Episode 97: Pioneer: A G.O.O.D. Format?

On the one year anniversary of Pioneer, we give the format a performance review. We look at what happened over the last year, and what are the Goals, Obstacles, Opportunities, and Decisions that we can evaluate and make for the newest competitive Magic format.

The Break Down: A Call From Corporate

The Dive Down: A History Lesson

The Dive Down, cont: A Performance Review

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Timestamps:

3:21 - Housekeeping

7:59 - The Break Down Begins - Pioneer Challenges

22:20 - The Dive Down Begins - Pioneer, A Year in Review

25:44 - A Spike’s History of Pioneer’s Launch

35:10 - The Initial Round of Pioneer Bannings

40:06 - Pioneer First Golden Age

41:50 - Enter Theros Beyond Death

47:00 - The Companion Era Begins

49:27 - We’ve Been Told the Combo Decks Are Fine

52:39 - Combo Cards Banned, Pioneer is Saved(?)

57:04 - What the Pioneer Meta Looks Like Today

1:01:44 - Year 1 Takeaways

1:04:16 - Performance Reviews are Due

1:07:08 - How Has Pioneer Performed on its Goals?

1:20:50 - What Obstacles Should Pioneer Overcome?

1:31:54 - What Opportunities Does Pioneer Have Ahead?

1:37:45 - Decisions, Decisions

1:41:44 - Shane's Bottom Line: Pioneer is Fundamentally A Good Idea

1:43:10 - Dave's Bottom Line: It's Not the Gameplay's Fault

1:44:30 - Stan's Bottom Line: Dave is Right

Links from this week's episode:

10/24/20 Pio Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12221068#paper

10/25/20 Pio Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pioneer-challenge-12221072#paper

Abe Stein "Defining the Pillars of Pioneer": https://articles.starcitygames.com/premium/defining-the-pillars-of-pioneer/

Pioneer announced: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/announcing-pioneer-format-2019-10-21

Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name?

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