Summary
One of the many formats of playingMagic: The Gatheringis Pioneer. It is a non-rotating format where all Standard-legal sets are valid since the Return To Ravnica set. Supplemental sets such as Jumpstart and Modern Horizons are not legal in the format, and neither are cards from bonus sheets such as those featured in Mystical Archives or Retro Artifacts.
Since the format is non-rotating, many powerful strategies exist. They have plenty of different playstyles, with powerful control strategies just as strong as aggressive ones. The wide card pool allows certain decks to answer other ones, making for one of the most balanced formats.
Updated June 22, 2025 by Johnny Garcia: Due to the nature of Pioneer’s non-rotating card pool, every new set has combos created to give new life to old archetypes or make entirely new ones. New decks enter the meta with every set release, with a large injection of new cards with each one. Pioneer’s top decks have remained at the top of the metagame, but there are plenty of new ones that have entered into the metagame that everyone needs to be prepared for. Pioneer’s meta is constantly changing as new decks get discovered, some of them taking some time after a set’s release to be discovered.
4 Sacred Foundy
1 Sokenzan, Crucible Of Defiance
Boros (white/red) Heroic is a very explosive deck that can win the game in just a few turns. Heroic is a mechanic where an effect will trigger when a spell targets the creature with heroic, like Favored Hoplite and Illuminator Virtuoso, which are popular choices as they grow exponentially when you start casting spells on them.
Almost every spell in the entire deck costs only one mana, allowing you to cast multiple in one turn to have enough damage to swing in for lethal if your opponent doesn’t block. Monstrous Rage is the card that broke it into the metagame, as giving a card with massive power trample is amazing.
2 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground
Geological Appraiser discovers three when it enters the battlefield, and has created an amazing combo deck that can win in just one turn if your opponent doesn’t have removal or counterspells. It will always discover Glasspool Mimic to enter as a copy of Appraiser, or Eldritch Evolution which will trade Appraiser out for Trumpeting Carnousaur which discovers five.
This will lead you being able to cast your entire deck of creatures. Once you have enough power to deal lethal damage, you use Eldritch Evolution to cheat out Doomskar Titan to give all your creatures haste. If it’s stuck in your hand, that’s what Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is for which Eldritch Evolution can get from the deck through Trumpeting Carnosaur.
1 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
Boros Convoke is a deck built around the convoke mechanic. It floods the battlefield with cheap creatures to then cast Knight-Errant of Eos and Venerated Loxodon essentially for free. Boros Convoke can go from no creatures on the battlefield to having enough to deal lethal damage in just one turn.
Gleeful Demolition is a star, as it can turn the Blood token from Voldaren Epicure or the Clue from Thraben Inspector to three 1/1 tokens to help convoke your spells that much easier. Imodane’s Recruiter is a way to give all your creatures haste as well so you can take your opponent out the turn you finish setting up.
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
Rakdos (black/red) Sacrifice is a deck that’s built around slowly grinding to a win through burn damage done through the “Cat Oven” combo of Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven to deal at least one damage each turn. The damage can be expanded on with Mayhem Devil.
Oni-Cult Anvil gives a secondary way to deal burn damage to close out games quicker. Fatal Push’s revolt ability is almost always able to be activated since you can sacrifice most of your permanents at instant speed. Since the mana curve is so low, you can even get away with playing a small number of lands in favor of playing more powerful spells.
Naya (green/red/white) Pia is built around the card Pia Nalaar, Consul Of Revival which creates a 1/1 Thopter token whenever you cast a spell or play a land from exile. Luckily, Naya has no shortage of cards to enable this. With Wilds Of Eldraine, the deck went from Boros to Naya thanks to Questing Druid to exile more cards (and itself since it has adventure) and Pollen-Shield Hare to give all your tokens a stat boost.
With Runaway Steam-Kin, the deck can combo off when mixed with stage two and three of Showdown Of The Skalds, especially if you draw into more impulse draw (exiling the top cards to play them). The deck is very explosive and can snowball very fast.
2 Jetmir’s Garden
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad (Companion)
Enigmatic Incarnation is a five-color deck built around its namesake card and Fires Of Invention. The deck plays a singleton selection of creatures, as Enigmatic Incarnation can tutor them out onto the battlefield with its own effect. Fires Of Invention helps cast the ones you draw without worrying about the right mana needed to cast them.
The deck plays a suite of enchantments of varying mana costs to ensure you always have one to sacrifice for one of your creatures. The creatures played are a mixture of powerful game-enders and utility ones that either remove permanents from your opponent’s battlefield or get you an enchantment out from your deck or graveyard.
1 Mutavault
1 Island
A combo deck, Izzet (red/blue) Creativity is built around Indomitable Creativity cheating out Worldspine Wurm and Xenagos, God Of Revels with its ability (though other builds opt for Torrential Gearhulk to cast Magma Opus from the graveyard). All you need to enable it is five mana available for Indomitable Creativity and two artifacts or creatures to sacrifice. This is easily accomplished with cards like Big Score that leave two tokens behind.
You don’t want to draw your combo pieces, so cards like Volcanic Spite are especially important as they let you put that card back into your deck so Indomitable Creativity can put it on the battlefield instead.
5 Plains
2 Forest
Selesnya (white/green) Angels is a creature-based aggro strategy that wants toflood the battlefield with Angels. Though no Angels played in the deck are green, it is played for Collected Company — since none of the creatures exceed three mana. It has built-in lifegain strategies that allow Selesnya Angels to play a more grindy game, thanks to it.
Cards like Giada, Font Of Hope and Righteous Valkyrie are the core of the deck, allowing you to boost up the stats of all your Angels. Bishop of Wings is also helpful for free lifegain whenever an Angel enters the battlefield and replaces an Angel if it ever dies to recover from board wipes.
1 Den Of The Bugbear
Gruul (red/green) Vehicles is a deck that utilizes the plethora of cheap and high-power Gruul creatures toeasily crew strong Vehicles. These are primarily Esika’s Chariot and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship. The deck plays multiple mana dorks to get threats out early, like Elvish Mystic and Llanowar Elves.
Gruul Vehiclesis an aggro strategythat can let Vehicles attack the turn they come down with Reckless Stormseeker’s ability to give them haste. It also plays a small Adventure package, with Bonecrusher Giant and Lovestruck Beast acting as strong bodies that can also crew Vehicles.
