D&D Forgotten Realms Spoilers!

[HowlingLotus]

Looks like a decent amount of spoilers today (so far, only 11AM here).

Was kind of hoping if they did a named and/or legendary beholder it would at least have an ability for each colour plus colourless to represent their various eye beams.

Flavourwise I like what I see. Various cards with multiple choices, rolling a d20 to see what you get, etc.

[Varatius]

That was very interesting to read, thanks!

I don't know anything about Forgotten Realms, but I can say that Tiamat's ability looks crazy strong to me. Tutoring for the 5 best Dragons in your deck is incredibly strong (tutor 5 times for only 7 mana?!), and can be used to set up game-winning scenarios.

I'm not sure it's that great. Tooth and Nail lets you grab ANY two creatures AND play them for free for only two more mana, and without the color restrictions. Just getting dragons to hand doesn't sound great, unless you immediately dump your hand and Patriarch's Bidding, but that's asking a lot.

I mean, it's not like it's broken or game-winning, but getting a 7/7 flyer and tutoring 5 times for 7 mana seems pretty absurd to me.

Also it should probably be possible to set up some winning states after the tutoring (maybe involving Food Chain or something similar?) but I'm not sure about that.

Have a leyline of anticipation or vedalken orrery then cast patriarchs bidding and while it's on the stack cast one with nothing not super broken but pretty flashy if you're into that kind of thing.

Ps no pun intended

[Bonethor]

Looks like there's enough support for dungeons that one could build an EDH deck around it (a fairly janky one but still). Not a big fan of the dungeons personally but I really like the D20 throw though. I know this set is probably fun for D&D players but feels pretty lukewarm thus far, which on the other hand isn't a bad thing - I don't need to be buying cards all the time

I'm putting my hope in the precons, especially hoping the Esper one to be great!

[Aetherium Slinky]

I'm putting my hope in the precons, especially hoping the Esper one to be great!

There's an Esper precon...? Oh dear. Gotta get that.

On another note: I really like the Cradle Elf, Artifact Pod and the new Not-Me Untapper. This set feels good. I don't like the D&D aspect of it either but I don't really care; it's nice to see some crossovers every now and then.

[WWolfe]

Gotta admit, I wasn't very excited for the idea of this set but having seen the spoilers I'm a little intrigued.

[Loaded Shaman]

Gotta admit, I wasn't very excited for the idea of this set but having seen the spoilers I'm a little intrigued.

New to the forums here, but long time MtG player; I feel the same way. TBH I haven't seen much in the way of the upcoming cards outside of this thread. Lots of top notch info and analysis here.

[Mnemosyne]

Apologies for not spoiling these cards sooner!
I wanted to wait a little and see what MTG were trying to do with the set and I've figured it out, mostly. But, before I reveal my thoughts I will post spoilers of cards that do not have any specific lore relating to FR.

Lands



Artefacts



Multicoloured



White



Blue



Black



Red



Green



These are the non-specific Forgotten Realms cards that have been released so far! (Rare cards, anyway)
More to come!

[ApothecaryGeist]

Thank you Mnemosyne.


I am curious about the lore of Mordenkainen.  Is there a connection between his lore and his planeswalker card mechanics?  What's up with the Dog Illusion; is there a special significance there?

[Slyvester12]

Mordenkainen has several signature spells, one of which is Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound. The others include his Sword, Private Sanctum, and Magnificent Mansion.

[Morganator 2.0]

Now that the full spoiler is out, how does everyone feel about this set? I thought it was strange that some cards like Dragon Turtle and Wight had to give italicized writing to point out what the flavor they were aiming for was.

[Slyvester12]

The italicized writing is just calling the ability by its D&D name. Creatures in D&D often have at least one special ability that's named, like Life Drain.

By writing it the way they did, the cards resemble a monster stat block from a D&D rulebook like the Monster Manual.

[Valmias]

Now that the full spoiler is out, how does everyone feel about this set? I thought it was strange that some cards like Dragon Turtle and Wight had to give italicized writing to point out what the flavor they were aiming for was.

I was a little put off by the italicized abilities. I know that they were meant to reference specific D&D abilities/attacks/spells/etc., but it felt weird since that's not how mtg typically represents things like that. It would make sense for an instant to be called "Drag Below" and then have the Dragon Turtle text, but when it's italicized in the text box, my mind reads it as a set mechanic that will appear on multiple cards, not a unique named one-off. Same for "Life Drain". Magic has a history of adapting references and abilities from other things to its own mechanics, and it's usually a lot more elegant/confident than this. (And if MTG ever did gain a mechanic called "Life Drain", it wouldn't be this.) I understand the reference, but I don't want my mtg product to be written using the conventions of a different game. I have a Monster Manual I can look at for that if I need.

I also feel some dissonance between this set and Zendikar Rising. My understanding was Zendikar was already their D&D homage plane, using a lot of the tropes and terminology, even down to the party mechanic. To then turn around and release an actual D&D crossover feels like whiplash, especially since it didn't even use the party . When you do an homage and then a literal crossover, it kind of throws your homage under the bus. Are we going to follow Strixhaven with an actually Harry Potter crossover? I already felt the party mechanic to be a forced reference (what, Zendikari don't let barbarians, rangers, and paladins into their adventuring parties?), and now it feels like a bad imitation of what they really wanted. They even named an ability "Form a Party" on You Meet in a Tavern that does not relate to parties in a mechanical sense. I don't think they would call an ability "Draw a card" or "Untap" without it doing those things because its confusing, and doing it with party in the D&D set just after party was introduced as a D&D reference seems on the same level of laziness as the named abilities. The set just feels really slapped together, with all the effort going into making D&D references and very little into adapting it to the MTG rules environment.

Is it petty of me to complain about planeswalkers in Faerun? Since that setting already has planar travel and it is emphatically NOT planeswalking? And gods are a creature type, so... what's with that?

This feels like not only a bunch of whining, but not even original whining. Complaining about this game not hitting the flavor right or printing a set that doesn't match expectations or even doing something that will RUIN MAGIC FOREVER(tm) is part of the package. You take a break for a little while and come back later to see all the new cards you missed. I just feel like they are playing a dangerous game with brand integrity, and I'm becoming frustrated out of engaging. I guess it's just my turn now.

I like D&D. I've been playing it and reading FG books since the 90s. I also like MTG, and have been playing it for almost exactly as long. I'm already buying products from both lines. I wish Hasbro would just let me keep paying them for two games instead of compressing me into a generic consumer bloc of "plays that wizards and dragons fantasy crap" so they can market each in the other.

[Mnemosyne]

Thank you Mnemosyne.


I am curious about the lore of Mordenkainen.  Is there a connection between his lore and his planeswalker card mechanics?  What's up with the Dog Illusion; is there a special significance there?

I think that @Slyvester has mentioned the main parts. I was going to go into his lore briefly (takes a while to write these things)



Let us have a look at him in a little more detail. Funnily enough, Mordenkainen is not originally a Forgotten Realms character, even though many of his signature spells feature in the FR campaign. He is from a world known as Greyhawk, along with Ebberon, are other universes set within the sphere of Dungeons and Dragons.

The parts MTG have right, is that he is considered a planeswalker and his spells happen to be within the blue colour wheel.
 
He and Elminster (a FR main character that doesn't feature in this set) have met before on 'Earth' = Ed Greenwood's (the creator of FR's) living room. Apparently, he has a residence in Waterdeep 'The City of Splendours' in Forgotten Realms and is one of the circle of eight, eight powerful creators of spells.

A shame, given that MTG has decided not to include any of these signature spells, a part from a spell called Mordenkainen's Polymorph, which would be considered an enchantment; odd, considering that he is known for conjuration spells... which, fortunately, is his second planeswalker activated ability = -2 create blue dog illusion = Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound.

He is also known for these spells
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion
Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum
Mordenkainen's Phantom Guardian/ Phantom Defender
Mordenkainen's Disjunction

His other planeswalker abilities seem odd, considering his wizard focus. He is an awesomely powerful spellcaster with a huge repertoire of spells, ones which focus on defence and illusion, which would have been more interesting to see as planeswalker abilities, instead of the generic MTG abilties he has currently.

[WWolfe]

So what does everyone think about the cards spoiled from the Commander decks? The bant voltron deck seems to have some good new cards in it and it comes along at a perfect time for me. I've been considering rebuilding my Daxos of Meletis voltron deck that I have such fond memories of.

[Morganator 2.0]

I might get the Prosper, Tome-Bound precon. Share the Spoils has my attention as a fun card and that precon also has a few good filler cards like Disrupt Decorum, Talisman of Indulgence, and Fellwar Stone.



The Galea, Kindler of Hope precon has a Heroic Intervention and a Utopia Sprawl, so there is some good stuff there.

The only other card that has my attention is Dragonborn Champion. That could become a staple in Gruul stompy decks. They usually lack card draw. Dragonborn Champion will give one card per creature that deals 5 damage.