Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate has just released in paper over the weekend. This set is ripe with tons of Commander reprints and awesome support based in the D&D universe. But we also know that MTG Arena is going to be getting an Alchemy adaptation of the set, which will release soon. But how can a Commander focused product have a 1v1 format iteration? We’ll take a look at the different mechanics, themes and cards of the set to see what could make it into Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate.
Battle for Baldur’s Gate Mechanics and Themes
First, let’s take a look some of the mechanics in the set to see what could make it or not.
Background
Backgrounds are a new type of Enchantment that cares about “Commander Creatures”. Considering that we don’t have “Commanders” in Alchemy, this is probably a low likelihood of inclusion. While there is Brawl on Arena, this set wouldn’t be the place for this kind of card to be printed. Now I think it’s possible that the Legends that have “Choose a Background” can be printed, but the backgrounds themselves are probably a no.
Myriad
Myriad is another prominent mechanic in the set. Myriad cards about having multiple opponents, so this is a no go on it’s face. There is a possibility that Myraid is retooled to create a single copy attacking your opponent, which could be VERY strong, but it could be problematic balance wise.
Goad
Goad is another mechanic that shows up quite a bit in this set. Now Goad is a great mechanic, but one that’s definitely more multiplayer focused. This is another mechanic that could be reworked to fit 1v1, but I think that it might be a bit harder to find a reasonable tweak.
Adventures
Adventures returned in Battle for Baldur’s Gate and considering that we already have the mechanic in the set, I’d say that it’s pretty likely that we’ll see these cards be added as well.
Dice Rolling
Another mechanic of the set is Dice Rolling. Originally introduced in Adventures of the Forgotten Realms, this mechanic had minor support. Due to it’s randomness, it wasn’t competitive at all, and while it may not be competitive still, there are some powerful cards in this set that could make their way to the game.
Gates
The last mechanic that we see in the set is Gates. We have 9 total Gate lands in this set, as well as a bunch of supporting cards for it. We already have gates as well in Arena, and this would be a great add to bolster Historic’s Gates deck.
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Cards We Want to See
So as we can see, there’s actually a decent number of mechanics that we can see show up in Alchemy Horizons. That being said, there’s a bunch of cards that we’d love to be able to see in the set as well.
Dragon Tribal
Dragon tribal is massively supported in Battle for Baldur’s Gate, unlike anything we’ve ever really seen before. Usually we get massive dragons, but rarely do we ever see the early or midrange Dragons that lends itself to a full blown tribal deck.
Yes, we also would love to see these beefy Dragons as well as some fun top end of decks.
Commander Planeswalkers
The 3 Commander Planeswalkers in the set are all awesome. They depict some iconic D&D characters, and truthfully, they’d be fine cards to add into many different decks. Not to mention that these would be fun additions for Historic Brawl to use as commanders.
Multicolor Creatures
There’s a BUNCH of fantastic multicolored creatures in the set, each having very different and unique abilities. These cards could shake up the Alchemy meta and make some very fun and even competitive decks.
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There’s a lot here that we could see, and I think that based on these, the set is looking good. There’s going to be a few new cards that are created specifically for this set as well. Stay tuned to more as these cards get previewed as we’ll be talking more about them as they are revealed.
