Pioneer State of the Format: June 2023 (ft. Lawson Zandi)

Faithless Brewing MTG: Modern and Pioneer for the Spike Rogue

Season 18, Episode 17: Weekly Roundup

The US Regional Championships are in the books, where Pioneer took the spotlight once again. 1200 players descended upon Dreamhack Dallas to do battle with the strongest decks in the format, and put the newcomer Boros Convoke (”Boros Hogaak”) to the test. In the end, it was Engimatic Fires that ran the tables in the swiss, and Rakdos Sacrifice and Azorius Spirits that posted the top winrates overall. Boros, meanwhile, languished at a mere 47% win rate, and stock Rakdos Midrange (the most popular deck by far) performed even worse.

Lawson Zandi returns to analyze the state of Pioneer and share his findings testing for the event. What went wrong for Boros, and what can we expect going foward? Lawson and Cavedan also pick out under the radar sleepers from the RC, including a brand new Inverter-style combo using Archfiend of the Dross and Metamorphic Alteration.

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Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com

Decklists

Mono Green Devotion vs Lotus Field Matchup Strategy

Enigmatic Fires by Elliot Raff

Dimir Rogues by Toph Robinson

Boros Convoke by Max McVety

Mono Green Devotion by Evart Moughon

Rakdos Goblins by Luke Goodwin

Neoform Atraxa by Brent Waggoner

Archfiend Alteration by cftsoc