I’ve been a big fan of the Explore mechanic ever since it was first revealed in Ixalan back in 2017 (as well as the whole set as I like the lore – What’s not to like about dinosaurs, merfolk, vampires and pirates?). Needless to say, I was pretty happy when we returned to this plane a few months back, and even more so when I learned that Explore was making a comeback.

I decided pretty much then and there that I would try to make a deck leveraging the mechanic. Not only did it mean the return of some cool cards like Wildgrowth Walker and Jadelight Ranger, but that there new ones to experiment with as well. Of those, Nicanzil, Current Conductor, feels like the strongest addition.

I finally got around to building that deck. Here is its first iteration. I built it in about 15 minutes.

Deck:

• 2 Nicanzil, Current Conductor (LCI)
• 4 Jadelight Ranger (RIX)
• 4 Wildgrowth Walker (XLN)
• 4 Cancel (M21)
• 4 Pathfinding Axejaw (LCI)
• 2 Path of Discovery (RIX)
• 2 Merfolk Branchwalker (XLN)
• 3 Over the Edge (LCI)
• 2 Jadelight Spelunker (LCI)
• 2 Twists and Turns (LCI)
• 1 Mist-Cloaked Herald (RIX)
• 2 Opt (STA)
• 2 Brineborn Cutthroat (M20)
• 2 Essence Scatter (DMU)
• 2 Hadana’s Climb (RIX)
• 8 Forest (THB)
• 6 Island (THB)
• 2 Temple of Mystery (M21)
• 2 Dreamroot Cascade (VOW)
• 4 Barkchannel Pathway (KHM)

Ten Explorer Play B01 games in, it’s clear that I will need to tweak it to make it a bit more competitive. As it stands, the deck stands at 3-7. It clearly suffers from a lack of removal and Cancel is just to expensive in this deck. The other change worth taking a look at would be to add some Black to the deck to open up removal but also more Explore cards.

More to come as I continue to build this deck out.