If an ability instructs a creature to explore, its controller reveals the top card of their library. If it's a land card, they'll put it into their hand. Otherwise, they'll put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then choose to either leave that card on top of their library or put it into their graveyard.
If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to explore but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still explores. If you reveal a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything, but you may put the revealed card into your graveyard. Effects that trigger "whenever a creature you control explores" trigger if appropriate.
If no card is revealed, most likely because that player's library is empty, the exploring creature receives a +1/+1 counter.
Last observed on Scryfall 2 months ago at $0.08. Over the trailing 90 days the price moved between $0.05 and $0.08 across 47 observations. Cross-checked across TCGplayer, eBay sold, Cardmarket EU, and Star City.
This printing is one of 2 catalogued treatments from PLST — the lineup includes Nonfoil alongside the standard finish. Across our catalog the Rarix library tracks every variant in the same family so collectors can compare price, scarcity and demand inside a single lineage.
Card #XLN-10 of *The List*, the set that shipped alongside the September 2021 The List release.
Card type: Creature — Human Cleric, color identity white, printed at uncommon. Uncommons fill the middle-tier slots in a standard booster configuration. Mana cost: {2}{W} (3 converted). Keyword abilities: First strike and Explore.
Legal across the major constructed formats — Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and Commander — plus Standard rotation play.
EDHrec ranks this card #26,616 in Commander, putting it in the fringe-play tier of the format's playable pool.
Illustrated by Deruchenko Alexander. Rarix catalogs 324 other cards credited to this artist.
Magic: The Gathering · ™ & © Wizards of the Coast · Illus. Deruchenko Alexander
Card data via Scryfall. Rarix is fan-made; not endorsed by the rights holders.
Some spells or abilities might cause a creature to explore multiple times in a row. If you reveal a nonland card when a creature explores and leave it on top of your library, then the creature explores again immediately afterwards, you'll reveal the same card again.
Once an ability that causes a creature to explore begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the exploring creature after you reveal a nonland card but before it receives a counter.
If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to explore but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still explores. If you reveal a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything, but you may put the revealed card into your graveyard. Effects that trigger "whenever a creature explores" trigger as appropriate.
In some unusual cases, noncreature permanents may explore. For example, if the creature card returned by Defossilize is somehow not a creature once it's on the battlefield, it can still explore. You'll take all the same actions, and you may end up putting a +1/+1 counter on the permanent. (Note that some effects target a creature, and those effects would still require a legal target to have it explore.)
