Dungeons and Dragonsfans have a lot of reasons to rejoice right now. On top of the recent release ofVan Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft,the cards in the Forgotten RealmsMagic: The Gatheringset have seen their first reveals. They’re already promising an exciting new depictions of famousDungeons and Dragonscharacters.Drizzt Do’urden’s card has been made public, stirring up reminders ofDungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance,and Tiamat has an impressive card of her own, manifesting her as a Dragon God. This is only the start of a lot of engaging trading card depictions of some ofDnD’s most foundational characters.
However, one of the cards revealed for this upcomingMagic: The Gatheringset sends an interesting message. Lolth, the dark spider goddess largely associated with the draw, has aMagiccard coming up, and she has the special privilege of getting a planeswalker card. While the card is impressive and encourages an interesting sacrificial deck type, why is Lolth a planeswalker to begin with? It seems more natural that she would be a Spider God or a Spider Demon as a creature card, akin to Tiamat. For some reason, Wizards of the Coast seems to think it’s important to give Lolth planeswalker privileges instead.
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Comparing Lolth and Tiamat’s Depictions
There’s a couple significant implications about the way Lolth has been depicted inDungeons and Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.Lolth and Tiamat are both godly beings who are as old asDungeons and Dragons.Considering their shared status as evil gods, it makes sense that Tiamat is depicted as a Dragon God, but oddly, Lolth is a planeswalker. Traditionally inMagic,planeswalkers are far and away more powerful than creature in the game’s lore. Choosing to make Lolth a planeswalker rather than a creature would suggest that she’s somehow much more powerful than Tiamat in the context ofAdventures in the Forgotten Realms.
Whether or not Lolth is actually more powerful than Tiamat is up to lore lovers to debate. Although it seems like one possible answer, power might not actually have anything to do with it this time. It might mean instead that Lolth is simply more significant to the narratives thatWizards of the Coast wants to focuson inAdventures in the Forgotten Realms. Other cards suggest that there will be some focus on the drow throughout the set. Considering how important they are, that wouldn’t be surprising. It could be that Lolth has been made a planeswalker because she’s more important to this set of cards than Tiamat is.
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Adapting Dungeons and Dragons to Magic: The Gathering
Although it’s ironic at a glance, it makes sense from another perspective that Lolth is a planeswalker but Tiamat isn’t.Dungeons and Dragonsis full of beingswho have the innate power to travel between planes and could therefore be considered “planeswalkers.” Wizards can’t glutAdventures in the Forgotten Realmswith a planeswalker card for every mythic being, though. Instead, it seems best that Wizards picks the most important plane-hopping characters, or at least the most powerful magic users inDungeons and Dragons,and gives them the privilege of a planeswalker card instead of a creature card.
Since there’s such specific lore implications around planeswalkers, it wouldn’t have been surprising if Wizards skipped them altogether forAdventures in the Forgotten Realms.Instead, it looks like it intends to use the planeswalker card type to celebrate particularly famous or important magic users. That seems like a good adaptation. There’s no perfect parallel for planeswalkers intheDungeons and Dragonsmultiverse, so it might as well get used for the next best types of characters, whatever they may be. Lolth’s planeswalker card is cool, but it’s probably just the start. Pretty soon, people like Tasha and Mordenkainen might be getting planeswalker cards of their own.
Magic: The Gathering- Adventures in the Forgotten Realmsreleases on July 01, 2025.
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