Magic: The Gathering Gets a Dungeons & Dragons-themed Set

Written by Chad

July 15, 2021

When your favorite big chonk dragons and sword boi Drizzt get their own legendary cards in Magic: The Gathering, it’s the biggest best thing ever for tabletop players.

The upcoming set for Magic: The Gathering will be heading to the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, the new set is expected to be available on July 23, 2021, with the prerelease happening a week earlier on July 16, 2021.

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (also called AFR) will feature some of the familiar faces, locales and spells from the Dungeons & Dragons lore, including fan favorites like the Tiamat, Drizzt Do’Urden, Delina and Minsc from the Baldur’s Gate campaign. There are also familiar creatures that will be included in the set such as Mind Flayers, Beholders and of course, dragons. And with every new MTG set, there will always be new mechanics that fit the theme of the set, the dungeon mechanic allows players to venture to one room in a dungeon that provides some effects such as pumping their creature, drawing a card or gaining/losing life. Some cards will have you roll a D20 die; a staple dice in any Dungeons & Dragons campaign, which can give different effects depending on what number you managed to roll. Another cool addition was the flavor words in spells, where some card effects have skill names or you can choose an effect from specific flavored texts that match with the lore or story being told in the card. And finally, there are new Enchantment spells called Classes that can unlock new card effects as you level up by spending the required mana, these cards represent the well-known classes in Dungeons & Dragons and DnD fans will notice the effects are themed well.

Wizards of The Coast started revealing each of the cards from the new set in early July through various content creators to keep the players excited for the best new cards to add to their decks. A new set of card showcase frames are also included in the AFR set, which has become a staple in recent Magic: The Gathering sets. Some land cards can have a Classic Module frame that recreates the old school cover art of Dungeons & Dragons dungeon module books and some creature cards can have Rulebook frames that look like character sheets. The extended art and borderless showcase frames will also be available in this set for some of the rare cards.

Players can choose from different packs that will cater to their preferences. The 15-card Draft Boosters will be for players who want to pick a box and start doing draft matches with their friends, the 12-card Set Boosters are for players who want to start their collection as each Set Booster packs contain a foil card, showcase card (can be the Classic Module, Rulebook or borderless frame) and an art card that you can collect. The 15-card Collectors Boosters are for the hardcore players and collectors who want to get the most premium cards, these will include a ton of foil cards, several showcase cards and tons of rares. There are also the pre-constructed Commander decks that come with 4 different decks that fans of the Commander/EDH multiplayer format can purchase and start playing.

This wasn’t the first time both giant franchises had a crossover, there are two Magic: The Gathering planes that had their own campaigns in Dungeons & Dragons. Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica was released in 2018 and the Mythic Odysseys of Theros in 2020, both featured characters and lore from the released set of the same planes. This may not be the only crossover that we can see in Magic: The Gathering in the future, as there was a previously revealed Universe Beyond project that will include Warhammer 40k and Middle-Earth. Previously there was a Secret Lair The Walking Dead edition and Godzilla-themed alternate cards in the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths last year.

Dungeons & Dragons players will feel welcome with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, as most of the new mechanics are a homage to the familiar systems in DnD campaigns. And Magic: The Gathering players can get a good introduction to the DnD lore with new mechanics that recreates going to a campaign. You can get yours on July 23 and you can even get a sneak peek by participating the prerelease on July 16 on your nearest local game stores.

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