The First Taste of Battlebond

Most things are better with a friend (pizza, podcasts, and world domination to name a few) and with the upcoming set Battlebond Wizards of the Coast is hoping to embrace the power of friendship like never before! You might be thinking, “But I don’t keep up with MTG news Cameron! What is this Battlebond you speak of?”  Well strap in dear reader! We are going to break down some of the initial spoilers and core mechanics of this new supplemental product coming to a Local Game Store near you

To start us off let’s talk about what Battlebond is from a design standpoint. Battlebond is designed to be played using the format Two-Headed Giant where you and a partner share a life total and play through your turn together as you try to bring down a pair of opponents. You each get to play your own deck but your success is tied to your ability to work together. All-in-all Two-Headed Giant has been around and played for quite awhile, especially during prerelease, but has been lacking in overall support. There have been other sets and cards that have been designed with Two-Headed Giant in mind, the set Oath of the Gatewatch being the prime example, but Battlebond is seeking to make Two-Headed Giant something that is in the forefront of players’ minds like Conspiracy did for multiplayer Magic. Battlebond takes place on the plane of Kylem where everything is based around arena combat and the set is inspired by our real life sports and esports. Battlebond has 4 mechanics, which are all designed to work better when you are playing as a team, which I will summarize below as well as give my initial impressions If you want more information on the mechanics head over to the Mothership to read there explanations. While it isn’t really a mechanic there is also a warrior subtheme going on for all the tribal fans out there.

Partner with...

Partner premiered in the Commander 2016 product and many players fell in love with it. One of the problems though is that there isn’t a lot of flavor or style to the choices and honestly I could probably count on one hand the number of partner decks I have seen that aren’t hyper competitive lists using Thrasios and one of the other partners with black in their color-identity. WotC is seeking to fix this problem with the “Partner with” mechanic which they previewed on announcement day with a little boy and his imaginary friend… and by friend I mean horrifying monster killing machine.   

One of the things that I really like about the “Partner with…” mechanic is that if gives a flavorful reason for why these two characters are working together and it means this cards will have life longer than Battlebond events at your shop (unlike the Conspiracy cards). Cards with “Partner with” will appear together in packs, which is amazingly cool because when you draft you will get to grab both then you and your partner can split them up between the two of you or just run them both in one deck because fun! Something else sweet is that not all of these cards will be legendary so some “Partner with” cards will basically read “When this creature enters the battlefield draw a card that works well with it”. From an art standpoint I think it is cool that some of these cards are the same shot but from different angles (see below in the article for an example).

Assist

What if I told you that instead of paying for your own spell you could get someone else to do it with you? Kind of like splitting the check at a restaurant but actually fun because you get a cool Magic card out of it instead of having to figure out the right amount to tip! When I first saw the Assist mechanic I thought, “Wow it would be cool if there was a board wipe that did that” and sure enough this beauty was spoiled!

For Battlebond you will typically have your teammate helping with the cost but I love that WotC made it so any player could pay and I think that leaves these cards in a cool space for other formats. From a flavor standpoint I really like the idea of these cards being some sort of sweet team up move like the Fastball Special.

Support

So Support is the least exciting mechanic in this set for me… It premiered in Oath of the Gatewatch but didn’t make any sort of lasting impact on MtG. I am sure it will be a solid roleplayer for limited, which is where most Battlebond will be played, but I am not expecting anything crazy from it. To me Support is like lettuce on a sandwich: I am never upset that it is there but not something I order specifically. I don’t see myself being excited about any cards that have support... WIZARDS PROVE ME WRONG PLEASE!

Friend or Foe

So Friend or Foe is a really interesting design space. In the summer sets in the past WotC has released a voting based mechanic and I feel like Friend or Foe is a fun way to take that idea into a team format. As of writing there are only two Friend or Foe cards spoiled so it is hard to talk about the mechanic outside of the abstract. Friend or Foe looks like can be boiled down to: something good happens for your team but something bad happens for your opponents. I have a feeling that one of these cards will be significantly better than all of the rest like with the voting cards in the past and I hope that they will transition well outside of Battlebond.

Initial Spoilers and Overall First Impression

Let’s take some time and look at so initial spoilers that are more exciting than Support.

     

Rowan and Will are really sweet and are now in the camp with Dack Fayden, Kaya, and Daretti of supplementary product Planeswalkers that i really want to see in a standard legal set. If you and your partner can land both of these Planeswalkers on the same turn (thanks to “Partner With”) they protect each other with the +2 abilities. Rowan’s -2 is probably the most mediocre part of these cards because “3 damage to all tapped creatures target player controls” is very restrictive. Was “3 damage to all tapped creatures” really that overpowered? Sure this lets you kill bigger tapped creatures when partnered with Will’s +2 but it is very medium. Will’s -2 on the other hand is straight gas. Draw 2 card and make instant, sorceries, AND Planeswalkers cheaper?!? Yes please! If you can get either of them to ultimate they are really good (as you would expect) but they aren’t nearly as gamewinning as some other ultimates we have seen, though I am sad Rowan can’t be played in Atraxa since her emblem doubles Planeswalker’s abilities…

Holy Segue BATMAN! Speaking of double up DOUBLING SEASON IS BACK!!!!! I don’t have a ton to say here other than this card is amazing in so many decks. Doubling Season has 2 reprints previous to this (with one being a judge promo) and this will be the cards first time in a non-masters set since the original Ravnica from 2005! As of writing Doubling Season is sitting around $60 each so if Battlebond drops the cost by $20 I will be happy. Other sweet reprints include Land Tax, True-Name Nemesis, Diabolic Intent, Sower of Temptation, and Vigor! While none of these are nearly as expensive as Doubling Season these are all much needed reprints and hopefully this will make them readily available for more players.

I am not as hyped about Arena Rector as other people seem to be but it is a really nice call back and will be a mainstay in Superfriends decks going forward. Arena Rector could even be one of the chase mythics from Battlebond as it does a unique effect that has casual appeal and has been getting some talk about potential Legacy play.

While never the most exciting cards to open in limited, lands are a vital part of playing MtG and Battlebond is bringing a great cycle designed especially for multiplayer Magic. These lands will enter untapped as long as you have two or more opponents which in formats where they are played will be most of the time. The biggest downside of these lands is that they don’t have the basic land types but I don’t think that will take away their playability for Battlebond or Commander.

I really like where WotC is taking Battlebond. The Vorthos in me (Vorthos means someone who likes story) likes the idea of these teams coming together for sport in the arena. “Partner with…” seems like the most interesting mechanic and I hope we will get to see more cool card that have it. Of the other mechanics I am most interested in Friend or Foe, Assist, and then Support in that order. Keep in eye here on Flipside Gaming for more coverage of Battlebond going forward.