Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate Predictions
We (Chief, who doesn’t roll for initiative, he just punches and Exxaxl, miniature giant space hamster enthusiast) have prepared a small article regarding our predictions of what we hope to see in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate (CLB).
We’re quite close to preview season and some info and cards have already been previewed, so we’ve provided a recap of things we already know. First we’ll look back at our predictions from Streets of New Capenna (SNC) and New Capenna Commander (NCC) and see how close we got.
SNC/NCC prediction results:
Chief:
1. Rogue, Assassin, Bard, and Wizard tribes in the set: ✅
2. Planeswalkers in SNC: The guy who looks like Davriel Cane turned out to be Scheming Fence.
Chief: I did predict that Elspeth would still be mono-white! Ob Nixilis isn’t aligned with the Maestros but he did get a new color! So I was half right, twice? Can I get half a point for this?
Exxaxl: I don’t see why not ✅.
3. Hideaway as a mechanic in the set with templating changes: ✅
4. A few Angel creatures, but not as the main focus of the set + Broker aligned angel: ✅
Chief: can I get a bonus point for being right twice in one guess?
Exxaxl: No :^)
5. Partner with commanders in NCC: ❌
Chief: I was really disappointed because we could have had partners in crime.
Exxaxl:
1. Goblins/Daretti as a tribe/planeswalker in SNC:❌
Exxaxl: This didn’t happen but we got some ogres instead.
Chief: Can you lose two points being wrong twice in one guess?
Exxaxl: Please no.
2. Exalted/Unearth returning to SNC:❌
Exxaxl: I thought of these mechanics due to crime families being large, and people at the bottom of the pyramid being expendable. We got the new mechanic ‘casualty’ instead.
3. Dedicated 3 color legendary creatures: ✅
Exxaxl: Do I get a point for each three color legendary creature?
Chief: That seems like cheating especially since we knew the set was three color focused.
4. New charm cycle: ✅
Exxaxl: I’m quite happy they kept the charm cycle uncommon in SNC, and I was pleasantly surprised to see each charm in their respective precon.
5. Lazy fillers: ✅
Exxaxl: Only 1 out the go to 5 ‘filler’ cards, but we now we’ve seen Champion of Lambholt in New Capenna Commander, Neon Dynasty Commander and Midnight Hunt Commander back to back.
Exxaxl
I’d like to preface this that we’re not taking leaks into consideration for this or any future article. I myself have resisted the urge to look at leaks because they don’t sit with me well. People who have spent time on our Discord server will have noticed we sometimes try to turn our preview cards into small ‘build your own adventure / play along’ events whenever we can. Our event becomes way less fun when our preview card is known information ahead of time.
Chief
I’ll co-sign that. I think that leaks are stinky and I didn’t use them to inform my predictions either because that’s not fun. I think that preview cards are a great opportunity for content creators to reach new audiences and I’d hate to see that ruined for anyone.
What we already know:
Zevlor, Elturel Exile was previewed on The Command Zone. We already know that there is a templating error on the card. Zevlor will receive day 0 errata that specifies that he only works with spells that only have one target, which must be one of your opponents, as opposed to spells that target one opponent and may also have other targets such as permanents or spells on the stack. This card was a surprise to see as this character has only appeared in the Baldur’s Gate 3 video game so far.
Minsc returns to MTG yet again, this time as a planeswalker, with Boo obviously 🐹.
Chief: Butt kicking for goodness!
Exxaxl: You know… now I’m curious if they share a spark just like Will and Rowan Kenrith.
Ancient Brass Dragon; Elder Brain and Wand of Wonder are already previewed, which confirms that dice rolling makes a return in this set.
The Buy-a-Box promo Elder Brain printing and Wand of Wonder Bundle promo have also been shown.
Bountiful Promenade; Luxury Suite; Morphic Pool; Sea of Clouds and Spire Garden are finally getting a regular product reprint. With the popularity of EDH increasing, the price of these lands kept going up so it’s nice to finally see the cycle completely reprinted!
Reflecting Pool; Fireball and Lightning Bolt are getting reprinted. And Lightning Bolt is…a common! May the odds of your draft and sealed be ever in your favor.
Exxaxl: If I get 5 lightning bolts in sealed I’m building red burn.
Chief: I’d draft 10 lightning bolts if people pass the cards to me, nobody is allowed to have creatures with 3 or less toughness.
Rulebook arts have been confirmed to also be in CLB.
The four precons and their names have been revealed a while ago.
Party Time (white-black), Mind Flayarrrs (blue-black), Draconic Dissent (blue-red) and Exit from Exile (red-green).
Mark Rosewater’s Teaser was published a few days ago. Go read everything about Elephant Angels, Human Boars and Dragon Peasants there.
With the recap out of the way, let’s get to the actual predictions!
Chief predicts:
1: Xzar
Chief: I expect to see several of the playable party members from the Baldur's Gate games. I especially hope to see Xzar because I've always found him to be a very enjoyable character with a very memorable personality. I’ve always loved the excellent dialogue work by Frank Welker that really helped bring Xzar to life.
Exxaxl: Xzar is a character I know. I guess we can talk about this now - my knowledge in regards to the DnD / Baldur’s Gate universe is limited to video games and online experiences only. I’ve played Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 and several of the Pool of Radiance games growing up. I’ve played a singular DnD session in my local game store (LGS), flipped through my friend’s DnD books, and that’s it.
I distinctly remember this character being the one that caught my dad’s attention for the quote ‘I am become death, destroyer of worlds!’. I was only 12 when Baldur’s Gate came out and my dad had to explain why he found that quote funny in a fantasy RPG video game setting.
Chief: I recently picked up the first two Baldur’s Gate games on the Nintendo Switch and I’m looking forward to playing them again soon. Seeing more characters from games that I grew up with in the set would be awesome! The only thing missing would be the amazing voice acting from the games, but I’m sure that the flavor of the cards would more than make up for it!
2: Paladin Class / Bag of Holding / Portable Hole
Chief: It seems likely that we'll see some reprints from AFR and AFC within the main set since it's designed for a draft environment and I'm sure many of the cards from those sets will be quite friendly to the draft archetypes in CLB. It wouldn't surprise me if these included some class enchantments and cards themed after classic items such as Bag of Holding and Portable Hole. I'm sure we'll also see some commanders reprinted.
Exxaxl: With the release of NCC, in the Obscura Operation deck specifically, I noticed the card Currency Converter and thought ‘was this originally planned to be a Bag of Holding, but with CLB this close in the release schedule, did they opt out of slotting in that card and design something new instead?’
3: Elminster
Chief: With the confirmation that there is already one known planeswalker commander in this set, I’m going to guess that we’ll see at least one or two more planeswalkers that can be your commander. I think that Elminster makes sense for this role, given that he is one of the most powerful wizards in the setting. I could see him also being two colors like Minsc and Boo and having some very flavorful loyalty abilities to reflect his powerful magic. I enjoy planeswalker commanders when they have unique abilities such as Jeska and Tevesh Szat, so I hope that they can deliver some interesting card designs that will be cool to build around!
Exxaxl: Growing up, most media depicted wizards in blue (for ‘good’) or black (for ‘evil’) robes, and I distinctly remember Elminster in Baldur's Gate wearing a red robe and wizard hat which was not something I’d seen before. If he appears on a card, I hope they stick with that ‘this guy is different from the rest’ aesthetic.
4: Githyanki
Chief: Given that we’ve already seen a githyanki in some of the key art for CLB, I’m hoping that we’ll see plenty of them in CLB because they’re one of my favorite races in the Forgotten Realms setting. The character depicted in this art appears to be Lae’zel from Baldur’s Gate III, so perhaps she’ll even have a card in the set. I could see the gith races filling the Esper color identity and I believe that they could make for a pretty unique tribe if done well.
Exxaxl: I had to look those up for a moment but now I remember - they made an appearance in Baldur's Gate 2 where they attack your player characters ship! One of the precons is called ‘Mind Flayarrrs’ so ‘fantasy space pirates’ is definitely happening.
5: New card types
Chief: It seems almost guaranteed that we’ll get new types of cards in CLB to help flesh out the setting. We could see new dungeons or even entirely new card subtypes that bring a new element to the draft experience. It also feels like a good opportunity to print new class enchantments, because the first batch was a big hit. If they do print new dungeons and new card types, I’m hoping that there is enough support to build around them.
Exxaxl: I wonder when they print more dungeons if we’ll ever get a dungeon-related interaction or stax card that prevents your opponents from completing dungeons or limit the amount of rooms a turn someone can go into.
Exxaxl predicts:
1: You Hear Something on Watch
Exxaxl: I’m expecting to see more ‘You [Verb] a [Noun]’ cards - You See a Pair of Goblins; You Find the Villain’s Lair, You Find Some Prisoners. I really liked seeing these, especially in draft/sealed, having a card with multiple options on it is never bad. I realize not a lot of these made a big impact in EDH, but pre-COVID I spent most my time playing MTG doing drafts and playing sealed over playing EDH so I’m always interested in what works in Limited over Constructed.
Chief: I’m a huge fan of these cards, especially You Find Some Prisoners as a very strong answer to top of library tutors and topdeck manipulation. Unfortunately, I’m exclusively a mono-white player these days, and I didn’t really vibe with the white ones in Commander.
2: N’ghathrod
Exxaxl: I’m expecting the Mind Flayarrrs precon to have N’ghathrod at the helm. This is going off of the 30x30 pixel preview we got from the previewed box art of the precon. I’ll be honest, the only reason I know this character is because he has a miniature giant space hamster. When I talked about the Baldur’s Gate games to my friend who is very into DnD and I mentioned liking Minsc and Boo, he showed me this character in his Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage book.
I play a lot of Dimir, I like ‘theft/borrow/bad gifts for you, good grabs for me/reanimate’ things, and Mindflayers in MTG and DnD fall into those categories often. We don’t know what’s in these precons just yet, but if ‘mindflayer pirate vehicle boarding party steal the booty’ is the theme of the Dimir deck, I’m sold.
Chief: If there is a vehicle subtheme, I think adding support for creatures becoming tapped without attacking would be a really cool fit for Dimir and I really look forward to learning more about these precons.
3. Icewind Dale
Exxaxl: We've already seen Bruenor, Cattie-brie, Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar in the previous set - all of these meet and adventure together in Icewind Dale which is another RPG favorite of mine. It'd be cool to see some flavor text in regards to Icewind Dale as a potential future spoiler towards the next DnD set being in Icewind Dale? It's a space where they can print in snow basics again too.
Chief: Yes, print more snow lands. I’m always happy to see Reidane, God of the Worthy’s stocks improve. I’m this close 🤏 to running her in my decks these days with the popularity of snow cards.
4: Artificer Class
Exxaxl: I'm hoping for Artificer Class to be printed in either the precons or the regular set. Something to do with servo tokens or affinity. I really enjoyed these special enchantments and they were somewhat reminiscent of Oathbreaker. The class cards often felt like a hint at the table of 'my deck is trying to do x and y' if you hadn't already played many on-theme cards before.
5. Dynaheir
Exxaxl: We’ve seen Minsc twice now - It’d be a shame if we didn’t get Dynaheir. Minsc is Dynaheir’s bodyguard in the game. Excuse me while I quote ‘a wise choice to appoint the wiser’ whenever I put her at the helm of my deck. The voice actor in the game was Jennifer Hale - If you’ve played any Baldur’s Gate game; Mass Effect; Metroid Prime, or Diablo 3, her voice should be familiar to you. Her and Jim Cummings (Minsc, Winnie the Pooh, Optimus Prime) should do audiobooks together, in character.
Chief: I already spend way too much money on Magic cards. If they start releasing audiobooks, I’ll have to tighten my card budget!
Exxaxl: Make way evil! I'm armed to the teeth and packing a hamster!
Let’s see how many predictions we got right once the set comes out - we’ll return with more predictions once Double Masters 2022 gets closer!
“This article is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”
