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EXPLORER FORMAT

WHAT IS EXPLORER?

Explorer is a new digital experience on MTG Arena – a true-to-paper, non-rotating format featuring all cards legal in the Pioneer format that appear on Arena.

  • Minimum of sixty cards
  • Maximum deck size – 250
  • Up to seven cards (best-of-one) or fifteen cards (best-of-three) in your sideboard
  • Cards that only exist digitally are excluded from Explorer
  • Explorer is managed just like a tabletop format - cards are not subject to either rebalancing or suspensions.

With the exception of basic lands (Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forests), your combined deck and sideboard may not contain more than four of any individual card.


Standard-legal expansions become legal in Explorer on the day of their digital release


The following card sets are fully included in Explorer:

  • Streets of New Capenna
  • Kamigawa Neon Dynasty
  • Innistrad: Crimson Vow
  • Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
  • Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
  • Strixhaven (excluding Mystical Archive – see below)
  • Kaldheim
  • Zendikar Rising
  • Core 2021
  • Ikoria Lair of Behemoths
  • Theros Beyond Death
  • Throne of Eldraine
  • Core Set 2020
  • War of the Spark
  • Ravnica Allegiance
  • Guilds of Ravnica
  • Core Set 2019
  • Dominaria
  • Rivals of Ixalan
  • Ixalan

Cards that were printed in the following sets are included in Explorer only if the card appears in a digital set on MTG Arena:

  • Strixhaven Mystical Archive – Pioneer-legal cards only
  • Hour of Devastation
  • Amonkhet
  • Aether Revolt
  • Kaladesh
  • Eldritch Moon
  • Shadows over Innistrad
  • Oath of the Gatewatch
  • Battle for Zendikar
  • Magic Origins
  • Dragons of Tarkir
  • Fate Reforged
  • Khans of Tarkir
  • Magic 2015
  • Journey into Nyx
  • Born of the Gods
  • Theros
  • Magic 2014
  • Dragon's Maze
  • Gatecrash
  • Return to Ravnica

Note: Pioneer-legal cards from these sets will become legal in Explorer should they be released in a future digital set on MTG Arena.


Digital sets on MTG Arena include:

  • Historic Anthologies 1-5
  • Jumpstart
  • Amonkhet Remastered
  • Kaladesh Remastered

SEE FULL MAGIC RULES

EXPLORER BANNED CARDS

The following cards are banned:

  • Expressive Iteration
  • Field of the Dead
  • Geological Appraiser
  • Karn, The Great Creator
  • 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
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