Synergy? Pioneer
Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 1, 2020, 6:45 p.m. by asprinks
Plz forgive if this is a stupid thing to ask: Is synergy a must have for competitive play? I’ve had mixed results with this mono black aggro deck over the past 5 or 6 weeks. Any comments/criticisms from anyone more experienced than me (everyone ha!) are appreciated.
Creatures:
1 drop - Pilfering Imp x2 - Vampire of the Dire Moon x3 - Foulmire Knight x3 - Banehound x4
2 drop - Order of Midnight x2
3 drop - Midnight Reaper x2 - Drana, Liberator of Malakir - Bloodthirsty Aerialist x2 - Murderous Rider x3
3*/4 drop - Spawn of Mayhem x3 - Rankle, Master of Pranks x2
Non-creature:
- Fatal Push x4 - Thoughtseize x2 - Duress - Despise - Ultimate Price
Lands:
- Swamp x18 - Mutavault x2 - Cabal Stronghold - Geier Reach Sanitarium - Rogue's Passage - Fabled Passage
Sideboard is a couple more removals, green countermeasures, and planeswalker removals
If this was a stupid question, I’m sorry for spam. TY for taking the time to read.
Thanks for the reply, you put into words what I was thinking. A deck with speed and power can potentially overcome an absence of synergy/combos/tricks.
Ive been subbing in 2 or 3 Kalitas’ as I try to tune the deck. Other cards I’ve tried are 4 Thoughtseize, Sorin Imperious BL, Knight of Ebon Legion, Rotting Regisaur. The Regisaur card performs so well I almost feel guilty running it.
Thx again for the feedback; very helpful.
Magnanimous says... #2
Synergy makes bad cards better and good cards excellent, but you often have a smaller card pool to choose from or need to pick worse cards or need to have certain cards in play. All combo decks are based around synergy, the best way to make budget decks or format-breaking decks is often to focus on synergies people before haven't thought of, and many cards are good because they synergize well with many other cards (fetch lands, for example).
Many decks do not need synergy and actually thrive because they can disrupt synergy with removal, discard, counters, etc. easily and are difficult to disrupt themselves. Your deck falls into that category (although there are almost always small 'bonus' synergies that have nothing to do with the core idea of the deck) and so do many top-tier decks in different formats (think Jund in modern and any good-stuff deck). If you're having mixed results with this disruptive, black, good-stuff deck, just play stronger (often more expensive) cards like Thoughtseize and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet . I don't know Pioneer well, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
January 1, 2020 8:18 p.m.