Anthology releases on MTG Arena are always extremely exciting.

There's always a lot of excitement surrounding a new set, but it's a global excitement of many different things beyond just some new cards for tournament decks - a new world and lore to explore (or revisit), a new draft format, a new shift in theme for where Magic is at currently, as well as a ton of new cards for all sorts of formats.

However, the Anthology releases are always a much more focused experience.

Each one is around 25 cards meant to see play in the main Eternal Constructed formats on MTG Arena, namely Historic and Historic Brawl (essentially 1v1 Commander). They're also entirely comprised of reprints from Magic's history, which allow us to view classic cards in a brand new light. What does Knight of the Reliquary look like in a format with no fetchlands? Death's Shadow without Street Wraith? And so on.

However, yesterday's Anthology release was actually a double feature of Historic Anthology 6 as well as Explorer Anthology 1. Explorer is the newest MTG Arena format, meant to mirror paper Pioneer as it slowly adds cards to make the formats line up. As such, we're actually getting 45 new cards to Historic, 25 of which will be joining the Explorer format.

That's a lot!

Today I'm going to go over the top 5 most impactful cards that will be coming out of these two Anthologies for both formats. It's important to note that I'm saying "most impactful," not necessarily most popular.

While cards like Supreme Verdict and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet are definitely serious players in Pioneer in Azorius Control and Rakdos Midrange respectively, they aren't archetype-defining cards. Both decks do well in Explorer without these cards, playing mostly the same decklists but subbing in a slightly worse Wrath of God effect or win condition. As such, while these cards will see a lot of play, they aren't necessarily going to cause a major shift in the format.

So, let's take a look at the heavy hitters!

5. Tarmogoyf

Formats Effected: Historic

Tarmogoyf was once the gold standard for a creature in Magic, seeing play in virtually every format as the best power and toughness to mana ratio in the game. Sure, Tarmogoyf doesn't really do anything exciting, but sometimes "being big" is a good enough ability in and of itself.

Modern Horizons 2 and overall power creep has slowly pushed Tarmogoyf from the throne in Modern and Legacy, but that doesn't mean Tarmogoyf doesn't still have game! With the recent nerf to Unholy Heat, Tarmogoyf once again looks to shine against Red-based removal as well as just providing a super cheap defensive creature that can also be a top-notch threat.

It's important to note that without fetchlands it is going to be a little harder to get the land in the graveyard for the usual 4/5 (creature, land, instant, sorcery). This means you may need to put a little extra card type consideration into your deck-building, but Tarmogoyf is definitely going to have many different homes. This revitalization of seeing classic cards in a new light and a different context is one of the best things about Historic as a format, and a huge part of what makes these curated Anthologies so much fun.

4. Favored Hoplite

Formats effected: Explorer and Historic

Heroic decks have long been a thing in Pioneer, and while Feather, the Redeemed has fallen out of favor, Boros Heroic is still one of the fastest decks in the format. Favored Hoplite is a huge part of that plan, providing a super high value 1-drop that scales well as the game goes on. In Explorer you're stuck with far more flimsy cards like Clever Lumimancer that are much easier to deal with, and as such Boros Heroic isn't really much of a deck in the format.

This sees Favored Hoplite as the harbinger for bringing a new archetype to Explorer as a whole, which is awesome as many of the other pieces are ready to go. But that's not all, as Favored Hoplite also has a good chance to make some waves in Historic as well!

Some sort of Heroic deck could end up being ported over from Explorer, but the most logical home for Favored Hoplite in Historic is in various Auras decks. Those decks have always lacked an aggressively focused 1-drop, and while Esper Sentinel did a lot to make them less reliant on drawing Sram, Senior Edificer or Kor Spiritdancer, having a good threat on turn one might make it even better. It also increases the value of cards like Curious Obsession, as attacking with a 3/4 Favored Hoplite on turn two and drawing a card is a fantastic way to start a game.

3. Laelia, the Blade Reforged

Formats effected: Historic

Laelia, the Blade Reforged may just look like another weird Commander card, but good lord is she perhaps one of the most power-crept Red 3-drops ever. The rate on Laelia is off the charts, but as it's only legal in Legacy and Cube she has mostly flown under the radar.

Not anymore.

Laelia does actual everything. Functionally she is a 3/3 haste for three that grows every turn, but she also can draw you a card every turn as well as growing through other means. All for the low cost of three, easy to cast mana!

Historic players are going to be pleasantly surprised with Laelia and she is going to show up in a lot of places. Mono-Red Aggro and Gruul Aggro are the easy ones, but there's a lot more possibilities here as well. For example, she could come in out of the Izzet Phoenix sideboards if they're looking for a non-graveyard threat, and then any time they exile your graveyard she even gets a counter. She could also be a great midrange threat too, serving the role that cards like Dreadhorde Arcanist do without being vulnerable to graveyard hate or needing setup.

Laelia is real good.

2. Elvish Mystic

Formats effected: Explorer and Historic

One of the defining features of Pioneer has always been that you could play 8 copies of Llanowar Elves. This allows Green decks to go from just playing Llanowar Elves because it's a good card to actually basing their strategy on going from one to three mana on turn two.

Mono Green Ramp/Devotion has been one of the premier strategies in Pioneer since the format's inception thanks to this pairing, but while many of that deck's major pieces (namely Nyxthos, Shrine to Nyx) are still absent, there's no doubt that Elvish Mystic will have plenty of other things to do. Perhaps casting Laelia on turn two?

Elvish Mystic will have a similar effect on Historic. In Modern there's a suite of 1-drop mana creatures, from Birds of Paradise to Arbor Elf to Avacyn's Pilgrim, but Historic does not have this luxury. Until Historic gets something like Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise, having a second Llanowar Elves is pretty big game for a variety of different decks.

1. Darksteel Citadel & The Artifact Lands

Formats Effected: Explorer and Historic

Ah yes, artifact lands. The original five artifact lands were banned in Standard and have been banned in Modern since the format's inception. Turns out adding an extremely powerful card type with almost no drawback to a land in a set that is very interested in counting your number of artifacts may have not been the best idea.

While the original five have been banned forever, Darksteel Citadel evaded the banhammer in Modern and has also always been in Pioneer to help fuel various artifact decks (often alongside Ensoul Artifact, which is also in this Anthology). The addition of both these cards to Explorer is a big change and also has the opportunity to spawn archetypes that are new to the format which is awesome.

However, things get really crazy once you get over to Historic.

A full half of the Historic Anthology is dedicated to the common artifact land cycle from Modern Horizons 2, which is a huge influx of artifact lands into the format. When you put these alongside Darksteel Citadel, this is going to drastically alter the landscape of how artifact decks operate in Historic.

Cards like Thought Monitor, Nettlecyst, Karn, the Great Creator and even more fringe cards like Thirst for Knowledge all get a huge power boost from these artifact lands. Did you know that Myr Enforcer was legal in Historic? Me either, but I'm super excited to cast it!

When it comes to brewing and deck-building, the addition of these eleven artifact lands represents a huge shift in how we're going to build our decks and look at the Historic format as a whole.

Can't Wait to Brew

The release of an Anthology on MTG Arena is a huge cause for celebration if you like brewing decks. Most of the cards in each release are playable in Constructed, but beyond that they're often either fun build-arounds or pieces that serve to help out existing decks, which are both very fun puzzles to solve.

Now we get two at once!

There's a lot to unpack here, and while Explorer at least has Pioneer to provide a baseline, Historic is the wild wild west when it comes to brewing and it's going to be awesome to see how it all comes together.