Magic: The Gathering's Explorer Format Makes Me Hate Cat Ovens More Than Ever

thegamer.com:

Explorer is the best thing to happen to Magic: The Gathering Arena in years. It tossed aside the digital-first design of Alchemy and Historic, and gave us a non-rotating, ‘true-to-tabletop’ format once again. Best of all, it’s a stepping stone, as Wizards will update Explorer until it’s functionally indistinguishable from tabletop’s popular Pioneer format.

While Explorer dragged me back to Arena in a big way (I finished the entire Streets of New Capenna Mastery Pass, and am almost at Mythic rank in the current constructed season), there is one card I think it could really do without. It’s not a big, splashy rare – I’m fine with the likes of Greasefang and Agent of Treachery. But please, Wizards, for the love of all that is holy, stop letting people put their cats into the oven.

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Anyone who was playing Magic around the time of 2019’s Throne of Eldraine will know about the Cat Oven. It’s a synergy based on two cards: Witch’s Oven and Cauldron Familiar. The first is an artifact that allows you to sacrifice a creature to create a Food token (or two if the creature had high enough power). Meanwhile, Cauldron Familiar gives you one life and makes your opponent lose one life when it enters the battlefield.

The catch, though, is that Cauldron Familiar has a second ability. By sacrificing a Food token, you can bring it back to the battlefield from the graveyard. Therein lies the entire strategy of Cat Oven: sacrifice the Cauldron Familiar to the Witch’s Oven to produce a Food token, and then use that token to bring the Cauldron Familiar back into play and cause your opponent to lose one life.

While this isn’t an infinite combo thanks to the Witch’s Oven