Top 5: Cards to Buy, Pioneer Edition

Ever since Wizards' organized play announcement last month, Pioneer has been getting a lot of attention. More people are interested in the format, and as a result staples are rising in value. For today's menu, we want to identify cards that are likely to see a ton of play in the months to come but are quite cheap relative to this play value—for now.

5. Capenna Sleepers

Let's start with a miss and a half. In my previous article I recommended buying , but l didn't foresee how high this Bird would go. I got my playset for four euros since it seemed to have potential, but it has in fact become one of the most impactful cards from Streets of New Capenna and has skyrocketed ever since the release week.

In terms of playability, it has quickly become a staple across formats, from Standard to Legacy, in part because it can trigger its connive ability twice per turn cycle: even your opponents make it grow! Regarding Pioneer, it has seen play in Esper , Izzet variants, both Phoenix and Prowess, and some Dimir builds. Moneywise, it is completely out of control! Ranking as the most valuable rare from the set, trending toward thirteen euros, it's not worth buying at the moment. If you didn't get them earlier, wait until the surge in demand ends and most interested players have their copies.

I didn't recommend buying last time, but I should have. This two-mana vehicle started to spike last week, from bulk rare value to more than five euros. However, it is already trending down again toward four euros, with single copies available at €3.50. The second best time to get in on the Hearse may come soon. The reasons are numerous. It's the perfect graveyard hate both in and against a wide range of decks, ideal to fight and Greasefang, in a format where isn't legal. Plus, it becomes a huge attacker once it has exiled enough cards. Unlike other options, Unlicensed Hearse doesn't impact your own graveyard plans, so it found a home in the sideboards of not just Winota and Spirit shells but also Rakdos Midrange, Greasefang, as well as Jund Sacrifice.

4. Voice of Resurgence

was one of the most chased mythics and expensive cards when it was printed in Dragon's Maze, back in 2014. Nowadays, the Selesnya Elemental experiences a resurgence (pun acknowledged) in Pioneer after joining the ranks of Naya Winota, arguably the best and most played deck in the format. Reprints, first in Modern Masters 20217 and not long ago in Double Masters downgraded to a rare, ensure a reasonable price. Still it holds a respectful four euro trend, so I already got my copies.

Speaking of playability, Voice of Resurgence ranks as the twelfth most played creature in Pioneer, a must-have in every Winota shell as well as a sideboard choice in Five-Color . Basically, it forces opponents to play removal during their turns unless they want to summon an Elemental to the other side of the battlefield. Plus, Voice is the worst adversary for blue mages, since countermagic suddenly becomes a bad play unless they deal with the Elemental first. All in all, the more blue strategies are played the better Voice becomes, so I consider it to be a safe choice in the months to come. On a side note, it also shows up from time to time in Modern Elementals.

3. Red Removal on Point

/: As we were just saying, Winota is clearly Pioneer's public enemy number one. The deck is capable of deploying the Human Warrior as early as turn three thanks to the mana dorks, so it's vital to have an instant answer, especially when it's on the play. Due to this current situation, Redcap Melee has jumped to the second most played card in the format card while Rending Volley ranks in fourth place. Both are one-mana spells that deal with Winota at instant speed. Financially speaking, both are super cheap, so I recommend putting them on your Cardmarket Wishlist and adding them to bigger purchases if you want to try the format.

: The other red card that rose up in popularity along with Pioneer's resurgence is Collective Defiance. The red sorcery with the escalate ability from Eldritch Moon, mainly made waves because of its synergy with , forcing opponents to discard their whole hand and then drawing nothing in return. It also plays well with , while the other modes help to deal with creatures or, at times, opponents.

Despite its €3.84 price trend, you can still find singles for less than two euros. While the Blue-Red Control shell hasn't quite reached top tier status yet, it remains a reasonable choice to sleeve up for a Pioneer event.

 

2. Mono-Green Ramp Staples

Moving on, I would like to talk about another strategy that has been on the rise during the last month or so: Monogreen Ramp became part of Pioneer's menagerie the moment the format appeared. At one point it even had one of its cards, , banned, although it came back later and remained legal ever since. There are a couple of cards from the deck likely to skyrocket if Monogreen keeps performing well. Be aware of them if you are currently in the process of assembling the deck or looking to do so!

—a unique planeswalker from War of the Spark, actually restricted in Vintage, that allows us to wish for any artifact from the sideboard. Karn is already a Modern staple, and gets better and better as more sets get printed since it widens the number of artifacts to look for. Currently we got a new toy in from New Capenna.

A nice side effect of running Karn and is that two of each planeswalker enable a convoluted one-turn combo kill along with a singleton copy of in the sideboard. With all the mana provides, you wish for Cauldron via Karn and cast the back side Restorative Burst to get back another Karn and another Kiora. The new Kiora untaps Nykthos and the new Karn gets back the Burst that exiled itself. Repeat until you are able to mill out your opponent with the Cauldron due to the life gained from the green sorcery.

Financially speaking, Karn has gradually been growing in price, up to its current twelve euro trend. But it's a matter of time until it goes up to the fifteen or even twenty euro barrier. I would grab my copies before that happens.

is another key part of the green strategy as it adds three devotion to the battlefield and looks for Nytkhos with its trigger. Even without Nykthos, it at least ramps and brings back another crucial piece from the graveyard when it dies. Looking at the chart, it's pretty obvious how much attention it's getting. During the last weeks of April one could find copies at around three euros, whereas the current price trend has crossed the seven euro barrier and it's hard to get a playset for less than €30. Add up that it hasn't been reprinted at all, this makes the perfect scenario for a huge spike in the next weeks if Monogreen continues doing well.

1. Black Ups

: A quick note on a card that is quite new. Only three sets old by the time I am writing these lines, it has already become a true Pioneer staple. It's a key creature in Rakdos Midrange, Monoblack Aggro, and Jund Midrange, and a common sideboard sight in Mardu Greasefang and Rakdos Sacrifice. Trespasser's stats are medium, but it counts as main-deck graveyard hate, while also being quite annoying to deal with because of the ward cost of discarding a card. Last but not least, if it transforms into a 4/4, it doubles up the cards exiled. Moneywise, it still costs cents, but I am betting this card will be much more expensive as the years pass, so get your copies now while it's still a bulk rare.

: My absolute number one pick for this Pioneer edition, I am still amazed how a common is the twelfth most expensive card from its set, as well as the most purchased. Single copies start at €2.75 while its price trend for the last 30 days stands at almost four euros. For a common, isn't that insane?

If I had to name this strange phenomenon, it might be the " effect"—concerning a powerful and widely applicable card from a set that doesn't have that much supply. Both Forgotten Realms and Strixhaven may have been among the less popular sets of 2021, and so we end up at this price. Deadly Dispute is way better than other similar effects like or in part because it allows you to sacrifice artifacts too and in part because it gives you a Treasure token. If nothing else, the Treasure can feed the next Dispute, plus such tokens have lately become a very relevant type of permanent in their own right, even more so after Streets of New Capenna.

Regarding playability, the card shows up in various Greasefang versions alongside as well as Sacrifice shells, either Jund or Rakdos. Here it synergizes incredibly well with and . Honestly, I don't see this card going down in price unless it somehow gets reprinted in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. Otherwise, Forgotten Realms supplies are limited, so my take is to wait until the end of preview season and then look for cheap singles to complete your playset.

[Note: After publication of this article, the preview season did conclude with the reveal of a reprint. Prices have already fallen in anticipation of the increased supply.]

Exploring the Format

Before we go, I cannot omit the news that MTG Arena is heading toward Pioneer with its new Explorer format. The one thing I am dubious about is that Winota has already been banned there. Will the one-handed lady suffer the same fate in Pioneer? Let us know your guess in the comments below!

As usual, I hope you enjoyed reading my article. See you next month!

---

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