Summary
- Explorer is a non-rotating format in Magic: The Gathering: Arena that includes all non-digital cards released since Ixalan and any cards from Return to Ravnica onwards.
- Budget decks are a great way to get started in Explorer without using up rare and mythic wildcards, offering a variety of play styles that are easy to build and play.
- New cards have been released, expanding the deck options in Explorer. Decks like green/white Tokens, blue/red Transmogrify, and red/white Hammer Time are now viable and offer unique strategies to defeat opponents.
Explorer is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic The Gathering: Arena's true-to-paper, non-rotating format. Any non-digital card released on Arena since the Ixalan set is legal, as well as any ca🐈rd that appeared in the game that was in Return To Ravnica onward. These are the sets included in the Pioneer format, which is what Explorer will eventually become.
As with every format, there are budget decks to play. These have a variety of play styles, all while being 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:easy to build and play in Explorer. If you want to save most of your rare and mythic wildcards, budget deck꧅s are a nice way to dip your toes into a format without over-committing resources.
Updated September 25, 2023, by Ryan Hay: All sorts of new decks become viable the longer formats are around, and the same is true with Explorer. Since the last update, plenty of exciting new cards have been released, giving you more opportunities to jam unique cards and decks together to take down your opponents. This time around, we're adding green/white Tokens to take advantage of a wide battlefield, blue/red Transmogrify to cheat huge creatures into play, and red/white Hammer Time, to bring the hammer down on your opponents far too early in the game for them to deal with.
18 ꦆ Izzet Pyromance꧒r
Total: 24 Commons, 14 Uncommons
4 |
Fading Hope (U) |
4 |
Consider (C) |
4 |
Opt (C) |
2 |
Spikefield Hazard (U) |
4 |
Strangle (C) |
4 |
Make Disappear (C) |
4 |
Young Pyromancer (U) |
4 |
Third Path Iconoclast (U) |
4 |
Of One Mind (C) |
4 |
Fiery Impulse (C) |
10 |
Mountains |
12 |
Islands |
Izzet Pyromancer is a deck named after the card Young Pyromancer, a two-drop that creates a 1/1 token whenever you cast any instan🐲t or sorcery spell. The addition of Third Path Iconoclast made the deck even better, allowing you to essentially play eight copies of basically the same card, except Third Path Iconoclast creates a token for any non-creature spell.
The deck plays just these creatures and a ton of one-mana spells to constantly trigger the effects of your creatures to flood the battlefield with tokens. The effects of non-creature spells often act as draw power or removal, ensuring💖 the battlefield is clear, and your hand is full.
Izzet Pyromancer is all about ensuring your token creators stick around. It's best to utilize Make Disappear as a way to counter any kind of interaction that could remove them.
In a pinch, you can even use Fading Hope to save them by returning them to your hand. Since they all have three or fewer mana values, 🍌y🐼ou even get the scry effect along with it as an added bonus.
Though the removal suite is a bit low, the number of tokens you can make can counteract that, making chump blockers for your opponent's big creatures and swinging in for damage by overwhelming them with creatures they don't have enough resources to deal with.
17 Mono-Blue Mill 𝐆
Total: 18 Commons, 24 Uncommons, 4 Rares
4 |
Fading Hope (U) |
4 |
Merfolk Secretkeeper (C) |
2 |
Merfolk Windrobber (U) |
4 |
Overwhelmed Apprentice (U) |
4 |
Ruin Crab (U) |
4 |
Drowned Secrets (R) |
4 |
Didn't Say Please (C) |
2 |
Teferi's Tutelage (U) |
4 |
Compelling Argument (C) |
4 |
Ashiok, Dream Render (U) |
4 |
Ipnu Rivulet (U) |
4 |
Evolving Wilds (C) |
14 |
Islands |
2 |
Mystic Sanctuary (C) |
Mono-Blue Mill is built around getting rid of your opponent's entire deck, winning the game by making your opponent lose by being unable to draw a card. The deck can be built with a minimal number of rares and easily upgraded later on.
The budget version is just as strong, taking advantage of cards like Ruin Crab and fet🌊chlands to trigger its laꦉndfall ability multiple times a turn.
Since you are required to fully commit to the mill strategy, Mono-Blue Mill plays some interaction such as Fading Hope that can put the opponent back onꦜ mana by essentially undoing a summon but also allows you to reuse your mill cards like Merfolk Secretkeeper to let it go on an adventure again.
One of the things to keep in mind with Mill is that it requires proper resource m❀anagement. It offers a very small amount of interaction, so it can fall behind on creature-based strategies.
As such, it is very important to use your Didn't Say Please counterspells with care, and only on large creatures and other threats, not small ones. It is a control-based strategy that slowly brings your opponent's deck to zero, so it is vital to make sure the battlefield is clear of threats so you don't have to worry about losing all your life while milling.
16 Ens꧒oul Artifacts ꧂
Totals: 8 Commons, 32 Uncommons, 4 Rares
4 |
Ornithopter (U) |
4 |
Gingerbrute (C) |
4 |
Springleaf Drum (U) |
4 |
All That Glitters (U) |
4 |
Ingenious Smith (U) |
4 |
Michiko's Reign of Truth (U) |
4 |
Ensoul Artifact (U) |
4 |
Patchwork Automation (U) |
4 |
Stonecoil Serpent (R) |
4 |
Darksteel Citadel (U) |
4 |
Tranquil Cove (C) |
10 |
Plains |
6 |
Islands |
Ensoul Artifacts is a deck built around the enchantment Ensoul Artifact, an aura that makes any artifact into an artifact creature with a 5/5 stat line. This can be done on any artifact ♈and can turn a low-attack, easy-to-cast artifact into a massive threat.
Nearly the entire deck is made up of artifact creatures, many of which cost zero to two mana, al𓆏lowing y💃ou to boost almost all of them up.
One of the stars is Darksteel Citadel, whᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚich is an indestructible artifact land to give you a 5/5 creature with indestructible as early as turn two. The deck is very aggressive and can go from harmless artifacts to giant🦋 creatures in just one turn.
You often want to buff your Ornithopter or Gingerbrute since those are the creatures that can often evade blockers due to flying or being able to make them unblockable respectively. With how many extra stats Michiko's Reign Of Truth tends to give, you can win games with the first four turns.
Ingenious Smith helps you to dig into more artifacts, and if you want some added removal, the option to play Portable Hole instead of Stonecoil Serpent is there as well if you want to run a build with no rares at ⛦all.
15 🌺 Mono-Red Aggro
Total: 16 Commons, 24 Uncommons, 4 Rares
4 |
Eidon Of Great Revel (R) |
4 |
Fanatical Firebrand (C) |
4 |
Goblin Javelineer (C) |
4 |
Kumano Faces Kakkazan (U) |
4 |
Monastery Swiftspear (U) |
4 |
Phoenix Chick (U) |
4 |
Play With Fire (U) |
4 |
Lightning Strike (C) |
4 |
Light Up The Stage (U) |
4 |
Skewer The Critics (C) |
16 |
Mountains |
4 |
Ramunap Ruins (U) |
Mono-Red Aggro is a deck built🎶 around winning the game as fast as possible with low-cost creatures, often with haste. Nearly the entire pool of creatures have haste, with the exception of Eidon Of Great Revel, which instead acts as a way to deal extra burn damage to get closer to winning the game.
It runs a mixture of fast creatures to outspeed your opponents and burn spells to help close out games once your opponent starts getting creatures onto the battlefield as blockers. Aggro decks can often snowball to the point the game can't be won, making them win the games they win quickly.
Mono Red is all about winning the game before your opponent can answer your board state. As such, the burn spells you play are often used to destroy whatever low-drop creatures your opponent may play so that you have a clear line to attack your opponent's life directly.
If there are no creatures to deal with, the burn spells can be pointed to your opponent directly instead, allowing you to quickly close out 🍬games, especially thanks to being backed up by prowess triಞggers from Monastery Swiftspear.
Eidon Of Great Revel can turn almost every relevant removal spell into a t🎐wo-damage burn. So even if you lose your creature, it still gets to deal damage on the way out.
14 🎃 Boros Hammer Time
Total: 18 Commons, 30 Uncommons, 8 Rares
4 |
Fireblade Charger (U) |
4 |
Resolute Strike (C) |
4 |
Cacophony Scamp (U) |
4 |
Kazuul's Fury (U) |
4 |
Sram, Senior Edificer (R) |
2 |
Thud (U) |
4 |
Kemba, Kha Enduring (R) |
4 |
Colossus Hammer (U) |
4 |
Bruenor Battlehammer (U) |
2 |
Forging the Tyrite Sword (U) |
4 |
Lorehold Campus (U) |
2 |
Axgard Armory (U) |
9 |
Plains |
9 |
Mountain |
Easily the funniest deck on this list is white/red Boros Hammer Time.💛 The entire c🌜rux of the deck is to take Colossus Hammer, a one-drop equipment that gives the attached creature a staggering +10/+10 and forces them to lose flying and hit your opponent with it until they lose.
As a backup plan, you have cards like Kazuul's Fury and Thud to throw your creature at your opponent, dealing damage to them equal to the sacrificed creature's power. With a little planning, you can hit an opponent with an equipped creature and then sacrifice it to K.O. an opponent in a single turn.
13 Self-Mill
Total: 18 Commons, 18 Uncommons, 4 Rares
4 |
Merfolk Secretkeeper (C) |
4 |
Otherworldly Gaze (C) |
4 |
Compelling Argument (C) |
4 |
Frantic Inventory (C) |
4 |
Wall Of Lost Thoughts (U) |
2 |
Aid The Fallen (C) |
2 |
Go For The Throat (U) |
4 |
Ashiok, Dream Render (U) |
4 |
Jace, Wielder Of Mysteries (R) |
4 |
Creeping Chill (U) |
4 |
Ipnu Rivulet (U) |
14 |
Islands |
6 |
Swamps |
Self-Mill 😼is catered to mill out your deck as quickly as possible. While you normally lose the game when trying to draw with no cards in your library, Jace, Wielder Of Mysteries instead lets you wi🌳n the game.
The deck plays a ton of ways to mill yourself, such as Otherworldly Gaze, which a൩llows you to mill yourself for six cards for a total of six mana.
The creatures all allow you to mill yourself since🐟 they can target any player with the mill effects. Since your deck needs Jace to win, Aid The Fallen allows you to bring it back from the graveyard if you accidentally mill all your copies of it.
The deck does not have many ways to interact with the opponent, so focusing on self-milling yourself is very important. You want to u🃏tilize all of your mana each ofಞ your turns and generally want to tap out to do so.
While Go For The Throat can answer a few problems, there are not many other ones. As such, you should be focusing on𒈔 casti💝ng your self-mill cards as soon as you can.
Ashiok, Dream Render can help you to stall your oppone𓃲nt as well, since it prevents them from being able to searcཧh their libraries.
12 Azorius Auras ♔
Total: 8 Commons, 27 Uncommons, 4 Rares
4 |
Adanto Vanguard (U) |
4 |
Arcane Flight (C) |
4 |
Selfless Savior (U) |
1 |
Aether Tunnel (U) |
4 |
Sram, Senior Edificer (R) |
2 |
All That Glitters (U) |
4 |
Stormchaser Drake (U) |
4 |
Ethereal Armor (U) |
4 |
Curious Obsession (U) |
4 |
Sentinel's Eyes (C) |
4 |
Staggering Insight (U) |
10 |
Islands |
11 |
Plains |
Azorius (blue/white) Auras is a c🐓heap deck to make, only requiring four rares to make a budget version. If you like it, you can upgrade the deck with a few other rares and even bring it into Historic for an equa😼lly viable deck.
Azorius Auras is focused around Sram, Senior Edificer, which will draw you a card 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:whenever you cast an aura. This lets you continue to refr𝔍esh your hand with more auras, allowing yo🔯u to get aggressive very early.
You can run a lower number of lands, as nonꦚe of your cards cost more than two mana, and you will be able to easily dig through your library thanks to drawing triggers.
Thꦺe deck can be prone to removal, which Adanto Vanguard hel🎶ps to circumvent. If your opponent does not have removal, it allows you to run wild with the game, loading up auras onto all of your creatures.
The best targets for the auras are Adanto Vanguard as it can save itself, as well as Stormchaser Drake since targeting it with an aura will𒁃 trigger its effect that lets you draw a card. If Sram, Senior Edificer is on the battl🌟efield as well, this gives you two cards back into your hand for the price of one.
11 🃏 Boro🐈s Cycling
Total: 14 Commons, 24 Uncommons
4 |
Flourishing Fox (U) |
4 |
Go For Blood (C) |
4 |
Flameblade Adept (U) |
4 |
Zenith Flare (U) |
4 |
Drannith Healer (C) |
4 |
Cast Out (U) |
4 |
Valiant Rescuer (U) |
4 |
Footfall Crater (U) |
4 |
Drannith Stinger (C) |
11 |
Plains |
2 |
Imposing Vantasaur (C) |
11 |
Mountains |
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Boros (red/white) Cycling is a very easy-to-build deck, not requiring any rares or mythics to build. The deck is built around cards with the cycling a🐠bility, which lets you pay one mana to discard them and draw a♎ card.
Boros Cycling runs cards with abiliti﷽es that trigger when you cycle a card, either growing their stats, burning the opponent, or making tokens. They also have a strong finisher in Zenith Flare, which can do enough damage to win the🌌 game on its own if you have enough cards with cycling in the graveyard.
Since cycling can be done at instant speed, it allows you to hold up mana until you know you do not need it anymore during your opponent's end step. This lets you use Cast Out or Go For Blood if needed, and if not, you can cycle them away to load up your graveyard for Zenith Flare.
Zenith Flare is the best card in the deck, acting as a game-ender and a way to keep ꦐyou in the game as it lets you gain life. As such, even though Zenith Flare might not burn for lethal damage, it can still be good to cast to gain a lot of life to stay in the game.
Since you play four copies of it, it's not too uncommon to see another one finish the job, especially since almost your entire deck can discard to draw a card.
10 ꦺ ✱ Temur Transmogrify
Total: 24 Commons, 8 Uncommons, 4 Rares, 2 Mythic Rare
2 |
Atraxa, Grand Unifier (MR) |
4 |
Transmogrify (R) |
4 |
Careful Cultivation (C) |
4 |
Courier's Briefcase (U) |
4 |
Make Disappear (C) |
4 |
Flip the Switch (C) |
4 |
Fire Prophecy (U) |
4 |
Fiery Impulse (C) |
4 |
Volcanic Spite (C) |
4 |
Swiftwater Cliffs (C) |
4 |
Game Trail (U) |
5 |
Island |
5 |
Mountain |
5 |
Forest |
One of the more interesting decks on this list is the blue, red, and green Temur Transmogrify deck. The deck is very straightforward: dig t✨hrough your deck until you find Transmogrify, and then cast it on your own creature. Transmogrify exiles that creature, and then lets you reveal cards from the top of your library until you find another creature and put it into play.
The only creature in your deck is Atraxa, Grand Unifier, a massive 7/7 creature with lifelink, flying, deathtouch, and vigilance, making it a game-changing card to drop. While you don't run any other creatures, you have a few ways to generate creature tokens to exile, like Careful Cultivation and Courier's Briefcase, which both also act as ramp to cast Transmogrify as early as possible
9 ꧑ Dimir Rogues 🌄
Total: 2 Commons, 30 Uncommons, 4 Rares
4 |
Merfolk Windrobber (U) |
4 |
Drown In The Loch (U) |
4 |
Ruin Crab (U) |
4 |
Fatal Push (U) |
4 |
Soaring Thought-Thief (U) |
2 |
Heartless Act (U) |
4 |
Thieves' Guild Enforcer (R) |
4 |
Into The Story (U) |
12 |
Islands |
2 |
Of One Mind (C) |
12 |
Swamps |
4 |
Saw It Coming (U) |
A long-time threat for as long as it was legal in Standard, Dimir (blue/black) Rogues is a solid budget deck for Explorer. It only requires one playset of rares to craft in Thieves Guild Enforcer, but the r🐬est of the deck can be made with commons and uncommons.
Rogues are a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:control deck, built around chipping away at the opponent's life with flyers and deathtouchers. It also has a secondary win condition in Mill, as many of the Rogues have effects that cause milling, made even easier thank♍s to Ruin Crab and fetchlands.
Rogues often play at instant speed, as most of their spells are instant or have flash. Since it plays a fair bit of counterspells, this allows you to keep your mana up to respond to your opponent's spells, and when it's all clear in the end phase, flash in your Rogues.
It's important to go slow with Rogues, as they are a control mixed with a mill deck. You don't want to use much mana on your turn, saving it to cast during your opponent's instead.