What happened to you Pioneer

I must admit that I have mixed feelings about this subject, many players have asked me what I think about Pioneer, however, for those who live under a rock, I will explain what it consists of.

It was October 2019 and on the same day that we were all waiting for the Ban list update, Wizard surprised us with a new competitive format. To be honest, it was something that many speculated, the format between Modern and Standard, something that would give a second life to our dead cards, which had no place in older formats and its name would be Pioneer.

Pioneer includes all the sets from Return to Ravnica to the present (Standard editions only) and future ones. It would be a kind of Modern, without rotations, that is, new editions will be added every year, without any of them leaving the format. With one exception, the Khans of Tarkir Fetchlands are prohibited and as the format evolves, more Bans would be made. This premise was generated from the evolution of the meta game that would be established by the players.

As the game progressed until the world context allowed it, we noticed 4 fundamental axes of the Format; Combo, Midrange, Ramp and Linear Aggro. To the regret of many, the Allied colors were difficult to play, because at the beginning there was not a large amount of lands that would allow an effective game.

The first few months (generally speaking and ignoring our country context at that time) seemed solid, however, for those who have played Modern or Standard we suspected that certain cards were too powerful for the format and that sooner or later they would leave the format.

Given the success of the format, Wizard announced with great fanfare that 2020 would be full of Pioneer, momentarily dethroning Modern, the qualifying dates would be through Standard, Modern and Pauper, everything was ready.

A FORGETTABLE 2020

In China, the COVID - 19 disease began to grow due to how quickly it spread, so the global pandemic ended up being declared on March 11, 2020, all of Wizard's plans in relation to Pioneer were falling apart, but don't worry, the TCG giant never loses, and what turned into an endless quarantine ended up strengthening Magic Arena, forcing it to rethink the development of tournaments, that is, no more Showdown, no more FNM and not even thinking about big Tournaments.

On May 21, 2020, Wizard announced Double Master, a set full of reprints, some quite powerful and others popular, including two rare or mythic cards in each booster pack, its release would be on August 7. Later, on June 18 of the same year, it was announced that Jumpstart would be officially released on July 17. Unfortunately, very few cards were in the Pioneer Format, which disappointed some and only gave others the certainty that Pioneer was definitely more alive than ever.

Unfortunately, Pioneer took a backseat due to the success of Magic Arena and its Historic format (a sort of format that swarms between Modern and Standard). Aside from that, Pioneer still refused to die. Some specialized pages continued to upload content related to new decks and cards that might or might not affect the Meta Game, and even Bans were announced.

Although the above is relative, since no store has been able to hold events of any kind, I do not deny the possibility that the Chilean community may prove otherwise and come to play the Format; however, the lack of support for the Format and the lack of pronouncement by Wizard has generated in some the feeling that the Pioneer is buried and forgotten.

MODERN HORIZON

Modern Horizon 2 seems to reinforce what some of us believe, which is that the future of MTG will continue to be led by Modern, whether due to the effort they have put into Double Master and, above all, the MH2 spoilers, which have blown more than one mind and made some players laugh. It could be that, due to these editions, a large part of the community opted to build decks at low costs, due to the reprints, since basically at some point between November and March, prices tended to stabilize and others dropped considerably, which lasted little due to the announcement of MH2.

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT TO EXPECT

First, a call for desperation not to be the winner when making decisions and this is basically for 5 points to consider:

1. The global context regarding the pandemic has not changed much, some countries have returned to a normality that is always subject to observation due to the number of infections and vaccinations, so the competitive scene may take some time to arrive.
2. The Young Format is 1 year and 8 months old, most of them in the context of a pandemic, so we do not know for sure what fate has in store for him.
3. If you've already made a considerable investment in the format, don't rush to sell them, the possibilities of playing it in a competitive scenario are still unclear, and it can give you hours of fun in the company of your friends.
4. If you think of Modern as a viable alternative, try to make both formats compatible. It's not necessary to get rid of your entire Pioneer deck and go crazy buying cards. You'll probably find a balance between both and the expense won't be so uncomfortable.
5. Wizard is still unclear about the qualification mechanisms for future events, perhaps Pioneer will be part of them.

The Pioneer format has had to overcome adversity, endure a pandemic, and face uncertainty (although it sounds poetic), but one thing is clear, many players were fascinated by the idea of dusting off their Standard decks, applying a couple of improvements and getting back on track, so it would not be strange if a large number of players went to the stores at the right time due to that imperative need that consumes some of us, to play.

Pioneer is too young and still fun to be completely discarded and close the possibility of the coexistence of another Eternal Format among the ranks of MTG.

Finally, I must emphasize that percentage of players who, due to the global health crisis, have considered among their priorities not to buy anything at all since the beginning of 2020, so it is not impossible that many are still eagerly waiting to reuse their old decks that rotated from Standard and give them a second life.

Pablo Nunez.