On top of that, the cards that are legal in Pioneer are those that were printed in regular sets or expansions from Return to Ravinca onwards, with the exception of anything on the Banned List for the format. You can also have a sideboard with up to 15 cards which you can use to alter your deck in-between matches one, two and three against specific opponents. That means you need a minimum of 60 cards in your main deck, with a maximum of four copies of any single card outside of basic lands and a few cards that state otherwise, such as Rat Colony. Pioneer has the same rules as most of the constructed formats in MTG. Because the format is so young you won’t find as many players with Pioneer decks lying around, but it’s likely to keep growing once paper Magic becomes more common again. The format was first announced in October 2019, but it actually got officially codified on January 30th 2020 thanks to a showing at Grand Prix Brussels. Despite the talent over at Wizards of the Coast, it’s impossible for them to keep up with the way that MTG players as a whole think, and that meant there was a lot of utterly absurd stuff going on in the early days of Pioneer. In fact, for a little while after it was introduced in late 2019 there was an announcement on new card bannings every week up until January 6th 2020. Pioneer is still very much in its infancy. Image: Wizards of the Coast When did Pioneer start? Most of the cards released for MTG from Return to Ravnica onwards are legal in Pioneer. It’s one step more complex than Standard, but it’s nowhere near as expensive as Modern generally is - although you can make Modern a lot cheaper if you know how.
It’s just the way that Pioneer feels for many players. That’s not to say there’s not a lot of fun to be had in the format at all. You’ll hunt around there for a while before going onto bigger things like Modern, and Pioneer is a halfway house for you to rest in on the way. If MTG as a whole is a journey, then most people start at home, playing kitchen table Magic, before setting off into the wilds of Standard. We’re talking about cards such as the fetch lands and some of the planeswalkers and creatures that go into the top-tier Modern decks.
It’s easy to think of Standard as a gateway into older formats, but it’s not actually that easy to make that transition because of the high costs of what most consider essential Modern cards. Pioneer is a Magic: The Gathering format that feels as though it was designed to be a halfway point between Standard and Modern. Pioneer is an excellent midway point between Standard and Modern, but it’s also a great format to enjoy even if you’ve been playing other formats for ages now. Modern used to be the next step for players who became bored of Standard or started to miss their favourite cards, but it’s become rather pricey as it's gone on.
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How to find decklists for MTG Pioneer: Find out how to discover the top tier decks in the format.How to build an MTG Pioneer deck: Figure out the best way to put together your own deck.How do you play Pioneer in MTG?: Learn the rules and set legality of Pioneer.When did Pioneer start?: Pioneer is a relatively new MTG format - here’s when it started and why.What is Pioneer?: Find out what makes Pioneer tick.It doesn’t have to be that way, though - learning how to play Pioneer is a great way to start your foray into the other popular MTG formats. A lot of players stick with Standard for a while and put up with the fact that the cards you love will end up going away when sets rotate out. If you’ve been playing a lot of Magic: The Gathering, the chances are that you’ve heard of Pioneer, but maybe you haven’t played it yet or even looked into it that much.