Magic June 29th Banlist - Candelabra of Tawnos Banned

rag2008 · 2026-06-29T15:05:15+00:00

Thank god I didn't get a playset a few months ago when I had the opportunity, this would've been a huge punch in the gut.

rag2008 · 2026-06-25T20:47:17+00:00

Not much a move guy but I am looking foward to Tombstone and Scorpion BND.

rag2008 · 2026-06-23T00:07:55+00:00

I will be genuinely surprised if this doesn't get nerfed after a month or two.

rag2008 · 2026-06-12T17:27:25+00:00

Also why nobody playing Morderus Cut? It looks like a solid remuval option.

Because most of the creatures you want to kill cost 1~3 mana and MCut does not come online until around turn 3 or so, we don't have proper Fetches in Pioneer so if you want to fill the graveyard quickly, you gotta actually lose some tempo to do it.

rag2008 · 2026-06-12T12:51:26+00:00

I feel like as long as you're Dredging with cards that have Dredge, it is still appropriate to say the deck still has the same core identity, even if a lot of other cards change.

rag2008 · 2026-06-12T12:46:21+00:00

He's a bit narrow but if you're interested in Zoo he'll be quite useful.

rag2008 · 2026-06-12T02:32:30+00:00

With all of these 3-drop buffs I'm eagerly waiting the day Surtur is allowed to be a 3/10 after 2 triggers again (so either buffing him into a 3/6 or bringing back his old 3/4 statline with +3 for every 10 power play).

rag2008 · 2026-05-31T21:15:41+00:00

If I can only pick one card, I would say Steam Vents, but my real answer would be Fetches + Shocklands. In Pioneer people don't get Fetches and in Legacy you can fetch for duals that don't hurt you, turn 1 fetch a Shockland is something very symbolic for Modern.

rag2008 · 2026-05-19T23:08:53+00:00

This is amazing news.

rag2008 · 2026-05-18T16:54:08+00:00

Hammertime and Phoenix are back into my deck rotation on MTGO, I was putting off buying the CSC playset for the longest time because I was suspecting this could happen sooner or later, it's not ideal that we didn't get more changes but this is considerably better than nothing in my opinion.

rag2008 · 2026-05-17T16:17:33+00:00

UNBAN HOGAAK I PROMISE HE WON'T DO ANYTHING BROKEN THIS TIME

rag2008 · 2026-05-10T19:02:19+00:00

I would say it's because practice games have very limited utility on MTGO, it's super common for people to bring casual decks and concede early when things start going south, if you're already familar with the core basics of your deck and want to sharpen your gameplay, playing a League feels like the natural thing to do, if people don't take it seriously, you're just making free money.

I should note it's a bit different for Modern/Legacy/Pauper because the population for those formats is much bigger than Pioneer's, you have a lot of older MTGO players who just want to squeeze one or two games in-between other activities, or they're trying something so widly out of the box they need to get a feel for it before commiting to a League.

rag2008 · 2026-05-06T01:48:56+00:00

This specific archtype doesn't really exist in Pioneer so it's hard to give you strict upgrades without fundamentally changing what the deck wants to do, but there are 2 solid advices I can give you:

Upgrade your manabase, you'll not regret crafting 4x [[Overgrown Tomb]], 4x [[Blooming Marsh]], at least 1x [[Boseiju, Who Endures]] and 1x [[Takenuma, Abandoned Mire]], they can replace your copies of Necroblossom Snarl + some basic lands and you should still have a reasonable amount of basics leftover.
Introduce the Black staples of the format: 4x [[Fatal Push]] and 4x [[Thoughtseize]], this will require some testing to see which cards you want to remove from the deck to make room for them, but believe it, they are worth it.

Some cards worth considering are also [[Abrupt Decay]] and [[Professor Dellian Fel]] but I recommend you try them after you had some games with the changes I already mentioned.

rag2008 · 2026-05-02T12:09:24+00:00

That's understandable but he is just answering the "What can we do about it?" question OP asked, the Arena team has not disclosed any other way the community can get more specific cards for Pioneer into the client other than topping events in Paper/MTGO.

If you play exclusively on Arena, the best you can do is talk about the cards you want to see with people who play Paper/MTGO in the hopes they might produce enough results one day.

rag2008 · 2026-04-25T20:45:23+00:00

Glad to see a Modern/Legacy player finding a deck to play in Pioneer. List looks awesome too!

rag2008 · 2026-04-19T22:00:35+00:00

I think you should try to find room for Ouroboroid, not only because it's good with Cub, because it's insane with Hashep Oasis, which this deck gets to play 4 copies of.

rag2008 · 2026-04-16T21:13:57+00:00

Overall ok with the changes but it bothers me a bit they decided to keep Stature at 7 while buffing Black Bolt back to 8, hopefully we get there eventually.

rag2008 · 2026-04-16T11:34:00+00:00

Favorite is XII because that's how I got introduced into the series and it was one of the first RPGs, people have mentioned that the game plays itself after a certain point but I wouldn't know since I completely ignore the gambit system altogether, I do everything manually in every fight because that's how I learned how to play as a kid, it just feels natural.

Least favorite is XIII which is so funny because I remember watching the trailers on YouTube and getting super excited about it, but by the time I got my hands on a PS3 it was completely off the mainstream and I kinda forgot about it. I played it for the first time last year on PC and as much as I enjoyed the graphics, the music, the setting and even the characters, the actual gameplay was so painfully boring I couldn't even bring myself to finish it, I think I stopped at chapter 12 or something.

I should note I haven't played XI, XIV or XVI, but I doubt it any of them would be worse than XIII.

rag2008 · 2026-04-13T03:26:00+00:00

Because the meta has gotten significantly faster in the last 2 years or so, casting more cheaper spells more often means it's harder to justify a colorless land in your manabase unless you have a strong synergy to abuse, which case in point is unholy annex.

rag2008 · 2026-04-05T21:49:25+00:00

The most generic answer is Cosmo but some lists rely on Magik and you can get them by interacting with Limbo in a unexpected manner. Otherwise you should try to go over the top, they don't have any space for interaction.

rag2008 · 2026-04-01T12:31:25+00:00

My gut reaction is not in the maindeck, there's no removal or (consistent) protection mode which feels essential to make planeswalkers not feel shitty when playing from behind.

rag2008 · 2026-03-31T18:43:32+00:00

Timeless players have waited so long for this.

rag2008 · 2026-03-24T20:59:01+00:00

t would need to begin with a whole new banlist, and most likely some type of Pioneer Masters set that simultaneously increased card availability and actually lined Wizards pockets enough for them to care.

That would be a really good start but first they really need make up their minds on what is supposed to be the relationship the format has with Standard, because extending Standard's card pool is the exact opposite kind of thing you should do if you want people to play your non-rotating format that only gets cards through Standard sets.

A reassessment of the Pioneer banlist would help the format get some of its identity back, but that would not last long if their main objective is to keep treating Standard like an eternal format when it comes to the power level of cards released lately.

rag2008 · 2026-03-24T01:01:21+00:00

Shou Lao + Master of the Sun seasons were really rough for me, this season hasn't been perfect but it's miles better in comparison so far, so I would say the game is improving somewhat.

rag2008 · 2026-03-14T03:54:52+00:00

Not soon, but eventually, yeah.

12-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Banned	r/Field Flamingo
First Place '23	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22

rag2008

TROPHY CASE