Magic: The Gathering was that game that has always caught my attention since my childhood, but for some reason I never made up my mind to play. With the release of Adventures in Forgotten Realms, as a good role-player that I am, I have not been able to resist and I have ended up immersed in this new world and my only regret is not having started earlier.

For more than a year, every Friday I have been meeting with my group of friends to play Dungeons & Dragons . We have a colorful team that ranges from a champion with dubious honor to a somewhat hyperactive bard … who I tried to poison, by the way. It is not the first time that I play and I have even done the hard work of a Master’s degree.

This group is the same one in which some of its members play Magic: The Gathering . I have seen many times how they played games and encouraged me to play while I resisted entering another card game. “Magic is very complicated,” I would say to myself, remembering some silly flirtation in the past. I couldn’t imagine that I would end up totally immersed after the release of Adventures in Forgotten Realms .

One of the elements that has always caught my attention in this game has been the great artistic work that it has. I remember as a child having access to some letters and gawking at the pictures. Imagine my admiration when the world of D&D shifts to them! So it’s no wonder I tell you that the first thing I noticed was almost the art of cards like Jelly Cube or Renegade Paladin . The most significant change from the rest of the expansions is the re-introduction of the dice roll mechanic . Any regular role-playing player knows that the die of 20It may be our greatest ally, but it may also be our worst nightmare. The good thing about not having played before is that this system seems so natural to me as if it had always been present and perpetuated my “good” luck with the blunders.

Finding the Forgotten Realms has not been totally unfamiliar to me. The first campaign that I managed to complete in company took place in Baldur’s Gate where we almost burned the entire city and everyone seemed suspected of conspiracy. My bard at that time was dedicated to berating everything he spoke to and was not far from reality.

More memories come to me with this new expansion. For example, the blue Dragon card reminds me that in the last session we managed to finish off a very annoying one who called us thieves. We still don’t really know how we did it, but now we have some nice scales in our backpack that may serve as a shield.

D&D and Magic, a unique fusion

The funny thing is that just like I remember many battles looking at the cards, the same will happen with the rest of the RPGs present. I can already imagine the games counting battles and pooling our experience in D&D. In the end, the purpose of creating stories through our imagination ends up materializing in Magic battles. This expansion includes the possibility of “entering the dungeons” thanks to certain certain cards. Imagine my surprise when I find the Tomb of Annihilation among them! It is precisely the campaign that we are carrying out in my group. Maybe you are wondering what is this about going somewhere … Aren’t we talking about a card game? I was also surprised, but the truth is that it is quite simple to understand.

Whether we decide to be druids, paladins or witches depends on our taste and our deckThere are dungeon cards in which each time we enter we can check the effect that is activated. These are divided into rooms and each time we enter them we advance one more. The grace of this is that when we reach the end of the dungeon we have obtained many benefits that can give us victory. In addition, we can not only enter one; if we finish it, we move on to the next one. On the other hand, each dungeon has its own essence. Without going any further, the Tomb of Annihilation is dedicated to annoying you until in the last stage you summon The Atropal, a terrible beast with a Mortal Touch. You pay a price, but you get it back in spades. I find this new dynamic extremely interesting and I will not deny having squeezed it for fun.

What also seems to me to be very organically integrated are classes and races. They are equipment cards that will allow us to level up and increase our capabilities significantly. Whether we decide to be druids, paladins or witches depends on our taste and our deck. Each class has three separate skills in sections, which in the role we know as class skills. The good thing is that they are activated based on our mana, although I must admit that I still have to learn to manage this resource without getting carried away by the emotion of the moment.

My first steps in Magic

I must concede to Magic Arena for having laid out all the necessary resources for me to learn how to play. While it is true that practice makes perfect, I was able to learn in a short time the foundations that allowed me to enter this world and never want to leave again.
I had no idea about playing Magic . Suddenly I was faced with an expansion that seemed to tell me that my moment was this and no other and I could not waste time. My first steps were guided by my faithful Master, who not only is usually quite benevolent in our adventure, but also knows this system a lot.

Thanks to his tutelage, I was able to understand simply the blocking system, the use of enchantments, what it means to fly or to be in a hurry and the importance of the lands to do absolutely everything. By the time I wanted to realize it, I was already playing alone and throwing myself into the void. My Master was proud. The good thing about Magic, and what has surprised me, is that there is not just one way to play, but depending on the color of the deck there are different offenses. The same you are a bit sadistic and decide to attack paying a price, that the same you invoke a legion of pieces that unite to form the Squad of evil. The amount of synergies and combinations is overwhelming for a newcomer like me.

I would be lying if I did not say that my fighting spirit was eager to learn as soon as possible to be able to face Rubén , my Extra Life partner and worthy rival, in what seems to be a clash of the titans. I have tried several colors and I have not opted for any yet, although everything seems to indicate that black is the one that attracts my attention the most. However, I will not be the one to reveal my strategy. Cards like the Vorpal Sword or Chattering Skeletons seem wonderful to me.

What do I hope to get out of this adventure?

Magic has been able to get my attention from the first moment that I have had contact with the new expansion and perhaps, what I regret the most, is not having encouraged me to play before. I feel that I have before me a new, unknown and wide stage to which I am willing to launch myself without any fear. I want to know all his cards, his entire universe and all the possible strategies, in what I myself know is an ambitious adventure , but in which what counts most is the path.

The role is played in company, Magic is played in companyLike when we create a character to play a new chronicle, I feel like I am at level 1 and need to continue to gain experience to gain new abilities and feats. If I were a paladin, now I could only attack with my sword, but soon I could make two attacks or acquire the Sentinel ability. By the time this 3D Games adventure ends I hope I have made it. For me, not only is it an advance as a player, but it also brings me closer to my own friends by now joining those games and participating in conversations where I was only a listener before.

I have not yet had much of a chance to connect with other people who also enjoy this card game beyond my group of friends and I hope to do so soon. The role is played in company, Magic is played in company and I can’t think of a better time to meet the community than through an expansion that unites these two concepts into one