Explorer: 5 Decks to play the Metagame Challenge

EDIT: Wizards of the Coast announced today via Discord that the Metagame Challenge will be in Best of Three format. The official website still has the article mentioning that the format will be Best of One.

official article

Great example of communication. Decklists were updated for Best of Three.

The Explorer Metagame Challenge takes place on December 20-22 on Magic Arena. With the details explained above in mind, we've updated this article with five Best of Three decklists for the event!

Rakdos Demons

Rakdos Demons is the classic Midrange that has been running in Pioneer for a few years now. It's one of the most stable archetypes in the Metagame and one that best adapts to the demands of most matchups. It's the safe pick that rewards the player for making good decisions while burying their opponent with card advantage.

Izzet Phoenix

Izzet Phoenix is the other safe pick that transitions well into Explorer. A classic turbo xerox, it manages to exercise the highest amount of one-ofs possible to deal with any surprises in the Metagame and its list is very adaptable while proposing one of the most consistent game plans in the format. Just keep in mind that every player has an Unlicensed Hearse or Rest in Peace waiting for you.

Rakdos Prowess

If your type of game is to go all out and not let the opponent recover, the Rakdos Prowess is the deck for you. Despite the ban of Jegantha, the Wellspring, Prowess remains a very fast and efficient archetype, with a post-Sideboard plan in case you need to play a little slower while punishing any unsuspecting opponents or bad keeps.

Azorius Humans

Azorius Humans is the new iteration of one of Pioneer's most classic archetypes and has been growing quite a bit in the Metagame, being a solid choice for those who want a consistent go wide Aggro. The addition of Mockingbird adds a lot of consistency by making it an extra copy of cards like Thalia's Lieutenant, while Reflector Mage is once again an efficient Tempo play that permanently deals with cards like the tokens created by Unholy Annex.

Niv to Light

Niv to Light goes in the opposite direction and is Pioneer's go big today, and with the arrival of Bring to Light in Pioneer Masters, the archetype is finally complete in Magic Arena. His plan is a five-color toolbox that tries to respond to everything it can while generating tons of card advantage with Niv-Mizzet Reborn and Up the Beanstalk. Excellent against Midrange and other fair decks, he has problems with combos and overly explosive hands from Aggro.

Bonus: Izzet Lotus

Personally, I don't recommend the Lotus Combo to anyone who doesn't already have experience with the archetype: it requires a lot of knowledge of everything you're doing to achieve victory, and not all of its lines are obvious.

In fact, some of them may not even be possible on Magic Arena due to the platform's timer, but considering all of this, Izzet Lotus (or its Sultai version) seems to be well positioned in the Metagame Challenge: no one expects much from it and/or most Explorer players on Magic Arena do not have enough experience against Lotus on the platform, either because the deck is "new" or because it is tiring to play and, consequently, does not appear much in ranked matches.

Since we have invested time in making lists for Best of One, we should use them in MTGArena ranked matches, or in case of another unforeseen event and the Metagame Challenge takes place in this game mode.

Rakdos Prowess

Rakdos Prowess is the best Aggro deck for Best of One in Explorer and the fastest option in the format today. Its game plan essentially follows the same pattern as the deck in the Best of Three version, but with the benefit of opponents needing to dedicate many slots against it to win games.

The combination of Heartfire Hero, Emberheart Challenger, and Manifold Mouse is still the core of the deck, but Best of One demands more explosive behavior, so we also have a full set of Slickshot Show-Off, as well as some additional pumps to complement the combos with Callous Sell-Sword, which amplifies how punishing not blocking becomes in this list.

The downside is that we give up more interactions than the Metagame might demand. We try to win the race, which will work in some cases, but it can go very wrong if the mirror's card combination is better than yours, or if your opponent's Fatal Push comes before yours.

Other options for the list involve increasing the amount of Fatal Push if you run into a lot of Aggro and Mirror matches, but another even more relevant card that deserves slots is Screaming Nemesis with the full package of four Reckless Rage to block the life gain of archetypes like Angels, Azorius Control, or others trying to prey on the more aggressive environment.

Selesnya Angels

Angels is the best Anti-Aggro in Best of One and can excel in a scenario where players focus too much on Prowess, Heroic or Convoke lists, but loses a lot against Midranges full of removals and/or against Control.

Its game plan is a synergistic strategy between creatures that care about Angels and/or life gain, ensuring that every card that comes into play is extremely punishing for any Aggro player, since it can trigger several instances of life gain that, in the end, will culminate in you having a powerful army of creatures with flying to reach lethal.

Other options include Kayla's Reconstruction to give more breathing room in attrition games, or focusing a bit more on protection against removal and/or sweepers with Selfless Spirit and Shapers’ Sanctuary.

Orzhov Slasher

Orzhov Slasher tries to use the combo of Unstoppable Slasher with Bloodletter of Aclazotz to win games in one hit-kill, while using removal and discard to hold the game and ensure the combo works.

To complement this plan, we have the famous Demons package with Unholy Annex and Blade of the Oni, as well as Mutavault to increase the consistency of the enchantment. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is a one-of for matchups with Treasure Cruise and the like, but it is a decent threat against any deck, and Graveyard Trespasser is a decent three-drop that holds back some graveyard strategies that may arise.

It can work in a Mono-Black shell and I recommend building it this way if you don't have access to lands, since the only splash inclusion is Vanishing Verse, an important card to deal with some permanents like Arclight Phoenix, Parhelion II, Enduring Curiosity, The Wandering Emperor, Unholy Annex, among others that a version without splash would have trouble dealing with.

Other options include Cut Down to increase the amount of cheap Best-of-One permanents or Destroy Evil for Midrange mirrors and against five-color stacks, complemented by Invoke Despair as an attrition tool.

Jund Creativity

The latest version of the Indomitable Creativity archetypes forgoes the Izzet core in favor of Jund with Pawpatch Formation, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, and Case of the Stashed Skeleton as token producers, and Valgavoth, Terror Eater as its main payoff.

Valgavoth is an excellent target because it protects itself against most removal, offers a powerful clock, and the archetypes it would be bad against in the Metagame are unpopular in Best of One, putting Creativity in a very prime spot for the Challenge.

In addition, the amount of cheap interaction and hand and board disruption makes this an archetype that is very solid against some of the top decks we can expect at the event.

Another option for this list is to remove the payoffs and include a copy of Xenagos, God of Revels and Worldspine Wurm to find both with an Indomitable Creativity with X for 2 and perform an instant combo-kill, which can work better in this Best of One scenario, but is a worse payoff against some decks.

Nykthos Ramp

Nykthos Ramp relies on the interaction of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx with Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner and Leyline of the Guildpact to generate an absurd amount of mana that will be used with Storm the Festival or other cards with high mana value to bury the opponent with card advantage and board position.

Payoffs in this list include Cavalier of Thorns, Storm the Festival, and Silverback Elder, which isn't typically a card in Best of Three matches but performs well in the aggressive environment of Best of One. With Outcaster Trailblazer and Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner we can keep a steady stream of creatures and draws that force our opponent to win very early or get run over by them when Ulvenwald Oddity transforms.

There are several ways to build Nykthos Ramp and cards that can come in for different circumstances, such as Hornet Nest against Aggro, Arasta of the Endless Web against Izzet Phoenix, Cityscape Leveler and Emrakul, the Promised End as late-game bombs.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!