I wanted to take my modern elf deck and see if I can get it to run in pioneer, with a few tweaks, I think this can be moderately successful!
Started by checking and seeing what modern cards in the build were pioneer legal, pulled the cards outside of the format, and took note of what slots I had to fill. Now obviously the deck slows down at least a little bit with out the pool of strong 1 drops and lords, so we had to improvise.
1 drops:
In the 1 slot we have Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic as is tradition in the modern build, I felt we needed just a splash more in the 1/mana dork slot for pioneer, so in my research I decided upon 2 copies of Gnarlroot Trapper as it not only taps for mana, but also taps to give a beater death touch, (as swarming isn't our only goal with this deck)
2 drops:
as I already had 2 creatures carry over in the 2 slot from modern with Dwynen's Elite to swarm, and Elvish Clancaller as our main lord in pioneer, we had an important slot to fill. I almost went with Elvish Visionary for card draw because that is in some of the modern builds, but I felt we could do a little better. In the end I settled on Growth-Chamber Guardian because even in a bad hand, it's good. It comes down on turn 2, and on turn 3 (or whenever you have the excess mana) becomes a natural 4/4, with everything else we're doing, should be really good really quickly.
3 drops:
Shaman of the Pack is too strong of a card not to include it as it's usually efficient enough to finish off some Modern matches, so it was no contest. Here is where we start the hard work though, as in modern, Shaman of the Pack and Ezuri, Renegade Leader is usually where the curve ends. We don't have Ezuri, in Pioneer, or any other efficient lord effect in the 3 slot, but we do have some beats in the form of 3 copies of Steel Leaf Champion who can drop on turn 2 as a 5/4 semi unblockable and put the opponent on a very short clock (also combo's well with Gnarlroot Trapper's death touch ability. Finally I slotted a single copy of Marwyn, the Nurturer because with her potential to grow, I thought she was a decent enough add, but as a legendary, I didn't find her too important to the game plan.
4 drops.
I still felt the creature base was lacking a little something, so unlike the modern elf builds, I went a step further and took a look at some 4 cost creatures that we could benefit from. 2 copies of Beast Whisperer help fuel us, as with the slightly slower build than it's modern counterpart, Beast Whisperer has the potential to provide plenty of gas to keep the game moving. Finally, we finish off with 2 copies of Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen to provide another lord effect, her reach can also come in handy as one of the bigger decks in pioneer right now is a bant spirits build, and never underestimate the value of lifegain, extending the game indefinitely due to life gain, when our main gameplan is turning the board sideways, could help us get that topdeck card that puts the match over for us.
Non Creatures:
Collected Company is another finisher in modern and no surprise, with 30 creatures with a 3cmc or less, it's just as valuable here. Now, in modern some of the builds slot Lead the Stampede as coco's 5,6 and even 7, and where as I agree it's important I felt that 2 copies of Chord of Calling was an ample replacement for some of the things we are missing from the modern build (the convoke mechanic especially comes in handy here as you can potentially cast it for 0 actual mana) and allows you to cheat out a piece of the deck (such as Elvish Clancaller as again, it's the main lord of the deck). I like Chord of Calling so much in this build I was even debating cutting a land for a 3rd copy... but about that:
Land Base:
The strength of Modern elves is the sheer amount of mana dorking a hand can do to flood out the battle field super fast, and with as little as 1 land (thanks to cards like Heritage Druid and Nettle Sentinel for example). Since we don't have access to that speed in pioneer, I decided to up the land base to 20 land, mainly because I felt it super important to not miss that 2nd, or sometimes even 3rd land drop (Pioneer Elves can't get away with the things it can get away with in modern). We also don't have access to the land base modern does. Cards like Cavern of Souls or Gilt-Leaf Palace, even Pendelhaven to power up 1/1's in a pinch, don't exist in Pioneer, so again, we have some work to do.
Unclaimed Territory is basically budget Cavern of Souls so that was an obvious 4 of, and since Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is in pioneer, that was an automatic include. The rest of the land base I feel is very cut and dry, and built for speed and efficiency. I want to place a little emphasis on Westvale Abbey
to help with the beatdown strategy. We shouldn't ever have to use this to make any human tokens, but between the 20 lands in the deck, and the 10 mana dorks, we should be able to flip this into Ormendahl, Profane Prince with very little effort.
Sideboard:
wrapping things up, let's talk about sideboard:
-Damping Sphere against control or combo decks slows them down a bunch
-Druid's Deliverance against aggro matchups, protects life total, helps to not lose board state blocking unnecessarily
-Grafdigger's Cage for any graveyard deck, and with Theros: Beyond Death giving us the escape mechanic, the cage can prove to be extremely valuable
-Heroic Intervention against any deck that centers on removal, protects board state
-Reclamation Sage to disrupt artifact decks (primarily izzet ensoul)
-Shapers' Sanctuary primarily against burn/removal centered decks, helps with card advantage
-Abrupt Decay because it's just all around a great removal card, and even though it only hits up to a 3 mana cost permanents, with our speedy strategy, it should never be an issue
-Scavenging Ooze because even as a 1 of, if we are losing creatures/board state ooze can quickly power up and eat the graveyard
and that's it, thoughts/suggestions below. Constructive criticism is welcome, as I'm new to the pioneer format. Thanks for checking out the deck!
