D&D 5E D&D Mythic Odysseys of Theros Previews!

Mythic Odysseys of Theros may have been delayed until the end of July for most of us, but Fantasy Grounds has revealed some (undoubtedly specially approved) previews for us to look at in the meantime!

 

[Parmandur]

D&D garnered sales from the mashup, but has magic? I wonder if there is any evidence of benefit to Magic’s bottom line? Or does it matter as long as it’s a successful WotC product? Clearly WotC likes doing it.

I'm sure WotC knows...

 

[darjr]

I'm sure WotC knows...

I want details!

somebody spill the beans
Somebody. Spill. The. Beeeaaans!!!

 

[slobster]

D&D garnered sales from the mashup, but has magic? I wonder if there is any evidence of benefit to Magic’s bottom line? Or does it matter as long as it’s a successful WotC product? Clearly WotC likes doing it.

I have no inside knowledge of how/whether MtG has made any money off the crossover, but I do know that there was a couple of promo cards printed for MtG using D&D IP, and they were very well received and in great demand even though you can't actually play them in any competitive context at all. But it turns out that a lot of Magic players are also D&D players, and we'll occasionally drop a few bucks to have some cool cardboard that reminds us of our other love!

And then as others have mentioned, WotC puts out surveys after each set is released asking their customers about what they want from future products. At least 2 of those surveys recently have asked specifically about whether people would be interested in more D&D crossover stuff, and supposedly the response has been pretty strongly affirmative.

I was one of those saying that no way, no how will we ever get solidly D&D canon stuff printed on tournament legal Magic cards because they don't want to destroy the canon of MtG... and then a few weeks later they printed cards like these:

So I think chances of an Elminster, Mind Flayer, or Holy Avenger card some time in the next few years are pretty good!

 

[Parmandur]

I have no inside knowledge of how/whether MtG has made any money off the crossover, but I do know that there was a couple of promo cards printed for MtG using D&D IP, and they were very well received and in great demand even though you can't actually play them in any competitive context at all. But it turns out that a lot of Magic players are also D&D players, and we'll occasionally drop a few bucks to have some cool cardboard that reminds us of our other love!

And then as others have mentioned, WotC puts out surveys after each set is released asking their customers about what they want from future products. At least 2 of those surveys recently have asked specifically about whether people would be interested in more D&D crossover stuff, and supposedly the response has been pretty strongly affirmative.

I was one of those saying that no way, no how will we ever get solidly D&D canon stuff printed on tournament legal Magic cards because they don't want to destroy the canon of MtG... and then a few weeks later they printed cards like these:

So I think chances of an Elminster, Mind Flayer, or Holy Avenger card some time in the next few years are pretty good!

Never say never, eh?

 

[slobster]

Never say never, eh?

I'd feel bad that I was wrong the many times I insisted that MtG just can't handle printing stuff from another canon in their super serious magical wizard card game because of nerd reasons...

But it turns out I'm too happy that I can put Mothra in my Magic deck to be upset!

That is, I'll be able to put her in there once the world stops ending and they figure out how to actually print and distribute physical cards again, and I'm allowed to meet people to play with them anyway.

 

[mcmillan]

D&D garnered sales from the mashup, but has magic? I wonder if there is any evidence of benefit to Magic’s bottom line? Or does it matter as long as it’s a successful WotC product? Clearly WotC likes doing it.

I'm at least an example of being pulled that way. I used to play back in high school, but hadn't played in ... ~20 years (how'd that happen). The Ravnica book seemed interesting enough that I started looking more into the associated lore, which led to me knowing about Magic Arena to play online, and some of my co-workers that play/used to play were talking about starting up some lunch break games before the pandemic closed things down. Granted the money I've given WOTC is pretty small, especially compared to what I've spent with D&D, but I doubt I'm too unusual in finding that path interesting.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm at least an example of being pulled that way. I used to play back in high school, but hadn't played in ... ~20 years (how'd that happen). The Ravnica book seemed interesting enough that I started looking more into the associated lore, which led to me knowing about Magic Arena to play online, and some of my co-workers that play/used to play were talking about starting up some lunch break games before the pandemic closed things down. Granted the money I've given WOTC is pretty small, especially compared to what I've spent with D&D, but I doubt I'm too unusual in finding that path interesting.

I gotta say, it's not like I rushed out and bought stuff, or have laid a lot of money down...but all the money I've ever spent onagic has come since Ravnica came out for D&D, and I am sure that is not coincidence (none of the stuff I got was Ravnica, though). Raising brand awareness is a Thing.

 

[Ash Mantle]

Ah, cool, and thus are many cool things born of skunkworks.

why now though? Why did the Magic and D&D mashup result in product now? And why does it work? Is there something special in the air now? Some kind of gathering magic?

Wasn’t it tried many times?

It was actually because of the coincidence of James Wyatt making the jump, and putting in off-houra work to his homwbrew, and how the free stuff was received. The Magic team ran surveys with questions like "Do you like this?" and "would you pay money for this?" The answer being "Yes, take my money!"

Those quite excellent Planeshift articles were quite a treat! I'd imagine Wizards was able to monitor the number of downloads for the Planeshift docs as well as the UA articles, and I'm guessing the time was perfect for a mash-up of D&D and Magic to occur, especially with the fan demand for a new campaign setting.

 

[Ash Mantle]

I really quite thoroughly enjoyed Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, but even so was slightly let down by the absence of a few more subclasses that were playtested but didn't quite make the cut for publication, but that's neither here nor now.
Based on the previews from Theros, I think I'll thoroughly enjoy this book as well.

Since Theros is Greek myth inspired rather than outright lifting the myths wholesale, I'd love to see a full-blown Ixalan campaign setting, with it being Aztec/Mayan/Incan-inspired and all that entails, rather than being direct lifts, with a vampiric conquistador nation, and rules for adventuring in a sprawling jungle continent, more so than what we got from Tomb of Annihilation.

 

[Parmandur]

I really quite thoroughly enjoyed Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, but even so was slightly let down by the absence of a few more subclasses that were playtested but didn't quite make the cut for publication, but that's neither here nor now.
Based on the previews from Theros, I think I'll thoroughly enjoy this book as well.

Since Theros is Greek myth inspired rather than outright lifting the myths wholesale, I'd love to see a full-blown Ixalan campaign setting, with it being Aztec/Mayan/Incan-inspired and all that entails, rather than being direct lifts, with a vampiric conquistador nation, and rules for adventuring in a sprawling jungle continent.

That could be interesting, but Ixalan is a "6" on the Rabiah Scale for Magic returning to that Setting (Mark Rosewater describes that as "We need to find the right place to bring it back, but I'm a little less optimistic").

I wouldn't bet on it anytime soon...