Who are the Gods in MTG’s Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate?

What's a king to a god?
Laezal Vlaakiths from Baldur's Gate in Magic: The Gathering.
Image via WotC

When players start to dive into Magic: The Gathering’s latest Commander set, Battle for Baldur’s Gate, they’ll likely notice a few legendary creatures with the creature type “God.”

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Particularly knowledgeable fans will notice that these Gods don’t necessarily fit into the canon of MTG lore. Instead, they come from Dungeons & Dragons.

The three gods are a part of a 10-card cycle of rare legendary creatures, all of which are represented by a three-color combination. Bane, Lord of Darkness is depicted as an Esper card (White, Blue, and Black). Bhaal, Lord of Murder is a Jund creature (Black, Red, and Green), and Myrkul, Lord of Bones is an Abzan creature (White, Black, and Green).

All three of these god cards have one triggered ability that is identical across all three of them. If your life total is less than half of your starting life total, they are indestructible. Outside of that, each has its own unique benefits.

Coming from CLB, the cards are not legal in most formats. As is indicated from the Commander Legends set that they are in, they are playable in Commander, but outside of that, they can only be legally used in Legacy and Vintage.

Gods in MTG Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate

Bane, Lord of Darkness

Image via WotC

For four mana, Bane gives its controller perks for having creatures under their control die. However, the exact perk is up to their opponent. The opponent may either let them draw a card or put a creature card from their hand into the battlefield.

The pitfall to this trigger is that if Bane’s controller doesn’t have a creature that fits the requirements of the second half of that trigger and their opponent knows that, then the trigger is ineffective.

Bhaal, Lord of Murder

Image via WotC

This five-mana, Jund-colored God card is both fun and chaotic to use in a Commander setting. Typically Jund decks are known for having elements of sacrifice to them so there’s a decent chance that you’ll be able to craft a deck that lets you kill your own creatures to trigger Bhaal’s second ability.

Because you can put the +1/+1 counter on any target creature, players have the flexibility to buff one of their opponent’s creatures, which can be useful when you take into consideration that Bhaal’s ability also Goads it, forcing that creature to attack someone other than you in a multiplayer setting. In a casual game of commander, this can cause chaos at the table making for both fun and awkward exchanges during combat both in the game and between friends.

Myrkul, Lord of Bones

Image via WotC

Myrkul is the most expensive of the Gods costing a heft seven mana, but his ability that triggers from creatures dying is perhaps the most powerful. Additionally, it has the most power and toughness of the three Gods sitting with a 7/5 body.

Whenever you have a non-token creature die, you can effectively bring it back into play by making a copy of it if you choose to exile it after it dies. This trigger makes it so that other players have to have twice as much removal to get rid of your creatures, ultimately giving your board state that much more staying power.


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Max Miceli
Senior Staff Writer. Max graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism and political science degree in 2015. He previously worked for The Esports Observer covering the streaming industry before joining Dot where he now helps with Overwatch 2 coverage.