Beholder
| Beholder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Creature Type | |
| (Subtype for creature/kindred cards) | |
| Introduced | Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms |
| Last used | Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate |
| Crossover | Dungeons & Dragons |
| Scryfall Statistics | |
Beholder is a creature type depicting an iconic creature from Dungeons & Dragons. Beholders are exclusive to D&D crossovers.
Characteristics
Six Beholder cards exist, plus one creature land and one test card. They are centered in black, with blue and red as secondary colors. Each Beholder creature costs five or six mana and has a power between 4 and 6 and a toughness of 5 or 6. Some, like Baleful Beholder, translate specific D&D mechanics into Magic terms and are labeled by flavor words. Two are legendary, depicting the characters Xanathar (card) and Karazikar (card). Despite their ability to hover, no Beholders have the flying keyword.[1]
Traditional beholders appear as a floating orb of flesh with a large mouth, a single central eye, and many smaller eyestalks on top with powerful magical abilities. The subtype is also used for death tyrants (which are Skeleton Beholders) and death kisses.
History
The HASCON 2017 promo card Sword of Dungeons & Dragons initially created a Beholder token in design, but the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast requested that it be changed to a Dragon.[2] The Heroes of the Realm celebration card Kharis & the Beholder was awarded to the Wizards of the Coast influencer team in 2018; this depicts a beholder but uses the Eye creature type.[3]
The subtype Beholder first appeared on the test card Underdark Beholder (Mystery Booster).[4] Beholders were introduced to eternal formats in the full crossover set Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and have since been printed in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate.
See also
- Secret Lair Drop Series: Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop – includes two beholder-themed drops
References
- ↑ Cards with the type Beholder or the text Beholder. Scryfall search. Scryfall (June 23, 2025).
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 08, 2018). "Hey Mark how come we never got a Beholder as a creature?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ 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 year.". Twitter. Retrieved on December 31, 2022.
- ↑ Eli Shiffrin (November 11, 2019). "Mystery Booster Release Notes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
