Post-ban Pioneer has showcased an incredibly high level of diversity and innovation. There are tons of different strategies players can turn to, some old and some new. Like control decks? Azorius control has you covered. Want to play aggro? Rakdos Prowess is a great choice.
Every week, it seems like cool, unique strategies are popping up out of nowhere, too. For instance, Dimir Ninjas has been on the rise in Pioneer, abusing the power of Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. Well, today, we’re going to focus on one of the weirdest shells we’ve seen in a while.
An unusual Simic ramp deck with 32 creatures in it and some intriguing payoffs managed to get second place in a recent Magic Online Pioneer Challenge, which is quite impressive. This deck lines up exceptionally well against midrange and creature-heavy archetypes. There’s a lot going on, so let’s take a closer look at what the deck is trying to accomplish.
Creature-Focused Ramp
- Mana Value: G
- Rarity: Common
- Stats: 0/3
- MTG Sets: War of the Spark, Ravnica Remastered
- Card Text: Reach. When Arboreal Grazer enters the battlefield, you may put a land from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
At its core, this is a ramp deck. Its gameplan is to get a bunch of mana into play in short order and use the extra mana to its advantage. However, this task is achieved in a bit of a unique way. There are a ton of lands in the deck. Out of 80 cards (thanks to Yorion, Sky Nomad as a Companion), 34 of them are lands. This doesn’t even include the four copies of Glasspool Mimic, bringing the mana source total to 38.
This super high land count allows you to reliably abuse cards like Arboreal Grazer that put lands from your hand into play. And Arboreal Grazer is not alone in this department. Insidious Fungus and Spelunking fill this role, too. Even Arid Archway helps. It taps for two mana but forces you to return a land to your hand when it enters, making it less likely you run out of lands to put into play.
From there, we have two three-drops in Outcaster Greenblade and Clifftop Lookout that advance your gameplan nicely. Outcaster Greenblade lets you tutor up Arid Archway when applicable. There are some other Deserts in the decklist as well, so it has the chance of serving as a good blocker to boot.
As for Clifftop Lookout, it’s a nice ramp piece that gets you from three mana to five on your next turn, assuming you have land drops to make. Luckily for this deck, there’s an incredible synergistic five-drop to ramp into.
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A Strange Turtle Payoff
- Mana Value: 3GG
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 4/6
- MTG Set: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Reach. As long as you control ten or more lands, creatures you control get +2/+2. Whenever Fecund Greenshell or another creature you control with toughness greater than its power enters, look at the top card of your library. If it’s a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
The five-drop in question is none other than Fecund Greenshell. Fecund Greenshell is a really sweet card with a ton of upside in this deck. As a 4/6 with Reach, it isn’t the easiest to kill. It dodges the usual removal spells like Fatal Push and Lightning Axe. It also generates value when it enters, drawing you a card at minimum and sometimes ramping you.
The kicker, though, is that this ability triggers whenever any creature with toughness greater than its power enters the battlefield under your control. If you’ve noticed a theme amongst the creatures mentioned in the last section, they all match the necessary characteristics.
Eventually, once you get 10 lands in play, all of your miniscule creatures become rather beefy threats. Getting to 10 lands isn’t as difficult as you might think thanks to Fecund Greenshell’s triggered ability. Yorion happens to be an incredible tool alongside Fecund Greenshell. You can blink out all your other creatures at once and get a huge boost when they all reenter.
Beyond Fecund Greenshell, you’ll also find a playset of Blue Sun’s Twilight. Pioneer is heavily centered around creature decks at the moment, and Blue Sun’s Twilight gives you an out to problematic threats like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
Versus fast strategies like Rakdos aggro, Blue Sun’s Twilight can steal Heartfire Hero and the like for cheap. Against mono-black midrange, you can shift the game in your favor by taking Unstoppable Slasher or Bloodletter of Aclazotz. With all of your ramp, casting Blue Sun’s Twilight for seven mana is definitely realistic, too.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Mana Value: 1G
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Choose one- Destroy target creature with flying. Destroy target enchantment. Draw a card. Create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “2, Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
Overall, if you’re playing against a midrange deck, you’re probably in decent shape. Fecund Greenshell will dominate any game where it sticks around and you have time to deploy more creatures. Removal for your small creatures isn’t that impactful, since they all have important enters-the-battlefield triggers.
Against fast aggro decks, Arboreal Grazer serves as a nice early blocker that pulls you ahead on mana quickly. Dreamdew Entrancer can lock down opposing creatures for a while. You do run the risk of getting run over by Rakdos aggro if your opponent has a quick Callous Sell-Sword kill or you don’t have a one-drop, but a playset of Aether Gust out of the sideboard helps.
Pawpatch Formation acts as a versatile card that shines against Leyline Binding decks, while giving you the option to basically cycle it away or kill a flier when applicable. Between that and Insidious Fungus, you have a lot of outs to Enigmatic Incarnation.
Where things get tough is when facing down lots of Counterspells or combo. While ramping does grant you a mana advantage against Azorius control, your Arboreal Grazers and such are weak in attrition battles if your Fecund Greenshells don’t resolve.
At the same time, this deck does not put much pressure on the opponent early, nor does it have a ton of interaction. This is a big issue if the opponent is on Lotus Field combo. There are certainly some polarizing matchups to be aware of if you want to give this deck a try.
Still, the deck looks like an absolute blast to play, while offering a solid gameplan against a lot of different archetypes. Pioneer continues to be a breeding ground for innovation. If you’re a fan of Turtles and big butts, definitely consider giving this deck a spin.
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