, untapping and keeping up Frilled Mystic, then playing The Scarab God on turn five, followed by untapping and being able to use its ability instantly. While it only really applies to a handful of cards in the deck, Wilderness Reclamation really does throw those cards into overdrive.

The final list I ended up on for the event was as follows.

Sultai Reclamation | Pioneer | Frank Lepore

• Creatures (12)
• 2 The Scarab God
• 3 Brazen Borrower
• 3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 4 Frilled Mystic

• Instants (18)
• 1 Essence Scatter
• 2 Pull from Tomorrow
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 4 Censor
• 4 Growth Spiral
• 4 Sinister Sabotage

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Wilderness Reclamation

• Lands (26)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Island
• 2 Castle Vantress
• 2 Drowned Catacomb
• 2 Fabled Passage
• 2 Hinterland Harbor
• 2 Lumbering Falls
• 2 Woodland Cemetery
• 3 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Aether Gust
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 4 Mystical Dispute
• 3 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Unmoored Ego
• 1 Unravel the Aether
• 2 Tireless Tracker

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The other change to the main deck I made was not only because I only had access to two Scarab Gods, it was also because three seemed like overkill. For one thing, it's legendary, and for another, the card is quite hard to kill. We didn't want our hands to be gummed up by five-mana legendary creatures, and when they did die, they were usually just coming back anyway.

The card I added in its place was one Essence Scatter. It seems like kind of a silly addition, but if you think about it, most decks in Pioneer utilize powerful creatures, and the "deck to beat" combo deck's main pieces are both creatures. It really worked out for me, and even let me counter a timely turn two Young Pyromancer, so that was nice. I was actually tempted to do a 3/2 split of Censor and Essence Scatter, but I do like the versatility of Censor at all points in the game thanks to cycling.

I also made one slight change to the mana base. I removed one Forest for a third Overgrown Tomb so we'd have more ways to cast our Black spells.

As for the sideboard, I removed one Tireless Tracker (which I never found a use for) and the single Disdainful Stroke (we had enough counterspells, and better ones) for two copies of Unmoored Ego. These were meant to help against things like the Inverter deck and Underworld Breach. They were also helpful at exiling four Arclight Phoenix as well.

While it doesn't include the changes, if you wanna check out the deck in action, you can do so below!

I think it's still undecided what makes a Pioneer deck competitive, but this one felt good. I went X-1 on Magic Online, and I went 3-1 in paper, and I definitely faced off against some of the better decks in the format. This deck was fun to play and it really feels like it has the tools and structure to be a contender. It had everything I look for in a deck: counterspells, removal, card drawing, resilient finishers, and versatile sideboard options. It played like a control deck, but won like a midrange deck. If you're looking for something new and unique in Pioneer, I would suggest you sleeve this bad boy up and give it a try.

That's about it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the deck, and thank you guys a ton for all the support. Be sure to leave a comment down below and let me know what you think, and as always, use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off your purchases! I'll be back next week, and you better believe we'll be talking about the Banned and Restricted Announcement that will be happening on March 9th. Be sure and add that to your comment as well: let me know what you anticipate getting the axe! I have my money on Veil of Summer in Modern, and Underworld Breach and Inverter of Truth in Pioneer. But we'll see...

Thanks again for reading, and I'll catch you later!

Frank Lepore

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