Here Are the Top 53 Cards You Should Craft in Explorer

Last updated on July 16, 2024

Shark Typhoon | Illustration by Caio Monteiro

WotC has a goal to push Pioneer play on MTG Arena, but they've got quite a ways to go. There are whole blocks of sets that aren't on the digital platform yet, including some with popular Pioneer staples, like Return to Ravnica and Theros. So in the meantime, we have Explorer.

Today I'm going to talk all about the best cards in Explorer. If you’re interested in playing Explorer on Arena, then chances are most of the cards you’re looking to craft will be on this list. Hint: You can get lots of value beyond crafting mythics.

Let's just jump right in!

What Is Explorer?

Thoughtseize | Illustration by Aleksi Briclot

Explorer is a Constructed format on MTG Arena that will eventually become Pioneer as more cards become available. These are the sets we’re missing right now:

• Return to Ravnica
• Gatecrash
• Dragon's Maze
• Magic 2014
• Theros
• Born of the Gods
• Journey Into Nyx
• Magic 15
• Fate Reforged
• Dragons of Tarkir
• Magic Origins
• Battle For Zendikar
• Oath of the Gatewatch

Although sets like Kaladesh and Amonkhet had their remastered versions on MTG Arena, WotC said that this approach may not happen with the rest of the sets for Explorer. There's also the Anthology approach to introduce cards that are needed on Arena, where a bundle of cards is released and can be acquired with in-game resources like gems or wildcards. We’ve already had important cards released for the format through Explorer Anthology 1, 2, and 3.

The Metagame

Since Explorer is proto-Pioneer, the early metagame can be defined by what’s good in Pioneer minus what isn’t yet available in MTG Arena. Tier 1 decks are pretty much identical to their Pioneer counterparts while tier 2 decks are a few cards away from an ideal build.

Tier 1 Decks

• Amalia Explorer Combo
• Izzet Ensoul Artifact 
• Mono Red Wizards
• Rakdos Vampires
• Abzan Greasefang Combo

Tier 2 Decks

• Izzet Phoenix
• Mono White Humans
• Selesnya Angels
• Azorius Control
• Boros Heroic

Let’s Talk Lands

It’s impossible to talk about a Constructed format and the metagame without discussing lands. The mere existence of a cycle of lands (or an incomplete cycle of lands) can make or break certain decks and color combinations. After all, consistency is king.

Explorer offers the following cycles of lands:

• The fast lands from Phyrexia: All Will Be One and Kaladesh
• The creature lands from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Wilds of Eldraine, and Forgotten Realms
• Allied cycling lands from Amonkhet
• Check lands from Ixalan and Dominaria
• Shock lands from Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance
• Scry lands from Theros Beyond Death and Core Set 2020
• Castles from Throne of Eldraine
• Tri-lands from Ikoria and Streets of New Capenna
• Pathway lands from Zendikar Rising
• Slow lands from Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow
• Channel lands from Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty
• Pain lands from Dominaria United and The Brothers' War
• The Surveil Lands from Murders at Karlov Manor
• The Deserts from Outlaws of Thunder Junction

These lands will make the bulk of any given deck in the format. If you’re building a mana base, start with shock and check lands. Add a few on-color Castles, channel lands, and creature lands to start.

With all that out of the way, let’s get into the best cards in Explorer!

#53. Ossification

Providing a quick answer to a planeswalker or creature for only 2 mana is very powerful. Ossification is one of the go-to removal spell in white-based decks.

#52. Leyline Binding

Six mana is a lot, but with some trilands like Jetmir's Garden around, Leyline Binding is usually castable with 1-2 mana. You’ll then have an excellent cheap flash removal spell that combines very well with Up the Beanstalk.

#51. Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger’s escape mechanic means that it keeps coming back and forces your opponent to lose life or cards. It gives Rakdos () decks that long-term inevitability it loves so much.

#50. Witch's Oven

Cauldron Familiar’s partner in crime, Witch's Oven and the cat create a combo where you sacrifice the Familiar every turn to make a Food, which then returns the cat to the battlefield, draining for 1. This seemingly slow combo can become a real threat with sacrifice synergies or lifegain.

And yes, Cauldron Familiar stacks well with multiple copies of Witch's Oven.

#49. Cauldron Familiar

Not much else to say for Cauldron Familiar given the whole explanation for why Witch's Oven is good.

#48. Lotus Field

Lotus Field is slowly breaking up the format as a way to produce loads of mana quickly, and combined with untap effects, it allows for some strong combo-control builds. In fact, many of the Azorius Control lists adopted the card as a way to cheat on mana and improve the late game.

#47. Deep-Cavern Bat

Deep-Cavern Bat is a proactive play that locks a card from your opponent, besides giving you information. It’s also a source of lifegain for Amalia Explore decks.

#46. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse deserves a spot in Rakdos midrange, one of the best decks in the format. You’ll naturally drain your opponents for 2 along the way, hold the fort with a big deathtouch body, and your opponent will be in trouble if they draw more cards.

#45. Farewell

Yes it’s mana-heavy, but there are few cards that will save your bacon like Farewell. You can even select which permanent types to exile if you want to preserve part of your board.

#44. Monastery Swiftspear

Monastery Swiftspear, one of Magic's best prowess cards, is one of the best red 1-drops available for many formats. It frequently attacks as a 2/3 or more with the right support.

#43. Field of Ruin

An excellent main deck answer for creature lands and the Castle cycle, every mono- or 2-colored deck should run one or two Field of Ruins.

#42. Wildgrowth Walker

Wildgrowth Walker is a combo piece in the Amalia Explore decks. Each time you explore, you’ll gain life, which feeds Amalia Benavides Aguirre’s explore ability, and you can loop that to win. It doesn’t do much on its own, even in dedicated explore decks without a combo, so that’s why it’s not higher up.

#41. Yorion, Sky Nomad

Yorion, Sky Nomad sees regular play as a companion for Azorius () blink and control decks alike. The downside of playing 20 more cards is often worth it. Permanents with ETB abilities are welcome, like Omen of the Sea and sagas like Binding the Old Gods, and Yorion can also blink planeswalkers to reset their loyalty counts.

#40. Jegantha, the Wellspring

Jegantha, the Wellspring is a beefy 5-layer mana dork that ramps you in a strange way, with only colored mana. Multiple top Pioneer decks use the Wellspring as an easy companion.

#39. Illuminator Virtuoso

Illuminator Virtuoso is one of the scariest cards to face in heroic-based decks. It’s a double-strike threat that grows via conniving with every spell pointed at it. It allows the heroic player to loot through their deck, adding this aspect of hand-management and speed that the deck didn’t have previously. It’s a strong combo with Monstrous Rage, too.

#38. Mayhem Devil

The centerpiece in Rakdos sacrifice decks, Mayhem Devil offers tons of synergy each time a permanent is sacrificed. There are more things to sacrifice now than ever, from Food tokens to Clues, Treasures, sagas, not to mention the interaction between Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven. It’s a great time to be playing Mayhem Devil.

#37. Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner does so much for an uncommon planeswalker. You can draw a bunch of cards by playing your creatures, or untapping key creatures or lands like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Plus, with 7 loyalty counters, it’s not trivial to take it down.

#36. Spyglass Siren

Spyglass Siren is a key 1-drop in decks like Ensoul Artifact. You can produce a Map token with it that's used for other finalities in the deck, or simply explore into your 1/1 flying creature, which can produce a 2/2 flier or give you a land.

#35. No More Lies

Mana Leak is legal in the format and it even exiles? That’s something deserving of respect. No More Lies is a staple in any Azorius () control decks or those interested in playing the tempo game.

#34. Treasure Cruise

Treasure Cruise is busted, but it’s not ranked better because of the actual meta. If blue decks relying on delve become better positioned in the format, this blue sorcery easily goes to the top 5 or 10.

#33. Go for the Throat

This instant black removal should replace Heartless Act or Infernal Grasp as the format evolves. Unless you're facing lots of artifacts I'd recommend playing Go for the Throat instead.

#32. Bloodtithe Harvester

Bloodtithe Harvester is a solid creature as a 3/2 for 2 mana that makes a Blood token. Offering removal, flood insurance, and vampire-typal synergy all combines to make this a Pioneer staple.

#31. Righteous Valkyrie

Giving +2/+2 to all your creatures is no joke. Righteous Valkyrie is the best payoff to gain life and play angels. After you have 27 or more life you’ll smash hard.

#30. Wizard's Lightning

With mono-red and wizards typal being a key part of the Explorer format, Wizard's Lightning emerges as a true Lightning Bolt. You can clear up blockers, dome your opponent for 3, and trigger your prowess synergies. You’ll usually pay only for the effect, but it’s also not embarrassing for the full 3 mana.

#29. Esika's Chariot

A 4-mana vehicle that makes two 2/2s is already good, seeing that the problem with vehicles is usually a lack of creatures to crew. Esika's Chariot has a tendency to snowball the game, copying tokens here and there. There are few cards in Explorer that can properly answer this threat, with the exception of Farewell.

#28. Liliana of the Veil

Multi-format all star Liliana of the Veil has a place in Pioneer and Explorer. The planeswalker doubles as discard, removal, and win condition, plus it’s a great reinforcement to Rakdos midrange strategies.

#27. Archdruid's Charm

Archdruid's Charm gives you plenty of flexibility in the mono-green deck. You can either search up a creature or land you need, use it as a bite effect, or a Naturalize that exiles. And the cost is fairly easy to pay in a mono-green deck.

#26. Three Steps Ahead

Three Steps Ahead is the counterspell that kicked Absorb’s de facto 3-mana counterspell place in control decks, or Disallow for that matter. Adding three modes to a counterspell is busted, as we already knew from Archmage's Charm. Countering a spell and drawing two, discarding one is as close as Explorer gets to a Cryptic Command effect.

#25. Thalia’s Lieutenant

Explorer’s metagame thrives on typal interactions, and one of the most played ones is humans. Casting Thalia's Lieutenant is always a strong proposition, because you can buff your board or build upon the Lieutenant later.

#24. Monstrous Rage

This red instant does so much for its cost. Monstrous Rage gives +2/+0 the moment you cast it while adding a permanent +1/+1 bonus to the target creature. And that’s not counting prowess bonuses or Slickshot Show-Off synergies.

#23. The Wandering Emperor

Flexibility is the name of the game, and The Wandering Emperor takes that to a whole new level. You can choose to either build your own army after a wrath or deal with your opponent’s creatures, all at instant speed. Busted.

#22. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is the main reason to play control in Explorer. You can play it in Azorius and Esper () as a way to get card advantage, mana advantage, and flexible removal in its -3 ability. The format’s been harsh to control decks, but never enough to leave Teferi totally out.

#21. March of Otherworldly Light

Instant-speed removal that exiles almost anything excluding planeswalkers is very valuable. March of Otherworldly Light is one of the best removal spells in the format, and one that allows you to trade cards for tempo advantage.

#20. Giada, Font of Hope

Giada, Font of Hope is one of the best 2-drops in Selesnya angels decks. It ramps into your other angels and gives them +1/+1 counters.

#19. Arclight Phoenix

Arclight Phoenix is a staple across several formats. Unfortunately the format revolves heavily around Greasefang, so expect maindeck graveyard hate and more coming from the sideboard.

Still, you never know when Arclight Phoenix decks will become top tier, so don’t count this important card out.

#18. Shark Typhoon

Shark Typhoon is good at every point of the game and it’s never dead thanks to its cycling ability. You can make a little Shark that cantrips to trade with a small creature, generate a big 5/5 flier with flash to pressure opponents, or hard-cast it to close out the game.

#17. Collected Company

Collected Company sees play in many creature decks, including angel decks and white weenie splashing green. The more important 2- and 3-drops you have in your deck, the better CoCo will be. After your opponent wraths the board you’ll play it at instant speed and find important cards to progress your game plan.

#16. Cavern of Souls

Cavern of Souls is one of the best lands in Magic. It benefits typal decks directly by fixing the mana needed to cast spells and provides counterspell hate so that you can resolve your key creatures.

It’s a good incentive to play typal decks like vampires, humans, and wizards that are currently present and strong in the metagame.

#15. Mutavault

Speaking of lands that benefit typal decks, there’s Mutavault. It’s trivial to turn it into a 2/2 changeling creature and start attacking, on top of strengthening typal synergies easily. It’s better in mono-color typal decks due to the fact that it produces colorless mana.

#14. Smuggler’s Copter

Smuggler's Copter was unbanned in Explorer and Pioneer after a long hiatus. It thrives in mono-colored aggressive decks, especially those with disruption elements like black aggro decks. It’s also a part of the Ensoul Artifact decks, as a good threat that can become a base 5/5 thanks to the namesake enchantment.

#13. Vein Ripper

Vein Ripper is the card that strengthens vampire typal decks with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. Sorin can cheat one of these by turn 3 if it’s in your hand. Vein Ripper wins games, either when cast or reanimated. It’s very difficult to remove, and drains your opponent for 2 when it dies (usually 4, including the creature that was sacrificed to pay the ward cost).

#12. Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord

Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is one of the main reasons to play vampire typal decks in Explorer. All this black planeswalker’s modes are relevant, whether you’re pushing damage in, buffing your weakest synergy pieces like Dusk Legion Zealot, or cheating big vampires into play. The card alone puts the deck over the top-tier aspect.

#11. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker / Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

The saga part of this card is okay since it generates a token that makes Treasure, plus some value in discarding/drawing. The real deal is the transformed part.

Reflection of Kiki-Jiki can repeatedly make copies of your most relevant creatures, usually threats that have an ETB or death trigger. This makes Fable of the Mirror-Breaker a staple in big red decks.

#10. Fatal Push

You can kill any 1- and 2-drop with Fatal Push, and it can do much more together with fetch lands or Blood tokens. It's a black removal spell that’s a staple of many formats.

#9. Elvish Mystic + Llanowar Elves

Elvish Mystic and Llanowar Elves are two copies of the same card, and one that you’d rather run in multiples to achieve a critical mass. Eight of these mana dorks makes a solid foundation to a ramp deck. Play them in your green decks or elf decks, and if you see one on the other side of the table, better take them off quickly.

#8. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a busted land in mono-color decks, mainly green ones that can provide a high devotion count with cards like Old-Growth Troll and Polukranos Reborn. At the same time, these decks have good mana sinks to filter all that extra mana through with cards like Storm the Festival. This land also overperforms in blue and black devotion decks, but these lack the cards and incentives to be top-tier choices.

#7. Parhelion II

Greasefang puts Parhelion II on the map in Explorer. Discarding this and reanimating with the ‘fang on turn 3 is devastating since it creates two 4/4 angels with flying and is hard to interact with. Be sure to pack removal or graveyard hate against this combo.  

#6. Greasefang, Okiba Boss

The central piece of Mardu () and Esper Greasefang, Okiba Boss decks, the power of this card comes from being able to reanimate expensive vehicles like Parhelion II and sometimes Skysovereign, Consul Flagship.

#5. Ensoul Artifact

Ensoul Artifact is one of the key pieces in artifact decks that are at the top of the metagame right now. The key is to use cards that make artifact tokens, Ensoul them, and attack for 5. Or turn cards like Smuggler's Copter into base 5/5 vehicles that can become flying creatures if you crew them.

#4. Chord of Calling

Chord of Calling sees play in many MTG formats as a way to tutor a creature you need. In decks like Selesnya () Angels or Amalia Explore, Chord is an excellent choice for finding key creatures.

It’s one of those cards that's always present as a way to tutor a combo piece or a win condition, and as the format gets more creatures that combo off with each other, the card tends to be more relevant.

#3. Amalia Benavides Aguirre

Amalia Benavides Aguirre from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan has been warping Explorer as an easy way to combo off with cards like Wildgrowth Walker. Even if you don’t combo, the advantage you get from the card is huge, exploring often while gaining life. This card has the highest chance of being banned in the format.

#2. Slickshot Show-Off

Slickshot Show-Off injects new life in archetypes that used to be on a lower tier like mono-red aggro/burn or wizards typal. It's a flying hasty Kiln Fiend of sorts, it’s disgusting in multiples, and it can be plotted to capitalize on a big explosive turn.

#1. Thoughtseize

Thoughtseize sees play wherever it’s legal, and Explorer is no exception. Paying 1 mana for information and virtually unrestricted targeted discard will always be good, especially in a metagame that’s so dependent on having engines like Greasefang combo or angels Collected Company/lifegain.

Wrap Up

Greasefang, Okiba Boss | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

If you’re looking to spend some of your hard-earned wildcards, the cards on this list are what I'd recommend. Keep in mind that metagames evolve, and that the power level of certain cards may change over time. The meta as it is right now is influenced by some fast decks that push others out, but this can change with the printing of new cards and bannings.

I love Explorer, and I hope the format continues to receive support. If you think I’ve missed any key cards or if you have your own thoughts about the format, let me know in the comments below or in the official Draftsim Discord. And if you’re playing MTG Arena make sure you have Arena Tutor installed to boost your gameplay.

Now go craft some cards!