The long-awaited change from Explorer to Pioneer will finally happen on May 10th with a special three-day event.
Using data from Arena Championship 8, including talking to the qualified players regarding what cards they thought might be missing on Arena, as well as looking at 411 distinct competitive decks on MTGO, WotC has decided that with the addition of only 11 cards Explorer would be close enough to tournment Pioneer that the name change is finally warrented.
This change will also bring the ban lists for the two formats into parity. Specifically, this means Tibalt’s Trickery will be unbanned on Arena on May 10th.
The article also states that they will be keeping an eye on the competitive Pioneer meta so they can add existing cards to the client as needed in a reasonable time frame. They expect this to happen about once or twice a year.
The following cards will be available for crafting starting May 10th, as well as used for rewards as part of the upcoming Pioneer Showcase Event:
Battle at the Bridge
Borborygmos Enraged
Encroaching Wastes
Kazuul’s Toll Collector
Magmatic Insight
Nissa’s Defeat
Rakdos Charm
Roast
Sanctum of Ugin
Triton Shorestalker
Warping Wail.
The Pioneer Showcase Event will be a Best of 3 Pioneer event that will cost either 5,000 coins or 1,000 gems to enter, and will award one of the 11 new-to-Arena Pioneer cards on entry. It will also have the following reward structure:
1 Win: No reward
2 Wins: 2 packs from any Pioneer legal set on Arena, including Pioneer Masters
