Wizards of the Coast are a well-established gaming company, particularly when it comes to Trading Card Games and Tabletop Role-Playing Games, and as of July 23, Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons come together in a way that nobody would have expected. With the release of the new series Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, players will now put that life-counting D20 to use as they explore the dungeons of Faerûn.

The new series sports over 260 new cards, including Dungeon cards in which players can earn rewards and bonuses by activating the rooms they contain. As would be expected, these cards are all meticulously detailed and feature art pieces by a number of highly talented artists, all inspired by the characters and locations found in the D&D world, and on top of the usual Planeswalkers, players can even collect and use cards based on well-known characters, such as the Beholder Xanathar, or the Elder Dragon Tiamat.

As usual, Commander Decks will have you ready to go, with a single Commander, 100 cards, and a handy deck box to keep them safe, but the real fun of card collecting comes in the 3 different booster packs you can purchase. The fifteen-card Draft Booster will contain a single Rare or higher card, three uncommon, ten commons, and a land card. There is also the very small possibility of a Mythic Borderless Planeswalker. When I say very small, I mean you have a less than 1% chance, but there is a 33% chance you’ll get a nice shiny foil card, so there’s that.

Then there is the twelve-card Set Booster, which features between 1 and 4 cards that are Rare or higher, as well as a single art card. The rest of the pack is made up of 7 to 10 cards of common and uncommon rarities, plus the mandatory land card again. Of course, the highly coveted shiny card is also included, with a slightly higher chance of a second one in these packs. For those who are more inclined to collect the cards, this is also where you’ll be more likely to find an art card, or more importantly, a foil-stamped signature art card.

The final booster pack is certainly aimed at the collectors out there and is very aptly named. The fifteen-card Collector Booster features the highest number of shinies, with 10 traditional foil cards per pack. These packs are made up of 5 rare or higher, 2 to 5 uncommon cards, 4 to 7 common rarity, and of course, your land card. This pack also has the highest chance of finding the Foil Mythic Borderless Planeswalker, with a whopping 4% chance per pack. This pack is full of shiny goodness, and as they say on the Magic the Gathering website, what’s an adventure without treasure?

Of course, you could throw these into your normal deck and ignore the D&D-themed abilities, but where is the fun in that? Wizards of the Coast have merged their two best-known games, which under most circumstances wouldn’t work. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, on the other hand, works well, as it maintains your normal Magic the Gathering playstyle while introducing a toned-down version of Dungeons & Dragons. Somehow, it just works. Seeing as the last time I played was back in 2004, I doubt I’ll be playing again, but the artwork has me captivated and I am now wanting to see just how many I can collect.

Written by: Mathew Lindner