Vista isn't legal in Pioneer, since it's from Modern Horizons.Also, I'd recommend running 4 Thoughtseize instead of 4 copies of Duress, unless you have budget concerns. Additionally, you might want to consider some number of copies of Cabal Stronghold, as that can help you ramp out a massive damnable pact if the game goes REALLY long. Also, I understand the Ob Nixilis, the hate-twisted from the perspective of it being on theme, but it's a pretty bad card, and I'd recommend sacrificing your theme a bit, and including Gray Merchant or possibly Ob Nixilis Reignited instead. Finally, if you're looking for a board wipe, you might want to consider Languish over Bontu's last reckoning, unless you really find that you're getting beat down hard by aggro decks, which seems rather unlikely since you have a lot of early game disruption.
I'm not sure it's necessarily worse. Unlike Yawgmoth's Will, cards that enter the graveyard after it comes into play also get escape. This means that you can potentially do some crazy stuff with cards like Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond (and obviously Black Lotus), if you can keep your graveyard stocked enough.
I'm sensing that either Polyraptor or Marauding Raptor are going to get banned, for the same reasons that Felidar Guardian got banned because of its combo with Saheeli Rai. Since Polyraptor's been out longer and MarRaptor has a lot of neat interactions with other Dinosaurs, I'm guessing Polyraptor gets the hammer. That, or they emergency errata MarRaptor to say "may".
So, more Pirates when?
If they errataed it at "may" it would push it into mythic powerlevel. A 2 mana 2/3 that makes all your creatures cost 1 less with no restrictions and no downside? That's a little too much.
If they don't ban polyraptor I would love to see videos of people trying to break Arena with those 2
Unless they just make it so that the personal timer for the player who is comboing starts to run out and actually give the victory to their opponent for timeout.
Or they stop the combo, try to attack and then Settle the Wreckage their face.
As long as the way is clear for the Marauding Raptor, settle isn't gonna help all that much. MarRaptor gets +infinite/+0 from the loop.
That is a REALLY interesting take on the Khans vs. Dragons cycle from Fate Reforged. I wonder if there's going to be another cycle of these?
Would be cool to have a cycle with the different two faction sets. Also giving the name of the set to the card would be amusing.
Green- Rise of the Eldrazi picks between Zendikari and Eldrazi
Red- Aether Revolt picks between Consul and the Rebels
Black- War of the Spark picks between Ravnica and Bolas
White- dunno Kamigawa for spirits/humans? Or maybe Mercadian Masques for rebel/mercenary? Or Invasion for Phyrexia/Coalition? Kamigawa might work since it was the unusual set to have a white villain.
I could see white being something like Journey into Nyx, and use Gods and Mortals, since Heliod was a major antagonist of that story.
trade routes was already a thing, but nice to have it in a different colour i guess.
I think it’s a better Trade Routes, albeit situationally. This has obvious synergy with “when you cycle”, and effects that trigger off of discarding. Not saying it’s a broken ability, but a much different and synergistic ability that that of Trade Routes.
Also, (and potentially more importantly), unlike Trade Routes, you can cycle away extra copies of the card. Plus, it's on color for Seismic Assault, which could potentially use a card like this, since that deck usually runs a ton of extra lands to make sure it has the necessary fuel for the assault.
There was a bit of talk of a modern Dirty Kitty deck a few sets back (I believe it was after dominaria with goblin warchief and skirk prospector being added to modern). If I recall, it was decided that there weren't enough free sac outlets, or good enough goblins to make the deck work right. Could this card help make that deck work? It would mean going into 3 colors, but 3 color isn't that much of a strain for modern, and this gives pretty much EVERYTHING the deck wants (3 bodies, another free sac outlet, and a way to close the game). It provides another way to end the game on the turn that you storm off, too, instead of being forced to wait until the next turn to attack with your goblins. I doubt the deck would be more than tier 2.5 or tier 3, but it seems like it may be more viable as a fun FNM deck now?
On the other hand, it DOES work with cumulative upkeep cards (except ones that are enchantments), so maybe it could be used with those to break things?
Rather than being a budget Mentor, it seems like she would work extremely well WITH mentor (or young pyromancer). Create a token, then copy the mentor using the token, and you're getting 3 tokens per non-creature spell cast for the turn (2 monks, 1 servo), which is absolutely insane.
What are people's thoughts on the new Saheeli for this deck?
It's basically an extra Young Pyromancer or Monastery Mentor that lets you double up on your pyromancer/mentor triggers if you copy one of them, which seems absolutely insane. I can absolutely see lines where Pyromancer gets played on turn 2, Saheeli on turn 3, then you just go off with 1 mana spells on turn 4 and get 11 tokens. Am I overvaluing this card?
EDIT:
For the math of turn 4, Pyromancer and Saheeli on the field:
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 1 elemental token, 1 servo token
-Copy YP with the servo: 1 elemental token, 1 YP token
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 3 elemental tokens, 1 YP token, 1 servo token
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 5 elemental tokens, 1 YP token, 2 servo tokens
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 7 elemental tokens, 1 YP token, 3 servo tokens
-End of turn final: 7 elemental tokens, 4 servo tokens
I'm not sure it's necessarily worse. Unlike Yawgmoth's Will, cards that enter the graveyard after it comes into play also get escape. This means that you can potentially do some crazy stuff with cards like Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond (and obviously Black Lotus), if you can keep your graveyard stocked enough.
As long as the way is clear for the Marauding Raptor, settle isn't gonna help all that much. MarRaptor gets +infinite/+0 from the loop.
Why would you ever want to remind people that Snow was a thing? Also, didn't that song release while he was in jail or something?
I could see white being something like Journey into Nyx, and use Gods and Mortals, since Heliod was a major antagonist of that story.
Also, (and potentially more importantly), unlike Trade Routes, you can cycle away extra copies of the card. Plus, it's on color for Seismic Assault, which could potentially use a card like this, since that deck usually runs a ton of extra lands to make sure it has the necessary fuel for the assault.
It's basically an extra Young Pyromancer or Monastery Mentor that lets you double up on your pyromancer/mentor triggers if you copy one of them, which seems absolutely insane. I can absolutely see lines where Pyromancer gets played on turn 2, Saheeli on turn 3, then you just go off with 1 mana spells on turn 4 and get 11 tokens. Am I overvaluing this card?
EDIT:
For the math of turn 4, Pyromancer and Saheeli on the field:
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 1 elemental token, 1 servo token
-Copy YP with the servo: 1 elemental token, 1 YP token
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 3 elemental tokens, 1 YP token, 1 servo token
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 5 elemental tokens, 1 YP token, 2 servo tokens
-Cast 1 instant/sorcery: 7 elemental tokens, 1 YP token, 3 servo tokens
-End of turn final: 7 elemental tokens, 4 servo tokens