Magic: The Gathering's ambitious Dungeons & Dragons crossover, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, will replace the traditional core set expansion for this year's Standard format additions. More than that, however, it's the clearest connection the two properties have had with each other yet, making a leap far greater than the Dungeons & Dragons Magic: The Gathering settings that have been added to the tabletop roleplaying experience in past years.
So far in preview season, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms hasn't lacked for splashiness, another quality that goes against the grain of what players tend to expect from a core set release. Iconic characters appear on both creature and planeswalker cards alike, while the venture mechanic, which sees players begin a sub-game using one of three dungeon cards that exist outside the game, will challenge conventional complexity for Standard.
One thing that's been noted by some observers is the growing sensation that Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is Magic: The Gathering for dedicated Dungeons & Dragons players, something supported by the addition of such an obvious, integral reference as the venture and dungeon mechanic. However, there are certainly cards that have been previewed that do a much more subtle job of marrying the identity of Dungeons & Dragons to the mechanics of the Magic: The Gathering card game - and Screen Rant has been given an exclusive preview of just such a card to share with players today:
Screen Rant's Exclusive Magic: The Gathering - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Preview Card: Choose Your Weapon
Choose Your Weapon is an excellent example of another way that Magic: The Gathering is adapting Dungeons & Dragons smoothly into the card-playing experience. It's a 3 mana uncommon green instant spell that has two modes available to players, and each mode references a Dungeons & Dragons trait. Two-Weapon Fighting flavorfully connects to the mechanic its supporting, with the option to double a creature's power and toughness - which is easy to imagine happening for a creature that's suddenly produced a second weapon. Archery deals 5 damage to a creature with flying, which evokes the kind of keen-eyed sharpshooters many Dungeons & Dragons player groups are familiar with by now.
Beyond the effective combination of Dungeons & Dragons keywords with the mechanics of the spell, Choose Your Weapon also seems like a solid addition to any green Limited deck. Modal spells grow more powerful the slower or more varied a format is, and Limited produces some truly complex board states. Choose Your Weapon works from both an offensive and defensive perspective, and while the rate for its cost doesn't necessarily match up perfectly with the effects it offers, that extra cost for more flexibility will often be well worth it.
Of course, doubling a creature's power and toughness can be an explosive constructed mechanic too, and having any sort of failsafe for the card being poor in a situation - even if it's an equally niche role like dealing with a creature with flying - means it's something to keep an eye on in Standard, too. Regardless of where it shows up for play, however, Choose Your Weapon is one of the best examples of the ways in which Dungeons & Dragons naturally meshes well with Magic: The Gathering's presentation - and the way that Adventures in the Forgotten Realms seems to be successfully capitalizing on those combinations when they're available, too.
Magic: The Gathering - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms releases on July 23, 2021, with a prerelease week spanning July 16 to July 22, 2021.