After some unexpected crossovers with Godzilla and The Walking Dead, it was only a matter of time before Dungeons and Dragons crossed over into the Magic The Gathering universe, combining two of the biggest geek franchises once again. Previously, we had only seen Magic The Gathering step into the D&D world, with the 5th edition books, Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica and Mythic Odysseys of Theros. Now, launching onto MTG Arena on July 9th and in stores on July 23rd, let’s take a quick look at the brand new set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
MTG: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is the new 260 card, Dungeons and Dragons inspired set, that features well known locations, monsters and characters from Faerûn. Not to mention treasures, equipment, classes, dungeon crawling and a whole bunch of dice rolling. Some familiar faces that appear as their own cards in the set include the gnome bard Ellywick, the crime boss Beholder Xanathar and even the Elder Dragon Tiamat!
Venture into the Dungeon!
One of the most interesting mechanics to appear this set is the “venture into the dungeon”. As you can probably guess, it involves you venturing into an iconic D&D dungeon. The first time a card tells you to “venture into the dungeon”, you pick one of the 3 dungeons pictured below. (This looks really cool on MTG: Arena). These dungeon cards are something that “exist” within the game of MTG, they are not cards you have to collect, every player has access to them and there are only 3 of them.
Once you have picked a dungeon, you enter the upper most layer and trigger that ability. You can use a coin, a dice or another marker to note your location. The next time you “venture into the dungeon” you can move your marker down a level into a room with a connecting arrow and then trigger that rooms ability. It’s important to note, that once you venture into a dungeon, you cannot move to another one until you complete it. You can venture through each of the dungeons as many times as you’d like and there are some cards that care about whether you’ve completed a dungeon or not.
Nat 20!
You can’t have a Dungeons and Dragons set without rolling some dice! This mechanic is pretty self explanatory, just roll a dice when asked, check the result and do what it says on the card.
Most of the dice roll effects add a nice little bonus to the card when you play them, usually it’s gaining some life, making some tokens. However on some of the rares and mythics, it gets a little crazier. Hell, there’s even one that basically let’s you win the game if you roll a natural 20 (with no cards in hand).
Sagas + Level Up = Class Cards
And finally, what adventurer would you be without picking your class. All 12 character classes make an appearance as their own class in the uncommon and rare enchantment cycle. Similar to most Saga enchantments which first appeared in the Dominaria set, each class has 3 parts or “levels”. Some of them give you a passive ability to start, other do a one time effect when they enter the battlefield. To progress to the next “level”, you just need to pay the mana cost (as a sorcery) indicated at the top of each section to gain or trigger that effect.
Each of the class cards are extremely flavorful. The Rogue class has you stealing opponents cards. The Bard class cares about legendary creatures, as if you were telling tales about them. The Barbarian class let you roll more dice and deal more damage. They’re all right on theme.
Oh and one more thing…
Awesome looking alternative-art cards. Some of the lands are in the style of classic Dungeon and Dragon modules and some of the creatures are drawn in the 3rd edition style artwork.
We’ll be streaming some MTG Arena and checking out all the fantastic cards that are in this set. Be sure to see us live on twitch.tv/attackongeek! You can also check out our other MTG coverage here.
Adventures In The Forgotten Realms is available in Set Boosters, Draft Boosters and Collector Boosters, with each pack containing its own unique selection of rare or mythic rare cards, tokens and art cards. Commander decks featuring cards from the new set will also be available from 23 July.
For more information on Adventures In The Forgotten Realms, visit https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/forgotten-realms or watch Wizard’s YouTube series on the new set here.