Collecting Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate
Editor's Note: We wanted to provide a clarification that the card Faceless One does not come in the foil-etched or traditional foil treatments.
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate is the crossroads of the Forgotten Realms—a place where you can find all manner of exotic goods, including the fanciest Magic cards.
Arriving June 10 at your local game store, online retailers such as Amazon, and beyond it's a set filled to the brim with amazing cards for Commander fans. Here's a breakdown of excitement you can find:
Foil-Etched Legends
You can find a foil-etched version of your favorite Commander from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate in Set and Collector Boosters. Every legendary creature and Background in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate has a foil-etched alternate version.
Cards can be foil etched in a variety of ways. Commander Legends, Strixhaven: School of Mages, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and Streets of New Capenna all featured foil-etched cards, but in each case, the application of foil etching was different. For Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, we are using the same process as Commander Legends—the foil-etched cards use their own matte frame with a special varnish, giving them a brilliant sheen. This is the style of foil etching we'll be using as our standard approach in the future, though we may still riff on it from time to time.
There are 57 legendary creatures in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate: 30 uncommons, 25 rares, and 2 mythic rares. And there are 25 legendary backgrounds: 5 commons, 15 uncommons, and 5 rares. All 82 of these cards have foil-etched versions featuring their normal Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate art in the foil-etched frame.
Every Set Booster contains a foil-etched legend; one-third of the foil etched legends in Set Boosters are rares or mythic rares. Every Collector Booster contains two foil-etched legends: one common or uncommon and one rare or mythic rare. Foil-etched cards do not appear in Draft Boosters.
Borderless Cards
There are three borderless planeswalkers in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate:
There is also a cycle of five mythic rare Dragons in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. Each Dragon is looking forward to dealing combat damage to your opponents, and each is available in a borderless version.
Five other sweet Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate mythic rares have borderless versions, including Bramble Sovereign.
You can open borderless Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate cards in Set, Draft, and Collector boosters, in both traditional foil and non-foil.
Rulebook Cards
The rulebook treatment you may remember from Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is returning in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate.
Art for these cards is inspired by early Monster Manual art. Each of the 57 legendary creatures in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate—30 uncommons, 25 rares, and 2 mythic rares—appears in the rulebook treatment, as well as a selection of other non-legendary cards. There are 76 total rulebook cards: 10 commons, 34 uncommons, 25 rares, and 7 mythic rares. The mythic rare Dragon cycle appears in the rulebook treatment, as well as the borderless treatment. Every Adventures in the Forgotten Realms rulebook card was from the Monster Manual, but in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, you'll be able to find certain wondrous items in the rulebook treatment as well, including the Diamond cycle and Lightning Bolt. You can open rulebook cards in Set, Draft, and Collector Boosters, in traditional foil and non-foil.
Extended Art
You've seen all the other alternate card treatments in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. We create alternate versions of every rare and mythic rare so that you can always find a special version of your favorite rare and mythic rare. There are 47 rares and 7 mythic rares in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate that appear in extended art. Those cards don't appear in other treatments. Extended-art cards from the main Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate set can be found in Collector Boosters and Collector Booster Sample Packs in both traditional foil and non-foil.
The new cards from the Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Commander decks also appear in extended art. There are 27 such rares and 12 mythic rares. (There is also a Class card that does not appear in extended art.) Each mythic rare is available in both traditional foil and non-foil in Collector Boosters and Collector Booster Sample Packs. Extended-art rares are available only in non-foil in Collector Boosters.
The List
The List for Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate will return to being 300 cards long, featuring cards from throughout Magic's history. The List will include all the Magic-themed Stranger Things x Secret Lair cards except for Havengul Laboratory. The Magic-themed Stranger Things x Secret Lair cards that appear in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Set Boosters will drop at the same rarity as the other cards on The List.
Booster Types/Set Overview
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate is larger than most sets to support the larger boosters necessary for Commander Draft. Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate contains 141 commons, 120 uncommons, 77 rares, and 22 mythic rares. Many of these cards appear in alternate treatments as detailed above. You can find all the foil-etched cards in Set and Collector Boosters. Rulebook and borderless cards can be found in traditional foil and non-foil in Set, Draft, and Collector Boosters. Extended-art cards are exclusive to Collector Boosters and Collector Booster Sample Packs.
Set Boosters are the most fun Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate boosters to open. Each Set Booster contains a foil-etched legend or Background card, as well as another legend, another Background, a rare or mythic rare, a traditional foil, and two wildcards. Between all the cool cards you can open across those slots, you'll find that most—79%—of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Set Boosters have at least two rares or mythic rares in them, and 37% of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Set Boosters have three or more rares or mythic rares.
Draft Boosters are the best Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate boosters to open for Commander Draft. Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Draft Boosters contain 20 cards, and you'll pick two at a time to build a 60-card Commander deck. You can even break the Singleton rule in Commander Draft. Each Draft Booster contains a legendary creature or planeswalker, a legendary Background, and a rare or mythic rare that isn't legendary. 44% of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Draft Boosters contain at least two rares or mythic rares.
There is no fixed ratio between the appearance rate of the regular version of a card and its alternate versions. About 11% of Set Boosters contain a non-foil, non-foil-etched rare or mythic rare with an alternate treatment, as do 10% of Draft Boosters. Cards that appear with multiple treatments have each of those treatments appearing proportionally less often to the number of treatments. This is true of Collector Boosters as well—Collector Boosters are the best way to collect these variant rares and mythic rares in both traditional foil and non-foil, and they're the only place to collect extended-art cards.
For a complete rundown on the contents of each Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate booster type, check out the Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Product Overview.
Have fun with your next Commander deck when Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate arrives June 10, available at your local game store, online retailers such as Amazon, and more!