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Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate is already near release with hundreds of references to Dungeons & Dragons in the Magic: The Gathering crossover. Mixing the recent sets Adventures in the Forgotten Realms with Commander Legends has allowed Wizards of the Coast to create some flavorful and powerful designs that may have use outside of the popular casual format. Cards are still being spoiled, but there’s already over 100 card styles that have been revealed.
Many of the returning mechanics like Adventures and Gates fit well into the themes of Dungeons & Dragons, while new mechanics like taking the initiative and choosing backgrounds present new strategies for fans of Commander as a format. The original Commander Legends set is known for having powerful legendary creatures and spells that tie together strange and underrepresented archetypes in MTG, like Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin Shrine theme from Kamigawa. In Battle for Baldur’s Gate, not only are there commanders that support Adventures and Backgrounds, there’s also commanders that care about stealing other player’s spells and giving other players creatures.
While spoiler season officially started a few days ago, Wizards of the Coast has been trickling out information for the set over the past few months. There’s a healthy mix of reprints and new cards already announced to be in the MTG set, with many of the reprints melding with the world of D&D. Alternative styles exist for many of these cards, whether borderless, extended, showcase, or etched foil, so keep an eye out for those when opening packs.
Every Land Revealed In MTG’s Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate
The biggest pickups in terms of lands are reprints of the allied multiplayer lands, first introduced in Battlebond. These have been incredibly important for Magic: The Gathering Commander players who want their lands to always enter untapped without restrictions and there’s not many good places for them to be reprinted. The return of the “Dungeon Master” basic lands with flavor text is also something that fans of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms might want to pick up as well. The new Baldur’s Gate card also signals the return of Gates, a land type beloved for its inexpensive real-world cost and strange synergies with MTG cards like Maze’s End.
Every Planeswalker Revealed In Magic’s Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate
One of the calling cards of the original Commander Legends was the return of Planeswalkers that could also be commanders. Baldur’s Gate continues this trend with three very powerful cards based on Elminster, Minsc and Boo, and Tasha. Elminster seems powerful, allowing “spells matter” decks a ramping ability that can be chained together to cast powerful MTG instants and sorcery spells like Strixhaven‘s early. Tasha is a fun build-around which rewards players for stealing their opponent’s cards – a strategy often not viable in Standard but perfect for Commander in MTG.
Every Legendary Creature Revealed In MTG’s Battle For Baldur’s Gate
Many of the new possible commanders from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate open up possibilities for powerful new decks. Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald is a card that has many applications in aggressive decks, rewarding red’s ability to exile cards as pseudo-card draw. Meanwhile, Gorion, Wise Mentor powers up an archetype known to be powerful in Throne of Eldraine Standard adventures.
Players might also notice that all of the mono-colored Legendary Creatures have the ability to “Choose a Background,” an ability which pairs a Commander with an enchantment that augments it. This new Magic: the Gathering mechanic allows players to have a second card in their command zone that adds any other color to a deck’s color identity, but backgrounds only function if their commander is still on the battlefield as well.
Every Background Revealed In Magic’s Battle for Baldur’s Gate So Far
Fortunately for collectors (and organizers), so far every enchantment that’s been revealed for MTG‘s Battle for Baldur’s Gate has been a Background card. Many of the backgrounds augment the commander itself, like Raised by Giants and Flaming Fist, but there are also some that give the commander extra abilities which help a player’s strategy like Dungeon Delver or Feywild Visitor. Choosing one locks in players to two colors, but the ability to have another card in the command zone is not only important for draft but can also be a large advantage in any game of commander. Having multiple cards in the command zone lets players start with essentially eight cards in hand, which is an aspect of Backgrounds that should be valued. If a Background proves to be strong enough like the reprints in Streets of New Capenna, players can also play extra backgrounds in their decks rather than have them in their command zone.
Every Nonlegendary Creature Revealed For Magic’s Battle for Baldur’s Gate So Far
The non-legendary Creatures in Battle for Baldur’s Gate serve all sorts of purposes – some of them help players with early game board presence while others provide powerful late game effects. Commander will always be a format about ending the game as fantastically as possible, so the eye-catching effects of creatures like Ancient Brass Dragon, Elder Brain, and Battle Angles of Tyr will help win games in style. The currently revealed MTG cards also give a great look at what Adventures in the set will look like, and powerful commons like Fang Dragon and Dread Linnorm will likely make the cut in Limited decks.
Every Instant & Sorcery MTG Card In Battle for Baldur’s Gate So Far
The instants and sorceries are mostly commons and uncommons and won’t be worth money like other MTG cards, but there’s a few that still stand out. Blur is a nice source of card advantage, and Astral Confrontation is an interesting take on an aggressive removal spell. Otherwise, Wyll’s Reversal and Jaheira’s Respite are both great responses to opponents’ game plans, while Elminster’s Simulacrum looks like a powerful game-ending effect.
Every Artifact Card For Magic: The Gathering’s Battle for Baldur’s Gate So Far
The biggest wins so far from the artifacts in Battle for Baldur’s Gate are the cycle of diamonds, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Basilisk Collar, and Arcane Signet. Many of these cards are universally needed in all sorts of strange Commander decks, so it’s nice to see reprints of them available to newer deckbuilders. Of the new Magic cards, Nautiloid Ship is not only tough to block, its abilities might make mill decks and discard decks have tough-to-beat creatures as an alternative win condition.
There’s still plenty of MTG cards that will be revealed in the upcoming weeks. Look for powerful adventure spells and enchantments that aren’t Backgrounds – while there hasn’t been many previews showcasing the power of the set, the week of the 23rd will be the time for Wizards of the Coast to do so. Already there are plenty of cards that will work outside of using the set’s commanders, and hopefully there will be some high-power reprints of commander staples like Expropriate or something similar.
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate may look complex, but it will be fun to sort through all the spoilers and pick out ones to build Commander decks around once the full set is released. The set can also be drafted, meaning that many of the weaker commons and uncommons in the set may still be playable outside Commander. On top of all this, some of the cards will only be available in preconstructed decks like Streets of New Capenna that exist outside of booster packs. When the set releases on June 10, there will be more than enough cards to look through. Magic: The Gathering offers plenty of unique deckbuilding opportunities and Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate is sure to open up many pathways to victory.
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