D&D Gets Its Own Magic: The Gathering Set – Zendikar Rising Reveals
After two years of Magic: the Gathering getting all over D&D, it’s time to reverse the polarity. Check out MtG’s Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
They say that if you cross two beams of positively charged ions, there’s definitely a very slim chance that you can reverse the particle flow through a dimensional gateway. Of course, you might also cause all life as we know it to stop instantaneously as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light.
It’s a risky gambit, but sometimes, if it’s just right, the results can be magical. Which is metaphorically speaking, what happened yesterday when Wizards of the Coast revealed another Magic: the Gathering and D&D crossover–but not in the usual way. Rather than announcing an D&D/MtG crossover alongside the new release–after all, there’s already a guide to Zendikar, it’s just not a big hardcover book–they announced a MtG/D&D crossover. That’s right, WotC successfully reversed the polarity, and now Magic: the Gathering is getting a whole new D&D inspired set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. But that’s not the only thing D&D-related to hit Magic. The new set, Zendikar Rising, debuts a new D&D-inspired mechanic.
Both of these were announced during the big Zendikar Rising stream, which you can watch in its entirety right here.
A ton of new cards were spoiled, teased, revealed, and hinted at over the course of a forty-odd minute long stream featuring Jimmy Wong, Becca Scott, and an animated cut-scene/trailer that has folks thirsty for a Fatal Push reprint.
They also revealed the next “year of Magic” for 2021: Kaldheim aka Viking World coming in Q1, Strixhaven, the magic school for magic fools coming in Q2, Innistrad II Werewolves and Vampires (two full sets) coming in Q4…but one of the major new announcements was the Q3 set–a collaboration “a long time in the making”–D&D and Magic together in card form.
The new set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is a full, black-bordered standard legal set, that takes place in Faerun. It will draw on the classic themes of D&D, including a mechanic that debuts in Zendikar Rising: Party.
Party is a mechanic that triggers based on having the classic adventuring party. So you get effects based on your “party” which consists of up to one each of Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard creature types. This can be applied to both creatures and spells.
So your party can grow stronger as you play more creature types, making spells cheaper or more powerful.
As for the rest of the set, who knows? Some folks are clamoring for a return of spells like Fireball or the Bag of Holding Artifact, others think it might be classic D&D creatures like the Gelatinous Cube making an appearance. I’m personally hoping we see some of Magic’s brand of metahumor and get some cards like “critical hit” or “surprise round” that introduce other classic D&D mechanics to the game.
Or “Rules Argument”
With the set due to release in 2021, we have a ways to go. But that just means there’s plenty more time for spoilers and previews, so keep an eye on the site.
Happy Adventuring!
