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Contents hide How strong are the MTG cards in Baldur’s Gate Initiative explained in Baldur’s Gate MTG The Banned Initiative How valuable are the MTG cards in the Baldur’s Gate deck Is Baldur’s Gate worth it in MTG Baldur’s Gate MTG FAQsIs the MTG Baldur’s Gate worth it as a set? Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the biggest games in all of 2023. It was a massive success and won multiple awards. Baldur’s Gate has also been a part of Magic: The Gathering. An entire set dedicated to Baldur’s Gate was released back in 2022 titled Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate.
At release, the set sold rather poorly and storefronts struggled to sell product. Its Commander Legends branding and lack of notable reprints left a sour taste in players’ mouths, but since the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, the set has been looked back on a lot more fondly.
That begs the question, is Magic: The Gathering’s Baldur’s Gate worth it? If you’re just starting out, here’s how to play Magic: The Gathering. And here are the best MTG Commander Precons.
An MTG card with the Ancient Copper Dragon. Image captured by VideoGamer.How strong are the MTG cards in Baldur’s Gate
The cards in Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate are rather strong. While the number of good reprints was minimal, the original cards were powerful and made a big impact in many Commander decks (and in some cases, constructed formats).
The Ancient Dragon cycle was fantastic. They are all Mythic rarity Dragons that cost between six to eight mana, each with an effect that causes you to roll a d20 to determine how much of what something does. Ancient Copper Dragon makes Treasures, Ancient Silver Dragon draws you cards, Ancient Brass Dragon reanimates creatures from your graveyard, Ancient Gold Dragon creates 1/1 Farie Dragon tokens, and Ancient Bronze Dragon puts +1/+1 counters on up to two creatures.
Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate introduced a variant on the partner mechanic as well with Backgrounds. Creatures that “choose a background” can use a legendary enchantment with the Background type as a commander as well, letting you play two commanders (one creature and one enchantment).
This also proved to be fantastic, with cards like Karlach, Fury Of Avernus giving you multiple combat phrases. Jaheira, Friend Of The Forest turns all tokens into green mana generators. The Background selection also had plenty of strong cards like Passionate Archaeologist. It burns when a spell is cast from exile. And Haunted One gives undying to creatures that share a type with your commander whenever it gets tapped.
An image of the White Plume Adventurer card in the Baldur’s Gate set of MTG. Image captured by VideoGamer.Initiative explained in Baldur’s Gate MTG
It’s hard to talk about how powerful the cards in Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate are without talking about the initiative. The initiative is a mechanic where you will go through a dungeon called the Undercity at the start of your upkeep or when you take the initiative. Note that you can’t go into the Undercity if you have gone into a different dungeon from the “venture into the dungeon” mechanic).
The initiative is balanced in Commander because three other players can attack you to take the initiative from you. However, in one-on-one games, it becomes much harder to do so. This is true especially when you can turbo out creatures that give you the initiative on the battlefield. While Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate was designed for Commander, the cards are also legal in the eternal formats Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper.
The initiative was possible to get as early as turn one, and the initiative continuously gives you a card advantage as you travel through it. Even in high-power formats, this mechanic on turn one was able to completely overpower your opponent so that you can guarantee an early victory.
✓The Banned Initiative
Taking the initiative proved to be too much for many formats, and the one affected the most by it was Pauper. Of the seven cards that give you the initiative in Pauper, all were banned except for Avenging Hunter, Goliath Paladin, and Trailblazer’s Torch since the creatures cost five mana and are hard to turbo out and Trailblazer’s Torch is a slow card with little impact. White Plume Adventurer was also banned in Legacy with how easy it was to get out on turn one.
An image of the Black Market connections card in the Baldur’s Gate set of MTG. Image captured by VideoGamer.How valuable are the MTG cards in the Baldur’s Gate deck
Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate has a lot of valuable cards in it. This applies to both the main set and the four Commander decks that were released alongside them (Party Time, Exit From Exile, Draconic Dissent, and Mind Flayarrrs). Among the pre-constructed decks, Black Market Connections stands out as the most noteworthy one. It’s a card that is around €15 and does a whole lot for one enchantment. Passionate Archaeologist is around €10. Depending on how you build your deck, it can deal a lot of damage with just one spell. While these cards are guaranteed in the pre-constructed decks, they are also possible to open inside of set boosters.
There are also plenty of valuable cards in the main set. All the Ancient Dragons are around €10 and above. It reaches as high as €113 for a foil borderless Ancient Copper Dragon (the most expensive card in the whole set),
There were a few different treatments given to cards in Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate. There were borderless cards with alternate art, showcase arts resembling Dungeons and Dragons manual art, and extended art with the card art being more present but still having some borders. The borderless cards are the ones worth the most. Battle Angels Of Tyr and Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes are the two most valuable ones outside the Ancient Dragons.
An image of the Minsc and Boo card in the Baldur’s Gate set of MTG. Image captured by VideoGamer.Is Baldur’s Gate worth it in MTG
With all of this in mind, is Baldur’s Gate worth it? The answer is yes. Due to the surplus of boxes, they are cheap to purchase to easily get a ton of packs into your hands to open. For fans of Limited formats, the set was built around drafting. So if you wanted to Commander Draft with your playgroup, Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate is a way to do that. There aren’t many sets that allow you to do that. So if you want to try your hand at a different format, Baldur’s Gate is a great way for that.
That covers if the MTG Baldur’s Gate set is worth it. The set has a ton of value and power in it. Even though it was looked at negatively on release, Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate has aged magnificently. Our best MTG Commander Decks will give you a headstart if you’re considering the Commander game mode. And if you’re new to it, here’s how to play Commander in MTG.
Baldur’s Gate MTG FAQs
Are Battle For Baldur’s Gate set boosters worth it?
While it didn’t do well at launch, it’s a solid choice in terms of power.
Are Baldur’s Gate Precons any good?
Yes, their synergies are pretty great.
About the Author
Johnny Garcia
Related Topics
- Magic: The Gathering
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