This July, Dungeons & Dragons is coming to Magic: The Gathering in force with the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set. While certainly these two massive properties have come together before, this is the first time an entire full-scale Magic: The Gathering set experience will take place within Forgotten Realms.
In other words, this is a super big deal that will have players tapping into tons of iconic Dungeons & Dragons fare when it hits everywhere on July 23. However, if you’re like me, most of your time spent playing Magic: The Gathering these days takes place on MTG Arena, where you can start playing with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms on July 8! I don’t know about you, but I’m going to celebrate with beholders and barbeque this summer…
As part of a ton of other Magic: The Gathering related items explored in a DailyMTG article, players got their first taste of exactly what D&D looks like with this set. There are basic lands with flavor text! Whoa! As cool as that is, they’re still just lands. So let’s look at a few cards, including an awesome new card frame treatment influenced by the D&D Monster Manuals of legend.
Portable Holes are always handy! While it’s really just the kind of white enchantment removal spell (except it’s an artifact!) that you expect to see in any set these days, it’s packed with flavor. I expect to see a lot of that as set reveals start hitting next month. Other cards like Power Word Kill are flavorful both from a D&D context standpoint and quite functional within the MTG universe, which is interesting. And of course, there’s the Baleful Beholder. We probably won’t get the card text on this one for a while, but you can probably assume that it’s awesome because it’s a freaking beholder. And it shows off a sweet new card frame that’s sure to appear on some other well-known D&D monsters!
For those that have played either game over the years, this pairing seems like it was just waiting to happen. What do you think about Magic: The Gathering going all in with a Dungeons & Dragons set? Let us know in the comments!