Other aspects of the precon sideboard are generally fairly generic solutions that can work one way or the other, such as with Sweltering Suns over Anger of the Gods. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Although Skyclave Apparition has a high price tag at the moment, it's the best option the archetype has for dealing with a number of problematic permanents, ranging from creatures like Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger to Arclight Phoenix, passing through enchanted creatures, some Planeswalkers, among other permanents. The biggest thing that needs an overhaul is the sideboard, which makes some amount of sense given how the deck functions overall. 1995-2023 Wizards. The inclusion of Godless Shrine and Brightclimb Pathway allow the archetype to always have access to the mana it needs at the time it needs. 4 Supreme Phantom. Optimizing the Azorius Spirits challenger deck! Weekly drafts featuring a variety of formats new and old. MTG Challenger Decks 2021: Azorius Control Upgrade Guide - Card Game Base All told, the Lotus Field Combo precon is one of the best values for a deck that you could hope for. It felt like a really cool and different way to play Magic for a while, and then we got the double whammy of problems with the format. It's still a legitimate lower-tier option and a deck that can do some very powerful things. As I mentioned earlier, Lotus Combo has a multitude of options available: some lists play Ugin, the Spirit Dragon on the sideboard to control aggressive decks, others adds Emergent Ultimatum and/or Baral, Chief of Compliance on the Maindeck, among other options, and it's up to the player to define which is the best selection for their local metagame. (, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. There are very few occasions where Wild Slash will be better than Play With Fire on Pioneer these days, and the Scry 1 offered by the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt addition makes a difference in an archetype that has no means of getting card selection and play with few card advantage features. The sideboard could use a bit of an update as well, but thankfully, the additions (Fatal Push and [[Damping Sphere]) are fairly inexpensive, and doubly so when you consider you get a Thoughtseize in the Challenger Deck that the optimal build doesn't use, which you can either use in another deck or trade / sell to fund the other upgrades. All Rights Reserved. Pioneer Challenger Deck 2021 - Azorius Spirits - Card Kingdom Sadly, one of the cards that gets cut to make room for Collected Company is Brazen Borrower, and that's the single most expensive card you'll get in the Challenger Deck. With the pandemic slowly starting to wind down a bit, people are more willing to get out and play at their local game stores again, and Wizards clearly wants to help jolt some life back into the format again. Showcasing offbeat brews from around the internet. There are many cards for the last four slots, such as Kari Zev, Skyship Raider, Torbran, Thane of the Red Fell, Zurgo Bellstriker or Anax, Hardened by the Forge or more damage spells like Wild Slash, but I chose Rimrock Knight because it interacts well with the rest of the list, adding Prowess triggers for Soul-Scar Mage and Monastery Swiftspear, giving a significant power-up to a blocked Goblin Chainwhirler and is a 3/1 creature for two mana on its own, as well as being easy to find and very accessible. Challenger Decks 2021 | MAGIC: THE GATHERING Buying these cards as singles will set you back a little less than $40, with more than half of that going toward the extra Brazen Borrower, which currently is $20. Single Scoop: This Deck Sucks (Standard Vampires). A very functional card in a creature metagame is Nebelgast Herald, which essentially turns all your Spirits into a sort of disruption to remove blockers or hold the opponent's combat, something that is also done with Shacklegeist. A high singularity means that the deck is running cards that are less common in that archetype. The importance of Sacred Foundry also counts due to Chained to the Rocks, one of the format's best removal, but which only interacts with Mountains and therefore has a major limitation on its lands, but that becomes irrelevant for a deck that has a significant amount of Mountains, as in the case of Boros Burn. As such, this makes upgrading this list much pricier than the Lotus Field list, though still oftentimes more affordable than many Standard lists and certainly costs less than the majority of Modern decks. If you are a resident of California, you have the right under the CCPA to opt out of the sale of personal information to third parties. These include Lotus Field Combo, Mono Red Burn, Azorius Spirits, and Orzhov Auras. The idea here is that Pioneer as a format is much cheaper and closer to Standard than something like Modern, so it's easier to make something like a Challenger Deck for. Mono Red BurnAssemble an army and scorch your opponent directly. All original content on this page is 2012-2023 MTGGoldfish, Inc. and may not be used or reproduced without consent. One of two events on the ATP Challenger Tour in Taiwan (also Kaohsiung), the Santaizi Challenger in Taipei is fast becoming a signature event on the circuit in Asia. we have four archetypes represented. And the reason you play white, essentially, is not found in the maindeck: You use white on the list to get better answers on the sideboard, and to gain access to one of the most powerful Magic cards recently released, Lurrus of the Dream-Den. The only exception is Selfless Spirit, which you can use 2 or 3 copies in Maindeck, depending on your local Metagame. Mystical Dispute works well against Control decks, allowing you to have ways to respond to their counters or deal with specific cards on these lists. Mono-Red Burn is, as the name suggests, an Aggro deck whose objective is to bring the opponent's life total to zero in as few turns as possible and, to complete this objective, it has a low-cost creature base that have great synergy with its spells, as Soul-Scar Mage and Monastery Swiftspear grow every time you cast a noncreature spell, while Ghitu Lavarunner becomes an immediate threat when you have two or more Instants or Sorceries in your Graveyard. This week the Pioneer Challenger Decks were released, and these are four decks built essentially so you can sleeve them up and play them right away at your local store events, much like the Standard Challenger Decks that are released annually. AZORIUS SPIRITS | PIONEER CHALLENGER DECKS 2021 - Cards Realm If you are a resident of California, you have the right under the CCPA to opt out of the sale of personal information to third parties. Fully upgraded, Azorius Spirits is a competitive deck that you could certainly have success with in tournaments. What deck is right for you mostly will come down to what play style you prefer and if you're planning to try to upgrade the deck to its optimal form or just play with the precon right out of the box. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. This is an updated version that I built, based on the results the archetype had between September and October and, as we can see, what is included in the list are improvements to the manabase to increase the consistency, as well as better options on the Sideboard. While upgrading the Challenger Deck to the best version of Azorius Spirits doesn't seem super difficult, upgrading into Bant is going to be expensive. Magic: The Gathering and its respective properties are copyright Wizards of the Coast. Grasping Dunes is a quirky choice, but essentially works as a removal against some troublesome creatures, or serves to slow down your opponent's clock for a turn, which is often all you need to close the combo. User Submitted Deck 1 Posted by u/Rearrangedas 6 months ago Upgrading the Azorius Spirits Pioneer challenger deck! Necessary cookies can be opted out through your browser settings. As the deck now focuses a bit more on playing with impactful threats, Goblin Chainwhirler, who has already set the Standard as well and, just like back when it was a major staple, here it interacts very well with Soul-Scar Mage to deal damage to all opponent's creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters, which makes a big difference in the course of the match and that, added to the 3/3 body with First Strike, makes it a considerable threat to opponents. Are the Pioneer Challenger Decks Worth Buying? - MTGGoldfish And if you don't, you can always slowly upgrade the deck land by land as you add them to your collection, after starting out with the budget mana base that comes with the precon. And there you have it, two fairly solid entries into Pioneer and a great way to get your foot in the door with the format. (*) Prices based in average price in TCGPLAYER.COM store. 60-card deck featuring cards from Return to Ravnica through Kaldheim 15-card sideboard Up to 5 double-sided tokens 1 deck box (holds 75 sleeved cards) Current Price Points Latest Sales Date Condition Qty Price 5/21/23 Unopened 1$34.98 5/20/23 Unopened 1$34.97 There're even more questions, like why is there a Brazen Borrower here - something that doesn't see play in this archetype at all? While not 100% optimal, the decks are close enough that, with a bit of luck, you could play one right out of the box and win an FNM-level event. Join Crim (TheAsianAvenger), Seth (SaffronOlive) and Richard (BlackTuna) as they discuss the weekly news and answer user submitted questions. Orzhov Auras Grow and protect your creatures, then raise them from the grave. You can put other removals in this slot, but I find Izzet Phoenix relevant enough at the moment that you need to respect it. Highlighting the Pauper format where only Commons are allowed. The original list has a copy of Thoughtseize and three copies of Duress, and I think it's pretty clear that the archetype needs four copies of Thoughtseize (and possibly some Duress as well, depending on the Metagame) to interact with the opponent without restrictions, as there are permanent or creature cards that can simply win the game on their own if they hit the battlefield. Here's a list for example: Once again, this list still features much of the same general creature base. The mana in the Challenger Deck is functional-ish but is super far from optimal. I think spirits are slept on in Modern, and all their protection lines up well against the efficient removal for little creatures. All OEC Group tournaments benefit the public by offering free admission. Take a look at the Azorius Spirits list that Traft recently used to finish Top 16 in an MTGO Challenge: The creature bases of the two decks are actually pretty similar. Magic: The Gathering and its respective properties are copyright Wizards of the Coast. Blast Zone is a great land to tutor with Sylvan Scrying, and can handle problematic permanents of all kinds, or clear the opponent's small creatures, as in the case of Boros Burn, which has several creatures costing one or two. Take a look at the Azorius Spirits list that Traft recently used to finish Top 16 in an MTGO Challenge: The creature bases of the two decks are actually pretty similar. Now this is a deck that needs some serious work. Before jumping into the decklists, one quick note: we currently don't know how much the Pioneer Challenger Decks will cost. A well-timed Anger of the Gods, for example, can wipe out an opponent's board and buy you the time that you need to be able to combo off. Its only flaw is the space where the archetype is currently in the Metagame, with few results. By clicking OK, I agree, you consent to optional cookies. The format did see a minor resurgence thanks to the banning of most of the major combo decks that had been arguably tearing up the format and causing events not to fire, but even then, things have been rough. Honestly, Lotus Combo is the hardest deck to evaluate out of the four, as it has many variations on its lists and its game plan is not the easiest to understand directly. Instant (6) 4 Lofty Denial. Video link: https://youtu.be/GUGTIAMUMgU This could easily have been removed in favor of another Spell Queller - which has too few inclusions - or some better lands. The problem there was that even then, many Modern staples were already pricey due to lower printings and higher desirability with Legacy. $162,480. The lack of notable cards like Skyclave Apparition and Rest in Peace really adds to the amount that you'll need to upgrade here. Even if you don't, they're not that hard to get thanks to Kaldheim and can probably get picked up fairly easily simply by asking a friend even. As for the box list, the winning plan is to use Approach of the Second Sun from the Sideboard and then use it again in the same turn to win the game. You may opt-out at any time. We talk about what the existence of Challenger decks means for the Pioneer format, why one would play Spirits at all in Pioneer, the actual contents of the Challenger deck, how to choose between one of FOUR versions of Spirits to upgrade the Challenger deck to, and we play through a 5-match Pioneer League with the Challenger deck as-is. First, because a deck like Spirits is not simple to play and is too punishing to be used in an unpretentious way and without a careful planning, and besides, this is by far the worst deck for pick-and-play. It's currently the ninth most played deck in the format and has bounced between tier one and tier two for the past year or so. This archetype has many lines and many alternatives that you can go through so that I can build a "definitive list" of how it should behave without playing at least a hundred games to understand all the ins and outs that it offers, so I'm bringing you a recent list that got a result in a Pioneer Challenge. I'll be back next week with the other two lists - Orzhov Auras and Mono Red Burn - so be sure to check back then! If they end up the same price as the Standard Challenger Decks ($2030), it's hard to see how you can go wrong buying any of the decks from a finance perspective. (*) Singularity measures the grade of deviation from the standard average deck on that archetype. In summary, Azorius Spirits is a pretty bad deck straight out of the box, but it has the potential to be very playable with some light investment where it retains its Azorius base and becomes much more functional and flexible against multiple opponents in a local metagame, and it also becomes one of the best decks of the format today if you decide to invest more and build your Bant version later. Learn about the most powerful format that spans Magic's entire history. Arriving April 2, the latest Challenger Decks release brings updated approaches to start playing Standard with strategies ready to succeed. 1993-2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved. However, as with any competitive-oriented product, its lists are not usually complete and closed, but they usually provide a good basis to be played immediately, while also offering space for the player to exercise their creativity or decide to invest in a 100% competitive version of them. Segment I - I share my thoughts about the Azorius Spirit Deck and tell you three different styles to upgrade the deck to. But in general, I don't think that the Burn precon is really worth upgrading since it's missing so many expensive key cards. Each Challenger Deck comes with a complete 60-card main deck and a 15-card sideboard, plus five double-sided tokens that you'll want to have on hand when you head into battle. Here's what an actual Azorius Spirits lists looks like: Lands aside, the precon is fairly accurate, but still has issues. $136.73 Buy on Amazon Legends of Runeterra and its respective properties are copyright Riot Games. Let's start with one of my personal favorites: Lotus Field. While not a deck with very heavy mana requirements, the consistency of sixteen duals offers a lot of versatility in how to play your cards and opens up a much wider range of possibilities, especially in post-sideboard games. In May 2021, the Magic Esports website . It bets on the tribal synergy that Spirits and/or flying creatures have thanks to Supreme Phantom and Empyreal Eagle to speed up the clock and end the game quickly. These decks are intended to be playable and competitive at a local level, ready to challenge friends and foes alike. It also doesn't play Yorion, Sky Nomad as a companion, which is commonly played among most Azorius control decks. He's a simple and cheap pickup as well, so it should make an excellent upgrade out of the gate. The Azorius Control Challenger Decklist embodies the shell of a control deck, but lacks consistency with its seemingly random 1-ofs and 2-ofs. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. The Orzhov Auras Pioneer Challenger Deck suffers a bit from the inherent delay in designing and releasing Magic products. In addition, Fatal Push also interacts much better with larger creatures if you sacrifice permanents such as Selfess Savior to activate Revolt, allowing it to destroy from Spell Queller to Omnath, Locus of Creation. Chained to the Rocks will essentially deal with any creature that your traditional removals don't, and can be replayed with Lurrus if it's countered or destroyed by your opponent. The problem there, however, is that Magic Online is a bastion for so much other already well established formats like Modern and Legacy that players would rather play those than Pioneer. However, there is some bad news: While Azorius Spirits is a build of Spirits that occasionally has tournament success, the most popular build of Spirits is Bant Spirits, which splashes into green for Collected Company. (Editor's Note: The decklists below pull the newest printing of each card automatically from Gatherer, including printings which are not in this product. For the most part, this is actually a pretty accurate representation of the Lotus Field archetype! Speaking of card advantage, the deck's curve goes up a little with these changes, and cards like Ghitu Lavarunner and Light up the Stage lose some of their utility by reducing the number of direct damage spells and in creatures that play under the opponent and, with that, it becomes possible to take better advantage of one of the format's most powerful planeswalker: Chandra, Torch of Defiance. 1Mythic, 27Rare, 20Uncommon, 27Common. This has left Pioneer in a very strange spot over the last year and a half, with the format being left in limbo with few areas to play. Video link below ofc In today's video, we do a deep dive into upgrading the Azorius Spirits Challenger deck. With the structure of variety Challenger Decks provide as well, this opened the doors for what Wizards could do and allow people to get into the format a bit more. Boros Burn has several consistent results and is even one of the decks I used the most on Pioneer Royale, to the point that I created a deck guide and a sideboard guide which, although a little dated (they were written in January) can help you understand how it works and how to behave in games, since few cards have changed from the list since then, despite the Metagame having gone through some relevant changes. All emails include an unsubscribe link. Description Additional information Reviews (0) Description Releases October 15th, 2021 Four different 75-card deckseach featuring a different strategyare ready to play out of the box. Boros Burn works more closely to the list right out of the box, but requires a much larger investment in its manabase that includes plenty of dual lands for you to consistently have access to white mana in a deck that simply cannot have lands entering tapped in the first turns of the game. Adding Brightclimb Pathway ($20 a playset) and, ideally, Godless Shrine ($51 a playset) would give you the exact same main deck that raulramos recently used to 5-0 a league on Magic Online. Browse > Pioneer Challenger 2021: Azorius Spirits Pioneer Challenger 2021: Azorius Spirits by dfcenterprise Report Deck Name $ 53.82. Lotus Field Combo is likely the highest tier but has a unique play style that isn't for everyone. A one-mana conditional counterspell, Gloin, and Faramir! . I believe that the Lotus Combo, despite being well-built and with logical options, and considering that the investment needed to make it more competitive is not so high, it is an extremely challenging deck for its pilot and, as a result, its gameplay straight out of the box is not as accessible to the average player due to the knowledge it demands of the lines that its pilot can go through to win the game. Support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/AffinityforMTGBant Spirits decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4342728See more competitive Spirit decks . The biggest downside of all of the decks is the mana. Pioneer Challenger Deck: Azorius Spirits Unboxing - YouTube The big problem here is that the land base is just horrid and is a pretty far cry from what you'd want in a deck like this. Orzhov Auras Grow and protect your creatures, then raise them from the grave. Optimizing the Azorius Spirits challenger deck! : PioneerMTG - Reddit Is it worth picking up? The one redeeming quality of the Burn Challenger Deck is that you do get playsets of Soul-Scar Mage and Monastery Swiftspear along with a bunch of inexpensive but playable burn cards like Wild Slash, Light Up the Stage, Ghitu Lavarunner, and Viashino Pyromancer, all of which would go toward building the top-tier version of the deck. Starting with the most expensive card on the list, and one that the deck has absolutely no copies of, Eidolon of the Great Revel is a staple of pretty much all the Pioneer, Modern, or Legacy Burn archetypes, and though it seems counterintuitive for a new player (which I believe contributed to its absence in the product), it makes a huge difference in setting the clock against opponents who cast multiple spells in a turn while also working to attack the opponent. Anger of the Gods works better than Sweltering Suns these days, as it handles Arclight Phoenix, Scrapheap Scrounger and any other creature that returns from the graveyard, the same goes for Shadows' Verdict, although this one is more directed towards Rakdos Pyromancer. Rampaging Ferocidon is very useful in preventing your opponents from gaining life while setting a clock, and also punishes decks that manages to play or create various creatures, such as Bant Spirits or Rakdos Pyromancer.