On Monday, Wizards of the Coast officially announced Pioneer, a brand newMagic: The Gatheringconstructed format that gives players access to a card pool beginning with 2012’s Return to Ravnica set. Since theannouncement ofMTG’s Pioneer format, players have been busy brewing and discussing the many ways that Pioneer differentiates itself from Modern, and for fans that are interested to see some of these differences consolidated, a new, fan-made infographic does exactly that.
The first thing that players are likely to notice when referencing thisMagic: The Gatheringinfographic is just how much bigger Modern is than Pioneer. Indeed, Modern features 66 sets while Pioneer contains only 29, and this restricted card pool means that manyMTGModern staplesare not legal in the new format. The infographic featured here does a nice job calling out some of these Modern staples, noting that players will not have to worry about things like Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and the Tron lands in Pioneer.
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The infographic takes this one step further by listing the 50 most-played cards in ModernMTG, and it then highlights those that are playable in Pioneer. Of these 50 cards, only 20 are legal inMagic: The Gathering’s new competitive format, including Fatal Push, Thoughtsieze, and Opt, which once again demonstrates how different these two formats are from one another.
On the other side of things, the infographic mentions a few cards that are banned in Modern but are playable in Pioneer. As things stand, the only cards banned in Pioneer are the Khans of Tarkir fetch lands, which means that players can include full playsets of Deathrite Shaman, Dig Through Time, and Treasure Cruise in their Pioneer decks. While it remains to be seen if these cards have a major impact on Pioneer, there is no denying that they are extremely powerfulMagic: The Gatheringcards.
That said, if these cards, or any others, ultimately prove too powerful for Pioneer, it is safe to assume that WotC will not shy away from banning them straightaway. Indeed, the developer has recently demonstrated its willingness to ban cards the jeopardize a format’s health, with thebanning of Field of the Dead inMagic: The Gathering’s Standard format, and it may only be a matter of time before players see the Pioneer ban list grow.
