Explorer Anthologies
Explorer Anthologies should mostly contain Pioneer playable cards. An inspirational list is attached:

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asteelman123#07265 commented
EA3 a real bummer for those who want competitive magic with a paper analog on Arena.
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Captain Katsura#94940 commented
This Explorer anthology feels disingenuous, based on Wizards' previous statements. It does next to nothing in terms of bringing Explorer closer to Pioneer. (For reference: https://twitter.com/fireshoes/status/1678551411305455621)
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BreadedNFriedHauhezen#96420 commented
So many missed opportunities to play decks!! We need our pioneer cards
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Captain Katsura#94940 commented
This Explorer anthology feels disingenuous, based on Wizards' previous statements (see image). It does next to nothing in terms of bringing Explorer closer to Pioneer. (For reference: https://twitter.com/fireshoes/status/1678551411305455621)
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n3crophagia#07012 commented
I am very disappointed in this Anthology. I play mostly Explorer and have no interest in purchasing this Anthology. The most disappointing thing about this Anthology isn’t the lack of cards that interest me specifically but rather the lack of cards that will propel the format forward. There will be no new Pioneer deck available after this set release. They added key pieces to Creativity decks but won’t definitively make that deck better. And key pieces to Lotus Control which may propel that deck from tier 2 up to tier 1.5.
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Erwin#21222 commented
Yes, please!
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alytalante#08982 commented
First, I am thankful for the fact that WOTC has developers focused on bringing more cards to explorer. I appreciate the hard work that process takes. At the same time, as a player who's primary paper format is pioneer, I am very frustrated. With pioneer being the current RCQ format, I have invested significantly into it in paper, and would love to be able to practice the format on Arena. Arena is, quite simply, superior to MTGO in so many ways, and the fact that active competitive pioneer players cannot use it to play the format that WOTC itself is trying to promote, is extremely frustrating.
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josephgp91#56232 commented
I think the cards chosen in this anthologhy are not the right ones to make Explorer becomes Pioneer, moreover there are some cards that even when are legals in Pioneer, are more played in commander, so whats the point of make a Explorer anthologhy when many of the cards are from Brawl?
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Tomathus#20619 commented
I was planning on having EA3 be my first real money purchase on MTG Arena. By my count there are 15 cards in this anthology that see ZERO play in Pioneer. Of the cards that will see play, I can craft the ones I want using wildcards, and receiving 4x of Worldspine Wurm and Xenagos would have been completely useless.
I wanted to vote with my wallet and show y’all to keep doing these anthologies to make explorer and pioneer the same, but after seeing this anthology there’s just no incentive to actually spend money on this when there are so few cards that I would actually want to receive.
And Tango lands? Accorded’s Shield? Cyclonic Rift/Eidolon as spoilers? That’s so extremely out of touch it’s so easy to just go to mtggoldfish.com and see exactly what explorer players want out of these anthologies.
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DogOfWisdom#28867 commented
This explorer anthology is terrible. There is no reason you cannot code some of the missing pieces of Pioneer into explorer and come closer to unifying the formats on arena. Please reconsider this release and release more pioneer legal cards onto the arena platform. You are shooting yourself in the foot. Follow fireshoes and look at the information he's telling you.
I will reward you with money if your product meets my demand. Please. More pioneer on arena. -
G-Love#76079 commented
I am very disappointed with the quality of the recent Explorer Anthology. I invested into Arena when the Explorer format was announced with the promise that Pioneer will be coming over time. While I understand there are players who do not follow competitive Pioneer and wish to play their own way, the severe lack of competitive Pioneer cards being added, especially with the promise that Wizards was going to be looking into competitive data for cards to add, is disheartening. If this is the quality we can expect from future Anthologies, they should be releasing at a much faster pace, perhaps monthly, not approximately 2 per year.
If this current trajectory continues, I will not be investing any more of my resources into the Arena client. I also will not be purchasing this upcoming Anthology.
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TemptMyTerror#65071 commented
I and most of the community has felt let down by this anthology. The point of anthologies, according to the Wizards statement, was to review the Pioneer meta and add cards to the explorer format from this. Some of the cards in the anthology are not and have never been Pioneer meta cards, so their addition to this anthology has caused many of us to shake our heads. I think the takeaway from a set like this is that the best intention of the player is not at the forefront, and other, maybe financially incentivized motives are at the forefront. I feel that sticking to your word of adding cards that are playable from the Pioneer meta is what needs to happen, not what was done with this most recent anthology. Hopefully there can be some sort of relationship mending after this, but unfortunately at this point, the community is disheartened.
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KarsusStarstaff#98736 commented
Seriously - someone could have coded the lands and the shield in during a teams meeting. WTH is this?
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rend#42611 commented
Please release more heavily played pioneer cards into explorer rather than ones that see little to no pioneer play.
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xvenomx#08888 commented
Why wasting the opportunity of make a good product?
This is the worst Anthology -
Rumlumluml#97868 commented
This is a hugely disappointing Anthology, I was really hoping to see important pioneer cards like Treasure Cruise, hidden strings, oath of nissa, chained to the rocks and we got...accorder's shield? eidolon of blossoms? the lack of transparency for what goes into these products is abhorrent. Please, please, let me play magic on your magic client
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DVMTG#35910 commented
I am so disappointed in the lack of actual complete meta based decks like we were told we would get. There are many decks that just need one or two cards to be competitive in Explorer as they are in Pioneer and it's unfair to your player base to give them half of those cards (why no hidden strings).
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Zincker#39598 commented
The cost of the anthology is fine as long as the player base gets cards to enjoy the format of explorer and pioneer. Truly hope this feedback is valuable as explorer is such a great format and pioneer is even better.
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protohype#20511 commented
If you have the time and ability to program the Lord of the Rings set onto the Arena Client, don't gaslight your audience into believing the only way to get pioneer is through these underwhelming packs of cards that are barely played in the format. There are fewer cards actually used in pioneer that need to be added to the client than there are in the Lord of the Rings set, not adding them at this point just shows how greedy the company can be.
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nv_goblin#46938 commented
It is very important that the development of new cards for the anthologies be based on cards that are actually played in competitive pioneer, they should as a priority implement cards in the RC lists, I find it concerning that the anthology only includes a few cards with this criteria and most of them are not competitive cards.