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‘Magic: The Gathering’ Card Preview: Ghost Lantern (Battle for Baldur’s Gate)

Magic: The Gathering and Baldur’s Gate are a perfect match. And we have an exclusive card preview from the upcoming crossover, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate. Check out Ghost Lantern, a potentially very useful card for Black deck players.

Magic: The Gathering takes the engrossing fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons and turns it into a fast-paced, addictive tabletop card game. The Baldur’s Gate series is built on the same foundation, and recognised as one of the finest CRPG games ever made.

The two main reasons for this acclaim are the games’ compelling storytelling and charming cast of iconic characters. For this writer’s money, Minsc and Boo are quite possibly the greatest travelling companions to ever grace a CRPG. Which is to say, the new Magic: The Gathering set will have a lot of people rather excited.

magic the gathering card preview
Image: Ghost Lantern (Magic the Gathering) / Wizards of the Coast. Artwork: Julian Kok Joon Wen

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate

The upcoming Magic: The Gathering set contains characters, spells, locations and, of course, monsters, that are most associated with the world of Baldur’s Gate (the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons). The complete set contains 361 new cards and releases 10 June, 2022.

The upcoming Battle for Baldur’s Gate set is designed for use in the Commander game format; one of the most popular ways of playing the game these days. Essentially, you pick a legendary hero as your Commander and craft a deck of 99 other cards that compliment them.

battle for baldur's gate magic
Image: Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate / Wizards of the Coast

It’s a great format to play with multiple friends (3-5 players), and allows you to really create your own identity and playstyle. However, picking 99 different cards means that you’ll want to see all the new options for this Magic: The Gathering set.

Battle for Baldur’s Gate, interestingly, ditches the single card rule of normal Commander; meaning players will be able to include two of the same card in their deck (and as many common lands as you want). Needless to say, this could shake things up in a big way.

Introducing: Ghost Lantern (Black Deck)

Ghost Lantern is a dastardly Artifact (Equipment subtype) card that Magic: The Gathering players who incorporate Black into their deck will definitely want to check out. Sure, it isn’t a new Legendary Creature that’s going to decimate your opponent in a short number of turns. But as any decent MTG player knows, low mana cost cards can turn the tide of a battle when used in the right circumstances.

And Ghost Lantern has the potential to do just that. Costing only one Black mana to play it, and then one Colourless mana to equip it, you should be able to get the card into play early. From there, Ghost Lantern can be very powerful in the right kind of deck.

Once the Artifact card is equipped to one of your creatures, every time another of your creatures dies a 1/1 marker goes onto the creature with Ghost Lantern equipped. This mechanic could be used to strengthen a weaker creature over time, or buff an already powerful creature until it is truly unstoppable.

Ghost Lantern also has the Bind Spirit ability, meaning you can exile the card to move one creature card from your Graveyard back into your hand (very useful if an opponent has already killed one of your favourite beasts).

These two mechanics make Ghost Lantern an attractive card; particularly for players looking to start the game quickly with lots of weak and cheap creatures in their deck.

battle for baldur's gate magic the gathering
Image: Magic the Gathering: Battle for Baldur’s Gate / Wizards of the Coast

Magic: The Gathering and Battle for Baldur’s Gate – further details

How Ghost Lantern fits into the greater narrative of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate remains to be seen. However, it’s my hunch that many Magic: The Gathering players, as they usually do, will find inventive ways to get the most out of it.

For more info on the new Magic: The Gathering set, check out the official Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate page here.