Battle for Baldur’s Gate is the Newest Magic the Gathering Crossover Set, Coming June 10

Battle for Baldur’s Gate was just announced by Wizards of the Coast. This latest crossover set will blend signature spells and characters from the Forgotten Realms with the social tabletop card game.

Battle for Baldur’s Gate is the Newest Magic the Gathering Crossover Set, Coming June 10

Fans of the Forgotten Realms have some things to look forward to this year while waiting for the release of the full launch of Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2023. Introducing the Battle for Baldur’s Gate, Wizards of the Coast’s newest Commander Legends set coming this June.

Battle for Baldur’s Gate is primarily going to be played in the Commander format. This format lets players choose a “Commander” creature from their deck and have that specific entity dictate the colors of cards in your library.

Returning to the Forgotten Realms

Battle for Baldur’s Gate is a spiritual continuation of 2021’s D&D: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set. This release introduced us to many iconic elements from the roleplaying game, such as Classes and Dungeons. Both of these were completely new to the card game at the time.

Players could create new Enchantments with the Class type that would simulate the leveling up process of the tabletop game. Casting a Class card would sometimes give an immediate benefit, such as the Wizard Class’ no maximum hand size.

Other times a Class card would have a trigger, such as the Druid’s ability to gain life whenever a Land entered the battlefield. Each class card could also be “Levelled up” with a small, incremental mana cost. Doing so would provide the owner additional benefits thematic to that Class.

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms also introduced the Dungeon Mechanic, a sort of choose-your-own-adventure minigame. Players would chart a path through a small dungeon, deciding between various effects to unleash unto the battlefield.

Battle for Baldur’s Gate

This year’s card set, Battle for Baldur’s Gate continues on that legacy and brings forth some more specific characters, spells, and settings from the titular game. Dungeons are being continued with the introduction of the Underdark, unique to the Battle for Baldur’s Gate. Instead of the old keyword, this feature is now being called “Take the Initiative”.

We Gotta Have a Backstory

We are also getting a new keyword for Commander-type cards: Background. Background is a new Legendary Enchantment type that allows players to add a bit of flavor and perks to their Commander cards.

For example, we can have our Commander have a Criminal Past. This would make the Commander gain the Menace keywords and increase its Power based on the number of creature cards in the owner’s graveyard. The Commander could also be Raised by Giants, increasing its Power and Toughness to a huge 10/10, and be considered a Giant in addition to its other types.

Backgrounds will definitely be staples of this set, as they hugely compliment and enhance specific playstyles.

The Returning Keywords

Adventure? Adventure!

Battle for Baldur’s Gate also heralds the return of the Adventure mechanic that was initially introduced in 2019’s Throne of Eldraine expansion. Cards with the Adventure tag are extremely versatile pickups, as they are Instants or Sorceries that can later be cast as creatures. If the spell effect is not needed, they can immediately be used as Creature bodies instead.

Ilithid Harvester

Essentially, drawing an Adventure card from your library provides you with flexibility and great value. In some cases, it can be similar to drawing two cards in one turn.

Dice Rolling

Of course, this would not be Baldur’s Gate or Dungeons and Dragons if there wasn’t a dice rolling mechanic. And thus Battle for Baldur’s Gate brings this back from the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

Wand of Wonder

The new Wand of Wonder Artifact card is just that and provides a fun amount of randomness that the games feature. This card lets you roll a D20, and forces enemies to discard cards from their library. The owner of the Wand can then choose X number of spells to cast from the discarded cards, where X depends on the result of the dice roll.

Anyway, D20 dice shouldn’t be hard to come by as a Magic the Gathering player, as they can commonly be used to keep track of a player’s health pool.

Heroes and Villains of Baldur’s Gate

Wizards of the Coast’s new set also adds multiple Legendary Creatures that are patterned after prominent figures throughout the Baldur’s Gate games, from new to old.

Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy is our own lovable Wizard that we meet early on in Baldur’s Gate 3. Even Lae’zel, everyone’s creche-seeking angry Githyanki Fighter makes an appearance as a White card. We also get Halsin, the troublesome missing druid that we chase after in the mid-stages of Baldur’s Gate 3’s Early Access.

Astarion

Everyone’s favorite and lovable Astarion even got included!

Fans of the classic Baldur’s Gate games will also get some nice nods as well. The Dead Three gods are all represented here (though we are missing a specific Card for Bane). Bhaal, Lord of Murder, and Myrkul, Lord of Bones both have powerful Legendary God-type cards in this set.

Entering the Battle

The Battle for Baldur’s Gate releases for everyone on June 10. While waiting, more card previews will trickle out from Wizards of the Coast’s site all up to May 25th.

Be sure to also check out another of Magic the Gathering’s projects, Universes Beyond which features the grim dark future of Warhammer 40,000. For even more on Baldur’s Gate, check out our wiki for Baldur’s Gate 3.

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