Hello everyone. Now that Adventures in the Forgotten Realms has been released on Magic Arena, it's time to start looking at some new decks created with these cards. Since this set is based around a DnD campaign setting, the first types of decks I'll be featuring will be decks based on Dungeons and decks based around Dragons. As such, this will be part one of a two-part article, and I'll focus on the Dungeon based decks this week. Let's get started.

Esper Dungeons

The first deck I have for you is a three-color deck that has plenty of ways to deal handle an opponent's creatures. Let's take a look at it.

Esper Dungeons | AFR Standard | LegenVD, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Acererak the Archlich
• 3 Barrowin of Clan Undurr
• 3 Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker
• 4 Cloister Gargoyle
• 4 Nadaar, Selfless Paladin
• 4 Triumphant Adventurer
• 4 Yuan-Ti Malison

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Lolth, Spider Queen

• Instants (6)
• 3 Heartless Act
• 3 Vanishing Verse

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Precipitous Drop
• 3 Fly

• Lands (25)
• 1 Island
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 2 Temple of Silence
• 4 Brightclimb Pathway // Grimclimb Pathway
• 4 Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Hengegate Pathway // Mistgate Pathway

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You also have creatures that benefit from you having successfully completed a dungeon. Cloister Gargoyle will become a 3/4 flying threat once you complete a dungeon. Nadaar, Selfless Paladin gives other creatures you control a +1/+1 bonus as long as you've completed a dungeon. Finally, Acererak the Archlich can't even stay on the battlefield unless you've completed the Tomb of Annihilation dungeon first. Acererak does act as a repeatable means of venturing into a dungeon that can be triggered via the use of mana until you decide to complete the Tomb of Annihilation, which can be helpful if your opponent has a battlefield full of big creatures.

Normally, though, creatures your opponent controls will be easily dealt with by a variety of spells at your disposal. Vanishing Verse will exile a target monocolored permanent. While it can be used on a creature, you might consider holding onto this for a bit before using it, as it can also remove other annoying card types such as enchantments and artifacts. Heartless Act can outright destroy any creature that has no counters on it, or make a big creature smaller. Finally, Precipitous Drop gives a negative buff to a target creature. The size of the negative buff goes from -2/-2 to -5/-5 if you've completed a dungeon, so it can help you take down a decent sized threat.

Abzan Dungeons

Next, I have a deck that is Abzan in colors. It features the new planeswalker, Ellywick Tumblestrum. Let's check it out.

Abzan Dungeons | AFR Standard | MTGJeff, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (24)
• 2 Acererak the Archlich
• 3 Barrowin of Clan Undurr
• 3 Varis, Silverymoon Ranger
• 4 Intrepid Outlander
• 4 Nadaar, Selfless Paladin
• 4 Ranger's Hawk
• 4 Triumphant Adventurer

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Ellywick Tumblestrum

• Instants (3)
• 3 Heartless Act

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 You Find a Cursed Idol

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Portable Hole

• Lands (24)
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Plains
• 4 Forest
• 3 Indatha Triome
• 4 Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway
• 4 Brightclimb Pathway // Grimclimb Pathway
• 4 Darkbore Pathway // Slitherbore Pathway

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Ellywick's other loyalty abilities won't be used quite as often, but can still be very beneficial. Her -2 loyalty ability offers you a decent chance to gain three points of life, as there are a fair number of legendary creatures in this deck. This ability will be very useful if you need to find a creature to cast to protect Ellywick from an opponent's attacks. Her -7 loyalty ability creates an emblem that has the potential to give all of your creatures a +6/+6 boost, in addition to trample and haste. This can allow you to attack for a lot of damage and can end games very quickly.

Both this deck and the previous deck included Barrowin of Clan Undurr. This Dwarf Cleric is quite useful in both decks, since all of the creatures in both decks, with the exception of Barrowin, have a mana value of three or less. That allows Barrowin to return any other creature from your graveyard to the battlefield when he attacks without paying its mana cost, with the caveat that you have to have completed a dungeon. Any time you can get something for free (or very little cost, such as attacking), it can be game-changing. Barrowin of Clan Undurr is sure to be a staple in many dungeon venturing decks.

Orzhov Dungeons

The final dungeon themed deck I have for you is an Orzhov deck that's a bit of a budget deck. If you want to try out a dungeon deck without spending a lot of coin, give this one a try. Let's take a look at it.

Orzhov Dungeons | AFR Standard | TheSkarTV, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Nadaar, Selfless Paladin
• 2 Triumphant Adventurer
• 4 Barrowin of Clan Undurr
• 4 Cloister Gargoyle
• 4 Dungeon Crawler
• 4 Lightfoot Rogue

• Instants (8)
• 4 Feign Death
• 4 Power Word Kill

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Bloodchief's Thirst

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Portable Hole

• Lands (24)
• 11 Swamp
• 9 Plains
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 2 Silverquill Campus

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This deck includes a couple of spells that are capable of dealing with a lot of the threats your opponent might play. Power Word Kill can destroy a majority of creatures. If you happen to be playing against a tribal deck that includes a lot of Angels, Demons, Devils, or Dragons, you might feel a little more pressure since this card can't take care of those creature types, but against any other creature types, you'll be fine. Power Word Kill can also be used on your own creature as a way of 'negating' an opponent's targeted removal. It works especially well when combined with Feign Death.

The other removal spell I wanted to mention is Portable Hole. This artifact costs a single White mana and can exile any nonland permanent an opponent controls with a mana value of two or less. This permanent will remain exiled until your opponent removed Portable Hole from the battlefield. We've had similar effects like this before, but those were usually enchantments which are more difficult to remove from the battlefield than artifacts are. It's definitely a removal spell worth playing, but we'll have to see if this increases the amount of artifact destruction that Standard decks begin packing.

Wrapping Up

In my opinion, I think dungeons are going to be a hit. While they might only provide you with a small bonus for each room you explore, small bonuses add up over time. My only wish is that there were more than three dungeons to explore. There have been a ton of notable dungeons published for DnD over the years, so I'm hopeful we'll see more dungeons at some point in the future.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes