MTGNexus

After seeing the new Lofty Denial, I realized that there is a pretty solid Counterspell-like effect in Pioneer. Being a fan of the Mono-Blue Curious Control decklist that did really well last year, I am revisiting the deck idea with the idea of potentially participating in MTG Arena when they release Pioneer to it.



Basic idea of the deck is to play a 1 drop Flyer and control the tempo of the game with Counterspells and Instant speed effects. Curious Obsession puts pressure and accrues Card Advantage so I don't run out of fuel and is supplemented by Sea-Dasher Octopus as well. Rattlechains offers instant speed protection from removal effects and is a decent Flyer on its own. Spell Queller needs no explanation. Supreme Phantom shortens the clock and has good toughness to block and survive damage based removal effects. Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft is a known card at this point. Opt for consistency and the Flyers were chosen for their synergy with each other and with Lofty Denial.

I expect this deck to do well against Control and Combo lists and struggle against other Aggro lists. I expect Gruul Aggro to be the most straightforward and hardest list to beat followed closely by Mono-White variants. Inverter could be an interesting match depending on how many Discard effects they get.

list looks solid.

the only critic I could say is there seems to be not enough land. There are only 4 cantrips for finding extra land = opt, and curious obsession is not guaranteed card draw. Maybe add one more land, to be sure on reaching two mana?

That's a fair point. From what I remember from Arena, flooding out was the bane of Curious Control's strategy, so 20-21 land seem reasonable. I don't think I've ever goldfished hard-casting the Octopus, so I count that as a 2 drop. I'll probably cut an Absorb for a 21st land because the deck does struggle with mana-screw more often than not. I do like the Absorb though since it builds Tempo in my favor, so I don't want to cut them entirely.

I considered the octopus as a 2 drop when making the suggestion to go 21 land.
because this deck has a second color, and no reliable fetches in pioneer.

have no objections to the absorb, 3 cmc can be our top of the curve. Having fun playing a deck is important too.

ah, and lastly... if your meta has plenty of mono red prowess, I suggest using spell pierce in the sideboard, only one mana to cast make it easier to counter their burn spells.

my friend was on a UW tempo list before Smuggler's Copter got banned. Selfless Spirit seems really good, have you considered that?

should be in the spirits thread?

should be the spirits thread.

EDIT: Fixed. Spirits is a thing.

@robertleva I didn't see a Spirits thread for Pioneer, so I made this one. I agree that Spirits is definitely a thing and I hope that it does well.

@motleyslayer Wow, can't believe I forgot about Selfless Spirit. I like it in the sideboard, so I'll add 2-3 copies there and replace the pump effects. Good look.

what I love about Selfless Spirit is that it often requires control players to answer it before they can wrath everything else

let me know how the list works though