Now that the set has had time to settle, Avatar is looking like one of the most impactful MTG expansions in recent memory. The big chase mythics are living up to their hype and then some, and plenty of other cards that didn’t get as much attention are proving worthy of it now. Even simple uncommons are inspiring bold new archetypes, as we saw today with _VFS_’s Boros Land Destruction deck in Pioneer.
While we’ve seen this strategy in formats like Modern before, Pioneer has never really had the critical mass of cards required to support it. Thanks to Avatar, that seems to have changed. It’s early days, given that this is essentially the deck’s debut, but a top eight MTGO Challenge finish is nothing to sneeze at. Perhaps in time, this archetype will become a real player in the Pioneer metagame.
Boros Land Destruction In MTG Pioneer
As the name suggests, Boros Land Destruction is a Pioneer deck all about stripping your opponent of their most valuable resources: their lands. By doing so, it restricts their access to mana, and by extension, their ability to play the game at all.
_VFS_’s list can achieve this goal in a number of ways. Price of Freedom is a great newcomer from Avatar, essentially serving as four extra copies of Land Destruction staple Cleansing Wildfire. It also hits artifacts in a pinch, which is a massive upside against Orzhov Greasefang decks in particular. Together, these cards let you start hitting your opponent’s mana on turn two. Further up the curve, Magmatic Hellkite and Krenko’s Buzzcrusher offer the same effect on four-cost Fliers. These cards also double as evasive finishers to close things out once your opponent’s mana is sufficiently ravaged.
Throw in Demolition Field and Field of Ruin, and you have no less than 24 ways to destroy an opposing land. Make that 32 if you consider the fact that Serra Paragon lets you replay both Fields from the graveyard to use again. All of these effects let your opponent tutor up a basic land to replace the lost one, of course, but that’s not a problem for long. Most of the top Pioneer decks at the moment run three or fewer basics, which means all of these cards become hard land removal after you’ve used a few. Even before then, restricting your opponent’s access to specific colors can be powerful in itself.
The Daily Grind
While Land Destruction is a powerful strategy, it’s also incredibly slow. It takes a few turns to really get going, even in a best-case scenario. For that reason, the rest of _VFS_’s Boros Land Destruction deck plays like a grindy Pioneer Control deck.
Whatever problem you might anticipate running into, this deck has an answer for it. Between Portable Hole, Seam Rip, Emergency Eject, and Avatar newcomer Aang’s Iceberg, it has 14 ways to exile nonland permanents. The former pair is particularly good in the early game, where decks like this tend to struggle the most. The deck also runs cheap board clear Anger of the Gods as an extra hedge against Aggro matchups, and Hallowed Moonlight to deal with shenanigans from Orzhov Greasefang and Izzet Phoenix.
These tools all help you stay in the driver’s seat while you find windows to fire off your land destruction effects. Alternating between the two, you should be able to make it to the late game, where the deck really starts to shine. Once you’re there, Yorion, Sky Nomad can blink your land destruction creatures, putting the final nails in your opponent’s coffin. Additionally, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker can make copies of your Buzzcrushers and Hellkites, speeding up the clock while also putting your opponent further behind.
Gas Or Gimmick?
As cool as it is to see Boros Land Destruction emerge as an option in Pioneer, it’s important to temper expectations at this stage. As a new strategy with only one real result, it has a long way to go before it becomes a part of the metagame proper.
That said, it is fairly well-positioned against some of the best decks right now. Rakdos Midrange, in particular, feels like a very solid matchup. This deck isn’t particularly fast, which gives you plenty of time to ply your land destruction trade. _VFS_’s deck also features a better late game thanks to Yorion and co, so it can easily pull ahead later on.
Orzhov Greasefang and Izzet Phoenix are also fairly strong matchups. While they can definitely overwhelm you with an explosive early start, _VFS_ runs enough exile-based removal to stabilize against them. Once you do, these decks often struggle to make a second push, especially when they have fewer lands to work with.
On the other hand, Boros Land Destruction definitely suffers against the speedier decks in Pioneer. Gruul Prowess and Mono-Red Aggro are both troublesome matchups, since they can often secure wins before you really start to make a dent in their mana base. The innate inconsistency of 80-card Yorion lists becomes more of a factor here than in other matchups, too.
Overall, Boros Land Destruction is an interesting new deck, but one with some clear weaknesses in the current Pioneer format. Now that it’s proven itself in a Challenge, it may get the iteration it needs to really carve out a niche in the metagame.
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