Explorer: Important Cards for Pioneer Masters!

Considering everything Wizards of the Coast announced lately, no one will judge you if you just realized you missed something. For Magic Arena, in particular, the Pioneer Masters announcement has made Explorer, Historic, and even Timeless players excited.

Alongside this announcement, Wizards of the Coast also told us that the highly anticipated Hidden Strings will be released in this digital format, which is great news for all Lotus Field players. After all, so far, they had never managed to build their decks in Explorer.

That being said, even though multiple decks are the same in Explorer and Pioneer, Arena is still missing some cards, so we are all waiting for them and hoping they come with this set. This article will show you which cards we want the most in Magic Arena!

What we know so far about Pioneer Masters is that, according to Wizards of the Coast, this set is designed to bring Magic Arena closer to competitive tabletop Pioneer as well as MTGO Pioneer. This doesn't mean that all Pioneer-legal cards will be available in Magic Arena, which would be great but challenging to achieve. Instead, they will focus on releasing the key Pioneer cards that are currently missing from the game.

In Explorer today, many decks are exactly the same as their Pioneer counterparts, but you'll often export a Pioneer list to Magic Arena and then find out it doesn't exist (which is mostly what inspired this article). Furthermore, we know when Pioneer Masters will be released - December 10th, 2024, and were also shown the first, and, so far, only card from this set: Hidden Strings.

Now, let's speculate a bit and think about which cards Magic Arena is still missing, and which we may get in Pioneer Masters!

Ok, this is the only card we know, 100%, will be in this set, but I still think we should talk about it, even more because this will be incredibly relevant for the game.

Lotus Field might not be that well-positioned right now, but it can be considered a classic Pioneer archetype (that is, assuming a 2019 format can have classics in 2024). After Remastered and Anthologies sets came along, Lotus players saw many decks become complete or at least playable in Magic Arena; they even saw the fortunate Pore Over The Pages release in Innistrad Remastered... However, without one of its main interactions, executing Lotus Field's strategy was nearly impossible.

Basically, what Hidden Strings does in Lotus is create a lot of mana. By letting you untap your own copies of Lotus Field, a Hidden Strings will create 4 positive mana for you and keep those two lands untapped so you can keep playing your combo. It is a vital piece, an interaction that acts like Rituals, or how Manamorphose is in Modern's Storm. And we don't want to play our combo without our Manamorphoses, right?

Yes, you can play Arclight Phoenix in Magic Arena. This deck already existed before everyone found out about this tech card, and it was already a viable deck, even in Explorer/Historic. However, after this extra turn made its way into the list, many Phoenix players were shocked to find out this Fate Reforged card wasn't available in Magic Arena. Today, there are many UR lists that don't use this sorcery, but it is certainly impactful and might see play in this deck again, depending on the meta.

Temporal Trespass' job is to finish the game. One extra turn in a deck that wants to end the game with its 3/2 flying creatures is another chance to deal a lot of damage. For 3 mana, considering how much Delve discounts the cost of its cards, this card is a lot!

Today, this deck leans more on cards like Proft's Eidetic Memory to put pressure on your opponent and win the game. They do "less", but also cost less. You can also use them to put more pressure on your opponent with your creatures without the need for a specific setup or turn.

Still, like I said, Temporal Trespass is a sleeper card that can return to this and other lists at any moment.

Now, let's discuss a card that might not be the focal point of any deck, but is a positive addition to several of them. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth doesn't stand out as much as the other cards in this list, but players who enjoy black decks will hardly refuse more color fixing.

Currently, this card sees play in many black decks in Pioneer, like Rakdos Midrange and Rakdos Transmogrify, and is very efficient if you need resources for black Devotion.

It would be great in Explorer, even more considering the array of relevant black cards that cost a lot of black mana, like Invoke Despair. It will also be great if a Dimir Demons Standard player wants to build a version for another format.

Silence, in turn, is also not the focal point of any deck, but is a great support card for combos in general. Its effect is simple, but is enough to give you many windows to combo. It is often in the sideboard of aggressive decks that need to guarantee their safety on a certain turn.

Currently, Silence plays in the sideboards of combo decks, like the Greasefang variations or even the aforementioned Lotus Field. It even sees play in the main decks of a few specific lists.

This card needs no introduction. This big fish has seen better days in all formats, as there are better options to attack in many of them. However, it is undeniably an incredibly powerful sleeper card that can find a deck at any moment.

Its massive body, combined with its effect, which discounts the cost of other cards, has made this Fish see play in Pauper, Modern, Legacy, and even Pioneer for a bit (in less expressive decks, but still).

However, for this set to work, you'll need to consider cards that don't see play today but might, at any point, be added to a certain build, like Temporal Trespass and this huge fish.

Before Leyline Binding became the removal for 4/5-color good stuff decks, Chained to the Rocks was the best spot removal for this type of deck. Its cheap cost and easy-to-meet restriction, for a five-color deck, was a great advantage, specially considering a format where 1-mana removals are more restrictive.

Today, it is a bit less popular because of Leyline Binding, but it still acts as extra removal in decks with Yorion, Sky Nomad, which need more copies of the same type of card.

Speaking of 5-color good stuff, Bring to Light is one of the cards that names the deck that is like a "father" to Enigmatic Incarnation - Bring to Light. This Simic sorcery can bring into the game everything this deck has - in particular, it can put in play that card that rivals Atraxa when the matter is putting cards in your hand: Niv-Mizzet Reborn.

Furthermore, it is one of the few ways we have nowadays to put in play Valki's planeswalker counterpart: Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor. Though today Incarnation plays its part well and effectively, Bring to Light is a very unique card that made a very interesting deck possible - which I believe is enough to earn this card a place under the sun!

So, here are seven cards that are too important to not be included in this set.

What do you think? Which cards could come in Pioneer Masters? Which cards should? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!