Pioneer State of the Format: June 2023 (ft. Lawson Zandi)

Season 18, Episode 17: Weekly Roundup The US Regional Championships are in the books, where Pioneer took the spotlight once again. 1200 players descended upon Dreamhack Dallas to do battle with the strongest decks in the format, and put the newcomer Boros Convoke (”Boros Hogaak”) to the test. In the end, it was Engimatic Fires that ran the tables in the swiss, and Rakdos Sacrifice and Azorius Spirits that posted the top winrates overall. Boros, meanwhile, languished at a mere 47% win rate, and stock Rakdos Midrange (the most popular deck by far) performed even worse. Lawson Zandi returns to analyze the state of Pioneer and share his findings testing for the event. What went wrong for Boros, and what can we expect going foward? Lawson and Cavedan also pick out under the radar sleepers from the RC, including a brand new Inverter-style combo using Archfiend of the Dross and Metamorphic Alteration. Like our content? Support us on Patreon and join our brewing community! Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com Decklists Mono Green Devotion vs Lotus Field Matchup Strategy Enigmatic Fires by Elliot Raff Dimir Rogues by Toph Robinson Boros Convoke by Max McVety Mono Green Devotion by Evart Moughon Rakdos Goblins by Luke Goodwin Neoform Atraxa by Brent Waggoner Archfiend Alteration by cftsoc