Yesterday, a brand new format was introduced to MTG Arena: Explorer! Explorer is essentially Pioneer-lite, as it will use all Pioneer-legal cards on Arena. There’s a whole lot more to discover about this format, though, so let’s jump right in!
What is Explorer?
Explorer is a format in which you can play with any Pioneer-legal card on Arena. You can play both best-of-one and best-of-three matches, as well as both ranked and unranked. Even better, it’s available to play right now!
Explorer will start by having the same ban list as Pioneer (excluding cards that aren’t currently on Arena, of course). As the meta develops, however, WOTC may make changes to the ban list.
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It’s also worth noting that Explorer won’t have any suspended cards: a card is either legal or banned. WOTC wants this format to resemble tabletop play as much as possible, and they consider the suspended list a “digital-only” tool. Similarly, rebalanced cards aren’t playable in Explorer.
Is Pioneer Coming to MTG Arena?
I’ve been using Pioneer to describe Explorer, so you may be wondering: Will Pioneer ever come to Arena? The answer is yes! WOTC plans on adding Pioneer cards to Arena over time, and they’ll eventually replace Explorer with Pioneer.
However, WOTC won’t add every card that’s legal in Pioneer. They only plan on adding the “cards that matter,” which means all cards that regularly see play. This phrase is vague and makes me wonder if casual or “jank” Pioneer decks will ever truly be on Arena. Of course, they could also simply mean that not every redundant common will make its way to the platform.
WOTC has also stressed that this process will take years. There are still plenty of Pioneer cards missing from MTG Arena, and they still have to regularly add the newest Standard-legal set to the client. Until we finally have Pioneer in its entirety on Arena, you can at least try out Explorer as a new way to play.
End Step
A whole new journey is starting on MTG Arena with this new format, and now you’re caught up on all the important details. If you’d like to read the official announcement for yourself, you can do so here!
