They are saving that money for a certain 30th anniversary set

Maro needs braces

Funny and sad how the Izzet *Phoenix* has more Crackling Drakes than actual phoenixes. They didn't even pretend to justify the namesake of the deck by putting other cheaper phoenixes

honestly hilariously pathetic. what a waste of money. These decks are such jank. Just reprint the top decks!

@@FlourescentPotato but than the insider traders would lose money you can’t have that you might end up with a health game economy

It is doable, and you should do OK. However, I recommend playing the precons in the next couple of months (maximum). (as sets come out, these precons will eventually be dated and become obsolete making the two copies of Expressive Iteration not worth bringing a precon to a ‘real’ event). The Izzet Phoenix precon is the best of the four by far due to its consistency.

Yes we did! You'll have to forgive us 😅

:0 the audacity of how we play paper magic xD

Priorities! Our neon light budget blew out our dice budget 😅

I agree! Their videos really helped me get into pioneer for that exact reason & they're still really useful in understanding the mentality behind piloting decks I don't run.

We will indeed be doing a video rating all four and recommending upgrades, but we'll do it closer to the release ot the decks :)

@@CardmarketMagic Guess I better subscribe then :P

The video was produced on a time constraint and we did not have a graphic asset for the other mana pip. But mostly, we realized most casual players would get the message and more veteran players know Thalia well enough that they would know what's going on :)

Sure! We'll add it to the list for the next pioneer matches :) Do you have a list for us?

@@CardmarketMagic Couldn't put a link here, so I will just copy-paste list :D 4 Irencrag Pyromancer 4 Hollow One 4 Flourishing Fox 4 Drannith Stinger 4 Drannith Healer 3 Zenith Flare 4 Censor 4 Go for Blood 3 Cast Out 4 Improbable Alliance 2 The Royal Scions 1 Otawara, Soaring City 2 Raugrin Triome 3 Hengegate Pathway 3 Shivan Reef 3 Hallowed Fountain 4 Inspiring Vantage 4 Battlefield Forge 1 Tormod's Crypt 1 Jegantha, the Wellspring 2 Unlicensed Hearse 2 Settle the Wreckage 2 Rending Volley 2 Fry 2 Deafening Silence 3 Mystical Dispute

@@shogert2370 thank you! I'll put it on the list we take decks from when choosing matchups. Hopefully Jamin doesn't hate me 😅

Seems so, while Magic precons are always lacking in manabases and with less than ideal numbers of the most expensive cards, the Phoenix deck can mostly be fixed by buying two. The Humans deck by the way has the right number of all the important cards (they aren't very expensive) but it is an outdated list from before an important Ban, so it's weaker from lack of the 3-drop creatures that returned to the deck after that (well deserved, format warping) card was Ban.

@@valvadis2360, would you say that Izzet Phoenix is the best Challenger Deck for someone who wants to start playing pioneer?

Yes this exactly. The card is banned for any deck that is not this exact list

I'd suggest either Phoenix or Humans. The humans deck needs quite a few upgrades but is one of the top decks of the format. Phoenix could basically be made tier 1 by buying two precons and adding some lands, and is incredibly powerful, but is not as strong in the general Meta. Still a great path though! 👍 don't forget to take out the expressive iterations if you do as they are banned.

Izzet Phoenix. I will play the precon next week at a 1.5K. If you play the cards out of the box, then you can play the Expressive iterations. Expressive Iteration is not that great in Izzet Phoenix, but it *terrifies* players. So I will stick with the precon. Have fun! 🤣🤣

Crackling drake still counts cards in exile ;)

@@CardmarketMagic that's exactly the point, Kitesail Freebooter RAISES Crackling Drake's Power. The card goes from hand to exile.

@@Rukalin ahhhhh! Good catch! My bad 😅

There was a lightning axe under the kitesail freebooter. Once it was bounced, the card went back to his hand

That's a fun tournament idea! We covered the other challenger decks around their release last year: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hNuShcV9p7zOqJc.html

@@CardmarketMagic yup I watched them. It would be fun to see the 2021 decks go against the 2022 decks

We are planning on doing this closer to product release :)

jk, youre the best

🤣

It's updated now :)

Ooops! Thanks for letting us know!

"Ooh, that sounds neat. Wait..." Lmao I was so confused.

I'm not an expert but I'd say at least +2 arclight phoenix and thing in the ice

We're planning on doing it closer to the release :)

That is correct! We simply missed it at the time

@@CardmarketMagic I don't blame you, I almost missed it myself. It's a weirder interaction. Now to find a way to jank with this weirdness

They've done this many times in the past. The banned cards in question are legal to be played if your decklist (all 75) is exactly the same as the preconstructed deck.

@@Shortened2Max Gotcha, thanks

Yeah, it happens sometimes when they choose the cards and do the print run before the format committee decides to ban a card.

WOTC: This deck will still be legal for tournament play in tabletop Magic: The Gathering for Pioneer, but only as is. Specifically, the 60-card deck and 15-card sideboard will be legal as long as no changes are made to it. What's the point of banning a card if you only allow it in a specific decklist, this stuff is mindblowing.

They have a different team designing the precons and making the bannings. It seems like the deck was designed and sent to print far before the banning was made 😐

Any effects that say "As [CARDNAME] enters the battlefield..." are replacement effects, i.e., they don't use the stack; they just "replace" entering the battlefield normally. So choosing a creature happens immediately and cannot be responded to. Dauntless Bodyguard then can be sacrificed (at instant speed, since it's an activated ability) to give the chosen creature indestructible until end of turn. Note that this only works for that specific creature, not for any other creature with the same name, and it only works if both of them have remained on the battlefield since the Bodyguard entered. Otherwise, while you can still activate the ability, it sacrifices for nothing. (Might still be useful!)

I don't know if I agree with Phoenix generally being a bad deck, but I do think you might be correct about Phoenix losing all its other matches 😅 this being the only win, without seeing a single Phoenix.

​@@CardmarketMagic I"ve only played it on arena. I think its missing some key pieces there. I don't think its bad. However, If I play best of three with it, I tend to sideboard out the phoenix cause its going to face so much hate. (especially against black or white)

Considering they only include 2 copies of core cards for these pioneer decks, I doubt the modern precons would be any good.

They would cost like 500 and have literally 0 playables in them

And they'll carry no fetchlands don't worry

If they did them well though, it would be wonderful! But one of them would have a random Yorion for sure 😅

@@Haurent mono colour would get around the fetchland issue. They would probably be all aggro decks though. Unless they did a mono green or blue Tron.

You did well! They are the more fun decks ;) here is the video we did about them: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fpdzktZnmbi4kaM.html

Just imagine what the deck could've done with a Phoenix!

​@@CardmarketMagic Definitely the stronger card, but this was actually a good match up for the Drake, because this is also a good defensive card.

Thank you for pointing it out! We fixed it now 👍

So, this gets really awkward for new players, but wizard announced that, despite being banned in pioneer, Expressive Iteration can be played if your exact list of 75 cards is the same as the challenger deck 🤷‍♂️

@Cardmarket - Magic so much trouble to go through instead of just making the deck like how it's actually played 🙈 Thanks for the clarification tho❤️

They created the precons before the ban, so it comes with one weird caviat. Expressive iteration is only legal in pioneer when played with this exact combination of 75 cards 😅 I'm not kidding

Yes 😅 but WotC put it in this precon anyway. So it is only legal if you play a deck with this exact 75. We are aware that it's silly

Howdy!

Thank you for pointing it out! It's pinned now 👍