How to Upgrade the Gruul Stompy Pioneer Challenger Deck

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2022 Pioneer Challenger Decks are here! Today we'll be upgrading the Gruul Stompy deck into the top tier meta deck it is designed after. This deck is almost entirely finished out of the box, excusing the mana base, but we still have a lot to talk about the subtleties of different builds, so hopefully this is still useful for you!
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[@AffinityforMTG]

Just want to stress that I don't think the vehicle package is absolutely necessary. Reckless Stormseeker is definitely recommended, but you can opt for the aggro deck if you prefer, and I also think it's fine to keep Glorybringer/Chandra if you wish. Also, it's Skysovereign, Consul FLAGship. Not skyship. Got it. :P

[@Grombrindal]

Proving the power of these Pioneer challenger decks someone took this beast to regionals and did reasonably well

[@dks6515]

Thanks for the awesome video! I'm planning to buy this deck to get in to pioneer and this is very helpful :)

[@AffinityforMTG]

Glad it was helpful!

[@javiernunez7058]

Great video man, keep up the great work. I must say, it’s very entertaining to see you trying out decks in arena or just simply playing for a bit. So, keep doing that more often if you wan to.

[@AffinityforMTG]

Yeah, I'll be finishing these upgrade guides soon, and I'd like to do an overview of the Commander Starter decks, but I'm hoping to get back into Standard/Explorer soon after. :)

[@nobodyimportant72]

While they may not be so popular now having those big hasty threats that can come down and attack is nice. Yeah, the Stormseekers do bring that haste to everyone which I guess is why they are played.

[@AffinityforMTG]

Yeah, I don't own this deck in paper but if I did, I'd probably just get the Stormseekers and skip the vehicles for now. In fact, I think I prefer the aggro build personally. :)

[@nobodyimportant72]

@@AffinityforMTG I know that when you do these upgrade videos you're going for something "matching the current competitive builds" although sometimes I wonder if you shouldn't just start with the "absolutely needs to be done" such as the Arclights in that deck. In the long run the most efficient upgrades could just be to boosting the mana base which carries to more decks.

[@MisterWebb]

@@nobodyimportant72 Could you elaborate, please? I’m a complete novice thinking of purchasing this deck …

[@nobodyimportant72]

@@MisterWebb I'll be honest I'm not entirely sure what to elaborate on. For an "eternal" Format the meta in Pioneer appears to shiftwildly with each new set. Looking at the meta decks on MTGGoldfish there is a Gruul Midrange listed that is a version of the vehicle upgrade presented here although there are now some cards in it that weren't available when this video was made. Now part of the reason for my comments is looking/asking for what kind of very minimal updates should be made to the deck while not going for what was the full meta deck. In a way this is the "if I buy this deck what do I really need to do to make it work?" question without fully considering what the metagame is. As for my final comment something that a great many decks can benefit from is the "improved" mana base. I'm not sure that the GR "fastland" (enter untapped if one of first 3 lands) was available yet as they can help speed up your fast deck without the pain you see in the included manabase. If you get a GR manabase you like you can often run it with other GR decks get/build and generally do a little better with a stronger mana foundation.

[@MisterWebb]

@@nobodyimportant72 Thanks SO much for your reply. What’s to be done with the Arclights in the deck? I get the feeling that this is going to be my first deck.

[@chrisboulanger1860]

Just got back to tabletop MTG and building the Gruul Vehicle Deck for Pioneer Tournaments!

[@PJB-bh8bn]

Questing beast is awsome and fast its a must have maybe a couple great henges and embercleaves💪

[@rafinery576]

I would probably replace Chandras with Domri, Anarch of Bolas for under £1, and Sokenzan as a priority given it can unstuck the beast if your 1/1s die. Good video, trying to get my mates to play pioneer will share it around when they pick up their precons.

[@AffinityforMTG]

These precons are definitely a great way to get them into the format! :)

[@Silv3rfoxFoxy]

Defiler of vigor is a dope add I’ve found, even the new Jaya is a decent 4 drop for turn 3 if done right

[@philistineau]

Great, great review. Thank you!

[@stfgrd6904]

Hi, could you make a Pioneer upgrade for this one? Would be great😁

[@Beanmachine91]

id use mizzium mortars in red devotion with nykthos

[@richardanthonydelossantos5899]

the only update that i made in this deck is added 4 copies of Fable of the Mirror Breaker 3 Shatterskull Smashing and i removed a copy if ooze in the main. in the mana base i added 3 stomping ground 3 lair of the hydra 2 boseiju at 2 sokenzan so far I am happy

[@realityjaunt]

Assuming I did everything else as suggested (a very solid suggestion since it is true) what would you suggest swapping out for four Pathways? Two of each basics probably? I think I am undervaluing Karlsson Forest since the self damage spooks me but my other instinct was two of those plus two basics. By the way, can you sense a pattern of a brand new player going through your videos to upgrade each of the most recent precons one by one?

[@AffinityforMTG]

Yeah, basics would be fine. I understand not liking pain lands, I seem to draw them in clusters and lose too much life to them, but I try to jam as many untapped duals as possible in my decks. Just don't draw your pain lands against burn/aggro, easy! :P I don't notice that as much with paper decks, but definitely with Arena starter decks I see the same people in all my guides. I guess because everyone has all the decks by default, but a lot of people will just buy 1 or 2 paper precons.

[@roberto0882]

I have a question... Is it the Esika's chariot treated as an artifact creature? (I played against a deck that had the card drown in the loch and we didn't know if it affected the chariot or not)

[@PaulissVegan]

waiting for the dimir control video to pop up

[@AffinityforMTG]

Coming soon! (tomorrow)

[@samuraib0b]

I’m running a version with more gruul cards from war of the spark and domri instead of Chandra .

[@AffinityforMTG]

Yeah, there were a lot of good gruul cards around then. I played an Explorer gruul aggro list recently with Gruul Spellbreaker. :)