Pioneer - Affinity Blade 3.0

14 6
18 21 0 21
Aggro Combo

I love Artifact centric decks in all their often broken glory, but I have a special place in my heart for Equipment decks. Generally Equipment are played as an extra rather than being the main theme of the deck, Stoneforge Mystic, Batterskull, and the Swords are a pretty good example of an equipment package that is occasionally played in a variety of decks as an additional win condition. Sadly (though probably not for most people lol) Stoneforge Mystic is not legal in Pioneer, there are however a few fairly powerful Equipment enablers that are legal. 

The most important card in this deck is Sigarda's Aid.

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This card makes this deck, being able to play and attach Equipment and Auras at instant speed is fantastic, and it turns a cards like Mirror Shield and our Sideboard removal in Chained to the Rocks into instant speed protection and removal. 

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Pioneer's Equipment pool is fairly limited, but there are a few gems among the chaff. Colossus Hammer works incredibly well witth Sigarda's Aid, it is entirely possible to deal up to 11 damage on turn two with this interaction. Hammering your opponent on turn two for half their health is probably going to be an inconsistent combo most of the time, because of this there are a few more long term options in Shadowspear and Ghostfire Blade. Shadowspear is good against a burn match up thanks to its lifegain, and trample can be relevant if you need to push Hammer damage through blockers. Ghostfire blade is a solid piece in this deck, due to the fact most of the creatures in this deck are Artifacts it can function pretty well early game even if we don't draw Sigarda's Aid. Ghostfire Blade can also help our other creatures easily dodge Shocks, Wild Slashs, and Stomps and turn them into solid attackers and blockers. All That Glitters likes our artefacts and enchantments, making it a good source of offensive power in longer games and an extra win condition. 

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When it comes to Creatures there are a few high impact non-Artifact creature cards that can be synergistic with Equipment. Sram provides fantastic card advantage when he manages to stick around, he is probably one of the most important cards in this deck after Sigarda's Aid thanks to his consistent ability to draw cards and refill our hand. Swiftblade Vindicator may seem a slow in the early game but if it stays on the board and exchanges its blade for a hammer you can end up doing 22 damage with a single attack, if this card remains on the battlefield and equipped for more than one turn it will probably win you the game. 

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Onto the Artifact Creature core of this deck, we have a few regular faces in Stonecoil Serpent, Gingerbrute, and Bomat Courier. Stonecoil is great against multicolour decks thanks to its Protection and naturally having Reach and Trample makes it an effective Equipment target, the fact that it grows as the game goes on is big bonus. Bomat Courier can provide card advantage if it sticks around and is a great turn one or two target for a Hammer or Blade. Gingerbrute is another good turn two hammer time target thanks to its haste and ability to become unblockable. 

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And finally we have Lurrus, one of the best card in this deck after Sigarda's Aid. Being able to cast an equipment or a creature from your graveyard even once per turn with this deck is invaluable. 

 Lurrus of the Dream Den

The only Maindeck Instant and Sorcery are Boros Charm and Shrapnel Blast. Boros Charm is amazing, being able flex between protecting the entire board from non-exile removal, dealing a good chunk of face damage, and giving something Double Strike is perfect for this deck. Shrapnel Blast allows us to chunk an opponent or remove a troublesome creature, and it can make use of the Hammers that tend to waste space if they're not attached to a creature. 

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The land base in this deck is pretty standard; Sacred foundry, Inspiring Vantage, and Spire of Industry for flexible mana, and Castle Ardenvale and Mutavault for if we run out of creatures. 

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Now on to the Sideboard cards I haven't already mentioned.

Tomik and Damping Sphere are for Land centric and combo decks.

Deicide is for Heliod.

Wear // Tear is to deal with Artifact and Enchantment decks, works well against Ensoul and Black White Sram decks. 

Sorcerous Spyglass can deal with a variety of decks, especially Teferi tribal control decks.

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Finally there are a few cards that I haven't included in this deck. Blackblade Reforged is an okay weapon and if I find in the future that it works well I might include it, however, because it doesn't become an effective Equipment until you have at least 3 lands, Sigarda's Aid, and/or a legendary creature in play. Settle the Wreckage and Deafening are cards I've mulled over including for a while, Affinity Blade doesn't do very well against wide boards and could benefit from one or two board clears. There aren't very many decks that go insanely wide in Pioneer aside from Creature based Aggro decks like Spirits or Weenies, so I think at the moment at least that the deck can go without a board wide clear. Aegis of the Gods and Leyline of Sanctity provide protection against burn and hand disruption, I think Leyline would be the better pick out of the two overall. It is probably a mistake on my part to not include Leyline, especially considering it is essentially impossible for a burn deck to remove an enchantment without splashing Green or White. Some other options for Graveyard hate in this deck are Tormod's Crypt, Grafdigger's Cage, and Rest in Peace. Personally I favour the Crypt as an alternate in this deck, more often that not this deck runs effectively low to the ground on very few lands and because it is aggressive I generally don't feel comfortable spending more mana than I have to. Tormod's Crypt also dodges remvol and is a targeted effect which means Lurrus can continue to reccur our Graveyard effectively and not have to worry as much about the opponent disrupting our disruption.

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Coorow
Last Updated: 16 Sep 2023
Created: 04 Mar 2020
1051 169 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (20 distinct)

Creature (18)
$1.09€0.720.02
$0.29€0.34
$0.29€0.280.03
$0.25€0.560.03
$1.00€0.650.01
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (21)
$8.99€8.120.33
$0.45€0.230.02
$2.07€1.810.03
$22.55€18.450.42
$5.00€3.940.40
$0.38€0.350.03
$1.00€0.890.45
$1.310.04
Land (21)
$7.12€6.250.62
$17.42€13.230.34
$0.75€0.480.20
$0.33€0.240.03
$0.25€0.200.03
$12.98€8.681.74
$10.98€9.470.10

Sideboard - 14 cards (6 distinct)

$1.25€1.381.50
$0.30€0.140.02
$0.28€0.280.03
$0.50€0.860.04
$0.99€1.170.65
$0.20€0.130.03

Maybeboard - 6 cards (6 distinct)

$1.80€1.200.02
$4.24€2.310.02
$1.26€1.391.67
$0.80€0.360.02
$0.42€0.220.02
$0.39€0.400.04

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Main/Sideboard Rarity Count
4 20 30 0 0
0 11 3 0 0