The Pioneer Showcase
(360 Card Cube)
Blog Posts (20+)
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Over the past 7-8 months of 1 and 2 card tinkering, the cube has been updated where it warrants a blog post of the updates!

First, The Pioneer Showcase Cube will be in voting for CubeCon 2025 with polls opening on 6/10/2025! If you've enjoyed this cube, cloned it, followed it or whatever, feel free to rank it high!

Notable Adds and Swaps

The most impactful swap has been replacing Kaito Shizuki with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. Kaito Shizuki was just okay and Kaito Bane of Nightmares is an absolute house. This cube had a few ninjas like Moon-Circuit Hacker and Biting-Palm Ninja but even without their support, Bane of Nightmares is excellent. Not to mention it has been leading the charge in the Pioneer Metagame with the newer Dimir Ninjas archetype. I don't want to over support the archetype, but I've also added in Floodpits Drowner which shows up in the constructed list. In drafting over the past few months, Kaito, Bane of Nightmares has been a welcomed inclusion!

Red has been dominating the Pioneer Metagame lately. While I am not going to be adding in Heartfire Hero, Manifold Mouse, and/or Emberheart Challenger (due to how mid they'd be in singleton cube), I have added in representation of the archetype in the form of Tersa Lightshatter and Sunspine Lynx. Sunspine Lynx is a really strong inclusion, especially considering the fixing that is in the cube!

Lastly, Aetherdrift brought in some welcomed inclusions to the cube. The most surprising addition has been Oviya, Automech Artisan. This card has led to many players attempting (and succeeding) in dropping massive green threats like Vaultborn Tyrant and Titan of Industry. Oviya has been well-received by my drafters, and it's a card I'm really happy to have in the environment!

Bling Acquisitions

I've been fortunate enough to fit in a bunch of Magic travel this year! I have some spicy bling inclusions I was able to pick up and trade for that I am excited to give a home in the showcase portion of the pioneer showcase cube ;)

Sword of Forge and Frontier from Spotlight: Dragons, Virtue of Persistence from the Store Championship, most of the Unfinity Space Shocklands like Steam Vents, AND the WMCQ Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that I am pumped to have!

Cuts

As we've been drafting more locally, I've been able to solidify cuts to the list. Most of these cards were lackluster, often went un-played, and just didn't fit the vibe or make a ton of sense.

Solve the Equation, The Wandering Rescuer, Migloz, Maze Crusher, Sigarda, Champion of Light, Farewell, Heartflame Duelist, Hour of Devastation, Subterranean Schooner, Experimental Augury, Stalactite Stalker, Bladecoil Serpent, and Arlinn, the Pack's Hope are out.

Future Changes

As stated many times previously, I will not be adding any Universes Beyond cards to this cube. Edge of Eternities will be the last new set of cards this year. I really tried to give a shit about the Final Fantasy cards during pre-release and I don't have it in me. As such, I'm holding firm on my "no universes beyond inclusions" in this cube.

I'm going to do a bit of testing and give a few Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards a shot in the coming months! I've been impressed with cards like Marang River Regent, Voice of Victory, Cori Mountain Monastery, Kishla Village, and Surrak, Elusive Hunter. Probable includes for the future!

That's all for now, thanks for checking out these updates :-)

Following the CubeCon decklist / draft dump and the development of the Pioneer format across the recent Regional Championships, I have figured out some swaps that I am excited to test!

A majority of these cards were huge underperformers based on player feedback, observation, and play percentages. Additionally, a handful of these cards stopped seeing constructed play and there were better options that, at a glance, really seemed to be good 1 for 1 replacements!

I am really excited to add in Jace, the Perfected mind, as I've been struggling to find a nicely balanced Mono-Blue planeswalker. JTPM is seeing a lot of constructed play, and has some solid finishing patterns that I want to see in this cube.

There have been a handful of color pairs that have not had meaningful multi-colored cards (Like Gruul), and I have been adding in support for the constructed adjacent decks (i.e. Gruul Prowess). I'm definitely on the cusp of breaking away from the spreadsheet aesthetic cube list, but I'm quite there yet! I'm expecting to cut cards from Gruul, Orzhov, and Selesnya, because the constructed counterpart-like decks are carried by mono-color cards.

Lastly, I'm in a weird place with my artifact pool. Cards like Syr Ginger and Bladecoil Serpent really aren't doing much, are often last picks, and just have not done much. It's just more fuel to the fire for me needing to get away from the spreadsheet aesthetic.

I'm absolutely open to any suggestions and feedback! Feel free to post either here or in the MTG Cube Talk Discord in the Pioneer Showcase cube-changelog!

Mainboard Changelist+1, -1

Hangarback Walker was supposed to be Walking Ballista ahead of CubeCon, but I accidentally locked in the wrong card... Oops! I picked up a sweet future sight framed Ballista, which I am stoked about!

I am patiently awaiting the data from CubeCon 2024 and decklists, and I will likely use that information to make some changes in the near future!

After a few drafts and some feedback, I had a handful of cards that really were not seeing play and were not bringing excitment to the drafts. I've decided to cut a few cards and insert a small package of cards that are commonly seen in the Boros Convoke decks running around both Pioneer and Standard constructed formats. While I don't think a true 'Boros Convoke' can be consistent enough for cube, the indiviudal cards can be support pieces in a handful of other decks.

Notably, I am excluding Novice Inspector to not have 2 Inspectors.

After a few tests and some feedback from the Cube discord, I have made a much needed update to the manabase options for this cube. These updates should provide much needed support going into three colors for cards like Archangel of Wrath and Vodalian Mindsinger!

Watchlist

I do currently have a handful of cards on my watchlist for removal.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Invasion of Zendikar have proven to be pretty high-power for this cube and may be too powerful for this environment (additionally my playgroup who played the F out of Pioneer RCQs have seen enough Sheoldred for one lifetime).

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