Magic: The Gathering, continiuing its long-standing relationship with Dungeons & Dragons, adds to its ever-growing list of characters from the Forgotten Realms with Karlach, Fury of Avernus from the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3. She will be featured in the new Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate set, the second Commander Legends set since the first iteration in 2020 and the first to include references to the infamous city of Baldur's Gate. Wizards of the Coast have been previewing new cards this week with a planned prerelease date of Battle for Baldur's Gate set for June 3-5 and a worldwide release on June 10.
Ever since Magic: The Gathering's crossover with Dungeons & Dragons, players have seen a variety of recognizable characters and settings featured as cards. Now, after exploring the Streets of New Capenna, the series has arrived at Baldur's Gate, taking characters and setting from Baldur's Gate 3, which is currently in early access on Steam. The new cards will be featured in the second Commander Legends set, Battle for Baldur's Gate, which is itself the newest addition to the Commander series of cards that have been released every year since 2013.
According to PCGamer, one of the new additions to the game is Karlach, Fury of Avernus. In Baldur's Gate 3, she is a Tiefling fighter who the player finds injured early in the game and who gives you the "Hunt the Devil" questline. Her card variant is a red 5-mana Legendary Creature, which labels her as a barbarian, a venerable D&D class. Her main ability allows her to untap creatures on the first combat phase and give them First Strike until the end of the player's turn.
As expected, Karlach plays aggressively, but allows for some strategy with the implementation of the new "Choose a Background" action. Backgrounds, introduced in Battle for Baldur's Gate, serve as a new enchantment subtype that allows players to customize the monocolored legendary creatures being used as their commander. For example, the new red-colored 2-cost Guild Artisan gives the commander the ability to create two Treasure tokens when attacking as long as the attacking player has the lowest health. There are numerous other Backgrounds inspired by the D&D mechanic that players can use to shake things up.
Karlach isn't the only Baldur's Gate character being introduced in the new set. Wizards of the Coast have also previewed Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion, a Legendary Gith Warrior who is also a companion in Baldur's Gate 3. There is also the return of Minsc and Boo, two characters from Baldur's Gate 2, who now share a card. They were first featured in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, the first Magic: The Gathering set to crossover with Dungeons & Dragons. Bringing back beloved characters, and continuing to feature other popular heroes such as the legendary Drizzt Do'Urden, gives Dungeons & Dragons fans who may not be too invested in Magic: The Gathering's multiverse another chance to join in.
Source: PCGamer