All Explorer Articles

Diving in the Junk Tank

Anthony dives into the Junk tank to find how many playable cards Abzan really has

Explorer Meta Guide June Season

Things Have Been Bad Explorer has been in a tough spot for a couple of months. The meta has been stale and full of 300% your daily value of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Even I, a Pioneer-and-Explorer-only player and Arena ladder grinder, fully stopped playing Explorer through the months…

Explorer Season Rewind: January 2023

Rose-emoji recaps the January season of Explorer Best-of-Three ranked play, just in time for All Will Be One to come shake it up (hopefully).

Turning Sparks to Flame

Anthony covers his initial thoughts on the first real intriguing spoiler that we got for #MTGONE, Koth, Fire of Resistance.

Old Decks, New Tech: Re-Exploring Energy

Cris “Iglooboi” Smith breaks down one of the sweetest standard decks from the last few years and how the archetype may look in Pioneer today!

Sifting the Remains

Anthony covers his remaining few cards to brew around from The Brothers’ War before phyrexia drops.

Brewing Selesnya Artifacts

Anthony Dolce shares his GW Artifacts brew, which features a snowballing +1/+1 counter theme and a good matchup against Green Devotion.

Explorer Meta Guide: December 9

rose-emoji breaks down the Explorer metagame going into Explorer Anthology 2, which promises to shake up the format more than we’ve ever seen.

Nykthos Coming to Explorer Next Week

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx was just announced as an inclusion in Explorer Anthology 2. Let’s go over some of the early meta implications of that!

Explorer Anthology 2

rose-emoji covers the newest additions to Explorer following a reveal and an Arena Cube Spoiler

Explorer Meta at Worlds

Skura examines the meta game for last week’s worlds and shares his thoughts on what it means for the format as a whole.

Five Underrated Cards Missing from Explorer

Anthony reviews and discusses five underrated cards that are missing from the Explorer card pool on MTG Arena that he’d like to see printed sometime soon.

Explorer Tier List Update – September 8, 2022

The Best-Of-Three Explorer Tier List The Best-Of-One Explorer Tier List Legend S Tier: Decks in this tier are the most heavily played and format dominant. These decks are the core that the rest of the meta revolves around. Players should be prepared to face these decks multiple times throughout a given event.A Tier: Decks in this tier…

Over The Horizon: Week Twelve

Tyrant of Tales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Over The Horizon: Week Eleven

Tyrant of Tales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Over The Horizon: Week Ten

Tyrant of Tales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Mono-Blue Spirits Explorer Deck Guide

Explorer Anthology’s gift of Mausoleum Wanderer has propelled Explorer’s best tempo deck to new heights. Deck tech and sideboard guide inside.

Explorer Meta Rewind: A Post-Season Breakdown (July Season)

In PlayingExplorer’s second season-reset meta breakdown, rose-emoji takes a look back at the last four weeks of tier lists and data and breaks down any major shifts, new archetypes and recurring themes that showed up over the course of the month and what it could mean for the new season.

Over The Horizon: Week Nine

Tyrant of Tales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Abzan Humans Deck Guide

A deck guide for Abzan Humans, one of the premier Collected Company decks in the Explorer format thus far.

Explorer Starter Guide

Tyler builds from Arena starter deck to A Tier Explorer deck and gives some tips at spending as little as possible while remaining competitive.

Over The Horizon: Week Eight

Tyrant of Tales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

First Explorer Anthology Teaser Released

Wizards has released a three-card teaser of the first Explorer 20-card Anthology, which is set to release fully on July 27th. Until that day, Wizards will be spoiling cards on a schedule not yet released.

Over The Horizon: Week Seven

Tyrant of Tales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Over the Horizon: Week Six

Tyrant of Tales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Explorer Meta Rewind: A Post-Season Breakdown

Welcome to PlayingExplorer’s first season reset meta breakdown, where our team will take a look back at the last four weeks of tier lists and data and break down any major shifts, new archetypes and recurring themes that showed up over the course of the month and what it could mean for the new season.

Over the Horizon: Week Five

TyrantofTales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Over the Horizon: Week Four

TyrantofTales dives once again into the deep end of what spicy decks posted good results in Explorer this week.

Captive Audience

Making the Switch to MTG Arena

Tyler goes over the pros and cons of joining MTG Arena now that Pioneer is scheduled to be available on the client.

Over the Horizon: Week Two

This starts the NEW weekly tradition of showing off all the cool decks that show up in our data sets that don’t make it in our Weekly Tier Lists.

Over the Horizon: Week One

This starts the NEW weekly tradition of showing off all the cool decks that show up in our data sets that don’t make it in our Weekly Tier Lists.

Winota

Winota, Tibalt’s Trickery Banned in Explorer

Wizards of the Coast’s Banned and Restricted announcement today included a ban of Winota, Joiner of Forces and Tibalt’s Trickery in Explorer. At the time of writing, Winota decks are holding up a 63% winrate in Bo3 and a 68% winrate and disproportionate play rate in Bo1. The decks were in S Tier on both the Bo1 and Bo3 Explorer tier…

Last One Standing

Introducing the Explorer Tier List

Today, we are proud to introduce our Explorer Tier Lists in both best-of-one and best-of-three formats. Our Explorer Tier List will be updated every Thursday morning Eastern US Standard Time and will be accompanied by an article like this one or a video (or both) explaining the placements and movements within the tier list. This contextual video or article…

Selvala, Explorer Returned

MTG Explorer Day One Meta Predictions

Explorer launches tomorrow, and Bradcifer and rose-emoji have some meta calls and predictions for you to look over before you step into the ranked ladder.

Bloodsoaked Champion

MTG Arena Premier Play

Amidst the announcement of Explorer, Wizards announced a restructuring of Arena competitive play that includes a de-emphasis of the ladder system in favor of events and an Arena Championship tournament similar to the new paper Pro Tour, here’s how to qualify!

Midweek Magic - What Was Written

Introducing Explorer

If you are reading this, Wizards just announced a Pioneer analogue on Arena. Let’s talk about how this website will handle covering that format!