Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

This is the latest Magic the Gathering set due to be released in a little over 2 weeks. But it is already available to play on Magic the Gathering Arena and pre-release for the physical cards is on 16th July. We have managed to play a couple of drafts of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and there are a couple of cards that seemed to do well for us. Nothing particularly fancy but seemed to work well. I'll let you know what they are shortly.

Please be aware when reading this article, we are showing images of cards and there will be spoilers. If you are trying to avoid them please come back to read this after the set has been released.

What are the top cards from the set and how good are they compared to the current meta? 'Top' is quite a subjective question but for the ease of referencing only a few cards we will stick to the price of the card (that usually indicates how good it is) but also what the cards do that make them so expensive. 

In Adventures in the Forgotten Realms the top cards from the set are the new Legendary Dragons and Planeswalkers. Dragons have been a recent hit with the last few sets with there being a collection of Legendary Dragons in Strixhaven and we all know Goldspan Dragon from Kaldheim. The Dragons in this set are a little different. After all the set is based around Dungeons and Dragons so we should expect the dragons to be good.

MTG Adventure in the Forgotten Realms Tiamat

Top of that list is Tiamat. A 5-colour dragon that lets you put 5 other dragons into your hand. This is a very impressive card and it was also one of the first cards to be revealed. So hopefully this isn't much of a spoiler for you. This is not only a great Standard card but this would be a great Commander for a Commander or Brawl deck. Yes it is 7 mana to cast but there is plenty of ramp available in both formats so it shouldn't be too hard to cast then you get 5 dragons. If Tiamat gets removed, it might cost a little more to case but then you get another 5 dragons. I have a Kaalia EDH deck which is full of dragons so making a 100 card deck of just dragons shouldn't be too difficult. Especially having access to all colours as well. Who was the last 5 colour card that did crazy things? Golos, Tireless Pilgrim perhaps?

 

Other than the new Legendary creatures and Planeswalkers there are 2 other cards that stand out as being top of the pile. As in the past there has been 2 colours that always seem to do well and the colour combination is well known to everyone who has played magic in the last couple of years. That would be Simic. So as you might be able to guess, one of the new cards is blue and the other is green. Let's start with the green card as that is the easiest to describe why it is so good.

MTG AFR Circle of the Dreams Druid

Circle of Dreams Druid is not only a mana dork but they make all other creatures you control create mana as well. But all you need to do is tap this one creature and you can access a lot of mana. All you need is cheap creatures or a token generator and you're away. This is also an Elf so playing in any of the eternal formats Elves are always a top tribal deck to play. It does die quite easily so I can't see this staying on the battlefield for long.

 MTG Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Demilich

This next card has a bit more going on with it. Usually cards with a lot of text on them are pretty good. Demilich is no exception. To start with if you have cheap instants and sorceries to cast you can play this creature for free if you can cast that many in one turn. Even paying one or two mana for a 4/3 creature that does stuff is still great value.

So not only do we have a strong body and attacking threat you can also exile instants and sorceries from your graveyard and copy it. You still have to pay the casting cost but that's great for any combat tricks you want to use.

Then, even if Demilich is removed from the battlefield (not exiled though) you can cast it from your graveyard. You do need this card to be in a heavy instant/sorcery deck as you need enough to cast and exile to keep this card going. If you have cast enough to not only copy spells when it attacks but also to bring it back from the dead. You're probably already in the lead in that game.

Strangely enough, none of these cards featured in the sealed drafts we did on arena the last couple of days. The MVP from most games wasn't a creature at all but a piece of equipment

 MTG AFR Dueling Rapier

Dueling Rapier is a new red flash equipment. It is a bit like Embercleave, except not quite as good. Flash allows you to bring it in during combat to remove a tougher creature or in a lot of cases for us was to get in those extra points of damage to win the game. The upside to Dueling Rapier not being Legendary you can have more than one of the battlefield at the same time. This is also a one drop so there are plenty of occasions where you have one mana open in combat and most times people will assume it is a shock or frostbite.

MTG AFR Dragon's Fire

Before we get into it, I know both these cards are red. I did not play a mono red deck. It was Gruul. two of the six rare/mythic cards were colourless so options for colour drafting was limited. However, Dragon's Fire is a good card, two mana instant that does minimum of 3 damage to a creature or planeswalker. The best bit is when you have a dragon on the field or in your hand. Dragon's Fire then does damage equal to the selected dragon's power instead. With Tiamat that removes nearly any creature from the battlefield. This is great single target removal and I can see this being played in standard decks as well, not just limited to limited play.