Pioneer format discussion.
Pioneer is a nonrotating format features sets from Return to Ravnica, forward. It aims to be more powerful than Standard but less powerful than Modern or Legacy.
Read more at Pioneer's official website.
Awesome!
I'm a fan of Pioneer, but it definitely does not get a lot of love, especially this year. Even The First Pioneers podcast has been quieter and quieter, with fewer tournament results to discuss and no hype for RCQ seasons and PTs to aim for.
If I had to guess the winner of it all, I'm betting on Green Devotion. At least in the 3 years since I've started playing, it's the matchup that has seemed to raise the most frustration and stink from players (aside from ABA combo leading to draws).
Green Devotion is scary, but I feel like it depends a lot on the matchup. Can it really win before Copycat goes infinite? Can it win through countless fog effects?
It's pretty powerful and can win through fogs if it's using the 2022-2024 version, with Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst as a combo finisher. But that won't work against, for example, the Nexus of Fate being re-added to the deck.