WotC So, when do the announce the July book? Guesses on what it'll be? 🤔

[Parmandur]

You forgot Bundle and Commander Decks. The safest investment is the Commander Decks because you will know the cost and value before hand, no gambling. Beyond Commander Decks unless you enjoy limited, your better off buying singles off the secondary market, because as I said everything else is gambling.

Sometimes gambling is fun. Unlike Blackjack in Vegas, at least you get some cool collectibles and game pieces no matter what.

The Bundle is just 10 draft boosters and some land and some other swag (and three Dungeons, in this case).

 

[Parmandur]

These are what you would be considered the "normal" booster pack.




That somewhat depends if you're hoping to go down to game night at the store, or play with friends at home.

Draft boosters are the traditional boosters. I like the Set and Theme boosters, as well, and without in-store play they are pretty attractive.

 

[darjr]

So I think this D&D magic set telegraphs how much D&D has risen vs magic. I mean magic is still probably a ton more profitable with more in sales, but I dint think Magic would have done this otherwise.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Yeah, it's confusing.

So, there are four types of Booster:

• Draft boosters, which have 15 cards, mostly Common, a few Uncommons, and a Rare or Mythic Rare. This is what comes in the Prerelease and in the bundles. This is what you get for drafting or other Limited play, and you end up with a lot of chaff cards.
• Set boosters have 12 cards, a token, and an "art card" for collecting. This has better cards than the draft boosters, but you can't play Limited games with them: fun for buying to get cool cards for the Set.
• Collector boosters come with 15 cards that are blinged out. Pretty pricey, don't get Collector boosters.
• Theme boosters, which they decided not to show the art for here which is interesting, have 35 cards that are designed to fit together in a theme, like an all Green booster may have an Elf theme, or a Cat theme that ties together all 35 cards. You could just grab some land and play these, and have some fun.

Also Collector Boosters are full of Pringles (aka foils, they curl, alot usually), so yeah avoid Collectors boosters big time. Honestly the only things worth buying are Bundles/Prerelease Packs/Draft Boosters IF your into sealed or drafting or Commander Decks, otherwise buy singles.

They likely didn't show the Theme boosters to avoid showing Legendary creatures on the packaging they aren't ready for us to know about and because the 6th type of Theme Boosters (the others being colour boosters) is a special secret that they seem excited about.

For new players I'd suggest either a Commander Deck or if you want pure AFR cards or want to try draft a Bundle (which intrigues me because of the Dungeon Cards and D20 instead of a life counter).

Also note the prerelease Packs have extra stuff in them this time, but no Arena code or Life Counter sadly. Instead you get the double sided Dungeon Cards, a D20 (usable as a life counter), and surprisingly a deck box.

 

[ART!]

Okay, so, for the almost totally uninitiated: if I wanted to play casually using the new D&D cards, what would I need to buy?

 

[Maxperson]

Sometimes gambling is fun. Unlike Blackjack in Vegas, at least you get some cool collectibles and game pieces no matter what.

The Bundle is just 10 draft boosters and some land and some other swag (and three Dungeons, in this case).

My two buddies and I played ante games until revised came out. It was a lot of fun, even when something amazing like a Time Twister or Time Walk was on the line.

 

[Parmandur]

So I think this D&D magic set telegraphs how much D&D has risen vs magic. I mean magic is still probably a ton more profitable with more in sales, but I dint think Magic would have done this otherwise.

Well, AFR would have started in development.in early-mid 2019...right when solid sales numbers and customer survey results for Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica would have come in.

 

[Rikka66]

Okay, so, for the almost totally uninitiated: if I wanted to play casually using the new D&D cards, what would I need to buy?

Either a Commander deck if you want to try the commander mode of play, or a pre-release kit which comes with enough boosters + extras to make a deck. If your local store if able to host a pre-release event for the set, you'll end up doing the latter.

 

[Parmandur]

Okay, so, for the almost totally uninitiated: if I wanted to play casually using the new D&D cards, what would I need to buy?

The Commander decks are a good bet, as they are ready to play out of the box. The Prerelease is also a good starting place, if your LGS has them.

 

[Parmandur]

Also Collector Boosters are full of Pringles (aka foils, they curl, alot usually), so yeah avoid Collectors boosters big time. Honestly the only things worth buying are Bundles/Prerelease Packs/Draft Boosters IF your into sealed or drafting or Commander Decks, otherwise buy singles.

They likely didn't show the Theme boosters to avoid showing Legendary creatures on the packaging they aren't ready for us to know about and because the 6th type of Theme Boosters (the others being colour boosters) is a special secret that they seem excited about.

For new players I'd suggest either a Commander Deck or if you want pure AFR cards or want to try draft a Bundle (which intrigues me because of the Dungeon Cards and D20 instead of a life counter).

Also note the prerelease Packs have extra stuff in them this time, but no Arena code or Life Counter sadly. Instead you get the double sided Dungeon Cards, a D20 (usable as a life counter), and surprisingly a deck box.

This Prerelease has more stuff than most do, Kaldheim just had the d20 counter and a single foil along with the deck box (simple cardboard, gotta put the draft deck somewhere). I wouldn't read too much beyond branding into the d20/life counter distinction because in Magic a life counter is a d20 normally (except for Commander). Hadn't noticed the lack of an Arena code, that's interesting...

I think they definitely didn't show the Theme decks to avoid some sort of spoiler. For context in previous sets, Strixhaven had 5 Theme boosters, one for each College in dual colors, while Kaldheim had 6: one for each Color if Magic, and a sixth for Vikings. It was multicolored, just focused on Viking themes. I'd wager we'll get one Theme boosters line for each Color here, and one for Dungeons.