Explorer Anthologies
Explorer Anthologies should mostly contain Pioneer playable cards. An inspirational list is attached:
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AlephNull#05058
commented
At this rate we will never get to the actual Pioneer meta game, which should be the goal in my opinion. Please consider adding cards that are actually played.
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cursecatcher#69601
commented
The cards in this anthology add almost nothing Pioneer-relevant to the format. I’ve lost so much interest in Arena lately, and this is a huge contributing factor. Please get it together, WOTC. We want to play pioneer on Arena and you’re doing nothing to make that happen.
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jnikolas92#34418
commented
I understand that the dev budget allocated towards the Anthology series is limited and is low on the priority ladder. I want to make it clear that this is not an issue to me, this is just how f2p games operate. However, the lack of communication and context behind the cards selected for these series has led to a frustrating level of tension with players who have been excited for Explorer's eventual merge to Pioneer. Releasing cards meant for other formats under the "Explorer" umbrella without any context as to why they are there and what Pioneer players can look forward to has extinguished my time waiting for that future. The quality of EA4 is so poor and confusing in the eyes of a player who wants to engage with the title format that I am no longer confident in the teams goal of building towards Pioneer. It's become clear over the last while that unfortunately, making Arena a viable platform to play Pioneer for competitive prep is not a product goal, and waiting to catch up is not sustainable or worth my energy and attention.
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Neon Markov#25606
commented
My main way of engaging with Magic Arena is Explorer, and lately I have been feeling discouraged from playing altogether. My favorite deck (Izzet Phoenix) is missing some critical cards in the blue Delve spells, and the staleness of the current meta makes me not want to play Explorer as much as I used to. I have been loking into other TCGs, but, if Pioneer was realized on Magic Arena, I would be much more interested in both digital play and potentially buying my Pioneer decks in paper.
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ThatcherK#45866
commented
I want to practice RCQ formats on Arena. I might be the minority but to me it’s important that arena matches tabletop as much as possible.
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NeutronDecay#80746
commented
This is actively sabotaging your player's experience. The announced purpose of the anthologies is to bring cards from pioneer (paper) to explorer as a gradual merge of the two formats. While some of the EA3 cards do see play, many (most) do not. Even if we accept fringe playable cards, we're hard put to break even on this list. Get your head together and do better. Or, if you see explorer as it's own, non-pioneer tracking, format, then communicate that to your players.
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Blue Jay#33001
commented
Arena does so many things right. It’s slick, intuitive, engaging, and over all a slam dunk for online tcg gameplay. Players want the ability to play competitive formats online on Arena. The community is left scratching their heads, and wondering why they spend time and money on a platform that doesn’t seem to be placing the player’s first.
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Maximilianthe3rd#26527
commented
This actually blows my mind
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Default Face#04771
commented
You guys can put whatever cards you’d want, but i think the sooner we get Pioneer on Arena, at least the more engaged i’d be and many others to. I don’t want to play in MTGO but that’s where the formats are that i play
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Owesome#27563
commented
If Pioneer is intended to be a supported format on Arena, then it should be supported. I realize there is a concern that putting all the playables into anthologies too quickly reduces future revenue but trust me, if there's one thing Magic players will always do, is drop money on the game.
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Borson94#74283
commented
Mockery of the system, none of the blue decks are playable without the delve cards. The attached would have been a better 2 anthologies then what we got.
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JoeyJMAC#43418
commented
I won't be purchasing the anthology. The use of slots for uncommons which don't see play in pioneer is incredibly disappointing.
You have stated on multiple occasions that you wish to get pioneer onto arena, there are numerous lists detailing which 50 cards are missing, at this point it feels intentional that it isn't functional.
0/10 would not recommend -
mikey_h#21878
commented
I too won’t be buying the EA3 until you put actual pioneer cards from tournament winning decks in the anthology. I feel betrayed and you ultimately make me feel stupid.
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Avatar Of Tight#00152
commented
I would like to request Draco to be included. Don't know if it is meta or usable in different formats, but it was one of my first cards. Same with Avatar of Might.
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NoCookiesForButtons#68335
commented
I won’t be buying the new EA3. If there were more cards that actually see play in top Pioneer decks, I would. Please reconsider your approach to these anthologies!
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Zaalo#40047
commented
The lackadaisical approach to porting Pioneer over to Arena is very befuddling…while I understand that making it ACTUAL Pioneer will take years, as it’s a very large card pool to port over, making it FUNCTIONAL Pioneer could be done with a single release — we’re really only missing about 25 cards from the regularly meta decks. I don’t understand why WOTC wouldn’t just release them in one fell swoop…it’s what the player base wants (and seems more than fine shelling out for)…at the very least it would be appreciated if WOTC could explain their reasoning here — it feels like they’re seriously trolling the player base.
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sgreen87#00262
commented
Explorer Anthology 3 was extremely disappointing. Including some jank chaff is expected, but this simply isn't worth even thinking about purchasing. Spoiling stage and scrying without hidden strings at the end felt like a gotcha, and has players understandably angry.
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Zaalo#40047
commented
The lackadaisical approach to porting Pioneer over to Arena is very befuddling…while I understand that making it ACTUAL Pioneer will take years, as it’s a very large card pool to port over, making it FUNCTIONAL Pioneer could be done with a single release — we’re really only missing about 25 cards from the regularly meta decks. I don’t understand why WOTC wouldn’t just release them in one fell swoop…it’s what the player base wants (and seems more than fine shelling out for)…at the very least it would be appreciated if WOTC could explain their reasoning here — it feels like they’re seriously trolling the player base.
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ApexOne#67594
commented
EA3 looks incredibly disappointing. The first two already contained a bunch of fluff that made people do double-takes, but they at least came with a handful of cards that were sorely missing and/or got people excited for them. This fails to deliver on either of these.
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DropBearHS#55802
commented
This anthology was a big letdown, I’ve been waiting ages to play pioneer decks I enjoy on arena to test for RCQs and I really thought this anthology was going to include key cards that would enable this (Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, Chained to the Rocks, Bring to Light, Abrupt Decay, Retraction Helix, Jeskai Ascendancy, this list goes on).
It feels like this set was aimed at Brawl players when the whole point of Explorer is supposed to be a bridge to Pioneer. The lack of engagement on this issue by WoTC following immediate feedback is also concerning, as it feels like the genuine concerns of players are being ignored.