Despite the fact that the Pioneer metagame has remained relatively stable recently, that hasn’t stopped some unique brews from occasionally popping up. For instance, this past weekend at the 60-player God of Pioneer Tournament in Japan, an unusual Mardu Self-Bounce shell made top 16. This is the ultimate value deck, and even has some tricks up its sleeve with a permanent-donating subtheme.
Dominating the Resource Battle
At its core, what this deck piloted by Funayama Reona is looking to do is out-grind the opponent by controlling their board while simultaneously pulling ahead on resources. This is made possible by this deck’s combination of enchantments with strong enters effects and cards that bounce them at little cost.
To help keep creatures in check,
Nowhere to Run
Nowhere to Run
Flash
When this enchantment enters, target creature an opponent controls gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
Creatures your opponents control can be the targets of spells and abilities as though they didn't have hexproof. Ward abilities of those creatures don't trigger.
and
Momentum Breaker
Momentum Breaker
Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.)
When this enchantment enters, each opponent sacrifices a creature or Vehicle of their choice. Each opponent who can't discards a card.
{2}, Sacrifice this enchantment: You gain life equal to your speed.
serve as efficient removal spells, while
Hopeless Nightmare
Hopeless Nightmare
When this enchantment enters, each opponent discards a card and loses 2 life.
When this enchantment is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, scry 2.
{2}{B}: Sacrifice this enchantment.
whittles away your opponent’s hand. Although none of these effects are backbreaking on their own, they let
Nurturing Pixie
Nurturing Pixie
Flying
When this creature enters, return up to one target non-Faerie, nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand. If a permanent was returned this way, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
and
Sunpearl Kirin
Sunpearl Kirin
Flash
Flying
When this creature enters, return up to one other target nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand. If it was a token, draw a card.
replay them over and over to pull ahead.
With access to lots of enchantments that generate value on entry but do little while in play, this deck also gets to maximize
Doom Foretold
Doom Foretold
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a nonland, nontoken permanent of their choice. If that player can't, they discard a card, they lose 2 life, you draw a card, you gain 2 life, you create a 2/2 white Knight creature token with vigilance, then you sacrifice this enchantment.
and
Rite of Oblivion
Rite of Oblivion
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a nonland permanent.
Exile target nonland permanent.
Flashback {2}{W}{B} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost and any additional costs. Then exile it.)
, sacrificing cards for value. You can even use these tools to get rid of
Treacherous Blessing
Treacherous Blessing
When this enchantment enters, draw three cards.
Whenever you cast a spell, you lose 1 life.
When this enchantment becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.
, thus evading the card’s downside after drawing three cards.
After cementing your advantage, you then need a way to put the nail in the coffin and close things out, which
Greed’s Gambit
Greed’s Gambit
When this enchantment enters, you draw three cards, gain 6 life, and create three 2/1 black Bat creature tokens with flying.
At the beginning of your end step, you discard a card, lose 2 life, and sacrifice a creature.
When this enchantment leaves the battlefield, you discard three cards, lose 6 life, and sacrifice three creatures.
and
Iroh, Tea Master
Iroh, Tea Master
When Iroh enters, create a Food token.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may have target opponent gain control of target permanent you control. When you do, create a 1/1 white Ally creature token. Put a +1/+1 counter on that token for each permanent you own that your opponents control.
help accomplish. The goal is to cast Greed’s Gambit, then use Iroh to “gift” the enchantment to the opponent. This way, you get a bunch of cards and tokens to start attacking with, and your opponent is stuck with an enchantment that slowly demolishes them.
If this path to victory weren’t enough, you’ll also find singleton copies of
Harmless Offering
Harmless Offering
Target opponent gains control of target permanent you control.
and
Demonic Pact
Demonic Pact
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one that hasn't been chosen —
• This enchantment deals 4 damage to any target and you gain 4 life.
• Target opponent discards two cards.
• Draw two cards.
• You lose the game.
in the decklist that can serve as an alternate win condition. With a playset of
Beseech the Mirror
Beseech the Mirror
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Search your library for a card, exile it face down, then shuffle. If this spell was bargained, you may cast the exiled card without paying its mana cost if that spell's mana value is 4 or less. Put the exiled card into your hand if it wasn't cast this way.
in the mix, you should have no problem finding these tools in a timely manner.
Matchup Variance
Overall, this deck provides a streamlined game plan that some strategies, especially creature decks, will struggle to overcome. Both Izzet and Mono-Red Prowess, the format’s two strongest aggro decks, have no way to remove problematic enchantments like Doom Foretold and
Temporary Lockdown
Temporary Lockdown
When this enchantment enters, exile each nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less until this enchantment leaves the battlefield.
. With cards like
Torch the Tower
Torch the Tower
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Torch the Tower deals 2 damage to target creature or planeswalker. If this spell was bargained, instead it deals 3 damage to that permanent and you scry 1.
If a permanent dealt damage by Torch the Tower would die this turn, exile it instead.
keeping you ahead early, you should have no trouble reaching the late game, where your win conditions remain unbeatable.
At the same time, slower decks like Golgari Midrange that struggle to apply pressure risk getting buried by Treacherous Blessing and Hopeless Nightmare. Doom Foretold even has the upside of outsizing
Abrupt Decay
Abrupt Decay
This spell can't be countered.
Destroy target nonland permanent with mana value 3 or less.
and giving you an answer to Planeswalkers and
Unholy Annex
Unholy Annex
At the beginning of your end step, draw a card. If you control a Demon, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Otherwise, you lose 2 life.
(You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.)
.
Interestingly, thanks to the Beseech the Mirror package, you even have the luxury of tutoring up prominent hate pieces. For example, this deck utilizes a one-of
Rest in Peace
Rest in Peace
When this enchantment enters, exile all graveyards.
If a card or token would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
in the main deck, which can single-handedly beat Greasefang decks.
This deck does run into issues, though, against strategies that punish you for not pressuring the opponent’s life total. Boros Land Destruction, for example, can easily answer your enchantments with
Get Lost
Get Lost
Destroy target creature, enchantment, or planeswalker. Its controller creates two Map tokens. (They're artifacts with "{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: Target creature you control explores. Activate only as a sorcery.")
and
Emergency Eject
Emergency Eject
Destroy target nonland permanent. Its controller creates a Lander token. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.")
, then make your card advantage useless by running you out of lands. Even the Azorius Control matchup can be a struggle due to the sheer number of counterspells you have to fight through.
Because of these weaknesses, this deck is more fun than it is competitive. Still, if you’re tired of losing to creature decks at FNM and enjoy winning the game in unorthodox ways, this deck certainly delivers.
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