Farewell, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

Today is part four (and final) in the series, looking at sets that departed the standard environment this month. It is time to look at Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Or AFR.

Released in July 2021, this set combined two gigantic properties- Magic and Dungeons & Dragons- for the first time. I mentioned in my previous post how Wizards should have licensed Harry Potter instead of doing an obvious ripoff in Strixhaven. For D&D, Wizards did just that, and the result was amazing. Now, it is easier, as Wizards owns both properties . . . regardless, D&D's fantasy world combined with Magic's game system were, in my mind, a smash hit.

AFR featured several things I enjoyed:

- 'choose one' cards: these are effectively modal cards, offering two or more modes, and enabling the players to choose one. I love flexibility, and these cards offered it. Two examples below- Dawnbringer Cleric and You Find the Villains' Lair. I also appreciated the flavor text (in italics preceding the dash) before each mode. It meant nothing for gameplay, but enhanced the adventuring feel.

- dice rolling: generally d20s, but sometimes other-sized die, rolling was a natural part of D&D and adapted well to Magic's environment. Cards like Contact Other Plane (below) show how a lucky roll could make a good card even better.

- 'class' enchantments: these enchantments allowed you to 'level up' for a stated mana cost, making the enchantment's effect increasingly powerful. See Ranger Class below.

- skeletons: I love tribal decks, and had wanted a viable casual skeleton deck. AFR had some key cards (Death-Priest of Myrkul and Skeletal Swarming among them- below) that made this possible.

Favorites

I mentioned several of these cards above, so I won't call out those again. Those that remain:

- Priest of Ancient Lord is a great inclusion in many white decks- life gain and cleric tribal among them.

- Deadly Dispute is amazing. Instant-speed with flexible sacrifice options to net you two cards and a treasure token. Nice.

- Shambling Ghast is a great opener. Just a 1/1, but with two good options when it dies, enabling removal or improving your mana base.

- Skullport Merchant rightly saw a lot of play. A nice sacrifice ability that could trigger multiple times in a turn (if you had the mana for it).

- Goblins got a few nice cards in this set. Battle Cry Goblin, Hobgoblin Bandit Lord, and Hulking Bugbear were staples in standard tribal decks; the first two made their way into a few modern goblin tribal decks as well.

- Red Dragon is representative of the 'dragon cycle' in this set- each color got a dragon with a nifty effect. At the uncommon level, they were not overly powerful, but I enjoyed the flavor.

- Froghemoth is a nice green card. Trample, haste, and a cool ability? Yes, please.

- Prosperous Innkeeper saw a ton of play in a variety of decks. Getting a treasure token initially plus life gain for every other creature you put on the battlefield made it a minor threat opponents needed to address.

- Werewolf Pack Leader is another solid green creature. Great card in any (standard, modern, etc.) 'green stompy' deck.

- Gretchen Titchwillow is a fun mana/card advantage option.

- Hall of Storm Giants is representative of the 'lands that can become creatures' cycle in this set. They were fun all around and saw frequent play.

Good Riddance

There were no cards I couldn't stand in this set. Though the handful shown below sure annoyed me . . . when my opponent was running them.

- Portable Hole and Teleportation Circle were nice/annoying removal/blink effects, respectively

- Tasha's Hideous Laughter, often combined with spells that copied it, could win games quickly

- Lolth, Spider Queen had abilities that made the games drag on forever

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed AFR a good deal. It may be one of my favorite all-time sets.

Farewell, Strixhaven

Today is part three in the series, looking at sets that departed the standard environment this month. It is time to look at Strixhaven.

Released in April 2021, Strixhaven: School of Mages is effectively "Magic does Harry Potter." And that really bothered me for some reason. As I mentioned in the previous post, Wizards rarely copies characters or elements from literature into its games directly, instead coming up with similar names or concepts. I'm okay with that for things in the public domain- mythology, fairy tales, and the like. But for something so modern like Harry Potter, copying that felt like a rip-off. Don't get me wrong- they didn't put in the characters directly. But the overall concept (a school for wizards) and some elements of that mirrored Rowling's world. I would have rather Wizards paid for the licensing and just did a Harry Potter set- that would have been better in my mind. Maybe I am being unreasonable. It just didn't sit well with me.

Okay, theme aside, how was the set? How were the mechanics/etc.? People seem to think it had a slew of powerful cards. Since I was put off by the theme itself, I didn't play this one much, and I didn't notice a ton of cards from it make its way into standard, either. But there are always a few worth talking about. 

Before I get to favorite cards, though, I did want to mention one mechanic and one concept. 

- The learn mechanic was both handy and annoying- handy, as it enabled you to search your sideboard for a 'lesson' card and put it into your hand; a nice way to increase your options. Annoying to plan and play against.

- The concept of 'generic' spells (ones requiring no colored mana) was also good. They were expensive for their effect, but their generic nature meant they could be included in any deck, and I like that idea. You'll see an example or two of them below.

Favorites

Environmental Sciences and Introduction to Prophecy are two examples of the lesson cards I mention above. They could be included in a sideboard and fetched during the game with the 'learn' mechanic, or they could be included in your deck like a normal sorcery. Bury in Books was cool for the theme- more and more Magic cards have a book/library theme, which I love. Eyetwitch was a nice defender with handy learn ability. Plumb the Forbidden could get you cards quickly. Bookwurm was fun for both its ability and book theme. Eureka Moment and Vanishing Verse are two nice multicolored spells. And Codie, though I couldn't find a use for him, just looked cool.

Good Riddance

Three cards below- Clever Lumimancer, Leonin Lightscribe, and Dragonsguard Elite- showed up in a deck that always annoyed me. The concept was play these creatures, cast a few instants/sorceries, and win the game with 1-2 creatures on the board. It was easy enough to defeat if you could kill one of said creatures. But it was also effective (which is why it annoyed me). It felt like a gimmicky deck. Moving on, Elite Spellbinder was a nice but annoying way to increase the cost of your opponent's spells, Go Blank added insult to injury by exiling the graveyard in addition to discarding, and Blade Historian featured in a number of Boros aggro decks with devastating effect.

Final Thoughts

I picked up a few cards from this set that I wanted for existing modern or casual decks, and pretty much ignored it otherwise, for the reasons I mentioned above. I was glad to see this one go.

Farewell, Kaldheim

Today is part two in the series, looking at sets that departed the standard environment this month. It is time to look at Kaldheim.

Released in February 2021, Kaldheim was a nod to Nordic mythology. The Nordic gods featured strongly (though in veiled form- Wizards comes up with similar names rather than copying 'Odin' or 'Thor' directly into its games, even when it is in public domain). Tribes like angels (yay!), giants, dwarves, and elves abounded- I picked up some key cards for my angel and elf decks. Green featured some strong cards, and the snow lands (featured at common level) were fun.

Favorites

Doomskar is a great board wipe. Righteous Valkyrie became a staple in several angel decks of mine. I enjoyed Ascendant Spirit for its leveling up abilities. Skull Raid was a nice way to gain card advantage. Tergrid- either side- was a cool card. Goldspan Dragon was both amazing (to play) and horrible (to face). I loved the dwarves, exemplified by Magda. Elvish Warmaster slotted nicely into my modern elf tribal deck. Esika's Chariot, Old-Growth Troll, and Toski are examples of the strong green offerings in this set. And Woodland Chasm is an example snow land.

Good Riddance

I encountered Alrund's Epiphany frequently enough that it grew annoying. I don't enjoy long, drawn-out games, and this card only appeared in such decks. (It was eventually banned in standard, showing how dominant it had become.)

Final Thoughts

Looking back, Kaldheim was fun. That said, I was disappointed by one facet: they made too little use of the snow concept. Only 18 cards (like Ascendant Spirit) made use of the snow aspect, and only one of those were designed as 'anti-snow' cards- Reidane (see below). The result: it was easy to ignore the snow aspect entirely (which I found disappointing), but if you did want to play snow, there was very little reason to play anything other than snow lands, as 17 cards benefited from them and only the one penalized you. I wish snow had featured in twice as many cards, and had far more 'anti-snow' to encourage more interaction in that space. This factor aside, Kaldheim was a fun set, and its absence is noted from standard.