Welcome and Caveats hello and welcome to top deck today we are going to look at my picks for the top 10 best cards for Pioneer and Explorer a couple of caveats before we start though first please keep in mind that I am not a pro player even though I totally called Egra and scavengers Talent starting a new kind of sacrifice combo deck my guesses are likely to be wildly incorrect additionally I was actually struggling to find any cards that I thought would be good and Pioneer in duskborn at all uh the it's this set seems very Commander focused and a great example of this is the lay line cycle lay Line Cycles generally have one or two members that see serious competitive play this cycle really doesn't have any competitive new additions they all seem to really just be Commander cards the white one here would probably only slot into cnia angels and that deck already runs similar effects for cheaper the green one's ability is literally only playable in Commander the red one might look good for pumping creatur but if it isn't in your opening hand it will be a card you will not be happy to draw four Mana is a lot in in an aggro strategy and there are better things you can be doing layline of the Void is already legal in Pioneer so I can't really include it in a top 10 new cards list and the blue one does literally nothing in Pioneer like what good does getting all of your creatures to be the same type do you but yeah this lay line cycle pretty much just summarizes how I feel about the rest of the set cuz the rest of the set just felt kind of the same same way like it would be good in Commander but less good in Pioneer but anyway let's look at the honorable mentions as an honorable mention I put Honorable Mentions the tale of tamio this card feels like someone wrote the is it Phoenix game plan on a magicard unfortunately I seriously doubt it will be strong enough to see play in the deck but I might try it anyway I also put fear of missing out as an honorable mention because I thought it was bold of watsy to turn their secret layer marketing strategy into a card with those out of the way let's start the actual top 10 list off at number 10 and we are starting off with a new room funeral room and Number 10 Awakening Hall so if you don't know how rooms work basically you can choose which half you want to spend mana on and unlock that effect on the battlefield uh you can then spend mana on the other side to unlock the other effect I am treating these mostly like level up enchantments because that is what they most closely resemble I have this card at 10 mostly for the funeral room side while Awakening Hall could win you the game if you cast it or or unlock it later most of the time you will only have funeral room Mana however I am pretty sure the Awakening Hall Pips will count towards devotion even if you only play funeral room uh I'm not sure about that please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong but that is something to keep in mind if you are building a devotion deck anyway funeral rooms effect would feel right at home in a cat oven style sacrifice deck where you can repeatedly trigger it I think there are better incarnations of this effect already in the format but this is probably still still the 10th best card for Pioneer in my opinion at the number nine spot we have the only other room on Number 9 the list with defiled Crypt and cadaver lab this feels like the only room that you might be able to play both halves of consistently in a competitive format the defiled cryp side feels like it would be good in an Insidious Roots deck that wants to bounce things from the graveyard the cadaver lab feels like a good effect for its cost in its own right and it also contributes to the defiled Crypt game plan if you play Crypt first it seems serviceable which might end up being better than the number eight pick comeback Number 8 wrong comeback wrong destroys a creature and lets you steal it for one turn if it would hit the graveyard it is mostly for Commander play though as a neat way to steal another player's Commander however I can't shake the feeling that being able to get two death triggers for one card might be okay and I'm sure someone clever will come up with a neat way to abuse the creature stealing that I'm not seeing right now however it is at sorcery speed so it probably won't even be looked at by serious players I but I also tapped fell as a top 10 card in bloom Barrow so I guess I just have a thing for bad sorcery speed removal moving on to number seven we have the first non-black card in the Number 7 list in enduring innocence enduring innocence rewards you with card draw whenever a small dude enters on your side of the battlefield additionally it can act as just a free Block sometimes since it returns to the battlefield as an enchantment after death card draw is always good and that's why I put it at seven despite similar cards like welcoming vampire already existing in the format like I said I really don't think this set is going to be great for Pioneer and now at number six we have Number 6 Kona rescuing beasty this card is definitely more of a glass Cannon or a meme card but that won't stop people from trying to abuse it the obvious uses are to cheat in a trxa or ulamog or whatever big thing you like best by tapping Kona it doesn't even have to attack by the way it could be tapped via crew or saddle effects as well as just some other generic tap your own stuff effect again it probably won't see a lot of serious play but trust me when I say people are going to try to make it work especially on Arena real quick before we move on to number five I would like to remind you to like And subscribe if you enjoy the content I am honored by y'all because we hit my end of the year goal of 50 subscribers a full three and A2 months early thank you all so so much for that I appreciate yall immensely I was going to do something something to celebrate getting to 50 but we accomplished the goal too quickly to plan anything so with a new goal of 100 subscribers not necessarily by the end of the year let's plan for something fun when we hit that right now I'm thinking of doing a Q&A video but I am open to other suggestions if you got them so if you have questions for the eventual Q&A or have suggestions for something better please let me know in the comments but with that thank you all for just being awesome and helping this channel grow now let's get back in into the top five Number 5 so with number five onward I actually feel like some of these cards might see some play in some capacity the wandering rescuer for example might slot in as a one or two of in a boros convoke deck to act like a protection spell I think the fact that it has convoke also allows you to hide the card in your hand pretty well since you won't even need to hold up mana it's also a 34 with double strike that's pretty decent considering you can play this potentially as early as turn two so that's why it's at number five speaking of cars that you can play on turn two in a boros convoke matchup Number 4 we have pyroclasm at number four this card seems like it would be really good coming in from the sideboard against boros convoke since it eliminates everything with two toughness or less additionally since small creature aggro decks are on the rise in Pioneer this card could be the go-to option for eliminating early pressure this card could easily be a three for one or better when played on turn two or turn three and that is likely to be back breaking in certain matchups however it won't be good against the number number three pick Unstoppable slasher slasher Number 3 has the makings of a very annoying card it comes in for only three mana and has death touch if it deals combat damage to a player that player loses half their life rounded up that means this card will probably get blocked a lot however if that card dies when it's blocked if it didn't have any counters on it it comes back from the dead with two stun counters it is self- reccurring meaning it will probably be a two for one all on its own if you manage to remove the stun counter counts it can come back over and over and over and over again just imagining this sounds like a pain in the rear end so that's why I put it at the number three spot at number two I put screaming Nemesis Nemesis is a hasty 33 Number 2 for three and that's already pretty decent I me it's okay it's not bad uh however it also redirects any damage it receives to any Target and if that Target is a player it stops that player from Gaining life you could theoretically ping your own Nemesis redirect it to your opponent and stop them from Gaining life you don't lose any damage value whatsoever red players dream right there additionally in combat its ability could make blocking really hard it could trade with creatures with up to six toughness since it can hit any Target with its ability it also makes Plaines Walker removal a tad easier since it can turn combat damage or creature targeting burn into straight up loyalty removal all in all this card has a strong case for being the best card in the set so what's my pick for the best card for Pioneer and Explorer in dusk MN well Number 1 and Final Thoughts it's actually five cards uh for my top pick I put this new cycle of lands that I've decided to call the unlock land since you can effectively unlock the other half similar to the room mechanic it's not a flashy pick for sure but it is an untapped dual land cycle I am sure the many shock lands trium and just basic lands that you find in the format will make this land cycle very very strong I think the Cycle's reasonable expectation of a floor is the slow land from inrad while its ceiling is just below that of a shock land lands of that power tend to be pretty good so I feel good about putting them at number one but feel free to disagree with me in the comments so that's about it for me if you like the content make sure to like And subscribe if you think I'm I missed a card please let me know in the comments and make sure you support your local game store by attending your pre-release this weekend that's about it for me have a great day everyone see you around