For my money there’s no format as fun as Pioneer in all of Magic right now. It’s truly the wild west. A slew of bannings have allowed for basically every strategy to be viable and players all over the Magic scene are scrambling to be the first to solve the Pioneer puzzle.

This past weekend, Showdown series staple and local aristocrat Omar Beldon did his part to solve that puzzle when he took down or Pioneer Showdown with his innovative Rakdos Midrange deck.

Omar’s deck was an even more midrangey and interactive version of the “Big Red” decks that have cropped up lately to beat up on the aggressive decks in the format. He had some spicy cards from Standard’s past in his list including my personal favourite [Card]Rakdos’s Return[/Card].

Omar defeated one of those very same aggro decks in the finals when he triumphed over Derek Chiu’s Mono-Black Aggro deck. Since the last set of bans Mono-Black has been the consensus deck-to-beat in the format, but Omar showed that it’s definitely beatable if you build your deck correctly.

Joining them in the Top 8 was Boston Schatteman on Izzet Phoenix, Gwen Lang who played a sweet Boros Fires deck, Daniel Fournier also playing Mono-Black Aggro, Lucas Worrell on Big Red, Carsen Peters playing a sweet [Card]Soulflayer[/Card] deck and Noah Kumuczew with another Standard flashback in Mono-Blue Devotion.

Like I said off the top, Pioneer is in and interesting place right now where almost everything is viable. Now that most of the truly broken stuff is banned, we saw Aggro decks rise to popularity immediately. But since then it feels like every day a new innovative midrange take is popping up. Here we had Omar’s deck, we’ve seen Big Red win tournaments and this past weekend we saw Five Colour Niv-Mizzet decks dominate the Pioneer challenge.

With his win on Sunday Omar qualifies himself for our upcoming Ultimate Showdown of ULTIMATE destiny and the rest of our Top 8 have begun their march up the leaderboard.

This season, we’re going to closely following the Ultimate Showdown leaderboard each week and I’ll be giving you updates on the race as the results unfold every week in these recaps. This week the big news is that once again, Omar Beldon will be competing at the Ultimate Showdown and he’s actually pulled ahead into first place early in the season with 130 points. If you’re interested in the current Showdown standings, check out our points sheet here.

This upcoming weekend at Face to Face Games Toronto is our special Theros Beyond Death Pre-Release Weekend! We’ll be hosting Sealed events all weekend to celebrate the release of this awesome new set all culminating in our special TEAM SEALED Showdown on Sunday. Make sure to sign up and and we’ll see you at the shop!

[Deck Title= First Place, Rakdos Midrange – Omar Beldon]
[Creatures]
4 Bonecrusher Giant
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Rekindling Phoenix
3 Glorybringer
3 Murderous Rider
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
4 Thoughtseize
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Rakdos’s Return
1 Angrath’s Rampage
4 Fatal Push
2 Dreadbore
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Swamp
9 Mountain
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Castle Locthwain
1 Canyon Slough
4 Blood Crypt
3 Temple of Malice
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Field of Ruin
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Epic Downfall
2 Collective Brutality
2 Leyline of the Void
3 Direfleet Daredevil
2 Angrath’s Rampage
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Second Place, Mono-Black Aggro – Derek Chiu]
[Creatures]
4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Glint-sleeve Siphoner
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
2 Spawn of Mayhem
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Murderous Rider
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
4 Fatal Push
2 Grasp of Darkness
1 Bile Blight
2 Aethersphere Harvester
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Aether Hub
1 Urborg, Tomb Of Yawgmoth
4 Castle Locthwain
4 Mutavault
13 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Duress
2 Bile Blight
2 Noxious Grasp
2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
3 Leyline of the Void
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Third Place, Izzet Pheonix – Boston Schatteman]
[Creatures]
4 Arclight Phoenix
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Crackling Drake
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Opt
4 Chart a Course
4 Strategic Planning
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Izzet Charm
4 Wild Slash
4 Lightning Axe
3 Fiery Temper
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Steam Vents
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Sulfur Falls
3 shivan Reef
3 Island
3 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Aether Gust
2 Magma Spray
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Mystical Dispute
3 Negate
2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
2 Thing in the Ice
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fourth Place, Boros Fires – Gwen Lang]
[Creatures]
4 Resplendent Angel
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
3 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Bishop of Wings
3 Archangel of Thune
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
4 Cavalier of Flame
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Fires of Invention
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Dawn of Hope
3 Deafening Clarion
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Sacred Foundry
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Mountain
2 Radiant Fountain
5 Plains
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Clifftop Retreat
3 Battlefield Forge
2 Castle Ardenvale
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
3 Wear // Tear
1 Deafening Clarion
2 Gideon Blackblade
3 Ixalan’s Binding
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Assemble the Legion
2 Banefire
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fifth Place, Golgari Soulflayer1 – Carsen Peters]
[Creatures]
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Murderous Rider
4 Questing Beast
4 Lotleth Troll
1 Samut, Voice of Dissent
4 Soulflayer
4 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
3 Vampire of Dire Moon
1 Rhonas, the Indomitable
2 Nullhide Ferrox
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Commune with the Gods
2 Gather the Pack
4 Grisly Salvage
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Lllanowar Wastes
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Swamp
3 Woodland Cemetery
1 Forest
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
2 Lost Legacy
2 Reclamation Sage
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Sixth Place, Big Red – Lucas Worrell]
[Creatures]
4 Soul-scar Mage
2 Kari Zev, Sky Ship Raider
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Legion Warboss
2 Goblin Chainwhirler
2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
3 Glorybringer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
2 Embercleave
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Castle Embereth
15 Mountain
4 Mutavault
4 Ramunap Ruins
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Abrade
3 Fry
3 Scab-Clan Berserker
1 Damping Sphere
2 Mizzium Mortars
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Seventh Place, Mono-Blue Devotion – Noah Kumuczew]
[Creatures]
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
3 Harbinger of Tides
2 Thassa, God of the Sea
2 Brazen Borrower
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Tempest Djinn
3 Gadwick, the Wizened
3 Master of Waves
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Curious Obsession
4 Wizard’s Retort
1 Treasure Cruise
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Castle Vantress
20 Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Mystical Dispute
4 Negate
3 Aether Gust
2 Spell Pierce
2 Entrancing Melody
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Eighth Place, Mono-Black Aggro – Daniel Fournier]
[Creatures]
4 Glint-sleeve Siphoner
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Murderous Rider
4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
3 Spawn of Mayhem
3 Rankle, Master of Pranks
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
4 Fatal Push
2 Ultimate Price
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
10 Swamp
4 Aether Hub
4 Mutavault
4 Castle Locthwain
2 Urborg,Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Desecration Demon
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Aethersphere Harvester
3 Duress
2 Noxious Grasp
2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
3 Leyline of the Void
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]