Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Resurrected as Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair Cards

The 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon returns…as a new set of variant Magic: The Gathering cards. Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast announced that it would be releasing a Dungeons & Dragons cartoon-themed Secret Lair set. The set will contain a total of six either foil cards with images by Tyler Walpole inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, including cards featuring the Dungeon Master, Venger, Presto, and Bobby. As with most other Secret Lair cards, these are technically re-prints of existing cards, although several of the cards use quotes from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as flavor text.

The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon was a Saturday morning cartoon intended to introduce the game to a wider audience. The show featured a group of real world children transported to a fantasy realm, where they were given magical items that granted them powers. Each protagonist had abilities similar to a D&D class or archetype and various D&D creatures and characters like Tiamat also made appearances. The show ran from 1983 to 1985 and ended on a cliffhanger that was later resolved in a 2019 Brazilian live-action car commercial.

The Secret Lair drop is the latest crossover between Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. While Wizards of the Coast kept its two signature fantasy franchises separate for years, the company has recently released a series of campaign setting books providing details on how to run a D&D campaign on various Magic: The Gathering planes. Next month, Wizards of the Coast will also release “Adventures in the Forgotten Realm,” a full Magic: the Gathering expansion set in the Forgotten Realms and featuring dozens of classic D&D monsters, spells, and characters. In November, Dungeons & Dragons will release another Magic: The Gathering campaign setting book, this time set in the Strixhaven college that debuted in this year’s Strixhaven Magic: The Gathering set.