Over the past week, Shiko, Paragon of the Way has solidified itself as a top-tier Standard addition from Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Doubling as a beefy finisher and a value engine, Shiko has helped Jeskai Dragons rise to stardom. With powerful cards like Stock Up to copy, Shiko really pulls its weight in Standard.
Interestingly, some players are even brewing around the Dragon in Pioneer. The Pioneer card pool opens the door for some spicy interactions. Boasting an undefeated Magic Online Pioneer League run thus far, a sweet four-color legends deck focuses on one particular synergy that makes Shiko even scarier than it already is. Let’s see what cool combo this strategy brings to the table.
Shiko and Valki
The main interaction this deck is looking to abuse involves Shiko and Valki, God of Lies. Valki, God of Lies is an intriguing design, allowing players to either cast the two-mana creature half or the seven-mana Tibalt Planeswalker half. Tibalt, while powerful, isn’t strong enough to warrant hard casting for seven mana.
As such, where Valki typically sees play in Pioneer is in five-color Bright to Light shells. Because Valki only costs two mana, players can cast Bring to Light to tutor up Valki. However, players can then choose to cast the Tibalt half instead. Getting Tibalt into play ahead of schedule is quite strong, and the Planeswalker will take over games if you aren’t too far behind.
This four-color legends deck takes a similar approach of essentially cheating Tibalt into play. Rather than using Bright to Light, though, this brew is looking to get Valki into the graveyard, then copy it via Shiko. You’ll get a token copy of Tibalt for your troubles, along with the 4/5 flying body Shiko provides to help protect Tibalt.
For additional consistency, you’ll even find a couple copies of Jace Reawakened in the decklist. Jace received a ton of hype during Thunder Junction spoiler season for being a two-mana Planeswalker that could immediately let you Plot Valki. That way, you could cast Tibalt for free the following turn.
Unfortunately, Jace never really lived up to expectations. The combination of Jace’s other abilities being quite weak and being forced to delay casting Jace until turn four proved to be a bit much to overcome. Perhaps now with Shiko in the mix, Jace+Valki can earn some more respect.
Supporting Cast
In order to maximize the Shiko+Valki interaction, you need a lot of ways to churn through your library as well as ways to discard Valki. Rather than focusing on card draw spells like Stock Up to find your pieces, this archetype goes a completely different route.
The goal here is to use Thoughtseize and Duress to clear a path for a couple efficient legends that pair nicely with Shiko and Valki. The best of the bunch is undoubtedly Raffine, Scheming Seer. Raffine is tough to kill on sight due to its high toughness and Ward ability. Attacking allows you to discard copies of Valki from your hand as needed, which is essential.
The other neat legendary creature that serves as a great follow-up to a discard spell is Nashi, Searcher in the Dark. Nashi is vulnerable to removal, but if you can land it safely, it will start generating lots of value. Between other copies of Nashi, Raffine, Shiko, Jace, Valki, and Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber, you have a ton of cards you can return to your hand when you connect in combat.
Nashi also pairs super well with Raffine. If you can curve Nashi into Raffine, you can use Raffine’s ability to Connive and grow Nashi when you attack. The bigger Nashi is, the more cards you get to mill, and the better chance you have of returning some goodies to your hand.
Even in situations where you don’t find Valki early, you’re well set up to win grindy games. The black suite of discard spells and removal helps you get out of the early turns just fine. From there, Unholy Annex, Nashi, and Shiko all help you pull ahead. Shiko copying Raffine or a removal spell is still powerful in its own right.
An Obvious Issue
All in all, as cool as this deck is, there’s still a glaring weakness that may affect its competitive viability in the current state of Pioneer. For a deck looking to consistently cast Raffine on curve but that also needs red mana for Shiko, your manabase is far from perfect.
This decklist only features eight total red sources. Playsets of Mana Confluence and Plaza of Heroes enable you to splash Shiko, but you won’t always have one of these lands rolled up. Using a playset of Mana Confluence in a format dominated by Sunspine Lynx is also tough. If you’re ever forced to play two copies early, you’re in trouble.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can help prevent the life loss in some situations, since you can choose to tap Mana Confluence for black mana without paying life if you have both lands out. Still, you’ll have plenty of games where you’re forced to pay a lot of life. You may even have games where you draw multiple copies of Plaza of Heroes and can’t cast your black discard spells and removal in a timely manner.
You do, at least, have a good gameplan versus mono-red if your manabase cooperates and you manage to dodge Sunspine Lynx. Shiko and Valki also shine bright in the midrange matchups, which are very prevalent, too.
There are a lot of different directions players can go building around Shiko and Valki. Getting to cast Tibalt ahead of schedule is very strong, so we look forward to seeing if any other neat brews centered around the two legends arise in the near future.
