Magic the Gathering is one of our favourite games here at Apotheosis Studios. Other than Dungeons and Dragons of course. The fantasy card hame is a long favourite for many players, and has inspired some of our plays, as well as being self contained, Turing Complete Computer.

We've talked a lot about Magic in the past, and you can find some of our comments on card releases right here. One of those early talks was about the upcoming expansion: Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate.

We've seen the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms expansion come through and bring classic D&D flavour into Magic the Gathering, but we're not done with Toril yet.

The Commander format for playing Magic the Gathering is arguably one of the most popular, fun, and fair ways to play Magic. It's simple, you pick a Legendary Creature you really love, then assemble 99 other cards around them that are the same colours and work to that Legendary's theme. That's it, you have a deck.

The Commander Legends style of expansion brings powerful cards probably too strong for Standard or even Modern Horizons style sets. Cards only for the Commander and Legacy formats. These cards introduce many new Legends to create decks around and new cards with powerful effects for multi player games. This second Commander Legends is deep in the DnD flavour.

We've covered some cards when the set was first announced, and you can find them right here. Now, more cards!

Shuffle Up and Play

The Metallic Dragons have always been a welcome source of benevolence, wisdom, and guidance for adventurers in Dungeons and Dragons. We've seen Ancient Brass Dragon bring creatures back from the dead. As is tradition for Magic, they've made all the Ancient Metallic Dragons a full cycle, bringing very powerful effects on rolling dice. Gold floods the board with Faerie allies, Silver fills your hand with wisdom, Copper brings treasure and mana, while Bronze takes your team to the gym...?

Gold, Silver, Copper, and Bronze dragons - image by Scryfall

It's not remiss for the fine creators at Wizards to create new Commander decks for each card release. A set centred on Commander truly needs a new Commander release. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms gave us new Commanders who could have been in an adventuring party. This time around, we see face Commanders that bring a level of insidious terror that make for a good antagonist force in your games set in Baldur's Gate.

Captain N'ghathrod, or Davy Jones as the player base is affectionately nick naming him, is a strong look at Horror tribal, with the mill that Blue and Black together brings, as well as the thievery you'd expect from a Legendary Pirate. There's lots of ways to play this card. Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald is an insidious look at a warrior druid, tearing down civilisation to restore nature – one of the clearest ways to characterise a druid in a (justified but) villainous way. As a card design, you're rewarded for using cards similar to Escape to the Wilds by filling the board with puppers.

Commander deck commanders - image by Scryfall

Firkraag, Cunning Instigator is both Blue and Red, and is a Dragon. This makes them my favourite as a design by default. The design is a hybrid of Dragon Tribal and Goad tribal. Goad was a mechanic that was designed in Conspiracy: Take the Crown, and has been used repeatedly in multiple multiplayer releases. The ability to choose a problematic enemy Creature, make it attack but at someone else is very powerful and keeps you safe. This commander is one of the first pay offs for Goading, making this commander a very unique card, but also one that synergises with older cards such as Bident of Thassa. Nalia de'Arnise has the vibe of a Thieves Guild master recruiting whole parties of adventurers for their own nefarious ends – hence why they play into the Party mechanic, of having a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard on board. As a well connected Thieves Guild runner, they can see into the deck to know and summon party members exactly when they're needed. The interesting deck building tension is that in the Black and White colour pair, you'll get a decent number of Rogues and Clerics, and maybe some Warriors, but the number of Wizards is low. That kind of deck building tension is very interesting, and the reward for a midrange deck such as this.

Even more Commander Deck commanders - image by Scryfall

In the original release in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, we got a new take on the Saga card in the Class card. Twelve Enchantments showing the twelve Classes from 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. I proudly own all twelve as their effects really resonate in Magic, the effect that the classes have in D&D. But the thirteenth class was added to D&D in Eberron Rising from the Last War and now the thirteenth class is coming to Magic. The Artificer Class, naturally is Blue and cares about Artifacts. I can see a lot of Artifact centric decks, including one I own lead by Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice using this card to full effect.

We saw the first appearance of dice rolling in Magic the Gathering. Effects like Treasure Chest and Contact Other Plane let you roll a d20 to boost the card's effects. Thunderwave is the newest in this line of cards with a dice effect. As a level one spell in Dungeons and Dragons, Thunderwave is a classic that many low level Mages rely on. In Magic, Thunderwave is a fun sweeper that may not be the strongest, but is certainly the most flavourful way to sweep the board.

The expansion Throne of Eldraine gave the Magic player base one of the most powerful and polarising mechanics in the history of the game. The Adventure mechanic is an alternate casting cost on certain cards; you play the Adventure Instant or Sorcery, then exile it, then bring the creature back from their Adventure. This expansion is putting Adventure on other kinds of permanents, and it reads as powerful as the original adventure cards did. Ghost Lantern, aside from reminding me of Thresh from League of Legends, has strong utility of picking up a dead creature into buffing something in a deck that cares about dying allies, such as Meren or Henzie.

Ghost Lantern (Bind Spirit) - image by Scryfall

The DM style modal cards are back! Modal spells are always generally powerful, but framing their name in the second person, the same way a Game Master speaks to you, is such a fun design choice. The more powerful effect seen on You Look Upon the Tarrasque is best served in a Commander set such as this.

A new remix on the Partner mechanic has appeared in this set, and in a very unique design space. Previously, you could have two Commanders that both have Partner, a pair of Friends Forever. In this expansion, there are 32 Legendaries that all go through the same trouble we Dungeons and Dragons players have when we roll a new character: we have to Choose a Background. There are 30 Legendary Enchantments called Backgrounds which can all begin in the Command Zone with these new Legends as their Background. They all provide some benefit to Commanders and affect Commander Creatures you control (including other players' if you steal them) or copies of them if you do some Mirror Gallery and copy shenanigans.

Commanders and their Possible Backgrounds - image by Scryfall

It's only right that Baldur's Gate itself actually have the Gate Subtype. This has wide implications for the Gates deck. Maze's End has been a meme win condition for Golos and many other five colour Commander decks, but now with access to other Gates, and the massive mana advantage that Baldur's Gate brings, decks can go from a Maze's End meme, to a truly gated community.

Baldur’s gate the card - image by Scryfall

Elminster is a legendary wizard in the confines of Dungeons and Dragons. In the Forgotten Realms setting, he has overseen many moments of civilisation's history, and his mastery of magic has made him both timeless and godlike in power. In Magic, Elminster appears as a powerful Instant and Sorcery matters commander as a Commanding Planeswalker. His static effect let's your Scry have a knock on effect on your next Instant and Sorcery, fixing your draws to turn them into chump blockers with his minus effect. Let the grand old wizard help you see the future. I can foresee Narset loving this wise old master, but that may be Mystic Speculation.

Elminster the Planeswalker Card - image by Scryfall

Tasha the planeswalker card - image by Scryfall

Tasha, creator of the Hideous Laughter spell, shows her powerful ability to walk between worlds (originally coming from Greyhawk, not Toril, the world of the Forgotten Realms setting). Known for profane magic and nefarious deeds, this card encapsulates her very well indeed. This card perfectly pays off and enables the Blue and Black steal your stuff strategy. Cards like Gonti, Thief of Sanity, and Ashiok have all played into this design space of playing another player's cards, but now we have a true signpost commander for it. Remember to add cards that generate Treasure or Mana of any Type, to activate effects of the cards you steal.

Now we want to hear from you. Which cards are you looking to pick up and put in your decks? Which Dungeons and Dragons Elements do you hope will make it onto a Magic card? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG. On Youtube, they can be found playing PC games on The Hostile Atmosphere, or streaming card games at twitch.tv/IzzetTinkerer. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.

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Magic and D&D Unite for Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate

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