[Update #2]: MTG Arena's May 12th update has once again banned Tibalt's Trickery and Winota, Joiner of Forces, though this time in the Explorer format.

[Update]: Streets of New Capenna has now arrived alongside the Explorer format!

Ever since MTG Arena added the digital-only Alchemy format with its own unique and rebalanced cards, there has been a sizable push from the Magic: The Gathering community to get a true-to-tabletop eternal format onto the platform. It took a little bit of time, but I'm happy to say that all those requests have finally borne fruit!

With the upcoming Streets of New Capenna set, MTG Arena will begin its long journey towards the Pioneer format which features all of the cards from Return to Ravnica and onwards, with a couple of bans here and there. Naturally, since MTG Arena doesn't have all of the Pioneer cards just yet, this new halfway format will be called Explorer... or Pionear if you so wish! Once sufficient parity has been achieved, Explorer will be retired as a format and properly replaced with Pioneer.

According to the developer update, the goal is to get "all the Pioneer cards that matter" into the game, rather than worry about porting over every single 2/2 for 2 ever printed. So in an effort to do this, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing Historic Anthology 6 at some point this summer with a whole bunch of Pioneer staples.

It's also worth mentioning that Explorer will adhere to the Pioneer ban list, though there might be additional bans added exclusively for Explorer because of the difference in card pool. Unlike Historic or Alchemy, however, there will be no rebalances or suspensions - overpowered cards will simply get banned.

Once Explorer goes live alongside the Streets of New Capenna set this April 28th I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, you can read a little bit more about it and its future over at the MTG website.