Pioneer Peak: Fries of Invention (Pioneer, Magic Online)
I love Fires of Invention in standard so naturally, we had to see how the deck plays in Pioneer!
Gameplan
The deck is a superfriends deck that is just loaded with board wipe effects like Supreme Verdict and planeswalkers!
The key to the deck is being able to slam Fires of Invention on turn four and then running wild with all your planeswalkers. Fires feels like a super mana fixer but the deck can still mostly play the normal game without Fires of Invention. What planeswalkers does Pioneer allow for us to play?
All of these planeswalkers can protect themselves in some way and are absurdly powerful if left unchecked. Combine these planeswalkers with all of the other ones like the people's champ, Oko, Thief of Crowns, then go to value town as our opponents usually get overwhelmed by so many different walkers. In Pioneer, not many people play The Elderspell. Another thing that is cute with the deck is that we still play the Fae of Wishes sideboard plan
Thanks to Fae of Wishes we're able to turn our sideboard into a tool box. We can grab answers for most problems. My personal favorite to grab from the sideboard is Deploy the Gatewatch. Its a gamble but we have 16 planeswalkers in our deck so hopefully we can find a few. It's probably the card that most likely gets cut if I need more sideboard slots but it's just too much fun. Also, the Soulflayer deck is becoming a thing so its nice to have a card like Gideon's Intervention.
Another thing that really helps this deck shine is that in this format we have Oath of Teferi and Heart of Kiran
Upfront, Oath of Teferi is really a win more but I do enjoy activating planeswalkers twice. On top of that, you can blink a planeswalker to reset it's loyalty or maybe blink out a Fires of Invention so you can cast a ton of spells before it comes back. It's also possible to use Oath of Teferi to blink a permanent out on a turn where you plan on doing a full sweep of the board with Hour of Revelation. And of course, we can't forget Heart of Kiran. The planeswalkers in our deck usually have a pretty high loyalty count so curving Heart of Kiran into any three mana planeswalkers and so forth is huge. It allows us an outlet to be aggressive while also being defensive.
Matchups
Almost every deck I play comes prepared for aggro decks so naturally, I'd have 6 board wipes in the main. I think the only thing you need to be mindful of is Brave the Elements in the Humans deck because Deafening Clarion will get blanked. Also, be ready for Selfless Spirit out of any deck that has access to white. The matchup overall should be decent especially if we shut down all interactions with Teferi, Time Raveler.
The Midrange matchups in this format feel like they can also be quite aggressive IE. Mono Green devotion or Simic Stompy. In this matchup, I won't always deploy Fires of Invention as I may want the ability to use Teferi, Time Raveler's +1 to instant speed a Supreme Verdict.
Control can be 50/50 as they could counter a few key pieces and then pull ahead with a Sphinx's Revelation but we do run a bunch of threats that all need to be countered and answered. The best thing we can slam on the board is Teferi, Time Raveler as this will shut down most of their gameplan and force interaction on their turn. Sultai Control is a matchup I feel more comfortable playing against as their gameplan will be to just rip our hand apart early but our top decks are just phenomenal.
I'm not sure how many combo decks are out there in this meta but know that Teferi, Time Raveler in some way will probably slow them down.
Conclusion
The deck was a blast and all of our matches were so lopsided. We either got obliterated or dunked on our opponents. I would highly recommend the deck if you've already got a Fires deck built for standard. The only additions that are pricey will be Supreme Verdict but overall the list of cards you'd need to port it over isn't too demanding. Moving forward with the deck, I think I want to go heavier on white mana so probably start with an Azorius base. The list wouldn't change much except for a few more white sources. Things you can cut from the main are Oath of Teferi but I think it's way too much fun not to play. I still stand by the Interplanar Beacon as the lifegain helps way too much.
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