Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate is a unique release on Magic: The Gathering’s 2022 calendar as a Commander-focused set designed to be drafted.
As a follow-up to Commander Legends in 2020, Battle for Baldur’s Gate brings Limited gameplay to Magic’s multiplayer format. This comes with several key rule changes to make four-player Commander work as a draft format.
Instead of 100-card decks, players will build 60-card decks built around a legendary creature that’s designated as your commander. There are uncommon, rare, and mythic rare legendary creatures and planeswalkers that can be your commander.
Battle for Baldur’s Gate introduces background Enchantments that can be in your command zone. They act similar to Partner commanders. Background Enchantments can only accompany a creature in the command zone if it has “choose a background.” Only monocolored legendary creatures have this ability.
Players draft with three booster packs per player by picking two cards each, instead of the usual one card. Decks are not restricted by the singleton rule in Commander. Decks can have multiple copies of any card.
All other Commander rules apply, including commander tax and commander damage.
If Battle for Baldur’s Gate plays similar to the original Commander Legends, the format will be slower than a normal Draft. Because of the low power level of Limited decks and having to deal with three other opponents, games extended deep into the late game.
The format could end up being faster because of the new Initiative mechanic, though. Like Monarch, Initiative encourages players to attack each other to gain the initiative. When players have the initiative, they venture into the Undercity, a new dungeon exclusive to Battle for Baldur’s Gate.
You can try the new Commander Limited format when Battle for Baldur’s Gate is released globally on June 10.
