Looking for a few ways to take home a couple of cool rewards on Magic: The Gathering Arena? Then why not try your hand at this week’s Midweek Magic? This free event has players competing in three rounds for a chance to win up to three rewards ranging from wildcards to cosmetics.
This week, players can jump into the digital version of Pioneer with the Arena-exclusive Explorer format. These little mini-events have no gold or gem entry costs and let you play as many games as you like, typically with a special twist to traditional Magic rules or with format limitations.
The first two rewards you can earn from a Midweek Magic event are Rare Individual Cards, effectively wild cards automatically redeemed for any rare or mythic rare card on Arena. The third reward is a little bundle containing anything from a unique card style to a pet or avatar, though these items are extremely rare.
Explorer Rules
Explorer is a unique format on Arena: it doesn’t rotate and is designed to be as close to its paper counterpart (Pioneer, which should be coming to Arena in 2024) as possible. Unfortunately, plenty of staples are missing from the format, forcing players to get creative with their card selection.
To participate, you’ll need a 60-card deck built from cards legal in the Explorer format, which gives you everything from Ixalan to Wilds of Eldraine, plus cards printed in some of the digital-only Anthologies as well as in Remastered sets.
There are a good chunk of banned cards in Explorer, too, that you’ll want to watch out for. The banned cards closely mirror those banned from Pioneer, with the Planeswalker Oko, Thief of Crowns, and explosive Winota, Joiner of Forces being some of the most powerful banned cards.
- Expressive Iteration
- Field of the Dead
- Kethis, the Hidden Hand
- Leyline of Abundance
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- Nexus of Fate
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Once Upon a Time
- Teferi, Time Raveler
- Tibalt’s Trickery
- Underworld Breach
- Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath
- Veil of Summer
- Wilderness Reclamation
- Winota, Joiner of Forces
Explorer Deck List
Mono-Green Devotion is particularly powerful in Explorer, using massive mana generation capable from cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to cast multiple bombs in a turn.
Overall, it’s a pretty straightforward deck: all you have to do is play an Elf on Turn 1, Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner (or one of the eight three-drop creatures) on Turn 2, and then stay ahead of your opponent with either powerful artifacts from Karn or overwhelming power from a flipped Polukranos or dropping multiple creatures a turn with Storm the Festival.
Hand disruption from Mono-Black decks can be rough since there are not many ways to catch up if you fall behind, but with an early Up the Beanstalk or Kiora and enough mana, you can claw your way back.
Explorer Mono-Green Devotion
| Planeswalkers (10) 4 Karn, the Great Creator 4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner 2 Nissa, Who Shakes the World Battles (2) 2 Invasion of Ixalan Creatures (15) 2 Elvish Mystic 4 Llanowar Elves 2 Polukranos Reborn 4 Old-Growth Troll 3 Cavalier of Thorns Sorceries (4) 4 Storm the Festival Enchantments (7) 4 Up the Beanstalk 3 Wolfwillow Haven Land (22) 14 Forest 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 2 Lair of the Hydra | Sideboard (7) 1 Shadowspear 1 Esika’s Chariot 1 The Great Henge 1 Portal to Phyrexia 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship 1 Tormod’s Crypt 1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue |