With the release of every new expansion set, Magic: the Gathering’s card pool grows, and there never seems like a good time to get into the beautiful game that has grown for over two decades. The Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms crossover set will add 281 new cards on July 23, and it’s only been over a month since the last set release!

Jumping into a set might seem daunting, but Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is one of the best sets to dive into the world of Magic. Look at it from the publisher Wizards of the Coast’s point of view: they want to attract fans from other franchises (hence the crossover), and need to make the set fun, exciting, and balanced right from turn one.

Now with a good majority of the cards already previewed in the spoiler season, there are clear signs that AFR is the best set in a long time to start playing Magic.

Beginner-Friendly Features from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

It’s Blazing Cool Dragons!

Living up to the Dragons half of this crossover set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms packs a lot of heat from the flying beasts, with at least one from each colour represented. Dragons have been a mainstay creature type in Magic, though they’ve not been particularly useful in the competitive scene. That’s because dragons are all about big flying beasts that cost a lot but look cool on the Battlefield.

By bringing back so many dragons into a single set, Wizards is essentially saying Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is all about fun and adventure rather than breaking the meta. Tiamat from Dungeons & Dragons lore also makes a special appearance in this set, staying true as a five-colour Legendary Creature that allows you to search for even more dragons!

Different Paths and Choices Help Beginners

To help new players, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is filled with “choice” cards. Instead of a Magic card having a fixed and rigid effect, these choice cards offer the player an action that suits their needs for the specific moment. It bears some similarity to the Command cards such as Lorehold Command or Silverquill Command seen in the last set Strixhaven, where you have the flexibility to select the relevant modes.

However those are Rare cards are not always seen or acquired by new Magic players, even in a prerelease event. These choice cards in the AFR set are much more readily available because of their Common and Uncommon rarities, which means beginners can definitely use them in their decks.

Choices are especially useful for new players to Magic because it takes away a small part of randomness in the game. For example, rather than having a card that destroys only an Artifact or Enchantment (card types not as commonly used as Creatures), You Find a Cursed Idol gives you an additional, evergreen choice to create a Treasure token and also venture into the dungeon (see the last point). Since Treasures are useful in all situations since it generates Mana, and dungeons can always be ventured, new players are sure to benefit from these choice cards.

It’s a Game of Strategy AND Chance

Wizards isn’t done with the D&D flavour in the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms crossover set. There’s going to be at least a dozen cards that make use of a 20-sided die (aka a d20) to generate random value.

Magic has also had an element of luck involved because of the randomness of shuffling and the fact that you need to draw Lands to create Mana. Beyond that, strategy comes into play and that’s where newer players could find themselves at a disadvantage. Now with the introduction of activated d20 abilities, anyone can overturn a looming defeat into a roaring victory.

Look at Earth-Cult Elemental – it enters the Battlefield with a d20 roll trigger. A new player could very well roll between 10-20, netting great value by killing off one or two of the opponent’s Creatures. No matter how seasoned the opponent is, if luck is not on his or her side, strategy may not be enough to take the game.

Likewise, the Mythic Rare card The Deck of Many Things can literally win you the game if you hit that magical 20 in a d20 roll. The 5% chance to roll a 20 isn’t unthinkable – take an opponent’s Creature for yourself, and use it to either block their attackers or find a way to kill it yourself so that you win the game. If you have very few cards left in your hand, any number rolled will provide value, which is what beginners need. You can even roll that dice as many times as you want as long as the Artifact stays alive and you have the Mana to tap it.

New Card Type Means Equal Footing for All

This came as a nice little surprise during spoiler season, but the new Enchantment sub-type Class is a nice hybrid between Enchantment Sagas and the old level-up mechanic often used in Creatures. In terms of gameplay, Class cards can provide even more value than Sagas because they don’t get sacrificed at the end the last chapter, with the drawback being players have to sink Mana to level up to the higher (and more powerful) stages.

These Class cards pay homage to character building in Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs, where players choose a character class (such as rogue or wizard) and later invest in building their characters’ stats. In Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, you don’t level up on a Creature (because it’s been done before), but having it on an Enchantment that is harder to remove would make it an uncomfortable situation for seasoned players.

Apart from Class cards, there are also Dungeon cards that are not put into your deck. Whenever a card tells you to “venture into the dungeon,” you start on a new dungeon adventure, or progress to the next room if you’re already in one dungeon. Somewhat surprisingly, there are only three Dungeon cards in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

While it’s not clear how easy it would be to complete an entire Dungeon, the extra value generated and good range of choice given to the player means there’s more variance in each game. A new player that is steadily moving from room to room in a Dungeon is clearly going to out manoeuvre another player who hasn’t accessed a single one.

New mechanics and card types need getting used to, and even an old Magic player will find it tricky to play them if no research or practice was put into it beforehand. This is great for new players getting into Magic through the AFR set because experience will count for less in the early games.

End Step

It might be a while before such a beginner-friendly set will be in sight again, as there aren’t any new full crossover sets announced for the rest of 2021. Dominaria (2018) was the last great set perfect for beginners, so who knows how long one would have to wait for another set like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms?

If you’d rather get into Magic on your own terms and not dive head first into a new set, check out these 6 cheap ways to get started. Remember – you have a choice in this adventure!