This past Friday, my good buddy Rob stopped by to stream with me on Twitch. Like every time this happens, we spent a little while figuring out what format or decks we would play, eventually deciding that Pioneer was still super sweet and unsolved. Rob was interested in brewing and building decks from scratch, so a long time friend and supporter, Chrwhit, suggested we build a deck surrounding Boros Reckoner, one of his favorite cards. That was basically how the following deck was birthed into existence.

Thankfully we had just such a card in the form of Star of Extinction, which was even better than the previously used and mentioned Blasphemous Act. I'm not sure how many of you know this, but in a game of Magic: The Gathering, each player starts with 20 life.

And Star of Extinction deals 20 damage to each creature.

And Boros Reckoner is capable of "redirecting" that damage back to your opponent.

All 20 of it.

Ya dig?

This was the backbone of the deck. After we knew the exact plan we wanted to execute, we looked for some extra redundancy and found it in the form of Truefire Captain. While you can't choose any target with the Captain, the damage does go to the opponent's face, which is really the only place we wanted it.

But Star of Extinction costs 7 mana, and Pioneer isn't the slowest format around. So how could we cast this huge, game-winning spell sooner? Enter Irencrag Feat.

I bet many of you reading might even have to look up a card like Irencrag Feat to see what the obscure Throne of Eldraine rare even does. The card is simple enough, harkening back to other ritual-like cards before it, such as Seething Song or Rite of Flame. You commit 4 mana, and net three more, for a total of seven. The catch is that it's all Red mana, and you can only cast one spell after you cast Irencrag Feat. That means the cast is strictly prohibited from being used unfairly in a deck like Storm; I mean, unless you're casting something like Dragonstorm, which is unfortunately not legal in Pioneer. None of these issues really mattered to us as a base-Red deck that only wanted to cast one spell off of the Feat that cost exactly 7 mana anyway.

So to summarize what we want:

Turn three Boros Reckoner.

Turn four Irencrag Feat into Star of Extinction.

And if you want to see it happen, might I suggest you watch the following matches?

The final decklist that we decided on was as follows:

Irencrag Combo | Pioneer | Frank Lepore

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Truefire Captain
• 4 Boros Reckoner
• 4 Glorybringer
• 4 Marauding Raptor

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 2 Sarkhan, Fireblood

• Instants (5)
• 2 Abrade
• 3 Reckless Rage

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Irencrag Feat
• 4 Star of Extinction

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Treasure Map

• Lands (25)
• 2 Plains
• 9 Mountain
• 2 Temple of Triumph
• 4 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Needle Spires
• 4 Sacred Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Abrade
• 2 Damping Sphere
• 2 Deafening Clarion
• 3 Goblin Chainwhirler
• 2 Lava Coil
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 2 Wear/Tear

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We initially had an even split of Star of Extinction and Drakuseth, Maw of Flame, with Drakuseth seeming like the second most powerful thing you could do in Pioneer for seven Red mana. The problem is that Drakuseth doesn't have haste and we never really seemed to want to cast them when we had other options. Eventually we went from a 3/3 split to just playing the full set of Star of Extinction, which felt like the correct choice after trying it out. You basically always want three cards with this deck: Boros Reckoner / Truefire Captain, Irencrag Feat, and Star of Extinction. It just makes sense to maximize your chances of hitting them.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance was a late addition, and a card that seems like it should fit perfectly into the deck. The 2 mana she provides is great at, again, getting you from 5 mana to 7 mana. Her other modes, as a way to provide card advantage and an efficient form of removal, were also useful. Mostly though, having one more card that could ramp us to 7 mana was the thought process here.

Sarkhan, Fireblood was one of my favorite cards in Standard when he was legal. Being able to cast things like Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Nicol Bolas, the Ravager off of a turn three Sarkhan was super fun. When I realized this not only ramped us to both Glorybringer and Drakuseth, as well as helping us dig for our combo pieces, it felt like a no brainer. While we lost some value when we cut the Drakuseth, it still allows us a turn four Glorybringer and gives us some valuable looting potential.

Marauding Raptor and Reckless Rage were interesting. The former was a way to cast Glorybringer and even Drakuseth (at the time) for a reduced cost, since you unfortunately can't cast Boros Reckoner and Truefire Captain at a discount. On the other hand, you do get an extra two points of damage from each of these coming into play on the following turn, which seemed like it could be worth it. The latter followed the same philosophy, treating Reckless Rage as sort of a Red Fatal Push. You can target any creature in the deck with it if need be, and again, targeting either of our Boros creatures would deal an extra two damage. While I'm not sure if both of these are the most efficient choices we could play, they had a definite synergy and seemed to work out well when we played them.

The sideboard pretty much has it all, thanks to White's versatility and Red's efficient removal. We can deal with more creatures, artifacts, enchantments, the obnoxious Lotus Field combo deck, graveyards, you name it. White is basically the best color in the game when it comes to having access to sideboard stuff, and it never felt like we were lacking for any particular matchup. I think the sideboard is in a good place, but feel free to make any changes based on your own Pioneer metagame, if such a thing exists.

I'm not sure what the deck is missing at this point, but it felt solid for sure. Even in situations where you don't get to combo your opponent out, Boros Reckoner and Glorybringer are surprisingly hard-to-deal-with threats, due to the lack of things like Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and the difficulty of revolting a Fatal Push without the consistency offered by fetch lands. Sometimes opponents just can't profitably block or deal with these cards, and they can end up winning you some games on their own. One of the main reasons I even added Glorybringer was due to how many times it was played against me to great success. Now I too know the power.

This was for sure one of the most fun decks Rob and I have come up with from scratch, and it happened completely on the fly. Going undefeated in our matches didn't hurt either. If you're looking for something fun to play in Pioneer, I definitely think this deck could fit the bill, but despite our winning record, I can't guarantee it's Tier 1 just yet. I can guarantee some good times though!

Thank you guys so much for reading, and be sure to leave a comment down below with your thoughts or suggestions. Next week I might write about another Pioneer brew, but we'll see; let me know if there's anything specific you'd prefer I talk about. And don't forget to use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off your purchases! Love you guys, and I'll catch you next week!

Frank Lepore

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