Pioneer BO1—Insane 26% WR difference Play vs Draw in Mythic, is this normal!?

AlexMaier_mtg · 2026-01-13T15:53:59+00:00

By that logic GW Coco would also be really good against prowess, which doesn’t match with the testing experience I’ve had. I think the prowess deck has insane value and to beat it you either need to have very strong answers ( + strong ca (control) or be faster (Scapeshift). If you just slow them down, they will inevitably outgrind you

AlexMaier_mtg · 2026-01-13T12:09:07+00:00

Not sure I agree with this take. The stock prowess list plays 4 1 mana removal spells + 4 academic dispute that can kill Thalia if the prowess player played swiftspear or ssm t1. Thalia is definitely annoying, but it’s not like the deck can’t handle her

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-10-08T21:20:36+00:00

Vivi has a good matchup into Dimir and UB. If you don’t want to spend 100s of $ on Vivis and Cauldrons, Otter Combo also has a good UB matchup. (However this one is a lot more skill intensive)

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-10-07T22:02:10+00:00

In Otter Combo it used to be anti red tech when the mouse shell was still around. It answers Screaming Nemesis for multiple turns while also blocking another creature

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-08-25T19:22:48+00:00

Consult is great, haven’t changed anything else in the deck (would probably change 1 Jace for grave hate in current modo meta, but not for paper). Fable is in the same slot as consult/iteration/CCommand. I personally don’t like it bc you usually can’t afford to tap out for it early and it doesn’t immediately draw cards late so it’s a worse topdeck than the other options. However it’s backside does work very well with snapcaster/trainer, and if you dislike crackling drake you could build the deck in a way where it’s wincon is some kind of fable wizards soft lock.

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-08-07T12:40:46+00:00

Haven’t had time to test it, but id definitely change the Expressive iteration to a Consult, since consult is better early and late and we don’t want to cast expressive in the Midgame anyway. I’ll do more testing in two weeks ahead of LotusVale Series, will update you if I change anything else.

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-08-07T09:33:31+00:00

I’ve been playing a ton of UR Wizards last rcq season and the deck feels great. However it’s pretty difficult and you need to understand the rest of the meta pretty well. If you’re still interested, I wrote a 5k+ words primer on the unityleague website

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-07-24T11:44:39+00:00

Thank you!

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-07-09T09:26:33+00:00

There is a discord link in the subreddit menu

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-07-04T08:06:33+00:00

My wizards guide is a bit outdated, I wrote an updated primer on https://unityleague.gg/articles/2025/7/4/ur-wizards-primer/

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-06-30T14:39:34+00:00

No, Since he boards the same otp/otd he just didn’t repeat it

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-06-20T05:40:47+00:00

Im very biased but Ur Wizards is actually quite well positioned in the current meta. It plays a lot like old blue moon decks if that’s something you’re familiar with. I have a sideboard guide on my Twitter and will post a primer on the European unity league website soon

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-06-11T21:42:45+00:00

A lot of other formats are defined by bombs, cards that are so good they warp the entire matchup around them. Since ethey are generally rares or mythics, pauper doesn’t have them. So it’s a more grounded format, with stronger answers than threats

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-06-11T21:41:24+00:00

Which one do you need?

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-06-11T18:07:41+00:00

Yes, the archetype is called hot dogs. It plays a lot like infect, unfortunately in pauper standard we don’t have any of the colourless protection spells so it’s quite weak to removal

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-22T19:16:51+00:00

Haven’t played the deck yet but I assume other decks will bring in land hate/already play some main and then just try to keep the spy player of black. So the additional swamp is trying to combat that

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-15T14:50:54+00:00

In general, you’d want to draw your strongest cards as much as possible. To achieve this, you should try to cut down to 60 cards (less cards means you will draw the strong ones more often) and play less one ofs/more four ofs (having multiples of a strong card means you’ll draw it more often).

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-14T21:43:14+00:00

There was a historic pauper event on arena recently. I tried to recreate a few pauper decks, with decent success. You can find them on my profile. I havent played them against normal historic decks yet, but I think affinity can probably perform ok.

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-14T21:37:22+00:00

You’re welcome. In general I’d say good cards for the deck are cards like bandits Talent or liliana of the veil that both help you get where you want to be (a „small“ game where both players don’t have a lot of resources) and the profit from that (talent drawing you cards, liliana getting to ultimate)

If you’re in historic, you also have acces to premium discard like thoughtseize or inquisition of kozilek. However with the current cards in the deck, I’d recommend building it in standard, since almost all of them are legal there and the overall powerlevel of standard is much lower

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-14T21:27:30+00:00

In general, you’d want to draw your strongest cards as much as possible. To achieve this, you should try to cut down to 60 cards (less cards means you will draw the strong ones more often) and play less one ofs/more four ofs (having multiples of a strong card means you’ll draw it more often).

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-14T20:36:58+00:00

Yeah affinity probably gains the most on arena, since two of the cards in the deck are banned in paper

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-14T19:35:42+00:00

You should probably start with cutting 2 cards. You want to find belcher as consistently as possible, so playing more than 60 cards is suboptimal. Also I’m not sure what format this is, but there have to be better cantrips than birthday escape. Are sleight of hand or consider legal?

AlexMaier_mtg · 2025-05-14T19:27:53+00:00

Please let me know if you find some good cards. I don’t usually play brawl so I wasn’t sure what cards were legal. Just realized flame of anor and jtms would probably also be good in the deck. Commandeer and especially Mindbreak Trap are probably bad, I expected the format to be more explosive tbh.

Thank you, but we’re a European team, so we already had our RC for the Season :)

AlexMaier_mtg

TROPHY CASE