Hello everyone and welcome back to another Type 4 set review, this time focusing on the Battle for Baldur’s Gate. As a set focusing on EDH, the power level can definitely ramp up a bit, especially at high mana costs which is what we’re looking for in this format. Let’s see what we got.
Ancient Gold Dragon: We start off with a doozy. A 7/10 flyer is decent on its own, but having the ability to make a ton of 1/1 flyers is also sweet, both for killing people and being good chump blockers. A good fatty for the format.
Ascend from Avernus: Lets you bring your entire graveyard back. A strong card, likely going to be countered, but exiling itself prevents a lot of abuse scenarios.
Astral Confrontation: Instant speed, exile a creature. A card that every stack needs some amount of, pick which ones you have and play them. 5 mana makes it slightly worse in some situations, slightly better in others. But the base thing here is good.
Guardian Naga: The adventure is a free spell here, which is Disenchant, so that’s good. And if you’re ever left without another play, a 5/6 vigilance that can’t die on the attack is pretty good. Decently powerful package.
Lae’zel’s Acrobatics: A mass blink effect, with the possibility of doing it twice. Only a good card if you have a lot of creatures, and those creatures have ETB effects. Though with a Eternal Witness you can do this every turn, which seems fun.
Legion Loyalty: An incredibly powerful effect that requires you have at least one creature you want to attack with. Or one that you want to get 3 more ETB triggers off. For do-nothing enchantments, this one is clearly powerful, and likely good enough in most non-magic Christmas land scenarios that normal stacks can play it and be happy.
Sculpted Sunburst: A very weird wrath effect, probably rather weak, but wraths are wraths still.
Slaughter the Strong: See above.
White Plume Adventurer: This is just me ranting about Initiative, but holy balls what an incredibly inelegant and confusing mechanic. You enter a dungeon, but only this specific dungeon, unless you’re in a dungeon already, and you can’t enter that dungeon in other ways, and other people get it if they hit you, and it triggers then but also at your upkeep. Like jesus, dudes, just reprint Monarch.
Ancient Silver Dragon: An 8/8 house that can draw a ludicrous number of cards. So ludicrous that in drafts, this runs the real risk of decking you. But if you can’t win after drawing 10+ cards, well, guess you ended it faster by drawing 30 and dying. But a sick fatty and worthy of an inclusion in basically every stack.
Bane’s Contingency: It’s cancel in this format. I’ve played Cancel. It’s not exciting. But it gets the job done.
Blur: A cantrip with a minor good ability attached. Not thrilling, but these cards tend to be better than they look.
Contact Other Plane: 90% sure this is a reprint, but it’s a good one, so add it over whatever other bad Inspiration you’re playing.
Displacer Kitten: This can’t go truly nuts unlike in manaed formats, but it still might do some decently powerful stuff. It’s not just creatures it can blink, so you might be able to play around with that.
Draconic Lore: Another instant speed draw 3, but without much other benefit. That said, still a powerful enough card.
Dream Fracture: Huh didn’t expect this reprint. A nice political Counterspell, let them know that, hey, it’s just this one spell that I don’t like.
Elminster’s Simulacrum: Lets you clone everyone else’s best creature, which isn’t great if they don’t have any. But, instant speed means you can’t go super wrong with this.
Gale’s Redirection: A Counterspell that doesn’t counter, but exiles, and you get the chance to cast the card. Note that if you roll 1-14 it will cost your spell for turn, but still an incredible card and instant autoinclude in most every stack.
Illithid Harvester: This is a super powerful card in a creature-heavy stack, and reasonable outside those. Tapping all their guys down and turning them all into 2/2s is not a weak ability, especially if they have sweet activated abilities. Very good card.
Sapphire Dragon: this is an excellent card for the Adventure. A free noncreature counter helps you win counter wars. Plus, there’s a reasonable body on the back half. Very strong card.
Sword Coast Serpent: A free unsummon isn’t quite on the power level of the other adventures we’ve seen, but it’s not unreasonable.
Ancient Brass Dragon: It’s no Gold or Silver, but it’s still a decently powerful card. That said, it’s not an autoinclude like the others of its cycle we’ve seen so far. It’s not guaranteed that it’s ability even does anything, and 7/6 is kinda small for a fatty.
Astarion’s Thirst: This is also just exile target creature, but at rare, so likely 10-100x the price of Astral Confrontation. I recommend sticking with that one over this, but this does still do the job well enough.
Blood Money: The treasures will need you to do some work to make them relevant, but this is again still a full powered wrath, so if you need those this one works.
Elder Brain: Hit someone with this decently evasive body and you draw their hand. A very powerful effect if it goes off, but as a 6/6 without protection its unlikely to do so very often. Still, a cool fun large man, so worth considering.
Eldritch Pact: This can be a big card draw spell or kill people. That person might be you, so watch out for that. Big flash sorceries are a lot of the pull of the format so this is definitely something I’d include.
Ancient Copper Dragon: Hm these are getting not great fast. A 6/5 flyer is barely big enough to tussle in the skies, and Treasures don’t do all that much. Skippable for most stacks.
Balor: Only a 5/5, but some real strong abilities that can mess up your opponents. Plus, it triggers on death, so if it survives to attack you’ll get two triggers, minimum. Not the greatest, but not terrible.
Firbolg Flutist: A pretty interesting card, ETB treachery creatures have been in my stack before, and this is a pretty good one, since it lets you attack everyone and actually abuse ETB effects. You do need creature combat to be something you expect for this to be good, but that bar is pretty low.
Wand of Wonder: An artifact that steals instants or sorceries is always a card worth looking at, and this one does a pretty good job. Random, but you get a selection from among them, and even just hitting one is going to be good enough in most situations. This can also potentially help you win counter wars or get a Counterspell in dire situations. Pretty strong card.
Ancient Bronze Dragon: A step up from Copper, making your guys incredibly large can be a real boon, but you do need at least one other creature to make the best use of this. Still a 7/7 flyer which is decent enough. Not exciting, but still good.
Bramble Sovereign: Lets you double up on every creature you play in the future, but also lets you be political and do the same for your opponents. While it’s likely to die pretty quickly, the power is certainly there and this can do some real strong stuff.
Earthquake Dragon: A 10/10 flying trample that doesn’t stay dead is a real big threat. Sometimes you don’t need any fancy ETB abilities or combat triggers if you just kill people.
Emerald Dragon: Here we have a free ability counter, but it can’t come from a creature, which weakens it significantly. Plus, a 4/4 isn’t really going to be bringing home the bacon. A reasonable inclusion, but not one you’ll be excited about, and pretty safe to skip.
Silvanus’s Invoker: Likely not even close to good enough, but it’s fun to think about some fun 2-card combos you can do with this guy. Draw your deck, mill everyone else, flash every turn. Again, way too situational, but using bad cards for fun effects is something I like to do.
Skullwinder: Eternal Witness 2, a reprint but a really good one. Should make it easier to get ahold of, which is good because this effect is still incredible. The downside can even be mitigated politically.
Astarion, the Decadent: A 4/4 is still not going to bring home the bacon, but being an after-combat damage doubler is not bad for a card. Still, situational, and requires you to be dealing damage, but worth considering.
Bane, Lord of Darkness: Not the best body, and while the ability could be potent, it relies on your opponents too much, so unlikely to be playable.
Duke Ulder Ravenguard: Another way to grant Myriad to a creature, which we’ve already discussed is a very powerful ability and always worth considering.
Elminster: Just putting him here to say that his +2 being Serum Visions and not Preordain is blasphemy and I hate it. Also unplayable in Type 4.
Myrkul, Lord of Bones: Now this is a card. Turns your dead creatures into enchantments, so you want creatures with good abilities that don’t rely on them being a creature. Also it’s a 7/5 that will have indestructible a fair amount of the time. This is the sort of cool fatty that might be too expensive for EDH but fits in quite nicely to Type 4.
Tasha, the Witch Queen: Stealing your opponents stuff is fun, though she can’t do it often and her +1 isn’t that great. Still not a terrible card, but not one for every stack.
Blade of Selves: A real good reprint, and another Myriad enabler. Very good equipment.
But wait! There’s more! Since there’re commander decks with new cards that aren’t in the set because that would make sense ha ha…
Stick Together: Yet another weird wrath that again, ain’t that great, but will get the job done most of the time. Just hope that what you want to get rid of isn’t a D&D party member.
Aboleth Spawn: A pretty unique ability with flash, and it is static, so it’s not just a one-and-done thing. Probably a lot of things you can copy that will be super gross, Ashen Rider comes to mind, or any Gearhulk. Worth considering at least.
Artificer Class: If you have only one artifact, this gets that and then makes a copy of it, which isn’t bad. If you have a bunch, this gets one of them and makes a copy of any that you have, which, still not bad. As a one off effect this is solid, but if you can get it to trigger again that’s real good.
Astral Dragon: Good lord, this could be very very powerful. Copy powerful artifacts, lands, enchantments, hell, Planeswalkers too if there’s one good enough out there. Watch out for the legend rule, but this can take anyone’s stuff. An absolute must-counter threat.
Grell Philosopher: Most great activated abilities are ones that require you to tap, so this can’t do those immediately. Also, if you want to choose Masticore, good luck, they can respond and kill this before the trigger resolves. A neat idea for sure, but probably not close to good enough.
Mocking Doppelganger: This is a really weird fog, actually. I don’t know if it’s a good fog, but it might be. Ok, yes, it’s a clone with flash that only hits your opponent’s stuff, but I’m pretty sure people will use this as a combat trick more often than not. As for all clones, some are good, too many is… not at all.
Psionic Ritual: Horrors aren’t common, but they’re not nowhere, so the replicate might have legs. Still, copying a big sorcery that’s already been played is normally gonna be good enough so definitely a decent card.
Black Market Connections: Slightly worse Phyrexian Arena or make a 3/2 every turn. Neither are powerful enough for this to see play.
Brainstealer Dragon: Triggers right after you play it, basically drawing you 3+ cards, which is pretty great on a 6/6 flyer. Sure, removable before the trigger, but still they need to do that or you can start burying them in card advantage.
From the Catacombs: A repeatable reanimation effect is bonkers. Also you get to keep going into the dungeon. This card is pretty nuts and a likely autoinclude in every stack.
Delayed Blast Fireball: 5 to each opponent and each creature they have at instant speed and without costing a spell. Not a bad card, nothing excellent, but playable.
Spectacular Showdown: This can kill people, and a lot of them, plus it also doesn’t spell you out so you can follow it up with another big buff spell or a creature or a Counterspell. Obviously if you have more creatures in your stack this gets a lot better.
And that wraps us up! Some strong creatures here, some powerful sorceries, basically if you were considering getting into Type 4 this is a great set to do so in. Nothing that’s gonna change the format, but plenty of stuff I’m happy to include. See you next time for… whatever set is coming out next, I’ve no clue.
