The year is 2021.

Brainstorm is still legal in Legacy.

Modern is experiencing a breath of new life thanks to Modern Horizons 2.

And this is a Magic: The Gathering card:

(Okay technically it's a token, stop getting your kicks from being pedantic on the internet!)

I don't personally play or know a bunch about Dungeons and Dragons, but from what I hear the Lost Mine of Phandelver is an introductory campaign, which means that it's a great place to start as it probably the simplest of the three new Dungeon cards.

I guess the best place to start is...

...What in the World is a Dungeon Card?

At first glance, Lost Mine of Phandelver's only resemblance to a Magic: The Gathering card is the title font and the mention of Magic mechanics like "scry" and "1/1 Goblin token." There's no mana cost, no extra instructions, no typeline - it's a bit jarring!

However, once explained it makes sense rather quickly as the mechanic is very flavorful.

In a lot of ways, dungeons can be seen a mixture of the lesson/learn mechanic from Strixhaven and the very popular saga card type.

Dungeons don't go into your deck. Like lesson cards, they exist outside of the game to be grabbed when needed. Like lesson cards, this can be a little confusing when you only see the learn cards and aren't sure what they are referencing, but unlike lesson cards they don't go into your sideboard. Instead, they operate like creature tokens do, in that they exist when you need them to and are always available.

So how does one enter the dungeon?

It's easy, you just venture!

Venture is a new keyword that basically means "select one of the dungeons and start navigating it, or if you are already in a dungeon then proceed one space ahead." As we saw on the dungeon card, each room of the dungeon offers you a simple triggered ability like "scry 1" or "draw a card" which will allow you to accrue small advantages as you work your way through completing the dungeon. There are also paths on some dungeons which turns it into a choose-your-own-adventure where you can select the trigger you are most interested in at the time.

This means that any card with venture has the potential to do a whole host of different things. Shortcut Seeker is definitely designed with limited in mind, but there are a few other venture cards currently previewed that are Constructed playable:

Wait Dragons can have jobs? And clothing? Clearly, I don't know much about DnD.

Nadaar, Selfless Paladin is a much more Constructed playable rate than Shortcut Seeker. A 3-drop 3/3 with Vigilance is fine, if unexciting, but getting to trigger venture on both entering the battlefield as well as attacking gives Nadaar the potential to be an expert level dungeon clearer. It's hard to quantify exactly what a venture trigger is worth on average, but even though it's not quite a card each time it's still going to probably play a lot more impactfully than it looks. Like learn/lesson, the effect may not always be worth a card, but the flexibility makes it very appealing.

And then of course there's that line about completing dungeons. Giving a +1/+1 to all buff puts Nadaar on par with Benalish Marshal, a very difficult to cast card that saw a ton of Standard play. With Lost Mine of Phandelver being only four "chapters" and Tomb of Annihilation potentially being three, this will likely come into play a lot more than you would think.

It's obviously very early to tell, but my initial impression is that Nadaar is going to be a lot better than you think it is going to be.

Our third venture card is perhaps the most interesting:

A planeswalker plus ability that ventures? That's pretty cool!

This actually reminds me a lot of a rather silly Unstable card:

While clearly not as silly or random (is the internet canon in Dungeons and Dragons?), the idea of not being exactly sure what you're getting off of your planeswalker loyalty ability is an amusing one.

When you activate Ellywick's +1 ability, it could be anything from simply scrying 1 to drawing three cards and casting a spell for free, which is an amazingly wide spread. Making tokens, stopping attackers, drawing cards... these are all very powerful things to have attached to a +1 on a four-mana and fairly durable planeswalker.

Like Nadaar, the plus ability on Ellywick is probably going to play a lot better than it looks.

Besides the gimmick, you are also getting a very reasonable planeswalker. Four mana for four loyalty is certainly reasonable, and the -2 ability is just your usual good card advantage. Six cards is very deep, and considering how well Ellywick plays with Nadaar, I'd imagine you'll be gaining the three life a good amount of the time as well.

While we don't want to judge planeswalkers solely on the ultimate, the -7 synergies extremely well with the +1, as trample, haste, and +2/+2 is very powerful emblem. Even cooler is that it's +2/+2 for each dungeon completed, meaning it scales well as the game goes on as well.

There's a lot going on with Ellywick, making her one of the most exciting cards previewed so far.

However, let's go over each of the three dungeons as venture means nothing without them.

As we mentioned, Lost Mine of Phandelver is the least complicated of the three. It's easy to see a common path of:

Scry 1 into Make a 1/1 Goblin into Put a +1/+1 counter on the Goblin token into Draw a card

This seems simple, but if these are just things that are happening over the course of normal gameplay that's some very nice value to be getting. It's also important to note that the last chapter should really be "draw a card and meet the condition of completing a dungeon" which is also relevant.

Let's move on to the more complicated ones.

I'm sorry, is this a Magic card with actual drawbacks?

Tomb of Annihilation feels like a very old school Black card, with all sorts of life loss and discard effects capping off in a 4/4 pseudo-demon. This is by far the most aggressive of the three dungeons, as it not only causes your opponent harm and difficult choices, but also allows you to further hurt yourself for profit. If you're willing to take the Oubliette path, you can have your 4/4 in only three ventures, but it will cost you. This also means that you can trigger your dungeon completion effects very fast as well.

Tomb of Annihilation feels like the Dungeon most suited for Constructed play, at least for aggressive decks. Discarding a card can be a bonus too sometimes!

Whoa boy that's a lot of words.

A full seven levels deep, there's a lot going on with Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

Many of the rooms in this dungeon are of lesser impact than the other two. Every other level is just a scry, which is fine but not super impactful to the board. However, as you progress deeper and deeper the payoffs become better and better. Once you hit level five you get the option to essentially draw two cards or make two 1/1 tokens, both of which are excellent payoffs to either get ahead on cards or stave off an aggressive assault.

However, the real prize is on level seven:

"Draw three cards and reveal them. You may cast one of them without paying it's mana cost."

Ah yes, everyone's favorite Magic phrase "without paying it's mana cost."

This is an extremely powerful effect, as drawing three cards is already awesome but getting a tempo boost of casting one of them for free is incredible and a great way to catch up from all the work you put into venturing deeper and deeper. The good news here is that getting seven levels deep into a dungeon is probably not something that combo decks will want to be doing, so we probably don't have an Aetherworks Marvel type of card on our hands here. Rather, we've just got some really good value.

While there are only currently three dungeons, there's a pretty wide spread of variety across them already.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Whether you're going to take the quick and easy pass of Lost Mine of Phandelver, the powerful but deadly Tomb of Annihilation, or the deep trek into the Dungeon of the Mad Mage, there's no doubt that there are endless choices to make.

This is awesome!

With so few venture cards, or cards from the set in general, previewed, it's hard to know exactly how much we will be seeing venture in Constructed. However, there's no doubt this is an extremely flavorful and creative mechanic that does an excellent job of giving any card with venture a large number of options without flooding text boxes with words.

I've never played a game of DnD in my life, but, so far, I'm pretty amped about this set!