Heroes of the Realm is a custom made series of black-bordered Magic: The Gathering celebration cards, recognizable by a special "Heroes of the Realm" card back.[1]
Description
These cards are specifically created for Wizards of the Coast in very limited numbers, and handed out by the execs to some of their employees as a token of appreciation.[2] Each card includes the name of the employee who receives the card in the right bottom corner. Since these cards don't have the regular card back, the cards aren't legal in any format.
They exist also as oversized cards but with no name of the recipient. An oversized card with all the names of the rewarded team hangs in the Hall of Heroes in the Wizards of the Coast Headquarters.
Mark Rosewater notes that these don't go through the normal design processes, so they aren't always representative of what R&D might actually do on a printed card.[3] The cards aren't designed to be played. They're designed to be read.[4]
2017
There are four copies in existence for each one of these:
- Chandra, Gremlin Wrangler — 2016 Magic: The Gathering Reward for the Planeswalker Decks team.[5]
- Dungeon Master — 2016 Dungeons & Dragons Reward for the Fifth Edition team.[6]
- Nira, Hellkite Duelist — 2016 Duel Masters Reward.[7]
2018
- Diabolical Salvation[8]
- Inzerva, Master of Insights[8]
- M'Odo, the Gnarled Oracle — 2017 Magic: The Gathering Online Reward.[9]
2019
- Kharis & the Beholder — 2018 Magic and D&D influencer projects Reward.[10][11]
- Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader — 2018 Transformers TCG Reward. Three-sided card usable in both Magic the Gathering and Transformers TCG games.[12]
- Sol, Advocate Eternal — 2018 Game Support and Customer Service Reward.[13]
- The Legend of Arena — 2018 MTG Arena Team Reward.[14]
2021
- Keeper of the Secret Lair — 2019 Secret Lair crew
- Collectigull — 2019
- Champions of Archery — 2019 Year of Commander
Card types
The card Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader has the supertype Autobot, the card type Character, and the subtypes Bot and Mode.
Fighter is a token-specific class that is only mentioned in Dungeon Master as a D&D reference. The other three standard D&D classes (Cleric, Rogue, Wizard) already existed in Magic.
Tokens
| Token Name | Color | Type Line | P/T | Text Box | Source | Printings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendee | White/Blue/Black/Red/Green | Creature — Attendee | 1/1 | |||
| Cleric | White | Creature — Cleric | 1/1 | Lifelink | ||
| Devil | Red | Creature — Devil | 4/4 | Haste When this creature dies, create a Treasure token. |
||
| Fighter | Red | Creature — Fighter | 3/3 | First strike | ||
| Gremlin | Red | Creature — Gremlin | 2/2 | |||
| Human | White | Creature — Human | 1/1 | |||
| Human Wizard | Blue | Creature — Human Wizard | 1/1 | |||
| Red | Creature — Human Wizard | 2/1 | ||||
| White/Blue/Black/Red/Green | Creature — Human Wizard | 1/1 | ||||
| Rogue | Black | Creature — Rogue | 2/2 | Hexproof | ||
| Skeleton | Black | Creature — Skeleton | 1/1 | When this creature dies, each opponent gains 2 life. | ||
| Wizard | Blue | Creature — Wizard | 1/1 | Flying |
Gallery
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 20, 2017). "Why are the "Heroes of the Realm" cards black-bordered, when they're mechanically unique promo cards?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 20, 2017). "Any word on what special project(s) earned people these cards?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 07, 2019). "Why haven't we heard more of the Heroes of the Realm series?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 07, 2019). "What are the chances that we will see a collection or compilation product of Heroes of the Realm for the public?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (September 20, 2017). "Gremlins of the Realm". A Voice for Vorthos. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mike Mearls on Twitter
- ↑ Masami Ibamoto on Twitter
- ↑ a b Syaba3 on Twitter
- ↑ Lee Sharpe on Twitter
- ↑ MishyFishyWhoo (November 26, 2019). "Heroes of the Realm card I had the pleasure to design with the rest of the team at Wizards who worked on influencer projects last yea.". Twitter.
- ↑ JoeSlucher (November 26, 2019). "Kharis and the Beholder". Deviantart.com.
- ↑ Drew Nolosco (December 4, 2019). "Heroes of the Realm Promo - Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader". Reddit.
- ↑ David McDarby (December 2, 2019). "Allow me to introduce you to another WotC Heroes of the Realm card". Twitter.
- ↑ Lee Sharpe (December 7, 2019). "Every year, the WotCStaff executive team recognizes a few teams within Wizards as Heroes of the Realm.". Twitter.