The last time I played Pioneer before the Pro Tour returned, Felidar Guardian was legal. With Pioneer being one of the RCQ formats, I started dipping my toes into the Inverter of Truth-less, Walking Ballista-free format. My first foray back in Pioneer was with UW Flash, a deck that had recently 5-0’d and was exactly the kind of deck I was looking to learn the format on. I love playing tempo decks, but UW Flash, sadly, isn’t much more than an FNM-grade deck. So why didn’t I play Mono-Blue Spirits?
Well, the primary reason was that I expected Spirits to be a known enemy going into the RCQ. Several of the skilled players at my store had been playing it, and I didn’t feel comfortable enough on the deck to perform well against players who were more familiar with Pioneer and Spirits’ lines in particular. Add to that the fact that I’d had mana struggles during my testing with the deck, and I decided to go with one of my old tribes, Humans. I had picked up the Modern variant all the way back in 2018 as my competitive deck of choice for GP Hong Kong, so I felt comfortable taking my experience with the tribe and its play patterns into Pioneer.
I’d played Bant Humans the previous weekend, and while I fell head over heels for Extraction Specialist, I disliked how that variant didn’t quite have the punch I was looking for. Bant was slower and relied on Collected Company to propel it through the midgame. As someone whose Companies have often whiffed or only hit one mediocre creature, I decided to go with mono-white. Luminarch Aspirant was a Human I’d had my eye on, but never gotten around to playing, so that was another factor that pushed me towards the mono-white build. Couple that with the fact that I’d get to dust off my Shefet Dunes from my Monument Sisters days, and I was ready to tackle my Pioneer RCQ.
Swiss
Round 1: Bye
This let me scout the field and see what I might be up against. Out of 47 players, I saw plenty of Spirits (Mono-U, UW, and Bant), RB decks, Phoenix, and a sprinkling of Heroic, Mono-Green, and Lotus Field. There was at least one Abzan Greasefang pilot, and maybe a 5c Niv Control was almost non-existent, maybe one UW and one Esper. I was also able to confirm that one of the better players at the store was still on Lotus Field (this will come into play later).
Round 2: 2-0 RB Midrange
I don’t remember much of this match, other than it was over very quickly. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Thalia’s Lieutenant, 2/1’s on turn one, and Brutal Cathar for their Fable of the Mirror-Breaker tokens. I got Thoughtseized at least three times during the match, and every time received a heavy sigh and long tanking while they considered what to take. I’m sure there are more removal-heavy builds or draws that can crush Humans, but this was not one of them.
Round 3: 1-2 Mono-U Spirits
Lost the die roll, got out-tempoed. Winning the die roll, and then not stumbling, are crucial to beating the aggro mirror. Mulling to Portable Hole hands isn’t necessarily the best because Mono-U has a lot of early counterspells and protection. So being able to apply a ton of pressure early and force them to burn counters on slowing you down instead of protecting their advance will do wonders to winning this matchup.
Round 4: 2-0 Mono-Red Aggro
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben single-handedly won me both games. I lost the die roll, but they kept one-landers that didn’t pan out. Getting passed the turn on a missed land drop with Thalia in hand was a wonderful “blood in the water” moment. Game two was closer because they did eventually draw lands, but with an Eidolon of the Great Revel in play and my board being wider, they eventually got stuck at 2 life behind their Eidolon. Casting Torbran, Thane of Red Fell wasn’t enough to survive, and I had Brutal Cathar and 5 life to live through the empowered Eidolon trigger.
Round 5: 2-0 Mono-U Spirits
Won the die roll. Steamrolled game one, game two they stumbled and I had Portable Hole.
Round 6: Intentional Draw
Easy draw into the Top 8, so I ran and got dinner while waiting for the round to end.
Quarters: 2-0 Lotus Field
Faced the gentleman Lotus Field player I’d scouted during round 1. Since he was the higher seed, he had the play, but I had a single main deck Tomik and a plan. I mulled to 5 looking for either Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Tomik, Distinguished Advokist, and ended up with both. Turn 1 Kytheon was integral to winning the first game, because I was able to flip him before getting my board Languished. I might have missed lethal, because I don’t remember if I had Mutavault or not (he was at 6), but I did put him to 1 and faded death.
Semis: 1-2 Bant Spirits
While being on the play thanks to having a higher seed was good, stumbling on two lands game one was not. I got out-aggro’d because I didn’t draw a third land anywhere near in time. Game two Humans easily bulldozed the Spirits, complete with Portable Hole] into Brutal Cathar on back-to-back Shacklegeist. Sadly, game three was not meant to be. He had Portable Hole and a clearly telegraphed Spell Queller. I tried to play around it but ended up just being too slow.
Overall Thoughts:
Mono-White was surprisingly good. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben felt very well-positioned, and there’s no need to play multiples of the one-ofs if you always draw the single copy you need. I’m a little worried about the Control match up, which has traditionally been a bad time for aggro. Selfless Spirit out of the sideboard can help, but Control has access to March of Otherworldly Light and bounce effects. Thankfully, Control isn’t very good right now, but when has that stopped Control players?
Another thing to keep in mind is that my result against RB is likely not indicative of how the match normally plays out. Depending on the amount of removal and aggression they have, and how well their discard lines up into your draw, they can definitely swing the match in their favor. My RB opponent never saw Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, which can completely take over a game, and Thalia likely priced them out of Chandra, Torch of Defiance if they did draw her, since they never got past four lands.
That being said, Humans is a fantastic tribe, and going mono-white allows the deck to have a painless manabase while retaining Mutavault and some sweet utility lands. Shefet Dunes was integral to closing out at least one game. In the future, I’ll run a second Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire over the fourth Shefet Dunes because you can run into situations where Shefet is your only or second white source, and that incremental damage adds up.
Hopeful Initiate isn’t quite Champion of the Parish, but it does a good impression most of the time. And it’s also a main deck answer to Curious Obsession out of Mono-Blue Spirits and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. I really liked the aggression all the one-drops provided, and Luminarch Aspirant definitely lived up to expectations. Adeline, Resplendent Cathar was a house, as always, and having Brave the Elements to either blanket protect the creatures from spot removal or push through blockers for the win was clutch. So if you’re looking for something to scratch that A-Space, Smash Face itch, I’d highly recommend the little white creatures that could.
