Hey everyone! Today, we are going to continue with some more Pioneer format cards. However, these may hold value elsewhere! I know I said that I was going to do my best to focus on lower-cmc cards, but I feel these need attention sooner than later, and you all may have a similar outlook at the end of this week’s read!

Cheating Out Creatures

Champion of Rhonas has the potential to be a champion in Pioneer. It is a four-drop, but a Llanowar Elves and Kiora's Follower, it's coming out turn three if there are no threats. The current price is $0.50(TCGPlayer.com) for the non-foils, $1.13 for the foils, and $1.55 for the prerelease foils. The big deal with this is simple, cheating big creatures into play!

I've been working on a brew that utilizes Champion of Rhonas as a focal point to cheat out Agent of Treachery. Once Agent of Treachery is on the board, we will try to get Thassa, Deep Dwelling to flicker Agent of Treachery each turn. I'm working on streamlining this for speed, but here is the draft so far:

It has won some matches in tournament practice, but I've still got some work to do on the list.

We have a slew of other creature options we can use with Champion of Rhonas’ ability. This was just an example of how we can utilize it and reuse it by untapping it with Kiora's Follower. If we can keep it protected or continue dropping other copies of it to use, it can bolster creatures out rather quick! Long-term, this has the potential to get to the $3.00 - $5.00 range for the non-foil printings.

Omnispell Adept - A Star On The Rise?

Next on our list continuing with cheating stuff out we have Omnispell Adept. The non-foils are coming in at $0.35(TCGPlayer.com) and foils are $0.95. This card has so much potential and Simic feels where the strength lies. With the cmc being at five we need to be able to either cheat this out as stated above or ramping into lands and using dorks to drop this by turn three or four. Being able to cheat out big sorceries or instants on your opponents’ turn is huge in any format. With the ability to literally be a wincon, this is something to consider.

Like Inverter of Truth builds, we want to win by milling ourselves out, right? We can use Omnispell Adept to cheat out a card like Enter the Infinite on our opponent's end step. Once we do that, we can use Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Thassa's Oracle to win the game. Yes, we must make sure we grind into Enter the Infinite but that's how those builds typically work anyway. If you want to take the route of Dimir versus Simic to try and tutor for Enter the Infinite, that is another way to go. In that case, we would have to make sure the build has enough defense to then keep us in the game long enough to do everything.

Say we have a deck where we can utilize red, black, and blue. If we have Omnispell Adept and Glint-Horn Buccaneer out on the board, and we have Enter the Infinite in hand. On an opponent's turn (if the play is available) we can use Adepts’ ability to cheat outEnter the Infinite followed by One With Nothing. This would trigger Glint-Horn Buccaneer to deal damage to all opponents and rightfully you should win. This would be a wincon people would not be expecting in most scenarios. In closing Omnispell Adept has potential in the foil department to go up quite a bit pending play.

Ilharg, the Raze-Boar Flickering Our Way To Victory!

The last card we are going to be talking about is Ilharg, the Raze-Boar. The current price is $5.23 for the non-foils, $12.81 for the foils, and 12.03 for the prerelease copy(TCGPlayer.com). This has been popping up in some top eight decks(MTGtop8.com) in Pioneer, but certainly has room to grow. Gruul Aggro is where this certainly has a position to see optimal usage. Like Champion of Rhonas we are looking at not only cheating cards out but using the flicker ability (Agent of Treachery) on cards with ETB effects.

Given the CMC on Ilharg, it's not too expensive to try and play around. It is surprising that it has not popped up more in the format given the upside it holds. The current price is a steal given where this can potentially go post rotation. Speaking of post-rotation, this is one to keep an eye on to see if it goes any lower in the coming months. If you have any of these on hand consider holding on to them.

Closing today’s article, I just wanted to state something that is probably obvious to most of us. Always look for cards that have ETBs that hold upside. Rather it is helping us offensively or defensively. Sometimes it is the utility cards that help us get to a wincon that holds value. Those same utility cards can draw attention to a wincon that might not otherwise exist causing the value of another card to increase. Just something to keep in mind if you or someone you know comes up with a useful combo that has competitive potential. Thanks again for reading and I hope you come back for the next installment!