Dungeon

Dungeon
Card Type
Subtype	Dungeon type
Statistics	4 cards 100%
Scryfall Search
type:"Dungeon"

Dungeon is a card type introduced in Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. It is only seen on nontraditional Magic cards. They do not have a Magic back, and they don't get shuffled into or drawn from your library.

Description

Dungeons are like Planes and Conspiracies during the game. They are actual cards, but they don’t go in your deck. They start outside the game and are played in the command zone. In games held under tournament conditions, "cards from outside the game" means cards from your sideboard, but dungeons don't take up sideboard slots. You always have access to all three dungeons, and you'll never need more than one of the same one.

Forgotten Realms

The way to bring dungeons into the game in Forgotten Realms was a new keyword action: venture into the dungeon. Several traditional Magic cards instruct the player to venture into the dungeon. This can be the effect of a spell, an activated ability, or a triggered ability.

If you venture into the dungeon while you don't have any dungeons in the command zone you put the dungeon of your choice into the command zone and put a venture marker on the first room, at the top. Every time you enter a room, including the first room, its room ability triggers. These abilities all read "When you enter this room, [the effect printed in the room]."

The next time you venture into the dungeon, you'll move to the next room. You can't start a new dungeon until you complete the one you're in. When moving to the next room, follow the arrows down the card. After the final room ability resolves or otherwise leaves the stack, the dungeon is removed from the game. Removing it from the game results in you completing the dungeon. When you complete a dungeon certain cards receive a bonus.

The next time you venture into the dungeon, you can choose the very same dungeon you were just in or you can head into a new one.

Baldur's Gate

The next Dungeons & Dragons crossover set, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate brought back Dungeons. This time, the Undercity Dungeon was activated by the Initiative mechanic.

The Forgotten Realms Dungeons did not make a return. If you venture into the dungeon using a card from Forgotten Realms, you can't choose to start the Undercity dungeon. However, if you're already in the Undercity dungeon, you will move your marker to the next room in Undercity.

Baldur's Gate Wilderness

A May 2024 Draft Event for the set featured Baldur's Gate Wilderness, an oversized dungeon especially created for the event. According to Matt Tabak, it is not really a Magic card like other dungeons are, and it’s not legal in Constructed formats.

List

There were three different Dungeons in Forgotten Realms.

• Lost Mine of Phandelver (the regular option)
• Dungeon of the Mad Mage (slower, but with a bigger reward)
• Tomb of Annihilation (faster but riskier)

Baldur's Gate features only one Dungeon, which has a subtype; this subtype is called a dungeon type. That dungeon type is Undercity.

• Undercity

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Dungeon

A card type found on nontraditional Magic cards. A dungeon card is not a permanent. See rule 309, “Dungeons.”

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 309. Dungeons
  • 309.1. Dungeon is a card type seen only on nontraditional Magic cards.
  • 309.2. Dungeon cards begin outside the game. Dungeon cards aren’t part of a player’s deck or sideboard. They are brought into the game using the venture into the dungeon keyword action. See rule 701.46, “Venture into the Dungeon.”
    • 309.2a If a player ventures into the dungeon while they don’t own a dungeon card in the command zone, they choose a dungeon card they own from outside the game and put it into the command zone.
    • 309.2b A dungeon card that’s brought into the game is put into the command zone until it leaves the game.
    • 309.2c Dungeon cards are not permanents. They can’t be cast. Dungeon cards can’t leave the command zone except as they leave the game.
    • 309.2d If an effect other than a venture into the dungeon keyword action would bring a dungeon card into the game from outside the game, it doesn’t; that card remains outside the game.
  • 309.3. A player can own only one dungeon card in the command zone at a time, and they can’t bring a dungeon card into the game if a dungeon card they own is in the command zone.
  • 309.4. Each dungeon card has a series of rooms connected to one another with arrows. A player uses a venture marker placed on the dungeon card they own to indicate which room they are currently in.
    • 309.4a As a player puts a dungeon they own into the command zone, they put their venture marker on the topmost room.
    • 309.4b Each room has a name. These names are considered flavor text and do not affect game play.
    • 309.4c Each room has a triggered ability called a room ability whose effect is printed on the card. They all have the same trigger condition not printed on the card. The full text of each room ability is “When you move your venture marker into this room, [effect.]” As long as a dungeon card is in the command zone, its abilities may trigger. Each room ability is controlled by the player who owns the dungeon card that is that ability’s source.
  • 309.5. The venture into the dungeon keyword action allows players to move their venture marker down the rooms of a dungeon card.
    • 309.5a If a player ventures into the dungeon while they own a dungeon card in the command zone and their venture marker isn’t on that dungeon’s bottommost room, they move their venture marker from the room it is on to the next room, following the direction of an arrow pointing away from the room their venture marker is on. If there are multiple arrows pointing away from the room the player’s venture marker is on, they choose one of them to follow.
    • 309.5b If a player ventures into the dungeon while they own a dungeon card in the command zone and their venture marker is on that dungeon card’s bottommost room, they remove that dungeon card from the game. They then choose a dungeon card they own from outside the game and put it into the command zone. They put their venture marker on the topmost room.
  • 309.6. If a player’s venture marker is on the bottommost room of a dungeon card, and that dungeon card isn’t the source of a room ability that has triggered but not yet left the stack, the dungeon card’s owner removes it from the game. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)
  • 309.7. A player completes a dungeon as that dungeon card is removed from the game.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 205.3p One dungeon card (Undercity) has a subtype; this subtype is called a dungeon type. That dungeon type is Undercity.

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Complete a Dungeon

To remove a dungeon card from the game after reaching that dungeon card’s bottommost room. See rule 309, “Dungeons.”

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Room

A subsection of a dungeon card. See rule 309, “Dungeons.”

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Room Ability

A triggered ability that triggers whenever a player moves their venture marker into a room of a dungeon card. See rule 309, “Dungeons.”

Rulings

• Dungeon cards begin outside the game, and can only be brought into the game by cards that say "venture into the dungeon."
• The player venturing into the dungeon chooses which dungeon they will venture into.
• Dungeon cards are not part of a player's deck or sideboard. Players can use any dungeon they own.
• You can only move forward (downward) in a dungeon, never backwards or sideways.
• Dungeons are removed from the game as a state-based action.
• If you somehow venture into the dungeon while a room's ability is on the stack, you will continue on in the dungeon. If you're already in the last room, complete that dungeon and start a new one.
• Whenever a player ventures into the dungeon, no player can respond until after that player has selected which dungeon to enter and its first room ability has triggered.

Trivia

• Although Dungeon is a card type, that word doesn’t appear as such on the cards themselves.
• In the information below the text box the Dungeons are marked with a T, meaning that they have the same distribution as tokens. For game play they aren’t tokens.
• You don’t draft dungeons, nor do they need to be in your sealed deck card pool.
• The three AFR dungeons are AFR cards and were legal in formats AFR is legal in. Any future dungeons will belong to whatever set they’re in.
• AFR prerelease packs feature foil double-sided Dungeon cards with tokens on the backside.
• The AFR bundle features oversized versions of the three original Dungeons .
• The CLB bundle features an oversized Undercity.
• A special Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Draft event in WPN shops on May 17–19, 2024 featured a special Dungeon called Baldur's Gate Wilderness. These play aides were only available in an oversized format.

Gallery

• 

  The three dungeons that were first released.

• 

  Undercity dungeon used as part of the Initiative.

• 

  The unofficial "Baldur's Gate Wilderness" dungeon shared by players in the Battle for Baldur's Gate draft event, celebrating 50 years of D&D.