Magic: The Gathering Arena has officially added the Pioneer format to the client. It joins Historic and Timeless as a non-rotating format, and is perfect for those who want to play a format that's (mostly) the same as it is on paper as it is on Arena. With the addition of Pioneer, the Explorer format will be discontinued.

Pioneer has been a format of Magic: The Gathering for quite a while and has an established meta with years of experimentation. With its arrival on Magic Arena, more players have access to playing the format without needing the physical cards to play.

What Is Pioneer?

Thoughtseize by Aleksi Briclot

Pioneer was introduced to Magic: The Gathering on October 21, 2019, as a new non-rotating format to fill out a gap between Standard and Modern, as Modern was becoming harder to get into for new players due to how large the card pool was. With the high power level of Modern, many Standard cards would become useless after rotation for Standard came since the power level of them was much weaker.

Pioneer was created as a way for players to still be able to play their Standardcards after rotation as the power of the formats was a lot closer. The original banlist only consisted of the five fetchlands released in Khans of Tarkir and slowly expanded over the years.

Every set from Return to Ravnica onward is legal in the Pioneer format. The sets and cards that are legal in Pioneer are only sets that were Standard legal. As such, sets such as Modern Horizons 3 and Command Legends are not legal in Pioneer. If a Standard set has a bonus set, such as Strixhaven's Mystical Archive or Outlaws of Thunder Junction's Breaking News cards, these cards are not Pioneer legal unless they already were legal.

The following sets are the sets that are legal in the Pioneer format:

Return to Ravnica

Gatecrash

Dragon's Maze

Magic 2014

Theros

Born of the Gods

Journey into Nyx

Magic 2015

Khans of Tarkir

Fate Reforged

Dragons of Tarkir

Magic Origins

Battle for Zendikar

Oath of the Gatewatch

Shadows over Innistrad

Eldritch Moon

Kaladesh

Aether Revolt

Amonkhet

Hour of Devastastion

Ixalan

Rivals of Ixalan

Dominaria

Core set 2019

Guilds of Ravnica

Ravnica Allegiance

War of the Spark

Core Set 2020

Throne of Eldraine

Theros Beyond Death

Ikoria Lair of Behemoths

Core 2021

Zendikar Rising

Kaldheim

Strixhaven

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt

Innistrad: Crimson Vow

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

Streets of New Capenna

Dominaria United

The Brothers' War

Phyrexia: All Will Be One

March of the Machine

March of the Machine: The Aftermath

Wilds of Eldraine

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

Murders at Karlov Manor

Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Bloomburrow

Duskmourn: House of Horror

Foundations

Any new Standard releases are automatically made legal in Pioneer as well.

The Pioneer banlist is fairly small, with only the most egregious cards in the format getting hit by the ban hammer. These are all the banned cards in Pioneer that you cannot use in your decks:

Amalia Benavides Aguirre

Balustrade Spy

Bloodstained Mire

Expressive Iteration

Felidar Guardian

Field of the Dead

Flooded Strand

Geological Appraiser

Inverter of Truth

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

Polluted Delta

Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord

Teferi, Time Raveler

Undercity Informer

Underworld Breach

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

Veil of Summer

Walking Ballista

Wilderness Reclamation

Windswept Heath

Winota, Joiner of Forces

Wooded Foothills

Related

Magic: The Gathering's 2024 Sets, Ranked

2024 had its ups and downs, but what was the best Magic: The Gathering set of the year?

Posts By  Joe Parlock

Transition From Explorer

Explore by John Avon

With the official introduction of Pioneer to Magic Arena, the Explorer format will cease to exist. Explorer was always meant to be a placeholder format until all the cards that see Pioneer play were available on the client. Explorer becoming Pioneer was always the end goal of Explorer.

Explorer was a format exclusive to Magic Arena where all the cards that were Pioneer legal on the client were legal in the format, and nothing else. It does not include Alchemy and Historic releases, and followed the same legality as Pioneer. The only card banned in Explorer that is Pioneer legal is Tibalt's Trickery.

Not every single card that is Pioneer legal will be available on the Magic Arena version. However, the majority of cards will be, and all the cards that are a part of meta and most rogue decks will be available. If any card suddenly pops up in decklists, they can still be added through the Anthology drops that Magic Arena does to directly inject cards into its formats.

For players of the Explorer format, you won't notice a ton of differences once it becomes Pioneer. The two formats were very close to each other already, with only a small handful of meta cards not on the client that kept certain decks from reaching their full potential.

Top Pioneer Decks

Izzet Phoenix

Arclight Phoenix by Slawomir Maniak

Izzet (red/blue) Phoenix has been a top deck in Pioneer for practically the entire lifespan of the format. It has had the longest staying power, and continues to dominate as arguably the best deck in all of Pioneer. The deck is all about bringing out the titular Arclight Phoenix from your graveyard by casting multiple spells and attacking with an army of creatures with flying.

The deck utilizes cards like Ledger Shredder and Picklock Prankster to dump Archlight Phoenix into the graveyards to cheat out by casting cantrips like Opt, Consider, and Sleight of Hand. With how much it uses the graveyard, Treasure Cruise is a consistent draw three cards for just one blue mana.

Rakdos Midrange

Bloodtithe Harvester by Lucas Graciano

Rakdos (black/red) Midrange is a deck that utilizes the many tools that the color combination has. Rakdos Midrange decks use cards like Thoughtseize to cut off your opponent's most important cards while setting up cheap threats like Bloodtithe Harvester and Unstoppable Slasher.

There is a large removal suite available, with the most important being Fatal Push. Fable of the Mirror Breaker provides both card advantage and the ability to ramp and generate more of a board presence. Unholy Annex gives the deck draw power and burn as Demons like Archfiend of the Dross are also played.

Prowess

Heartfire Hero by Jakub Kasper

Prowess is primarily played as one of two variants, Gruul (red/green) or Rakdos (black/red). The Gruul Prowess version has access to more protection spells like Innkeeper's Talent with impulse draw on Questing Druid which also grows with all red spells. Meanwhile, Rakdos variants have removal in Fatal Push, and a more consist killing move by using Callous Sell-Sword's Burn Together to sacrifice Heartfire Hero to deal double whatever Heartfire Hero's power was to an opponent.

Gruul Prowess focuses more on consistency and resilience, while Rakdos Prowess is more combo-oriented to win the game as quickly as possible. Both have different tools in the sideboard, and there's no "wrong" version to be playing, all coming down to personal preference. However, Rakdos Prowess has more top results than Gruul Prowess.

Azorius Control

No More Lies by Liiga Smilshkalne

Azorius (white/blue) Control has been the staple control deck of Pioneer since its inception. It still remains the best option for fans of control, with a ton of tools to control the board state and prevent spells from resolving. You don't play many creatures, with the only way to generate them being through The Wandering Emperor. The other "creatures" are those found on lands, namely Restless Anchorage which can turn itself into a 2/3 flyer. Fountainport also helps to slowly amass an army of tokens.

As the name implies, most of the deck are cards that control what goes onto the battlefield and stay there. March of Otherworldly Light, Get Lost, and Portable Hole all act as removal for permanents on the battlefield, while Dovin's Veto and No More Lies counter spells so they don't resolve in the first place. Azorius Control is all about being the one in control of the game, and utilizing your resources to the maximum potential.

Next

Magic: The Gathering - Every Duskmourn Nightmare Booster Promo Card, Ranked

Duskmourn: House of Horrors brings with it some special Nightmare Booster promo cards, with some incredible artwork.

Posts By  Ryan Hay