Thoughts About Forgotten Realms
I’ll be honest. I haven’t played much MTG lately as the summer and high vaccination numbers in the United States have led me to doing more outside the house. Nonetheless I’ve done my fair share of Modern Horizons 2 drafts and stand by it being an all-time great Limited format, much like most of the Masters-type sets.
That said, there’s a new set coming out, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
I was curious about the new spinoff Secret Lair, and Walking Dead used to be a favorite of my wife and mine, so she demanded I place a pre-order. I find the habituality of crossovers a bit peculiar, which diminishes the novelty.
One crossover I stand by is this Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set. Wizards of the Coast owns both brands, and they’re both popular games with similar audiences. This comes off pretty cool, despite not knowing very much at all about Dungeons & Dragons lore. I played D&D twice as a kid at my local game store but never got into it like others did.
I’m not fond of the logistics behind the dungeon mechanic, but I’ll reserve judgement. I find game pieces being added to such a simple game a bit too clunky or cumbersome. This issue comes up with the need for tons of tokens, dice, or whatever other stuff the game can’t account for on its own. Other than that, how dungeons will play out seems cool. I’m more enthusiastic about the mechanic than most based on conversations I’ve had and seen. I think the mechanic will play out and add interesting elements to Limited. In theory, depending on how prolific the adventure mechanic is, you may be able to draft around a specific dungeon, like Dungeon of the Mad Mage. You can play long games and have this huge payoff regardless of which cards you draw, setting up a more reliable form of inevitability.
It’s interesting that there will be various times you choose which dungeon to use in Limited. “Should I draft to complete the Dungeon of the Mad Mage or get some value from the Lost mine of Phandelver?” will be a thought you have in the draft. You’ll have similar decisions within each game: “I started slow and I won’t have time to complete the Mad Mage, so I’m going to have to settle for Lost Mine of Phandelver.”
I’m always a big fan of adding decision trees to games of Magic, so I think this will play out better than it may seem at first. Again, there will be a period of adjustment to having extra stuff in unfamiliar areas.
I’m not buying into Venturing right now for Constructed. Over the past two years the power creep has been drastic, and it’s going to take a few sets and a rotation to get grounded. It’s going to take more than a scry and a 1/1 token tacked onto generic power-level cards to get near the power level of Throne of Eldraine. Normally, after a statement like this, I’ll say that “I hope I’m wrong and these cards make an impact,” but in this case I hope I’m not. I’ll take Adventures in the Forgotten Realms for what it is — a unique twist on the game that will be fun to learn, but my expectation for power level is low. This is the time to back off before another inevitable power spike a year or two later. Keep in mind, this is generally when we’d have a core set, and core sets tend to be less powerful than other sets.
If that is indeed the goal, then just enjoy Forgotten Realms for what it is and look for things to shake up again in the fall. This coming Standard rotation will be welcome and hopefully venturing will be worth pursuing in Standard.
Look at a card like Ellywick Turmblestrum and the “effects” you’ll get from each dungeon while you plus it. In the past, plussing 4-mana planeswalkers meant to get value while they can protect themselves with a minus. Ellywick will only start giving you the goods well into its life cycle. Maybe I’m wrong, and there will be other small-value venture stuff coming out to help you quickly complete a worthwhile dungeon like Dungeon of the Mad Mage. However, my guess is this card will be too weak for Constructed and too strong in Limited, which is a waste of a planeswalker.
The sequencing and game choices are interesting. For example, you could play Ellywick, venture into the Twisted Caverns of the Dungeon of the Mad Mage for protection against an opposing creature’s attack, and then untap and stabilize with a sweeper for a win. While this sounds interesting and unique, I think it will rarely play out like this, so I stand by my assumption that venturing will mostly be relegated to Limited.
Now, time to indulge in pessimism. I don’t enjoy the idea of repeated crossover-branding. If it happens often, with every set I’ll be playing new games with a similar rules engine and venturing into various familiar worlds that aren’t personally appealing. What drew me to Magic was, well, the Magic. It had its own characters and worlds that spoke to me. I’m moderately into Lord of the Rings, enough to have tried a branded card game 20 years ago, and found the world and lore of Magic to be more appealing. It was less predictable and more unique, which we lose with repetitive crossovers. I hope the game keeps its own uniqueness, but like the organized play systems, I fear that Magic will be completely unrecognizable.
Some say to not be afraid of change. This is a fair criticism, but aside from friends and family, Magic is something that I’ve loved more than anything. Why would I not be afraid of it changing to something else and possibly into something I no longer recognize? I’ve become more pessimistic with age, so I may just be yelling at a cloud or telling some youngins to get off my lawn. I guess only time will tell.
I am excited to play a few matches of Limited with Adventures into the Forgotten Realms, and it’ll be fun to explore if it’s near the quality of the last few sets. I have my last MTG League Weekend this weekend, and I haven’t played any games of the formats since the Set Championships. I’m not anticipating doing well, but I also don’t need many wins to lock a spot in MPL gauntlet over the Rivals Gauntlet, so my incentive to test was low, especially now that the weather is nice and things are trending back to normal in the world. Either way, I hope to get a few wins but don’t really mind where I finish in the last days of the leagues. Either way, I’ll see you next week.
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