Magic: the Gathering casts its players in the role of
planeswalkers, powerful wizards with the ability to travel between the planes
of the Multiverse. They can learn to use each plane’s unique spells, creatures, and resources in their duels with other
planeswalkers. But it can be easy to get caught up in the game’s complex
mechanics and lose sight of the fact that the players are supposed to be part
of the story.
Wizards of the Coast has begun to fix this problem by
releasing Dungeons and Dragons supplements for a number of planes,
including the marvelous Guildmaster’s
Guide to Ravnica. These supplements allow players to play Magic
characters and feel more like they’re part of the Multiverse. But there
are not yet official rules for playing in these settings as a planeswalker.
Luckily, my Dungeons and Dragons playgroup is working on a solution. Our
campaign integrates Magic’s rules and mechanics into Dungeons and
Dragons character creation and combat by giving its planeswalker characters
decks of Magic cards instead of spell lists.
To explain how the system works, I’ll be using my own
character as an example. Ariel is a newly-ignited planeswalker who grew up in
Ravnica’s Selesnya Conclave.
Creating Your Character
To start creating a planeswalker, use the Dungeons and
Dragons 5th Edition rules to create a spellcaster. If there’s a
supplement for your character’s home plane, use that. If there isn’t, work with
your DM to find the best approximation. Choose a color identity instead of (or
in addition to) an alignment, and build your character’s identity and goals
around it. You may want to create your character at level 3 or higher so that
they have access to some interesting magic that fits their color
identity.
Ariel is a wood elf druid with the Selesnya Initiate
background from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. She is a member of the
Circle of the Land, in both the Grassland and Forest domains. Her color
identity is white/green, with a blue splash that makes her curious about what
life is like in other guilds. Our campaign is set shortly after War of the
Spark, but Ariel lives outside Ravnica’s Tenth District, where the war actually happened, and has only read
vague stories about it in her local newspaper.
Even though your character will probably be leaving their
home plane, it’s a good idea to figure out what personal connections they have
there. Your DM may want to use this information to flesh out the story. For
example, my playgroup began our campaign with four short adventures telling the
stories of how each character’s spark ignited, with the other players playing
temporary characters. In Ariel’s adventure, she was sent to investigate the theft
of some important documents with a team of low-ranking members of other guilds,
including her Dimir friend Milo, who works at Ariel’s favorite bookstore. Her
spark ignited during a confrontation with the Orzhov vampire who had stolen and
sold the documents.
Planeswalkers’ magic works differently from other kinds of
magic. If your character’s spark has already ignited, choose your cantrips and
build a spell deck to replace spells of level 1 and higher. If your group will
be running prequel adventures, choose spells normally and build your spell deck
with your character’s original spell list in mind.
Building a Spell Deck
The spell decks my playgroup uses have a number of cards equal to 20 times their owner's proficiency bonus, and only use cards in their
owner’s color identity. They contain no legendary creatures or planeswalkers, and
have a number of rare or mythic cards less than or equal to the character’s spellcaster
level. (For example, at level 4, a deck should have 40 cards and up to 4 rares.)
Build your spell deck from a roleplaying perspective. Use
spells your character would cast, even if they’re not good spells for
competitive Magic. For example, Ariel’s deck includes Sprouting Renewal and Healing Grace,
two spells that are not widely played in Magic but can be interpreted
as having powerful effects in Dungeons and Dragons.
Remember to keep
your character’s abilities in mind: unless your character’s magic is
specifically based on summoning creatures, you will want to include fewer
creatures than is usual for Magic decks. And even if your character is a summoner, noncreature spells will be more useful outside combat, so you may want to focus on spells with modes that create creature tokens, as I do in Ariel's deck.
Don't worry about making your deck consistent. The fewer duplicates you include in your deck, the more different spells your character can cast.
Be creative with how you interpret spells. Effects that
apply to your opponent’s creatures can be used on your enemies in combat, and
effects that apply to your creatures can be used on your party members. Ariel’s
deck includes Assure
// Assemble, which can be used to strengthen her party members; and Totally
Lost, which can be used to confuse an enemy and cause them to wander away. If
you’re not sure how a spell will be interpreted, ask your DM about it before
you put it in your deck.
Use creatures and lands from planes your character has spent
a lot of time on. These will be the easiest for your character to use. For a
newly-ignited planeswalker like Ariel, this will just be their home plane.
Ariel’s deck includes creatures with Selesnya watermarks from Guilds of
Ravnica, as well as several copies of Selesnya
Guildgate. Make sure to include plenty of basic lands in your deck, since
you will be using them to represent your available mana at the start of combat.
(For more on that, keep an eye out for my next article.)
Leveling up
Leveling up works the same way as it normally would for your character class, except that you also get to modify your deck by replacing some of the cards. A fun way to choose those cards is to open a booster pack from a set on the plane your campaign is set on, and add cards in your color identity from that pack to represent your planeswalker learning about the lands and spells available on that plane. The campaign I'm in is set on a homebrew plane, so there isn't a set associated with it, but the DM has created some custom cards representing NPCs and encounters that players can include in their decks as proxies.
Your playgroup may also want to create
Signature Spells for your characters. These spells should be in the character's color identity and represent a core aspect of their magic--a spell they cast often or something that means a lot to them. Ariel's Signature Spell is based on her druidic ability to speak to the land, and her Selesnyan willingness to make friends with everyone she can.
In my next post, I'll talk more about how to use your spell deck once you’ve built it. In the meantime, here's Ariel's Signature Spell and her decklist at level 4, which includes both her Signature and the custom nonbasic Road-type land Prairie Turnpike.
Creatures
Noncreature spells
Ariel's Greeting
Lands
2 Prairie Turnpike
3 Plains
2 Island
6 Forest
