Magic's first D&D crossover
Forgotten Realms is the first Dungeons & Dragons set in black-bordered Magic, and unlike the Universes Beyond releases that followed it, it was a fully Standard-legal premier set rather than a supplemental one.
Three of its ideas were genuinely new to the game. Dungeons are a card type that lives outside your deck and that you move through a step at a time. Class enchantments level up as you pay for them. And the d20 appears in a tournament-legal set for the first time, having previously been confined to un-sets.
Themes
Venture into the dungeon
A keyword action tied to the new Dungeon card type. Dungeons sit outside the game; venturing moves you one room further in and triggers that room's effect, so repeated small triggers accumulate into a real payoff.
Dungeons
Three of them, each a different length and reward. They are not in your deck and you do not draft them, which makes venture unusual: the payoff is guaranteed to be available to anyone who has a way to trigger it.
Class enchantments
Enchantments with levels you pay to advance, each level adding an ability. A mana sink that stays useful late, built to look like a character sheet.
Roll a d20
The first dice rolling in black-bordered Magic. Results are banded, so a roll is a spread of outcomes rather than a coin flip, which keeps the variance readable.
Where You Can Play It
Forgotten Realms has left Standard, but that is the only format it left. Unlike the later Universes Beyond sets it was a Standard-legal premier release, so it had a Standard legality to lose in the first place.
Forgotten Realms left Standard at the September 2022 rotation, the one Dominaria United triggered, alongside Zendikar Rising and the rest of that rotation year. A rotation only ever removes cards from Standard, so everything here is still playable in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
A full ten-pair format. Venture is the thread through it: every color has some way to trigger it, so the dungeon is a resource nearly every deck can reach.
All ten two-color pairs
Full ten-pair format
Venture spreads across the format rather than sitting in two or three pairs, Class enchantments give the slower decks a mana sink, and the d20 cards concentrate in red.
Commander
One per broad D&D archetype, with 62 new cards between them.
Aura of Courage
Galea, Kindler of Hope
White-green-blue Auras and Equipment.
Dungeons of Death
Sefris of the Hidden Ways
White-blue-black, built on venture and the graveyard.
Draconic Rage
Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients
Red-green Dragons.
Planar Portal
Prosper, Tome-Bound
Black-red exile and Treasure, and the most played of the four by some distance.
Building one of these into something of your own? The precon buying guide covers how to judge a deck, and the Commander deck template is the shape to build toward.
FAQ
No. It left Standard at the September 2022 rotation, the one Dominaria United triggered, along with Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim and Strixhaven. AFR cards are still legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander.
Venturing moves you one room further into a dungeon and triggers that room's effect. Dungeons are a card type that sits outside your deck rather than in it, so you do not have to draw one to use it. If you have not entered a dungeon yet, you choose which of the three to start.
Three, each a different length with a different reward at the end. They are not in your deck and you do not draft them, which is what makes venture available to any deck with a way to trigger it.
An enchantment with levels you pay mana to advance, each level adding an ability. It works as a mana sink that stays relevant into the late game, and it is laid out to read like a character sheet.
It is the first in black-bordered Magic. Dice had appeared in un-sets before, but never in a tournament-legal set. Results are banded rather than one effect per number, so a roll is a spread of outcomes rather than a coin flip.
Four: Aura of Courage, Dungeons of Death, Draconic Rage and Planar Portal, with 62 new cards between them.
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms released on Jul 23, 2021; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
TurnZero HQ keeps deck records, MMR, and moments for every Commander night, so you can see which new cards are actually earning their slot.
Create Free Account