Adventure mechanic returns in MTG Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate

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Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate brings back the adventure of Throne of Eldrainea mechanic who produced some of Magic: The GatheringThe most powerful cards of any format.

Adventure is a subtype of instant and sorcery spells and is a versatile mechanic that gives creatures a two-to-one value. Creatures can have an Adventure attached to them. Players can just cast the creature as normal, but they also have the option of casting the Adventure spell. When the Adventure is launched, the creature is then exiled and can be launched from exile by paying its cost.

The original slate of Adventure cards from Eldraine was dominant in Standard and still sees play in other Eternal formats. Cards like Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower are powerful creatures with cheap and effective suppression spells as Adventures. Cards like Lucky Clover had to be banned in Standard due to the strength of getting multiple instances of an Adventure spell.

Commander is better suited to support Adventure spells without distorting the format due to the multiplayer aspect. This naturally reduces the potency of single-target Adventures like Stomp which made Bonecrusher Gaint a go-to card in Standard.

A handful of creatures of lower rarity with Adventure were revealed during the first day of Battle for Baldur’s Gate preview of the season. These cards were included with a rare, Illithid Harvester, which could impact Commander and Battle for Baldur’s Gate Limit. The set is slated for a worldwide tabletop release on June 10.

Illithid Harvester

• Mana Value: 4U
• Type: Creature of horror
• Rarity: rare
• Stats: 4/4
• First Ability: When Illithis Harvester enters the battlefield, turn any number of target tapped nontoken creatures face down. They are 2/2 horror creatures.

Plant tadpoles

• Mana Value: XUU
• Type: Sorcery Adventure
• First ability: Tap X target creatures. They don’t untap during their controllers’ next untap steps.

Illithid Harvester is a solid adventure creature that has many of the qualities players expect from spells with the adventure mechanic. Plant Tadpoles is a solid early game disruption spell that can slow table aggro play. It also evolves as the game progresses. Plant Tadpoles turn into a way to exploit blockers for a winning alpha strike.

Illithid Harvester is a solid follow-up to Plant Tadpoles but is effective on its own. Flipping creatures face down is a difficult disruption to resolve. As long as the opponent is left with 2/2 creatures, turning the opposing commanders face down removes them from play unless they can be removed somehow. Illithid Harvester can stop many types of decks that rely heavily on their Commander to function.

Other lower rarity spells with Adventure have been revealed that will have some use in Battle for Baldur’s Gae Limited but won’t have much impact beyond that. Sea Hag is a decent way to force attackers with his Adventure Aquatic Ingress. But at five mana, Sea Hag is a bit pricey, even in Limited.

Fang Dragon is a great threat with seven mana in common. This 6/3 trades with weaker creatures, but if the air is clear, it can become a real late-game threat. This will be a great choice in Limited because Forktail Sweep is a two-mana sorcery that deals one damage to each creature you don’t control. This is an effective way to clear the battlefield of tokens and small utility creatures.

Dread Linnorm is one of the best common spells with Adventure that has been revealed. Instant four-drop scaling puts two +1/+1 counters on a creature and grants it hexproof until end of turn. It’s a combat trick that can also protect a key creature, like your commander, from a suppression spell.

Dread Linnorm is also just a good creature. A seven-mana 7/6 that can’t be blocked is solid, especially if Battle for Baldur’s Gate ends up being a slow limited format.

All images via WotC.