I swear, Modern Horizons 2 hasn't even cooled off yet but here we are with the Forgotten Realms expansion.
So let's talk about it.
After my initial impression of the set, I was hoping that once we saw the whole thing, I'd be won over and interested in giving Forgotten Realms its due. Unfortunately, I've found that the more I looked at it, the cooler I became towards the set. It feels stuffed with art and names and fluff but less with solid, interesting mechanics, or giving players a genuine sense of setting. Is this a problem of being released in the shadow of one of the most bonkers sets WotC has done, or is there less meat on the bone?
The Class subset of enchantments are an interesting example. A Saga players can 'level up' as desired? That's neat! It gives players options and uses Enchantments in mechanically interesting ways, while being a good mana sink so there are options across many formats. But there are twelve of them. Was that necessary, or is that just trying to shove all the D&D things in it can? How much room to grow is there? They've...done all of them.
I'm not saying that there cannot be Monks or Barbarians in Forgotten Realms but Magic sets are just as much about what is not there as they are about what is. That contrast helps give the Plane identity and defines the unique properties just as much as art and mechanics do. What it seems like is that Forgotten Realms is trying to throw everything in a blender and then at the wall in order to appease...everyone?
Let's talk about what I see as one of the big shifts: the die rolling. This is a big deal because Magic is already a game with a great deal of variance, so a mechanic that steps up the variance is a massive questionmark in my mind. When it's appeared in an Un set, it's a different story because we know those sets are supposed to be a more relaxed version of the game. On the other hand, rolling dice is so important to D&D that I'm almost surprised there aren't more. And White not having a card involving this mechanic seems weird-even Paladins roll dice.
That said, they generally did the correct thing and make it so you can't miss on most of the cards. Even on the pushed card- Delina, Wild Mage- this mechanic isn't likely to break out of limited and that's probably for the best.
Lastly, we've got the dungeons. Here's an idea that I wish they'd taken further! But it's absolutely a Limited mechanic and likely a Commander annoyance. The shortest dungeon takes three triggers to complete, with the longest taking seven.
Forgotten Realms has 36 cards that care about dungeons but not all of them let you venture, and more than a few aren't under your control as a player.
Heck, in some ways I think you can look at one card -Dungeon Descent- and take what you need about this mechanic, in the same way that you could look at Base Camp from Zendikar Rising and draw your conclusions about whether or not Party was worth your time.
There's no logical reason I can see for either of those lands to ETB tapped, but they both do, which means they punish you for wanting to play the mechanic WotC invested in. On top of that, Dungeon Descent wants to use 4 mana, plus the land, PLUS a creature you control and you can only do this as a sorcery.
What payoff are you working for that costs so much? It really feels like dissuasion, not encouragement.
But wait. The spoiler from the Commander set for Forgotten Realms has been released. Add another five cards to that. Is this interesting or good enough to make it in Commander? Can a dedicated Dungeon deck actually work? I think it would be cool if it did, I just don't see the pieces coming together. (It's also a place with more die rolling, which again for the more casual tilt of the format, makes sense).
So I'm getting the sensation that this set is a Commander set, maybe even an Un set, rather than a Magic set. My friend Sean has noted that nothing seems very cohesive and nothing connects to the larger Magic universe-which is, admittedly, on purpose. These mechanics aren't going to come around again-unless they do another D&D set.
But how are they going to make that set feel different from this one? This already feels generic. There's something incredibly forgettable about Forgotten Realms.
Lastly, while I don't think this is bad, I do wonder if having so many cards with italicized text before an ability will be confusing to new players. Moon-Blessed Cleric doesn't have an ability called Divine Intervention, for example-and possibly gets more confusing when players discover there's already a Divine Intervention card.
Maybe it doesn't matter but I would prefer to err on the side of less confusing, especially since it's essentially flavor text but it's flavor text in a place where that doesn't usually go.
As a result, this set is hard for me to look at because I'm just not sure who it's for, what the audience it's looking to serve is asking.
In White, I'm surprised to see the return of phasing as a thing. Guardian of Faith seems cool but also extremely situational. I do like Minimus Containment and I'm interested to see if stapling Enlightened Tutor to a creature (Moon-Blessed Cleric) is a strong enough idea.
Cards that are going into my Garbage Cube: Flumph, Half-Elf Monk
Blue's suite of cards are a bit weirder and much if that is owed to the die rolling. But Tasha's Hideous Laughter is quite the nasty card for milling decks. Exiling cards like that is probably going to surprise a few people. There's also a Dragon Turtle and it's hard to be upset about that.
Cards going into the Garbage Cube: Sudden Insight and Contact Other Plane.
Black probably has one of my favorite wins in the set in Check for Traps, with Gelatinous Cube coming in close second. The reliance on the use of Treasure mana though makes things pretty weak as cards don't seem worth it unless you have a Treasure and the acquisition of Treasure doesn't seem very consistent.
Cards going into the Garbage Cube: Forsworn Paladin (it's...bad), Herald of Hadar
Red, oddly, has fewer die rolling cards than Blue (10 vs 12)-which is strange because the chaotic element of die rolling has traditionally highest in Red. There isn't much that I'm finding likable here though. I'm not fond of the "Pack Tactics" mechanic and I don't know that Goblins needed any help or gets anything unique here. I do like You Find Some Prisoners, though. Neat set of options there.
Cards going into the Garbage Cube: Tiger-Tribe Hunter, Farideh's Fireball.
Coming to Green, as we do there's Circle of Dreams Druid which is going to draw every piece of removal opponents can throw at it. You Find A Cursed Idol is nice and Werewolf Pack Leader is too efficient to ignore.
Cards going into the Garbage Cube: Loathsome Troll, Wild Shape
The Other Stuff is something I wish I could get excited about-there's nothing awful about it but I'm not gravitating to anything either. The exception is the creature lands: those are cool and I'm glad to see new versions of those, because they're always welcome and never useless.
The card going into the Garbage Cube: Treasure Chest.
And that's it. I don't know that I'm viewing this set negatively because of Modern Horizons 2 but I do feel like this set isn't just a step down in power level but it's a step back in the qualities that make Magic engaging to me as a game-a unique property. The way that they pulled other source material into Magic just doesn't feel like it jibes with the game and that's unfortunate, honestly.
If there was something that I thought would go easily into Magic it would be a D&D setting. But they seem to be opting to put in a D&D game instead and I am not feeling it.
