5 Underrated Cards From Adventures in the Forgotten Realm

As you probably know, it was recently announced that we’re going to be getting a whole lot of Universes Beyond sets in 2025, and they’re all going to be legal in Standard. These are sets that are based on an IP other than Magic: the Gathering. This got me thinking about our first Standard-legal Universes Beyond set – 2021’s Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

This set has had a marked impact on Commander. For example, Volo and Tiamat are incredibly popular Commanders, and the powerful treasure generators Deadly Dispute and Unexpected Windfall are two of the most heavily played cards in their respective colors.

However, while it’s certainly well known that Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is a powerful set, there are still some cards in it that are being overlooked by Commander players. In this article, I’m going to discuss 5 cards from the set that deserve serious consideration in your decks.

UNDERRATED COMMANDER: KALAIN, RECLUSIVE PAINTER

As I mentioned above, two of the best cards in Forgotten Realms are Deadly Dispute and Unexpected Windfall. They both ask you to give up something pretty mine in exchange for treasure and cards. Well, Kalain gives you a great way to leverage those and other powerful Treasure generators. In fact, she happens to be one. That’s not a small thing either, as the fact that she generates a treasure means she can help you pay for the Commander tax in the future and that’s always a powerful thing.

In addition to generating a treasure for you, she makes all of your creatures better if you cast them using treasure. This makes it pretty easy to build around her. Just play a bunch of creatures who like and/or generate treasure. Bonus points if they are also good with +1/+1 counters.

Axgard Artisan and Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder are great examples of this. The Artisan gives you a treasure when it gets a counter, and Evereth can sacrifice treasure to grow herself with counters. And she can pay you off for that in a big way, since when she dies you can have her do damage to each opponent equal to her power.

PORTABLE HOLE

This is one of the best ways to exile early problem permanents – like the always pesky Sol Ring. But it has applications well beyond that, since there are many powerful cheap permanents in Magic these days – including creature tokens.

While the Hole definitely isn’t something every White deck in the format wants, if you can leverage some additional value out of it by virtue of it’s Artifact typing it should definitely be in your deck. For example, if your Commander is Gandalf the White or Oswald Fiddlebender (both are Universes Beyond Commanders, by the by), you should be using Portable Hole.

Gandalf lets you play it at instant speed, while also giving you the trigger twice! And Oswald can tutor it up or use it to tutor up something else.

BARD CLASS

One of the cooler things that came out of Forgotten Realms is the introduction of the Class subtype, which appears on Enchantments and has since returned in spirit in Bloomburrow. They are all Enchantments that start with a base effect, but then you can level them up by paying mana, and they gain more and more effects. Usually, they synergize together.

Bard Class is all about legendary creatures. So, if you’ve got a Gruul Commander, you should think about using Bard Class. This is because it can make them much easier to cast, buff them, and even grant you card advantage. The mana reduction alone can really help you out if your deck is all about casting your Commander multiple times.

However, the Class gets especially potent in decks with a broader legendary-matters theme. Because then, not only your Commander benefits from all those effects. 

So, if your commander is Sisay, Captain of the Weatherlight or Esika, God of the Tree, Bard Class is something you should be using.

SKELETAL SWARMING

There isn’t currently a viable Golgari Skeletons-Matter Commander. If there were, Skeletal Swarming would be extra insane. However, even in the absence of such a Commander, Skeletal Swarming is still a really powerful way to generate tokens every turn. Especially in a sacrifice deck, which can easily make two Skeletons per turn and sacrifice them for value.

If you’re using Meren of Clan Nel Toth, you can quickly get more experience counters, and if you’re using Chatterfang, Skeletal Swarming will start generating Squirrels alongside those two Skeletons each turn.

DEN OF THE BUGBEAR

I love creature lands. And you should too! They have all the upside of regular lands. That is, they can produce mana for you when that’s what you need. But unlike all those other silly lands, they can actually do something meaningful later in the game. It’s almost like getting card advantage

Additionally, they often tend to dodge board sweepers, so even after the board is left decimated, you can often activate your creature land and smash in.

As a result of all that, I think the entire creature land cycle in Forgotten Realms is underrated in general. Sure, they usually enter tapped – but it’s worth the downside for each and every one of them. I singled out Den of the Bugbear in particular both because I think it’s the best of the bunch and the most underrated.

While it might not be as big as the others, it has the most useful creature type of them all. Being a Goblin has massive upside since it’s such a well-supported creature type with hundreds of payoffs. Also, unlike the other lands in the cycle (and most other creature lands in general), Den of the Bugbear can actually add something permanent to the board, since it creates a Goblin creature token.

So, if you’re playing Krenko, Mob Boss – like most people who play Goblin Commander decks – put Den of the Bugbear in your deck immediately. You won’t be sorry.

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What do you think? Are these cards underrated? Are there some underrated cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms that I left out? Let me know over on X!

Jacob has been playing Magic for the better part of 24 years, and he especially loves playing Magic’s Limited formats. He also holds a PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. In 2015, he started his YouTube channel, “Nizzahon Magic,” where he combines his interests with many videos covering Magic’s competitive history. When he’s not playing Magic or making Magic content, he can be found teaching college-level history courses or caring for a menagerie of pets with his wife.