The Gathering’ meets ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ in new crossover card set

Magic: The Gathering is crossing over with Dungeons and Dragons, joining these two great houses like a giant tabletop nerd mecha once more. New Magic set Adventures in the Forgotten Realms will introduce iconic Dungeon and Dragons spells and monsters to the card game next month, the collaboration bringing over 261 new cards to the game (excluding lands).

Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons are both tabletop gaming giants — fantasy games boasting huge followings of dedicated fans. Wizards of the Coast has owned both since the company purchased Dungeon and Dragons‘ original publisher in 1997, and the two previously crossed over in Dungeon and Dragons‘ 2018 sourcebook Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.

However, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms will be the first time Dungeons and Dragons‘ iconic spells and monsters will be brought into Magic‘s standard card sets.

Of course, there will also be interesting art variants for collectors to get excited about as well. All booster packs will contain cards with both the normal frame and showcase rulebook frames — those are your average Magic cards and the ones with Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual style art respectively. Art cards will only be in set boosters though, and cards with borderless frames will only be in collector boosters, so you’ll have to open a few of those if you want to pick them up.

In the lead up to Adventures in the Forgotten Realms’ release, Mashable can exclusively reveal two new Magic cards arriving in this Dungeons and Dragons inspired set: Baleful Beholder and Wish.

Baleful Beholder

Magic: The Gathering Adventures in the Forgotten Realms — Baleful Beholder
Credit: Wizards of the Coast

An iconic Dungeons and Dragons monster, the Beholder is a spherical chonky boy with numerous eyestalks capable of firing 10 different magical rays at random. Now introduced to Magic: The Gathering, Baleful Beholder is a bulky Common 6/5 Black Creature that costs six mana to play, including two Black.

It’s a hefty price to pay to get Baleful Beholder on the field, but this many-eyed nightmare orb isn’t just a big ol’ hard-hitting tank. When playing him, you also get to choose from one of two powerful effects.

I spy with my 50 billion eyes…
Credit: Lars Grant-West / Wizards of the Coast

The first is Antimagic Cone, which makes all of your enemies sacrifice one enchantment each. Though they get to choose which of their cards to give up, Antimagic Cone can still have a significant impact on the game — particularly if your opponents don’t have many enchantments to choose from.

Old school cool.
Credit: Justine Jones / Wizards of the coast

However, if there aren’t any enchantments bothering you, you may decide to go for Fear Ray instead. Fear Ray gives all creatures under your control menace until the end of the turn, meaning your opponents will have to use two defenders per creature in order to block your attacks. This can be particularly useful if you keep getting blocked by small, disposable creatures, or if your army is struggling to get past your opponent’s defences.

Wish

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

Wish is an absolutely ridiculous Rare Red Sorcery that costs only three mana to play, including one Red. Play it, and Wish will allow you to play any card you own from outside the game during the current turn. That’s right. Any card at all.

Of course you still have to pay your chosen card’s mana cost, which could be a tricky requirement to meet after paying for Wish. Even so, this card opens up a whole new realm of possibilities, and offers a ton of versatility for adapting to an opponent’s deck.

Building a Magic deck is a bit like playing scissors paper rock. A strategy which is strong against one type of player may be weak against another, and you just have to hope your tactics and build are enough to win you the day. Wish now offers a great answer to those situations where you’re longing to play that one perfect card that you know is just sitting unused in your collection.

Magic: The Gathering‘s Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set will release worldwide on July 23.