Introducing Izzet Ensoul: The Most Underrated Deck In Pioneer

When Pioneer was announced, I was disappointed at the realization that I
would likely not play a tournament of the format before the metagame
coalesced behind the most powerful and successful strategies. I would have
to be focused on Standard and Modern for the Season Two Invitational, all
the while watching my contemporaries explore the fetchland-less space that
I had been longing for for years.

But Pioneer’s entrance and fanfare coinciding with Standard being a heinous
pile of Oko, Thief of Crowns and maindeck Noxious Grasps has led to an
earlier stage for Magic’s newest format than expected. The Season Two
Invitational has been changed to Modern and Pioneer and last weekend’s Nerd
Rage Gaming event in Madison, Wisconsin was changed to Pioneer as well.

It seems I’m not the only one who was excited by the format.

With that added attention, we’re starting to see the initial metagame
forming, and the prevalence of Green Devotion and Copy Cat decks led to the
ban of Leyline of Abundance, Felidar Guardian, and Oath of Nissa yesterday.
In spite of their removal, Pioneer still has some.

We’re in a similar spot to a new Standard format after the first week or
two, where brewers now have some decks to target, and everyone is looking
to find what under the radar decks can compete with the established
archetypes with a little tuning or a key piece of tech. This is my favorite
time in a format’s evolution, since I find brewing with a target much
easier, and testing data is more reliable since the failed ideas and
untuned decklists don’t appear nearly as often as they do around release.

Thus, the first step in my testing process for the Invitational is to see
if the potential I saw in some of the fringe decks of the format was real.
One of the decks I tried that I also had some success with was Izzet
Ensoul. Ensoul Artifact is a very powerful card and with the expanded card
pool of Pioneer, there are plenty of good creatures to target that it
difficult to interact with, either through removal or a stream of chump
blockers.

In fact, Ensoul is the exact kind of card to look out for in Pioneer
because it doesn’t have nearly the same pedigree from its time in Standard
as Atarka’s Command, Siege Rhino, or Collected Company, but it benefits a
lot from the larger card pool, making it an easy card to underrate.

After a handful of leagues and a couple trophies, here’s my current list:

Izzet Ensoul

Ross Merriam

Test deck on 11-05-2019

Pioneer

Creatures (20)

Lands (19)

Spells (21)

Sideboard

I think a lot of people look at this deck and are reminded of the Ensoul
deck that existed in Standard for a couple months following the release of Magic Origins. The deck took that Pro Tour by surprise, putting

two copies in the Top 8

and narrowly missing out on the trophy in the hands of Mike Sigrist, but
largely faded afterwards as players became more prepared for the powerful,
but fragile deck.

The port into Pioneer upgrades the deck significantly, to the point where
it is similarly explosive but not nearly as fragile.

The core set of cheap creatures, Bomat Courier, Gingerbrute, and Stonecoil
Serpent all provide significant value on top of being one-mana plays that
hold Ensoul Artifact. Bomat Courier offers some card advantage once you
empty your hand and Gingerbrute is evasive, while Stonecoil Serpent has a
lot more going for it.

Trample is pseudo-evasion, especially since its +1/+1 counters will count
on top of the base power and toughness from Ensoul Artifact and it has
protection from several pieces of interaction in the format, most notably
Abrupt Decay and Teferi, Time Raveler. Most importantly, it scales into the
late-game, giving you a powerful play on four or five mana that decks like
these typically don’t have because their synergies require a very low
curve.

The Standard version of this deck had far fewer early plays to set up
Ensoul Artifact on Turn 2, making this list much faster, often killing on
Turn 4. And that explosiveness comes alongside cards with added utility to
help win games where you stumble or your payoffs are disrupted.

But ultimately, these creatures are just enablers for the powerful payoffs
in the deck:

The four artifact-centric cards here are obvious payoffs, providing
incredibly above-rate effects so long as you have the artifacts to make
them work consistently. It’s also convenient that the Ensoul effects and
Shrapnel Blast both lead to dealing damage in chunks of five, ending in
plenty of Turn 4 kills.

Given how powerful the Ensoul effects are in this deck, it’s tempting to
load up on them, but you need to keep a balance between your payoffs,
enablers, and interaction, and right now a total of six has felt about
right, though I could see the third Skilled Animator making it into the
deck over the singleton Temur Battle Rage.

Smuggler’s Copter is the least obvious member of this category, since it
sees play in plenty of other decks, but it certainly belongs. Simply put,
it’s among the most powerful cards in Pioneer and offers this deck a way to
make use of mopey 1/1s that get trumped on the battlefield, digging through
your deck to your more overtly powerful payoffs.

The remaining cards in the deck are the flex spots, and certainly liable to
change if yesterday’s bans cause significant changes, but there’s reason to
believe that they will remain good choices moving forward.

Wild Slash is one of the best removal spells in the format. Llanowar Elves
and Elvish Mystic are still around and answering them on Turn 1 is still
important. Phyrexian Revoker shuts off a ton of planeswalkers and the
aforementioned Elves. This deck doesn’t have much room for interaction and
getting some from your creatures is valuable, while Scrapheap Scrounger,
which is often in that slot, was mediocre with only four black sources.

One note on the mana base, I think overloading on Steam Vents is wrong. You
rarely cast more than two to four colored spells in a single game, and
while that means drawing one pain land versus one shock land favors the
shock land, games where you draw multiple shocks can be unnecessarily
painful, especially if they come alongside a Spirebluff Canal. I may move
to a second Steam Vents over the fourth Spire of Industry but past that
they become a liability.

Cards I’m Not Playing

I view these two as a package, and ultimately found them underwhelming.
When drawn together they lead to some of the most explosive draws the deck
can have, but when drawn separately they’re awful. Ornithopter was a
necessity in the Standard version because you want evasive creatures to
Ensoul, but we have Gingerbrute and Hope of Ghirapur. Ornithopter’s
inability to crew Smuggler’s Copter was the nail in the coffin, and I’ve
been much happier loading up on the more powerful one-drops.

There’s enough five-color lands to make a splash work, but it comes at a
cost and neither of these cards is powerful enough to warrant the
inconsistency. Tezzeret’s Touch isn’t appreciably better than Skilled
Animator and All That Glitters requires a high density of artifacts that
this deck doesn’t have. It’s rare that I have more than three or four
artifacts on the battlefield, so don’t think it’s going to be like Cranial
Plating in Modern Affinity.

Emry is a powerful, artifact-centric card that fits this deck’s curve
nicely. But on a strategic level it doesn’t fit. Emry is looking to grind
value in a midrange shell, not get aggressive. And the kind of matchup
where Izzet Ensoul would appreciate the card advantage is the kind where
they are aiming lots of removal at our threats, and thus the kind where
Emry is unlikely to survive.

Notable Sideboard Cards

This is the most likely card to change given the nerfing of Mono-Green
Devotion, but it plays nicely alongside Stubborn Denial since Stroke covers
the big creatures that Stubborn misses, while Stubborn hits the cheap
spells that Stroke misses. Because of how well they mesh, I’m going to
adopt this split as the default unless and until the metagame shifts in a
way that makes Disdainful Stroke untenable.

This is my choice for threat that’s solid against removal, since it can
come down early to crew a Smuggler’s Copter or hold an Ensoul Artifact but
is still rather powerful late. It also plays nicely with Shrapnel Blast,
potentially leading to combo finishes. There’s no Path to Exile in Pioneer,
which helps it a lot, though Teferi, Time Raveler is annoying.

A powerful singleton that does most of what the fourth Wild Slash would do,
but sometimes leads to huge blowouts. In general, I like diversifying my
sideboard with narrowly powerful effects like this and unless there’s a lot
of Gilded Gooses and Monastery Swiftspears in your metagame, the cost is
low. I played against a deck with Goblin Instigator and Hordeling Outburst
over the weekend and didn’t draw it, so there’s no justice in this world.

Tips/Tricks

Mulligan aggressively. Your hands without payoffs are much less powerful
than your hands with them, even if you have to start down a card or two.
When Smuggler’s Copter is animated, it still has flying and the triggered
ability, so it’s a great target for Ensoul Artifact or Skilled Animator.
Stonecoil Serpent has a lot of text. I’ve eaten a Judge’s Familiar and a
Smuggler’s Copter because my opponents forgot it has reach.
Ghostfire Blade’s discount is for all colorless creatures, which includes
Mutavault.
Unless you have Stubborn Denial, you generally want to get your Ensoul
Artifact down quickly and force them to have removal. If they don’t, the
game is likely over so put them to the test.
Figuring out which artifact to Ensoul is important. Against heavy
removal, you’ll want to target Darksteel Citadel. Against decks with lots
of blockers, you’ll want to target an evasive creature if possible. If it’s
unclear, try to enchant your least valuable piece to minimize risk.
Don’t cut too many artifacts when sideboarding. You don’t want to be
overly reactive anyway, so if you’re looking to bring in a lot of
non-artifacts from the sideboard, ask yourself if they are necessary or
trim your worst non-artifacts from the maindeck to compensate.

Sideboard Guide

VS Simic Nexus

Out

In:

Wild Slash can counter a Fog effect but that’s all it does and after
sideboarding you have counterspells to either stop the Fog or disrupt their
engine enough to where a Time Walk or two is irrelevant. Fry comes in to
help against Thing in the Ice. The combination of pressure, reach, and
counterspells makes this an excellent matchup.

VS Sultai Midrange

Out:

In:

This matchup is weak because their primary removal spell, Abrupt Decay,
works so well against Ensoul Artifact and Stubborn Denial. You’re not going
to win a long game so get in your damage when you can, try to find spots
where you can at least get one hit in with an Ensoul-ed creature, and hope
Ghostfire Blade or Shrapnel Blast can push through the last few points. An
increase in Sultai Midrange’s presence will lead to a significant
reconfiguring of the sideboard.

VS Red Aggro (Creature Heavy)

Out:

In:

VS Red Aggro (Burn Heavy)

Out:

In:

These matchups are close, and the line between Burn Heavy and Creature
Heavy is often blurry. If I’m unsure I will default to the first plan,
since stopping the creatures is important regardless of the rest of their
deck.

The tricky part here is landing your Ensoul Artifact if they aggressively
leave mana up. It’s very powerful if it lands and turns on Stubborn Denial
if you have them in, so I’m more conservative with them in these matchups
than I am elsewhere, especially if I have another reasonable way to advance
my battlefield. But ultimately their burn is likely to end the game before
you take over with a 5/5, so if you’re getting close to burn range you may
have to take a chance.

VS Azorius Control

Out:

In:

A fine matchup since they don’t have great spot removal, so you can often
get them into burn range and finish the game before their powerful card
draw takes over. Teferi, Time Raveler is their best way to stop Ensoul
Artifact so prioritize landing it on Darksteel Citadel or Stonecoil
Serpent.

Phyrexian Revoker can be good against more planeswalker-heavy control decks
but it’s mostly too fragile to have a major impact in the matchup.

VS Hardened Scales

Out:

In:

Walking Ballista is the key card here. You have enough disruption to beat
all but their best draws, but Ballista is excellent in the matchup unless
you already landed an Ensoul effect. Phyrexian Revoker will generally name
Walking Ballista unless they already have a threatening Steel Overseer, and
you should set up Ensoul Artifact on a Smuggler’s Copter or Darksteel
Citadel to dodge it.