Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is an absolute triumph when it comes to mashing up the worlds of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. The Walking Dead stumbled (hur hur) where D&D gets to fly, because this is how you do it. That drop was widely - and rightly - criticised for locking new cards behind a limited, and rather expensive, run of cards. I say full, because the first actual crossover was the rather cataclysmically bad The Walking Dead Secret Lair. Because of that, it means the set is replete with more mechanics than I’m willing to count, in much the same way a normal Core Set does, although a lot of those are flavour more than anything else, simply adding D&D skill names before specific card effects.Īdventures in the Forgotten Realms is MTG’s first full foray into a different IP, serving as a crossover with Dungeons & Dragons. The set takes the place of this year’s Core Set, which is always a mish-mash of different mechanics and cards designed to flesh out Standard in a way that allows MTG’s designers to step away from the game’s ongoing story and instead try to print answers to problematic cards from previous sets. It’s a brave new direction for Magic: The Gathering, and one that’s filled with potential. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms feels like the first time Samwise Gamgee takes his first step out of the Shire.
