The Best Decks & Stories from Pioneer LMS Valencia

There's a lot you can learn when you go from casting spells as a player to the role of caster, doing commentary. Here are stories from behind the scenes, notes on the latest Pioneer developments, the sweetest decklists, and more from the highest level of current European tournament Magic!

team

The coverage team

At the end of May I was in Valencia to provide commentary for the live stream of the Legacy Magic Showdown. The format was Pioneer, and 400 players came to battle in the main event, competing for prizes and qualifications to the Regional Championship in Lille. Let's take a look at the metagame and the lists they brought to the table!

The Pioneer Metagame

The most represented deck on Day 1 was Rakdos Midrange, predictably. Coming to this event, one had to have either a solid Rakdos matchup or a good plan against decks that prey on Rakdos. 81 players, so around 20%, brought the bogeyman of the format.

day 1 metagame
Data and graphics courtesy of Legacy European Tour

The second and third most represented decks had less than half of Rakdos's at 8.5%. While Monogreen was an expected second, White-Blue Control was a bit of a surprise. It is a widespread notion that there are always more control players offline than online, and this idea seems to have materialized here. It may have caught multiple players off guard who hadn't prepared for the matchup.

Right after Control we have Creativity whose popularity surged after Reid Duke's win at the Pro Tour. I still didn't expect it to be the fourth most popular deck! Going down the list there are then the usual suspects of Greasefang, Lotus Field, and Humans.

Day 1 concluded with a single player undefeated at 9-0 on Monowhite Humans—who actually played a mirror in the first round of Day 2, as another Humans player was second in the standings. Players were left scratching their heads in the face of this humanitarian domination.

To advance to the second day, players had to be in the Top 64, which in practice meant that 7-2 was a lock and even a couple of 6-3s squeezed in. Overall the Day 2 metagame looked awfully similar to the one on Day 1, with few notable differences.

day 2 metagame

Rakdos Midrange retained its ~20% presence after the cut. Green Devotion, Creativity, Lotus, and Humans also stayed at the top of the metagame. But one deck is certainly missing compared to the Day 1 chart …

Much to my personal disappointment, out of 33 White-Blue Control players, literally a single person advanced to Day 2. It is one of the worst conversion rates we have seen in a while in such a sample. I'd say it must be due to the meta's diversity. The more different things are happening, the harder it is for a control deck to keep up.

The Top 8

top 8 players

To get to the elimination rounds one had to go at least 11-3-1, but one player on that score didn't get in and finished ninth. Six unique archetypes entered the quarterfinals, namely Lotus Field, Creativity, Green Devotion, Rakdos Midrange, Gruul Vehicles, and Monowhite Humans. Let's take a look at the lists.

Lotus Field by Adria Mourad Martinez
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  • 4
  • 3
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1

Lotus Field had a pretty good conversion rate to Day 2, all things considered. This list includes main-deck and does not utilize . Its win condition is, as usual, , which one gets from the sideboard via . There are multiple threats in the board as well, namely and . The single copy of was an answer to Red-White Convoke.

Izzet Creativity by Marco Vassallo
Main DeckSideboard
  • 3
  •  
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 4
  • 3
  •  
  • 2
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1

Izzet comes in many flavors. This one leans into whose goal is to dominate the battlefield with its stats but also draw a bunch of fresh cards. In this deck it gets five at most, looking at the card types. It had other creatures to bring in for various matchups, but also the pretty unconventional .

Monowhite Humans by Alvaro Santiago
Main DeckSideboard
  • 3
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  •  
  • 15
  • 4
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 4
  • 2

The Humans have certainly been one of the surprises from Valencia. They did very well overall, and the player who went 9-0 on Day 1 also managed to claim a Top 8 seat. This list takes advantage of two recent additions to the Pioneer card pool: from March of the Machine and from its Aftermath.

Rakdos Midrange by Manuel Torres
Main DeckSideboard
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 2
  • 4
  •  
  • 3
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  •  
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1

The deck everyone expected ended up putting two people into the Top 8. Here we see a main-deck and , which are interesting card choices. They might actually be for the mirror, similarly to how it was played in Standard, where Duress was the best answer to . We find a whopping four copies of mass removal in the board, clearly targeting aggressive creature strategies.

Rakdos Midrange by Jose Luis Sanchez Delgado
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 3
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  • 4
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  • 2
  • 4
  • 2
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1

This list is painfully similar to the one shown previously. Same Duress in the starting 60, same Abrade. The main difference is main. The sideboard is almost card for card the same.

Gruul Vehicles by Reine Senabre
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  •  
  • 4
  • 4
  • 1
  • 2
  •  
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 3
  • 2

This was an unexpected design. It's not just a creature deck that puts pressure from the earliest turns and can play grindier if need be with . It also features , which pairs so nicely with the creature stolen by to fling that back at the opponent!

Mono Green Devotion by Andre Santos
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  •  
  • 3
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  •  
  • 2
  • 14
  • 2
  • 4
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1

This is pretty much what a stock version of Monogreen looks like nowadays. seems to have officially founds its place here. The sideboard is all singletons to search for with , and it even includes .

Izzet Creativity by Alejandro Dupuy de Lome
Main DeckSideboard
  • 4
  •  
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 4
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2

And this is the winning list! Creativity here brings out to flashback a free . This is by far the fairest flavor of Izzet Creativity. It can easily become a pure control deck postboard with the intention of hardcasting Hulks turn after turn. Two were an excellent meta call against Rakdos, as a foretold card cannot be discarded.

Huge congratulations to Alejandro on the win! It was super exciting to watch and cast the finals.

champion

The Stories of the Weekend

There was no shortage of exciting moments and situations during the weekend. There were plenty unconventional plays and decisions and heartwarming moments. Let me share with you but a few.

We watched a game in which sacrificed a delve creature and found on the third turn—on the play! In the booth, we were sure this was over, and in one combat or two the game would come to an end. Well, since the opponent had started with a mana Elf, they could deploy a four-mana spell on their turn when they untapped. Completely unfazed, they cast and stole Atraxa! The last chapter of War makes creatures deal damage to themselves, but only if they are tapped, and Atraxa has vigilance! The Gruul player found another spicy line here, crewing their Chariot in response so that Atraxa was actually tapped and killed itself. They also gained a lot of life for their trouble thanks to Atraxa's lifelink. It was absolutely wild!

atraxa, grand unifier the akroan war

We also witnessed other unusual developments like Neoform finding not Atraxa but or hardcast . The finals came down to clutch Fable of the Mirror-Breaker topdeck wars! Meanwhile, the dreaded Red-White Convoke had a poor conversion rate and didn't prove to be the next ban-worthy strategy. But we will see if that changes in Athens.

Last but not least, the Spanish temperament! It was unbelievable to hear all the screaming, shouting, and cheering of the locals when their friend made the Top 8 and later even won the whole thing. This is one of the reasons that paper Magic has that certain vibe that cannot be replaced.

All in all the event was a ton of fun. If you want to catch the coverage and listen to my commentary of the games, go visit Legacy's official YouTube channel.

As always, remember to hold my hand, and let's pass the turn together. See you in Athens. Cheers!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.