Exploration MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 8 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment

Key Takeaways

  1. Exploration accelerates mana resources, allowing for faster play of high-cost cards.
  2. Instants synergize with Exploration, creating growth opportunities during opponent turns.
  3. The card’s specific mana needs can restrict its playability in multicolor decks.

Text of card

You may play an additional land each turn.

The first explorers found Argoth a storehouse of natural wealth—towering forests grown over rich veins of ore.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Exploration provides a unique edge in card leveraging by enabling you to play an additional land on each of your turns. This paves the way for you to utilize more cards from your hand efficiently, ensuring a steady flow of resources and bolstering your on-board presence against opponents.

Resource Acceleration: By allowing the play of an extra land, Exploration significantly ramps up your mana resources. This acceleration can be pivotal for a swift deployment of high-cost spells or formidable creatures, granting you a tempo advantage that can be hard for your opponents to counteract.

Instant Speed: While Exploration itself is not an instant, its effect synergizes perfectly with lands that can be played at instant speed or with effects that allow land drops on your opponents’ turns. This creates unexpected opportunities for growth and expansion, keeping your adversaries on their toes and your strategy flexible.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For cards like Exploration, a critical downside can be the necessity to discard, especially when facing an opposing strategy that pressures your card advantage. Often in such matches, every card in hand is precious and being forced to discard can put you at a disadvantage.

Specific Mana Cost: Exploration’s specific green mana cost renders it less flexible in multicolor decks that may not have consistent access to green mana sources. This can potentially delay the card’s play or deem it uncastable at crucial moments in a game where mana color balancing is key.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Exploration allows for additional land plays, which can be a significant boost, its mana cost might be considered high when compared with other ramp mechanisms. In fast-paced games, the investment may not pay off as quickly as needed, giving an edge to decks with lower curve strategies that establish dominance on the board sooner.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Exploration is a card that seamlessly adapts to a variety of deck archetypes, particularly ones that prioritize land plays. Being able to drop extra lands each turn shapes it into an essential for ramp and landfall strategies, accelerating your game plan significantly.

Combo Potential: Exploration shines when paired with cards that allow you to draw additional cards or play lands from zones other than your hand. This enables a powerhouse combo by maximizing land drops for a commanding board presence, making it a linchpin in numerous combo-centric builds.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where tempo and early board development are crucial, Exploration offers an edge by allowing you to outpace opponents in resource development. Its enduring presence in various format metagames underlines its significance and impact, making it a highly sought-after card for competitive play.


How to beat

Exploration is a powerful enchantment card in Magic: The Gathering that allows players to wield the potential of playing additional land each turn. This advantage can be substantial, propelling an opponent’s mana resources far ahead of the curve. However, dealing with this green spell isn’t impossible.

Addressing Exploration directly involves disrupting the enchantment. Instant-speed spell removals like Disenchant or Nature’s Claim can effectively eliminate it from the battlefield, neutralizing the threat it poses. Additionally, strategies that limit an opponent’s ability to deploy lands, such as land destruction or hand disruption tactics, can mitigate the benefit Exploration provides. Cards like Thoughtseize to extract it before it’s played, or land removal like Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin to disrupt land synergy, can be instrumental.

Overall, while Exploration grants a significant edge in land advantage, it’s not insurmountable. Tactical use of enchantment removal, hand disruption, and land control can overcome the challenges posed by this influential card, maintaining the balance of play. Employing these strategies efficiently is key to prevailing against an opponent utilizing Exploration in their deck.


BurnMana Recommendations

Dive deeper into the strategic depths of MTG and harness the full potential of cards like Exploration, your gateway to exceptional mana resource management. Unleash the power of additional land plays and transform your deck into a formidable force. Whether you aim to dominate with a swift ramp-up or craft intricate combo plays, incorporating Exploration into your arsenal is a move towards competitive edge. Embrace the craft of meticulous deck-building and effective strategies to outmatch and outplay your opponents. Uncover more insights and elevate your gameplay by joining us on an enriching journey into the heart of MTG.


Cards like Exploration

Exploration stands out in Magic: The Gathering’s pantheon of green enchantments that accelerate land plays. This potent card allows you to play an additional land on each of your turns. It is comparable to Azusa, Lost but Seeking, which permits playing two extra lands on your turn. Still, Azusa is a creature that can be removed more easily than an enchantment like Exploration.

Another contender is Oracle of Mul Daya, which also lets you play an additional land and grants you the advantage of playing with the top card of your library revealed, giving you more land drop opportunities. Unlike Exploration, Oracle of Mul Daya presents a body on the battlefield, but comes at a higher mana cost.

Burgeoning is a similar enchantment that at a single green mana cost offers a different take: it allows you to play a land whenever an opponent plays one, which can be extraordinarily powerful in multiplayer formats. However, it lacks the consistency of Exploration’s every-turn guarantee. Despite the varying benefits provided by these cards, Exploration’s combination of low cost and high consistency makes it an enduring favorite among players looking to ramp effectively in Magic: The Gathering.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking - MTG Card versions
Oracle of Mul Daya - MTG Card versions
Burgeoning - MTG Card versions
Azusa, Lost but Seeking - Champions of Kamigawa (CHK)
Oracle of Mul Daya - Zendikar (ZEN)
Burgeoning - Stronghold (STH)

Cards similar to Exploration by color, type and mana cost

Web - MTG Card versions
Living Artifact - MTG Card versions
Fastbond - MTG Card versions
Wild Growth - MTG Card versions
Instill Energy - MTG Card versions
Cocoon - MTG Card versions
Concordant Crossroads - MTG Card versions
Elven Fortress - MTG Card versions
Earthlore - MTG Card versions
Revelation - MTG Card versions
Carapace - MTG Card versions
Gift of the Woods - MTG Card versions
Mortal Wound - MTG Card versions
Spider Climb - MTG Card versions
Elephant Grass - MTG Card versions
Storm Front - MTG Card versions
Bequeathal - MTG Card versions
Elven Palisade - MTG Card versions
Predatory Hunger - MTG Card versions
Hidden Spider - MTG Card versions
Web - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Living Artifact - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Fastbond - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Wild Growth - Fallout (PIP)
Instill Energy - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Cocoon - Legends (LEG)
Concordant Crossroads - Double Masters 2022 (2X2)
Elven Fortress - Fallen Empires (FEM)
Earthlore - Ice Age (ICE)
Revelation - Chronicles (CHR)
Carapace - Homelands (HML)
Gift of the Woods - Alliances (ALL)
Mortal Wound - Visions (VIS)
Spider Climb - Visions (VIS)
Elephant Grass - Visions (VIS)
Storm Front - Tempest (TMP)
Bequeathal - Exodus (EXO)
Elven Palisade - Exodus (EXO)
Predatory Hunger - Exodus (EXO)
Hidden Spider - Urza's Saga (USG)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Exploration MTG card by a specific set like Urza's Saga and Magic Online Promos, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Exploration and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Exploration Magic the Gathering card was released in 5 different sets between 1998-10-12 and 2023-01-13. Illustrated by 4 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11998-10-12Urza's SagaUSG 2501997normalblackBrian Snõddy
22002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 828382015normalblackMark Poole
32002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 624632015normalblackFlorian de Gesincourt
42014-06-06ConspiracyCNS 1642003normalblackFlorian de Gesincourt
52020-08-07Double Masters2XM 1672015normalblackFlorian de Gesincourt
62020-08-07Double Masters2XM 3512015normalborderlessMark Poole
72023-01-13Dominaria RemasteredDMR 3391997normalblackLindsey Look
82023-01-13Dominaria RemasteredDMR 1592015normalblackLindsey Look

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Exploration has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Exploration card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2022-12-08 Exploration’s ability is cumulative with other effects that allow you to play additional lands, including ones created by other Explorations you control.

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