Since the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, it’s incredible how much the Pioneer metagame has shifted. Prior to Thunder Junction, the format mostly revolved around three specific decks: Abzan Amalia combo, Izzet Phoenix, and Rakdos Vampires. While there were other options to play, these decks were clearly the most dominant.
These archetypes are definitely still good, but Thunder Junction has opened a world of opportunity in the format. Niv to Light with
Pillage the Bog
Pillage the Bog
Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is twice the number of lands you control. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Plot {1}{B}{G} (You may pay {1}{B}{G} and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.)
has been crushing Pioneer tournaments as of late.
Slickshot Show-Off
Slickshot Show-Off
Flying, haste
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
Plot {1}{R} (You may pay {1}{R} and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.)
has given new life to aggressive red decks. The metagame simply feels more open, as there a high number of elite archetypes to choose from.
On top of that, players are continuing to innovate with Thunder Junction cards in the format. This weekend, a Magic Online Pioneer Challenge was won by
Indomitable Creativity
Indomitable Creativity
Destroy X target artifacts and/or creatures. For each permanent destroyed this way, its controller reveals cards from the top of their library until an artifact or creature card is revealed and exiles that card. Those players put the exiled cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
combo. However, there are no copies of
Worldspine Wurm
Worldspine Wurm
Trample
When this creature dies, create three 5/5 green Wurm creature tokens with trample.
When Worldspine Wurm is put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle it into its owner's library.
,
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
When Atraxa enters, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each card type, you may put a card of that type from among the revealed cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. (Artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery are card types.)
, or
Torrential Gearhulk
Torrential Gearhulk
Flash
When this creature enters, you may cast target instant card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
to be found here.
Instead, a new payoff from The Big Score in the form of Vaultborn Tyrant has emerged as top dog and has recently spiked in price. Along with a couple other underrated Thunder Junction cards, this shell has been completely revamped.
Enabling Creativity
Like most iterations of Indomitable Creativity, this deck functions similar to a control deck, just with a combo finish. Vaultborn Tyrant is the only Creature or Artifact in the entire deck (though there are four copies). This ensures that when you cast Indomitable Creativity targeting your own permanents, you are guaranteed to only hit Vaultborn Tyrant. Before we discuss why Tyrant is such a cool upgrade for this shell, we’d be remiss if we didn’t go over how this deck enables Creativity in the first place.
In order to maximize Creativity, you need to be able to produce Artifact or Creature tokens with cards that aren’t Artifacts or Creatures themselves. Cards like
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — Create a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman creature token with "Whenever this token attacks, create a Treasure token."
II — You may discard up to two cards. If you do, draw that many cards.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
and
Big Score
Big Score
As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card.
Draw two cards and create two Treasure tokens. (They're artifacts with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
, for instance, both produce tokens when they resolve. Mirrex is an excellent Land for this shell, repeatedly spitting out tokens to target with Creativity.
In the past two premier sets, Creativity decks got two more solid token producers that fit the deck’s main gameplan. In Murders at Karlov Manor, we got
Deduce
Deduce
Draw a card. Investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
. What’s nice about Deduce is that it fits this deck’s controlling nature well. When you have Creativity rolled up, you can obviously slam Deduce and use the Clue token as a target. However, Deduce naturally provides card advantage on its own at Instant speed. As such, you can hold up pieces of disruption and if your opponent doesn’t play into your open mana, simply cast Deduce and move on.
Now, with the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, the deck gained Phantom Interference. Phantom Interference is completely serviceable as
Quench
Quench
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {2}.
when necessary, but unlike Quench, scales well in the late game. If your opponent ever taps low on mana, you can use Phantom Interference to make a 2/2 token on the opponent’s end step, take your turn, and resolve Creativity. The versatility of Interference and Deduce in this shell is part of what makes it so scary to play against.
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The Role of Vaultborn Tyrant
While the addition of Phantom Interference helps make the Creativity archetype more consistent, the biggest piece of innovation comes from the choice to prioritize Vaultborn Tyrant as the primary threat. With so many top-end options available, what sets Tyrant apart? To help answer this, let’s start by going over the other options and the weaknesses associated with them.
Before the printing of Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Creativity decks were primarily built around Worldspine Wurm and
Xenagos, God of Revels
Xenagos, God of Revels
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to red and green is less than seven, Xenagos isn't a creature.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, another target creature you control gains haste and gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that creature's power.
. The goal was to get cast Creativity with two targets, put both Wurm and Xenagos into play, and attack for 30 damage. While this kill condition has the highest upside of closing the game immediately, required having multiple targets for Creativity to make work, which wasn’t always feasible.
Decks running Atraxa as the primary win condition could get by casting Creativity for X=1. However, Atraxa suffers a bit from being legendary, so you could only have one copy in play at a time. Lastly, if you chose to run Torrential Gearhulk, you had the opportunity to put multiple Gearhulks into play at once and Flashback multiple spells. Gearhulk is also easily castable. The downside, though, is that if you don’t have anything amazing to Flashback, such as
Magma Opus
Magma Opus
Magma Opus deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of targets. Tap two target permanents. Create a 4/4 blue and red Elemental creature token. Draw two cards.
{U/R}{U/R}, Discard this card: Create a Treasure token.
, Gearhulk isn’t necessarily good enough to win the game on its own.
Vaultborn Tyrant is special in that it naturally solves a lot of the problems associated with each haymaker. First of all, Vaultborn Tyrant is not legendary and excellent in multiples. This is because Vaultborn Tyrant triggers not just when it enters the battlefield, but also any other Creature with power four or greater. So, let’s say you put two copies of Vaultborn Tyrant into play at once. Both copies see the other enter play, so you will immediately get to draw four cards and gain 12 life!
On top of that, even if the opponent can kill one of your Tyrants, they then have to compete with the token copy that generates additional value when it enters play. If that weren’t enough, hard casting Tyrant is very realistic. Some games, you will simply cast Big Score on turn four and slam Tyrant turn five, using the Treasure tokens to make green mana. The card is flexible, generates card advantage, provides a life buffer, and matches up well against removal. What more could you want?
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Covering Your Bases
Overall, these Thunder Junction inclusions go a long way in making this deck more competitive. Decks like Rakdos Vampires, mono-black midrange, and Izzet Phoenix will have a very difficult time grinding through multiple Vaultborn Tyrants. At the same time, the immediate life buffer Tyrant provides can be a life saver against aggressive
Slickshot Show-Off
Slickshot Show-Off
Flying, haste
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
Plot {1}{R} (You may pay {1}{R} and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.)
shells. Removal like
Volcanic Spite
Volcanic Spite
Volcanic Spite deals 3 damage to target creature, planeswalker, or battle. You may put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library. If you do, draw a card.
and
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.
do a solid job in helping you buy time until Creativity shuts the door.
The one area where Tyrant doesn’t line up super well is in the face of exile-based removal. Azorius control comes equipped with
Sunfall
Sunfall
Exile all creatures. Incubate X, where X is the number of creatures exiled this way. (Create an Incubator token with X +1/+1 counters on it and "{2}: Transform this token." It transforms into a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature.)
and
The Wandering Emperor
The Wandering Emperor
Flash
As long as The Wandering Emperor entered this turn, you may activate her loyalty abilities any time you could cast an instant.
+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature. It gains first strike until end of turn.
−1: Create a 2/2 white Samurai creature token with vigilance.
−2: Exile target tapped creature. You gain 2 life.
, so closing the game may not be as easy as you’d hope. Not to mention, getting Tyrant into play in the first place in the face of Dovin’s Veto and Hallowed Moonlight can be rather difficult.
Still, this deck lines up well against a lot of the best strategies in Pioneer. There’s no denying it’s impressive performance over the weekend, so if you’re looking to pick up something a little different to play in Pioneer moving forward, consider giving this deck a whirl.
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