​Murders at Karlov Manor in Pioneer Vampires and Rakdos Midrange

Murders at Karlov Manor in Pioneer Vampires and Rakdos Midrange

by James Johnston

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New set: new spoilers to look through for possible additions to Pioneer Vampires and Rakdos Midrange. Are any of the vampires strong enough to see play? I believe there's one that might be.

I'm really excited about Vein Ripper especially if we have Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord to make it a three drop. There's a chance that Pioneer has become so brutally fast over the last couple months that no fair six CMC creatures can see play regardless of power level, but there's at least some arguments for hope in this case.

Archfiend of the Dross is already seeing play, and this card has several upgrades. Vein Ripper extends the creature dying triggers to your own creatures, adds life gain to the trigger, and replaces losing the game in a few turns with a Ward ability that is effectively Hexproof in multiple scenarios. Whereas Archfiend was always a liability that couldn't stabilize or play defense, each of the upgrades listed above make Vein Ripper just as much of a powerhouse on defense or even battlefields as it is on offense. The floor for Archfiend is that your opponent has flying chump blockers or a high life total, so you can't even cast it because it'd kill you faster than your opponent. The floor for Vein Ripper is that your opponent two-for-ones themselves removing it, and you get to drain them for four life. Costing more than Archfiend means it'll never be a four-of, but I wouldn't be surprised if this card sees some play, especially when combined with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. Having better art and flavor text than Archfiend is a nice bonus. I'll definitely be putting this into play turn three the day this set hits Arena.

Does the set have any obviously power crept cards that fit into Rakdos Midrange shells?

Massacre Girl, Known Killer could take over a game in the right circumstances, but it doesn't do anything against control or goldfish decks, and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse has a stranglehold on the 4-drop slot.

Krenko's Buzzcrusher is a decent creature on rate that also beats Smuggler's Copter, but more importantly, it finally gives players a way to destroy Lotus Field. Buzzcrusher could be a SB slot if Lotus Field picks up.

Long Goodbye is an upgraded Eliminate, a spell that has seen play.

Rakdos, Patron of Chaos is expensive like Vein Ripper, but also such a bomb that I wouldn't be surprised if it saw play.

As far as picks from the set to see Pioneer play in general, there are several.

The Surveil Dual Lands are obviously best with fetch lands, but they should still see some play regardless.

Novice Inspector will see play because it allows Dykman to play a deck with eight Thraben Inspectors.

Crime Novelist has combo potential.

Demand Answers is an upgraded Tormenting Voice.

Archdruid's Charm is powerful, versatile, and will see play.

Axebane Ferox has similarities to Questing Beast.

Pick Your Poison is a decent SB card.

The Gruul Vehicles play-pattern of turn two Reckless Stormseeker, turn three swing with Anzrag, the Quake-Mole is going to be really annoying. Anzrag is pushed.

Tomik, Wielder of Law is solid and has a relevant creature type.

Ill-Timed Explosion gives Izzet a wrath spell.

Warleader's Call fits into Boros Convoke.

Soul Search is an upgraded Castigate.

No More Lies is an upgraded Mana Leak.

Lightning Helix is a solid reprint with a long history of success. There's bound to be a few surprises in addition to this long list.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this set. It looks like R+D made a lot of cool and playable cards for both Standard and Pioneer, upgraded callbacks and reprints of previously popular cards, and spread the new toys out across multiple archetypes. Achieving these goals is what makes a good MTG set. Most importantly, I'm not seeing any of the egregious R&D mistakes in this set that we've frequently had to deal with since 2019. Turns out, bringing back Morph (Disguise) is infinitely safer than trying to bring back Cascade. If you don't work for R+D, that last part probably wasn't news to you.