For those of you not 100% up on Explorer... It's a Pioneer-esque format on Magic: The Gathering Arena. Not quite Pioneer, but also not a terrible approximation of Pioneer game play, depending on what deck you choose.

A few months ago I talked about how much I liked Mono-Red in Pioneer after playing in some team events with my Premodern play-test partner Patrick O'Halloran-Gannon and MTG Las Vegas Top 8 standout Etai Kurtzman. Explorer can't put together the full-on Mono-Red deck because Khans of Tarkir and Theros are currently missing from the Arena platform; but you can try a Mono-Red deck that is at least plausible-adjacent.

This can potentially be valuable play / practice for a couple of reasons. First of all, for those who get a large percentage of their Magic: The Gathering fix from Arena, Explorer is a competitive-adjacent format that can also be a diversion from Standard (in case you're understandably a little Standard-ed out right now); more importantly, Pioneer is a popular format for some upcoming Regional Championship Qualifiers, so you can get some Pioneer-ish-adjacent reps in with cards that are adjacent-adjacent to ones that you might actually be slinging in order to level up to a PT-adjacent berth. Adjacently.

Certainly it's not the "real thing" (and many of the top decks in Explorer like Greasefang combo and Angels Company are completely different from Pioneer) but there is something to be said about gaining intuition or "feel" with your cards; and the skills - especially playing from behind against a more powerful opponent - are transferable skills between the formats, particularly between two decks in two formats with so many cards in common.

This is what I've been Exploring with recently:

Mono-Red Aggro | Explorer | WAT

• Creatures (28)
• 2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• 2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• 4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Fanatical Firebrand
• 4 Goblin Chainwhirler
• 4 Robber of the Rich

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Embercleave

• Lands (24)
• 16 Mountain
• 2 Ramunap Ruins
• 3 Castle Embereth
• 3 Den of the Bugbear

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 4 Rampaging Ferocidon
• 2 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse
• 4 The Akroan War

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While abridged relative to the true Pioneer version, Explorer's Red Deck is mostly intact. For reference, a couple of weeks ago I shared this 5-0 MTGO list:

Mono-Red | Pioneer | staples87, 5-0 MTGO Pioneer League

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Hazoret the Fervent
• 2 Monastery Swiftspear
• 2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• 3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• 4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 4 Fanatical Firebrand

• Instants (2)
• 2 Play with Fire

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Embercleave

• Lands (23)
• 14 Mountain
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 2 Castle Embereth
• 2 Ramunap Ruins
• 4 Den of the Bugbear

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Fry
• 3 Goblin Chainwhirler
• 2 Lava Coil
• 3 Rampaging Ferocidon
• 1 Redcap Melee
• 3 Unlicensed Hearse

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... Which tautologically has access to more cards than the Explorer build. And there is certainly a difference between Eidolon of the Great Revel - a creature I once called the best spell in Modern - and anything else; but Robber of the Rich really isn't bad. At a Pioneer Grand Prix I cashed before the world ended in 2020, I actually played Robber of the Rich and only sideboarded Eidolon!

Further, with only two copies of Play with Fire, the staples87 build is one of the worst Monastery Swiftspear decks you can kind of imagine making... So leveling down to Fanatical Firebrand - a not-Ragavan 1-drop Pirate - isn't as much of a downgrade as it might appear, relative to other builds. It's worth pointing out that even staples87 played only a pair of Swiftspears; jig was up before we even saw the original 5-0 list.

Now to mention Ragavan, the Explorer deck does run Ragavan version 1.0; the temporary token-producing Kari Zev, Skyship Raider. This was actually one of the cards I was most on the fence about (and, entirely coincidentally I can only assume, the only Rare card I had to Craft when I made my Explorer deck for testing). While Kari Zev isn't over the top on power level or anything - the Standard version of this same flavor of Mono-Red ran Runaway Steam-Kin at the two, intriguing with Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano - she does contribute to some of the deck's more explosive draws.

For only two mana, Kari Zev can deploy two bodies - even if only temporarily. That means that if you start off with Fanatical Firebrand or Kumano Faces Kakkazan, by turn three you can be attacking with three bodies even without additional explosiveness. Given a third land drop we have a simple 3 + 3 equation... Meaning Embercleave can be on the table a turn faster. This is a big game, a departure from both the older Standard decks that inform this Explorer build, and one of the small and subtle secret play patterns that can distinguish strategic play.

Remember when we talked about Robber of the Rich being different - but not necessarily so much worse - than Eidolon of the Great Revel? The Explorer build is an Embercleave deck, and that means it can extract more value from haste creatures than you might initially assume. Robber of the Rich is effectively only one mana rather than two, if you're planning to cast both it and the Legendary Equipment in the same turn; due to the latter's attackers discount.

Haste and Embercleave are two common ways that Mono-Red tries to bowl the opponent over, but there are a wide variety of explosive draws available. Many of them, though, appear thanks to this card:

Like Kari Zev - and in fact often in combination with a turn-two Kari Zev - Burning-Tree Emissary helps translate cards in hand to battlefield presence, and early. I didn't realize what the deck was capable of until the first time I drew two copies of Burning-Tree Emissary in my opener. Wow! The ability to go wide was really impressive, but it wasn't the only thing.

Imagine for a moment you open on Kumano Faces Kakkazan. Now you take your big turn two. If you're planning to run out multiple spells, your first Burning-Tree Emissary is going to get the +1/+1 counter. Which might be the least attractive potential buff-bearer. But this is a champagne problem.

Running out multiple creatures on turn two - whether it's a Burning-Tree Emissary into a Legendary Skyship Raider; an Emissary into a tapped Robber; or even multiple Human Shamans - you are reducing the future cost of an Embercleave. This is a potentially huge game, even in games where you're otherwise resource-strapped.

Imagine this:

1. Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano
2. Burning-Tree Emissary + Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3. Miss your land drop!

Kumano Faces Kakkazan will become Etching of Kumano. Burning-Tree Emissary will become a relatively burly 3/3 attacker. As we've said already, Kari Zev, Skyship Raider will produce two attacking bodies, at least temporarily.

That's four attackers on turn three; so even if you miss your third land drop, you can make Embercleave and really whack the opponent nice-like. Unopposed, that's more than 10 damage, almost any way you cut it.

The battlefield position created by a Burning-Tree Emissary goes, subtly, beyond going wide... Though it contributes to further going wide in concert with Anax, Hardened in the Forge. Just one Burning-Tree Emissary + one Anax creates Devotion to Red of four; meaning that if the opponent kills Anax, you're going to end up with two Satyr tokens instead of just one. Of course, in most normal games Anax is going to be much bigger than 4/3; but it's nice to see how high his floor is with just these two cards together.

Again, that power / size is leveraged in this deck via... You guessed it... Embercleave!

In addition to Embercleave, Explorer Mono-Red generally benefits from Torbran, Thane of Red Fell in its go-wide adventures; but unlike some earlier Pioneer Mono-Red decks, the lack of direct damage - you know the Lightning Strikes and Wild Slashes of the world - make Torbran generally less desirable than Embercleave; although admittedly quite the killer after an Anax payoff.

In conclusion I'll discuss one very good thing about this deck, and one very bad thing.

Good

Etching of Kumano does serious work in this strategy.

If you take that to mean it is kind of a Delayed Blast Goblin Guide, I can't blame you. For the same mana as Goblin Guide you essentially get one two attacks later that has no drawback. While some of my most memorable tournament finishes ride along the backs of Goblin Guide information, even I'll admit that it's frustrating to un-mulligan an opponent who was supposed to be manascrewed.

That's not really what I mean, though. Kumano Faces Kakkazan doesn't concede that much damage, because of the point and the plus come Chapters One and Two. To my mind, the exciting bit about the card is actually that line of text:

"If a creature dealt damage this turn by a source you controlled would die, exile it instead."

This line gets so much more money than it has any right to. Do you know it turns off the ping triggers on Devil tokens? How annoying for the opponent, right? Passively aces Disturb; might even force the opponent to think twice on a Krosan swing! My favorite, though, has to be blunting Graveyard Tresspasser // Graveyard Glutton.

Don't get me wrong: Graveyard Trespasser is the worst. It's an almost unmitigated disaster for Mono-Red; always getting value; and doubly that to get dead. Did you have to use both a Fanatical Firebrand and Bonecrusher Giant? You wish it were only one-for-two!

So that's awful.

But sometimes the opponent is reduced to eating their own dead creatures with Graveyard Tresspasser, and you can cut down on the available treats without spending any extra cards. This might seem really minor, but Graveyard Tresspasser is such a hassle, every last edge can be meaningful.

Bad

Woah is this deck bad at keeping pace with kind of single-turn / over-the-top power level plays. It's not bad against someone who is just very good every turn; it doesn't like a Greasefang sending Parhelion II and summoning a pair of Angels on turn four. Ditto on a lot of different Angels draws. The ability of certain decks to translate four (or so) mana into 10+ power immediately is not something this deck can easily match. Even your double Burning-Tree draws are unlikely to buoy your expectation.

I don't even think this deck loses any kind of an extra amount: Just be mindful that certain - common - strategies can put up some really irresistible openings; and, I guess, just focus on winning the other games.

More.

On.

That.

Soon.

LOVE

MIKE