Explorer: 5 Budget Decks to Play the Format in 2025

Magic Arena has a considerable range of game modes. From the traditional Standard to formats with cards exclusive to the digital platform, such as Historic, players have a dozen options for where to dedicate their deckbuilding and their hours enjoying the game.

One of these modes, the only one besides Standard that strictly follows the same nature as another paper format, is Explorer, inspired by Pioneer and whose card availability includes all Standard sets released on the digital platform since its launch, in addition to some Remastered and complementary sets to make the digital format 99% similar to its tabletop version.

In this article, we present five budget decklists for playing the Explorer format in 2025, limiting them to up to 12 rares and four mythics!

Mono White Humans (12 Rares)

Mono White Humans is the classic go-wide Aggro deck focused on one creature type and the synergies between them. We want to use creatures like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Banisher Priest to interact with the opponent while Coppercoat Vanguard and Thalia’s Lieutenant grow the power of other Humans to constantly pressure the opponent every turn until we reach a lethal attack with Brave the Elements.

Our strategy also revolves around Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and several efficient low-power one-drops, each with relevant abilities to different matchups. Adeline often becomes our main win condition and individual source of pressure the moment she enters play.

Improvements to the deck mainly involve Mutavault as a land that can transform into another Human, in addition to serving as a way to play around sweepers. Extraction Specialist is another creature that has recently grown in Human lists by bringing with it any creature that was destroyed during the game.

Some lists have been betting on a splash for Mockingbird, capable of copying any non-legendary creature on the list, and also for Reflector Mage as a Tempo play and/or permanent removal against Unholy Annex tokens.

Mono Black Slasher (12 Rares, 4 Mythics)

Mono Black Slasher is a Combo-Control deck that revolves around the interaction between Unstoppable Slasher and Bloodletter of Aclazotz where, when Slasher deals combat damage, it makes the opponent lose half of their life, and Bloodletter makes the opponent lose double that amount, resulting in a hit-kill.

Since Bloodletter of Aclazotz is a demon, and we can't rely solely on the combo to close out games, we use Unholy Annex as both a source of card advantage and a complementary threat, since we can use it to create a demon token.

The rest of the list is made up of interactions to hold the game and protect our pieces. Thoughtseize seems essential to this list, since we need as much disruption as possible when executing the combo.

Improvements include increasing the number of demons available in the list to trigger Unholy Annex more frequently, including Archfiend of the Dross as a new win condition and Mutavault as a land we can activate to trigger Annex every turn.

Other options include more sources of card advantage, such as Castle Locthwain and Sunken Citadel, Reckoner Bankbuster or Mazemind Tome, and Invoke Despair and Liliana of the Veil as powerful sources of disruption.

Mono Red Mice (8 Rares)

The Mono Red Mice is the cheap version of the famous Prowess decks that have become one of the best archetypes in Pioneer. Its plan is very straightforward: use the famous mice package with pump spells to cause lethal damage in the least amount of turns possible.

We can also add Slickshot Show-Off to the list and guarantee, with twelve rares, more explosive games with quality creatures, also increasing the consistency of the “combo-kill” with Callous Sell-Sword.

You can also switch to other two-color variants, which require a high number of duals that enter untapped to support cards like Claim // Fame, Boros Charm or Innkeeper’s Talent, but if you choose to stick with the Mono Red setup, Screaming Nemesis and the aforementioned Slickshot Show-Off are great options for investing in rare and mythic wildcards.

Mono Green Devotion (12 Rares, 4 Mythics)

Mono Green Devotion is a Big Mana deck that aims to use Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner with several green permanents to expand devotion to the point of generating positive mana with the land whenever it is untapped, and add it with Outcaster Trailblazer and, in this budget version, Garruk’s Uprising to draw several cards with each creature with power four or greater that comes into play.

The focus of this deck is to generate as much mana as possible with Nykthos and repeatedly string together creatures and Storm the Festival to create an unbeatable board presence. Two more rare wildcards would guarantee Ulvenwald Oddity, whose transform ability grants Haste and Trample to all your creatures.

Improvements to this list include the traditional version of Nykthos Ramp today, with Ulvenwald Oddity to not give the opponent a turn to respond to your board, Oath of Nissa and Invasion of Ixalan as card selection, and also utility lands like Boseiju, Who Endures and Lair of the Hydra.

Azorius Ensoul (12 Rares)

Azorius Ensoul is a relatively cheap archetype in this version, so we can take advantage of it by building a two-color list running some dual lands to increase consistency - in this case, we have Hallowed Fountain and Seachrome Coast.

We want to use creatures that create artifact tokens to enchant them with Ensoul Artifact or transform them with Case of the Filched Falcon to pressure the opponent with big and cheap threats, while taking advantage of Smuggler’s Copter with our one-drops to filter our hand.

In addition to these, Aetherdrift brought another efficient flying threat with Memory Guardian, which we can easily cast for one or two mana, given the high number of artifacts or token producers we have in our list.

Improvements to this list include the new Mendicant Core, Guidelight and its potential to close games quickly when equipped with Cryptic Coat, a card that also works as an attrition tool. It is possible that, together, both will develop their own archetype in the future, but that moment has not yet arrived.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!