MTG Arena can be a frustratingly inconsistent game at times. Thankfully, these inconsistencies aren’t found in the client’s gameplay, as bugs and errors are very few and far between. Sadly, the same isn’t true for the game’s content, which is a little all over the place. Commander cards on MTG Arena of this problem.
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the face Commanders of a set’s preconstructed decks will come to MTG Arena. They have in the past and they surely will in the future, but there’s no fixed promise from Wizards. This often leads to no end of questions from potentially disappointed players during preview season.
Sadly for these expectant players, it’s bad news once again for the latest premier MTG set.
Duskmourn: House of Disappointment
Sadly, it has been revealed that the four Duskmourn: House of Horror face Commanders aren’t coming to MTG Arena. WotC_Ian, (Ian Adams) revealed this disappointing detail via the MTG Discord server. Alongside the news itself, Adams explained the Commander cards were off the table due to Pioneer Masters.
“I got approval from marketing to say the following: We didn’t take the Commander cards for DSK because we needed that time to work on Pioneer Masters”
Ian Adams
While it’s not all bad news, this is obviously not great for Brawl and Duskmourn fans. After all, the set’s four face Commanders each looked great fun to play with. Aminatou, Veil Piercer, in particular, offered an incredibly exciting ability that many were excited to play with. Unfortunately, as fun as they seem, Aminatou may well have been the problem.
Currently, there are no cards that use the Miracle mechanic on MTG Arena. Due to this, adding Duskmourn’s face Commanders would have required a lot of work. Given that Pioneer Masters is looming on the horizon, the development resources needed clearly couldn’t be spared. That said, there was an alternative Wizards may have been able to employ.
For The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Wizards decided to replace Hakbal of the Surging Soul with Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood. This decision was somewhat odd, considering that Explore was already a playable mechanic on MTG Arena. Nevertheless, this decision shows that Wizards can implement alternative Commanders when the need arises.
In theory, Duskmourn: House of Horror could have been one of those times the need arose. While this could have been a happy medium, it seems even this was too much. After all, we’re not getting any of the dedicated Duskmourn Commander cards. It seems that getting Pioneer Masters ready for its release sometime soon is quite the undertaking.
Pioneer Masters Still Exists!
While the lack of Duskmourn Commanders on MTG Arena is bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. Pioneer Masters has been mentioned, confirming the fact it still exists! This isn’t really a surprise as it was announced way back in 2023, but development has been shockingly quiet. Understandably, many MTG players have been wondering what on earth has been going on.
Sadly, while Adams did reference the set, they didn’t give any additional information about the set. Even follow-up questions about the set’s potential release date didn’t yield any results. Instead, Adams could only say “It’s a thing that is part of my current scheduling considerations.” Despite this ambiguity, it’s believed Pioneer Masters will be released in very late 2024.
While learning the set’s official release date may be a bust, Adams did technically reveal some juicy details. Following discussions about which cards Pioneer Masters may contain, Adams laid down a gauntlet to reprint hungry players. Stating “Top 8 an official Pioneer tournament with a card and I’ll have to add it,” Adams revealed what we can expect.
From the sounds of this statement, any card that has appeared in a top 8 Pioneer decklist will be on MTG Arena soon. Obviously, this should make Explorer and Pioneer very closely aligned, enough to facilitate a name change. Considering Adams went on to state that “it can be a sideboard card,” too, Pioneer Masters should really bring the formats together.
Unfortunately, while this philosophy should make Explorer play almost identically to Pioneer at a competitive level, the work doesn’t stop there. Should a new strategy emerge utilizing cards not on Arena, Wizards will have to quickly implement whatever’s missing, potentially via an Anthology. Given how Alchemy is suffering from a lack of resources, there’s no guarantee this would happen quickly.
Coming Soon… Maybe
Since we don’t have an official release date for Pioneer Masters, it’s hard to get excited about what the future may hold. Thankfully, while nothing has been said officially, we can make some presumptions. At the earliest, Pioneer Masters may launch in December of 2024. This would follow the trend set by the Khans of Tarkir rerelease last year.
Alternatively, should adding any remaining cards take too long, Wizards could push the set to early 2025. Since Pioneer Masters is only being released digitally, Wizards could launch it alongside Innistrad Remastered on paper. Whether or not this delay will happen is currently unclear, but it is a possibility given how little we’ve heard.
Thankfully, even if Pioneer Masters takes a while to release, there’s plenty to enjoy in the meantime. Duskmourn: House of Horror is set to be released at the end of this month, and MTG Foundations follows fairly soon after that. Obviously, the fact none of Duskmourn’s Commander cards are coming too is disappointing, but hopefully, this won’t become a trend.
That said, while we’d like to be hopeful, the proximity between MTG Foundations and Pioneer Masters is worrying. Depending on the amount of work remaining, the Commanders from Foundations may be missed once again. Hopefully, this unfortunate circumstance won’t end up happening, we’ll have to wait and see about that.
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