Trying out Explorer with Maestros Midrange
By ANTHONY DOLCE
Today’s post is going to be a little bit different. Rather than doing card reviews or deck brews, I actually have some kind of tangible results to discuss, along with some first impressions of Arena’s new Explorer Format. I have to preface this by saying that these matches were done in Bronze rank, though my MMR is high and I did face real players, playing real decks, including playing Wyatt Darby once. My thoughts on the deck as a whole, the specific cards, and the format itself are at the end.
In last week’s post, I presented five deck brews for Pioneer, and because I have more cards on Arena than I have access to on MTGO, I decided to try and port one list over to Explorer so I could, well, explore that format a little. I decided to start off with my Maestros Grave Churn deck because it was the one that I was most excited to play.
Transporting it over to Explorer, I realized the biggest thing missing was Deathrite Shaman, which was one of the cards I was looking most forward to trying in this list. Jace is certainly a loss too, but I actually think this might have been a rare home in Pioneer for everyone’s favorite one mana Planeswalker in DRS. So transporting it over to Explorer, I came up with this.
Overall, this version of the deck went 2–4, beating Winota (2–1) and Rakdos Midrange (2–0), while losing to Izzet Phoenix (0–2), Gates (1–2), Azorius Control (0–2), and Orzhov Vampires (0–2). In trying to find replacements, I thought that Cobbled Lancer would be a cool card to try out. On paper, it seemed like a card that would synergize, both with milling it and drawing it. I did quickly realize that I didn’t have enough creatures to consistently exile to play it, and I had enough draw effects where I never really did that either. I won’t go as far to say the card is terrible, but it wasn’t the deck for it.
I also quickly realized that Alpine Moon is 100% not needed in Explorer yet because there is no Nykthos or functioning Lotus Field deck. The Royal Scions was also a card I never really wanted to see, though it seemed cool on paper. That led me to…
Really just minor changes. I left Cobbled Lancers in strictly because I could not figure out what I wanted to do yet, which is the same reason I cut Scions down to one, instead of ditching it entirely.
The real changes came in the sideboard, in realizing I needed some opposing graveyard hate, which is where Soul-Guide Lantern came from. This version of the deck went 1–3, beating a Grixis pseudo-mirror (2–0), while losing to Mono Red, Mardu Greasefang, and Yorion Fires, each 1–2. As I feared when I built the deck, it was lacking some finishing power and overall felt a little clunky.
Finally we’re getting to a few more extreme changes. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker felt like a big missing piece for pressure, consistency, and more graveyard fodder.
This version of the deck finished with a 4–6 record, though one of those wins came from an opponent who mulliganed to four twice then conceded. The other wins were against Azorius Control twice and Gates (each were 2–0 wins), while losing one to Azorius Control (1–2), Winota, Mono Red, Mardu Greasefang(each 0–2),Rakdos Sacrifice (1–2) and Elementals (1–2). Let me just say, losing to Elementals does not feel particularly good, and it’s a big reason I changed it up again.
Despite that, it did feel like the deck was getting closer. Negate came into the sideboard because I felt like I was losing more to non-creatures in general than I was to specifically blue spells, but I wanted to leave one Dispute in. I also hadn’t thought of a good Cobbled Lancer replacement again, so it is, incorrectly, still here. I don’t know if that was ignorance or sheer force of wanting that card to be good, but either way it was obviously holding me back.
Oh hey, I finally cut Cobbled Lancer and put in an extra Ob. You know, things I should have done in version two, not four.
Though I actually only played one match with this list, (a 2–1 win over Jund Sacrifice), notable changes were made here. The big things are in main deck Heartless Act and sideboard Leyline of the Void. Heartless Act came in because I realized how prevalent Mayhem Devil and Korvold are in this format, and Power Word Kill can never hit those. Heartless Act can almost never hit Korvold, but it at least has the chance to.
Leyline though is the big change. I found myself frequently losing to graveyard decks like Greasefang, even through exiling their bin several times with Lantern and Go Blank. I got tired of that, so I wanted permanent hate that could come down on turn one. It may be confirmation bias, but with this iteration of the deck and the next couple, I actually felt like it helped significantly over something like Lantern. It was a change I was happy to make and it again felt like I was getting closer to this list working more consistently.
Whoa, what happened here? Thanks to the suggestion of someone in the Pioneer Discord server, I decided to try out a much more dredge-not-dredge version with Creeping Chill and Silversmote Ghoul.
This version went 2–4, beating a Bant Tamiyo, Compleated Sage deck and Mono Green ‘Devotion’ each 2–0, while losing to Azorius Control, Jeskai Fires, Gruul Aggro, and Rakdos Sacrifice, each 0–2, except Fires which was 1–2.
I hated it.
I really, really hated it. I think because I didn’t go all in on it, complementing it with Otherworldly Gaze and a more dedicated mill theme. But, likely because I didn’t do that, it felt comically bad. I had several games where I drew Creeping Chill either right before or after milling with Stitcher’s Supplier, which made me want to stop playing entirely. Drawing Creeping Chill is so heinously and inexplicably bad that, even when the deck went off, I couldn’t look past how clunky and miserable a time I had drawing those cards.
So I went back closer to my original list, with even more changes. The same person in Discord who told me to try a more dredge themed list also made me realize that the deck did not really need Expressive Iteration. I went back up to the full set of Pushes, as well as two Heartless Acts in the main deck, as well as going up to three Kolaghan’s Command because I forgot Grafdigger’s Cage was a thing people played, as well as other artifacts because of Karn, the Great Creator. Corpse Explosion was yet again another interesting idea on paper but when I never ever wanted to side it in, I realized how bad it was. I switched it to a Languish. I also realized that I could play Jegantha freely, only having to take it out when Chandra came in.
This list went 2–0, beating Winota 2–1 and Azorius Control 2–0. It’s a small sample size, but this list felt closest to what I wanted to be doing, and I think I found a good mix to cover the list’s weaknesses. I’ll obviously have to test it more.
Overall, all the iterations of the deck combined for a record of 12–17, which is obviously not ideal, especially with it being in bronze rank. That being said, there were still some valuable lessons to learn about some of the cards.
- Maestros Charm fuels Kroxa practically by itself, and that is really it’s primary use. I almost always wanted to use the draw mode off it, and would reluctantly use it as removal when needed. That’s part of what makes it good is the versatility, and I do think it is a pretty acceptable card to be playing. I only ever drained for lethal, but it did come up.
- Corpse Appraiser was the big stand out. I had a hunch it was a good card, and it certainly did not disappoint me at all with that assessment. It picked off Phoenixes, Kroxas, Earthshaker Khenras, and other creatures in opponent’s bins. Worst case, it would exile a Stitcher’s Supplier in mine, then replace itself and fill the yard more. I was very happy to play this, but would almost always side out most, if not all copies against Control decks.
- Ob Nixilis was… Interesting. There are matchups where he was absolutely incredible and there are some where he’s dead on arrival. He’s a very difficult card to evaluate. Is this the shell made to fully abuse him? Likely not. Was he good in the deck? I would say so, I found myself wanting him pretty often, as he is the main finisher, but the fact that he’s just a drain machine and not much else displayed itself at times. He is a mix of both underwhelming and immensely powerful. He’s an enigma. I need to play with him more.
- I put Angrath in the list mainly because I really like him but holy crap sometimes he was just amazing. I sided him and Chandra in almost every game, and it sort of allowed the deck to pivot. Because of how weak it is to Rest in Peace (hence three Feed the Swarm), being able to play on a different axis was important, and Angrath and Chandra together really helped that out. Angrath is also surprisingly effective against a lot of decks, including control and creature decks. I was always happy to see him.
- Tenacious Underdog is pretty sick too, not going to lie. I fluctuated between playing one and two but it’s like exactly a piece the deck needs. Perfect turn two play to sac to Ob, but also a recursive haste threat that also generates card advantage. This card is as good as advertised.
I think the best matchup for the deck is against control, especially post-board. Being able to recur most of your deck and use your graveyard is huge against a counterspell deck, Kroxa and Ob steal the show, and then Chandra and Angrath come in with the counterspells to allow you to play on that different access. Playing against various aggro decks felt rough, as did things like Greasefang and Sacrifice, prior to Leyline of the Void being put in the deck.
As for the format itself, I’d say it’s a pretty good impression of Pioneer. Winota, UR Phoenix, Greasefang, Rakdos Sacrifice, and UW Control are basically all there in full capacity, missing some strong role playing pieces, but nothing major. I did also run into Gates, which is as budget on Arena as it is in paper or MTGO, and someone trying Mono Green without Nykthos, which I really can’t describe as good, but it is at least serviceable.
I had gone on hiatus from Arena when Alchemy became the pushed format, and I didn’t want to come back until it had a non-rotating format that translated to paper. I really wanted full Pioneer, but until that happens, Explorer served as a good enough incentive to bring me back. It really does feel close enough to Pioneer, at least with my initial impression, to keep me coming back. I’m looking forward to trying some other brews and Exploring the format more.
Have a comment? Find me on twitter @adolce95.
