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

The Dive Down

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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