WotC Check out Magic: the Gathering's Tiamat

We've known for a while that WotC is releasing D&D-themed Magic: the Gathering cards, as a set called Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Artist Chis Rahn has shared his Tiamat.

"Been looking forward to sharing this one for what seems like forever! Tiamat, for Mtg's D&D: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set. This was one of those assignments that I felt incredibly lucky to get. I hope you enjoy it half as much as I enjoyed painting it!"

The MtG set comes out on July 23rd, 2021. The collector's sets have a beholder on the front. ICv2 has more information on the various set configurations. Bell of Lost Souls has some card images.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I was passing on what I had heard, but I may be mistaken. Doing an Advanced Search for Standard legal cards from Kaldheim gives a result of 321 hits, which would include the 285 cards in Standard, the 20 cards unique to Theme and Set boosters, and the reverse faces of the MDFC's (which are separate cards in Gatherer):

https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?format=[%22Standard%22]&set=[%22Kaldheim%22]

So in other words the Kaldheim set includes stuff outside of of the 285 cards, an extra 20 cards are part of the set, but outside of the 001 to 285. In practice this makes Kaldheim set 305 cards. How very confusing.

So AFR will likely have these extra theme boosters as well, pushing the set to over 300 cards in practice. This is needlessly confusing.

 

[Ibrandul]

Its more Universes Beyond that riled up MtG fans, D&D was largely seen as semi connected to begin with.

Here's the part where I confess that I'll be buying the LotR set too, and the prospect of an Elminster & Drizzt vs. Gandalf & Legolas throwdown is a big part of the draw for me.

But there won't be any space marines shooting at them, that's for sure.

 

[Charlaquin]

I’m a hardcore D&D fan who doesn’t like (at all) the “meta” or the tournament culture or the lore of MTG but who is excited by the prospect of another collectible game based on his favorite IP. Another after Dice Masters, that is, which I treated the same way I plan to treat this: the D&D-themed sets are a complete game for home play, and the rest doesn’t exist.

Might I recommend making a Cube out of it? Set cubes are awesome, you get 3 or 4 copies of each common in a set, 2 copies of each common, and 1 copy of each rare or mythic and use them to make your own randomized “boosters” so you can draft with the set infinitely without having to buy a draft booster box each time. Bit of an up-front investment, but so much replay value.

 

[Charlaquin]

What other none DFC dual faced cards has MtG had?

MDFC stands for modal dual-faced cards. They’re specifically the ones that you can play on either side, which first debuted in Zendikar Rising. But the original dual-faced cards, which first debuted in the original Innistrad block, don’t work that way. They always come down on the front side and have some condition that allows you to flip them to the other side. For example, all the werewolf creatures in Innistrad came down on the human side and flipped to the wolf side it a player cast two spells in one turn. Then they also flipped back if a player ends their turn without playing any spells.

 

[vecna00]

I'm not sure if this has been shown off yet, but I thought I'd drop this here.

 

[Parmandur]

What other none DFC dual faced cards has MtG had?

TDFCs, as @Charlaquin lays out:

Double-faced card

Double-faced cards (DFCs) in Magic have a regular card frame on each side, and no card back. Each face has a symbol to denote the front from the back. Traditional DFCs can be transformed or converted from their front face to their back face while modal DFCs can be played as either face but...

mtg.fandom.com

 

[Parmandur]

I’m a hardcore D&D fan who doesn’t like (at all) the “meta” or the tournament culture or the lore of MTG but who is excited by the prospect of another collectible game based on his favorite IP. Another after Dice Masters, that is, which I treated the same way I plan to treat this: the D&D-themed sets are a complete game for home play, and the rest doesn’t exist.

As for MTG settings in D&D books, my reaction is the mirror image of the above: they’re fun little trifles with some good mechanics and a few ideas I can raid for my 5e games, but they don’t exist in the D&D multiverse—and as soon as canonical D&D-multiverse products start crossing over with them in a significant way, I’ll be a very grumpy fellow. So I do have some sympathy for those poor MTG lore fans when they read WotC’s statements that the Forgotten Realms or the D&D multiverse in general—which is based on superficially similar but ultimately quite different cosmological and metaphysical and arcanalogical principles from MTG—might merge with the MTG multiverse “if it makes sense to do so” (read: if WotC thinks it will be even slightly more profitable to do so). I don’t want that, it seems most MTG fans don’t want that, and I hope WotC never does that.

I actually got into Magic in a more serious way (still casual, technically) because I enjoyed Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica so much. I like blending IPs in general.

 

[Parmandur]

So in other words the Kaldheim set includes stuff outside of of the 285 cards, an extra 20 cards are part of the set, but outside of the 001 to 285. In practice this makes Kaldheim set 305 cards. How very confusing.

So AFR will likely have these extra theme boosters as well, pushing the set to over 300 cards in practice. This is needlessly confusing.

The point of the confusion is to feed the psychological chase of the hit from opening boosters. Making it confusing is an intentional design, like the artificial lighting and complimentary booze in Vegas. EotC is out to make money: an exciting but befuddling product line maximizes their profit. I'm glad that doesn't work for book buying, so their approach to D&D us different.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

For the two Foil Legendaries in each of the Commander Decks my guesses are Larloch and Halastar Blackcloak for Dungeon of Death, Ra's Incarnation and Dragonbait the Paladin for Aura of Courage, for Planar Portals Malcanthet and Zariel, for Draconic Rage Velcuthimmorhar (aka Hephaestus named after the God of the Forge) and Tzchazzar Demigod Dragon of Chessenta.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I've been trying to figure out what kind of Dragon Drizzt is depicted fighting in the MtG set. Its mostly gray and spiky so at first I thought it was a Fang Dragon, but its breath weapon is wrong, its too fiery.

So its too gray and spiky to be a red dragon, its too fiery to be a Grey dragon, it has glowing red eyes, it dawned on me its probably a Volcanic Dragon.

And Volcanic Dragons happen to be one of the few types D&D and MtG share.

Volcanic dragon

Volcanic dragons were a species of catastrophic dragon that turned their backs on the gods and became infused with elemental fire. Volcanic dragons were known to be very ambitious, cruel, foul-tempered, and malevolent. They had one-track minds and a lust for devastation. They were also...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com