Why Aren’t Baldur’s Gate’s Dragons Legendary Elders?

“Magictating” is defined as getting into the zone with your Magic the Gathering collection--thinking, planning, organizing, reminiscing about past games, and imagining future games. It is a combination of hard thinking about the game and calm meditation, reveling in the joy it brings you.

Here there be Dragons…and there and over there and just about everywhere you look in Baldur's Gate! Magic has had so many Dragons made over the course of its nearly 30 year history it can be hard to keep track of all 307 of them. I've written about the cycles of Dragons***** we've seen in the past, and this set did something that no other set had dared do before. Commander players can now play a deck with Elder Dragons that cannot be their Commanders. This is a big deal. No, seriously, we've never seen “Elder Dragons” that aren't also Legendary. Now that the set has been out and we've had a chance to run these Dragons we have to ask ourselves, should they be Legendary? Are we missing out by not having mono-colored Elder Dragon Highlander Commanders? Should there actually be 95 Legendary Dragons, or is the current number of 90 the sweet spot? Are the powers these Dragons possess worthy of the distinction of being an “Elder Dragon”? Is rolling a D20 a great feeling in a Commander game? We will explore the answers to these questions, and then dive into how significant an advancement these new Dragons are when compared to the history of Dragons in Magic.

Should these Dragons have been Legendary? You might be inclined to say that sure, they could easily have been Legendary. That way they fit with all the other Elder Dragons we've seen in the past. One way to determine if that should have been the case is to set them against the old standard—the original Elder Dragons. These Dragons were the beginning of this format we all love so much (EDH). It's hard to deny the excitement that the originals generate. Their iconic artwork, glorious triple colors, and the biggest bad Magic has had since Yawgmoth in Nicol Bolas. I'm sure I'm not the only one who looks forward to the day Bolas rises again to wreak havoc and let slip the dogs the war. Do these new Elder Dragons have that same sense of Bolas menace, Arcades aloofness, or Chromium 's Heavy-Metal vibes? I have to say no to just about all of those. They are big and bad, but not in the sense that makes them feel terribly Legendary. The art is great, and it certainly harkens back to Todd Lockwood's reimagining of Dragons for Dungeons and Dragons third edition, but it does not feel like these are truly individually Legendary Dragons.

Perhaps if we examine them mechanically they will win us over as Legendary? When you compare them to the originals, well—they certainly outshine them by quite a margin (except for Bolas). Yet, when you consider their mechanics by today's standards—they actually feel like some sort of big beefy beater, and not some unique Legendary Creature. The similarity in their mechanics also makes them seem like they are not as uniquely designed as the original Legendary Dragons. These Elder Dragons feel very similar to the mechanics of the Titans—Grave, Sun, Inferno, Frost, and Primeval. The way the whole Mythic cycle feels just seems so similar that it is hard to argue that these Dragons should be Legendary when the precedent for a Mythic cycle like this was set a long time ago by the by-gone, but still pretty cool titans.

Well, maybe if we shift the comparison to some of the more modern Elder Dragons we might find a way to argue these new ones as being Legendary. As it looks now, it seems that they certainly should not have been Legendary. They seem perfectly suited as non-Legendary Elder Dragons. However, it was a long wait until the next cycle of Elder Dragons came. It took a dedicated Dragon set, Dragons of Tarkir, some 21 years after original Legends. Was the wait for a new cycle of Elder Dragons worth it? Yes, yes it was. The Elder Tarkir Dragons all appear to be mechanically, artistically, and story wise—Legendary. Heck, they hold up amazingly well today, too. I just got the chance to brutalize my buddies with Dragonlord Silumgar —removal plus! Now, back to the historical comparisons, a few years later the next couple of Elder Dragons hit the scene. The next cycle of Elder Dragons are nearly back to back by comparison. The core set M19, released in 2018, brought back the original five Elder Dragon legends in newer forms—to reflect them prior to their more matured status they possessed in their previous forms. This is a bit similar to what Dominaria United is going to be doing with these Legends reimagined concepts (original legends with updated forms). Those all checked the boxes in ways our newest Elders do not. The new Elders just don't seem nearly as Legendary as the originals—but we've already been over that.

Next up was Strixhaven from just a year ago, 2021, which gave us another cycle of Legendary Elder Dragons. Modern Horizons 2 snuck in a 6th Legendary Elder Dragon that was more in keeping with the original five—one of many cool and interesting deep dives from that set. I'm no Modern player, but as a Commander player I can say that set has some equally exciting cards for our format. However, when we look at Battle for Baldur's Gate (Commander Legends 2) we are given a cycle of Elder Dragons that are not Legendary. The Strixhaven Dragons check all of the unique boxes and feel like Legendary Dragons. The Elder concept is met by them seeming to be ancient enough to fill the gaps of time required—they were the founders of those mage schools. This means that our newest Dragons from Baldur's gate just seem a bit non-Legendary. It just seems that the precedent had already been set that Elder Dragons are Legendary, have powerful abilities, and are multiple colors (two minimum). Based on past sets, the choice should have been obvious—these Dragons shouldn't have been Legendary Elders. Really, I honestly started to wonder, until recently, should they even have been allowed to have the “Elder” sub-type?

The one caveat being that all of these previous sets were set in the Magic multiverse. While Battle for Baldur's Gate is set in the Dungeons and Dragon's multiverse. The rules are changed and bent to accommodate what the world needs and how Magic can mechanically represent these other “universes beyond”. So, although it jars against all prior evidence, these Dragons should be Elders. They are meant to be ancient wyrms that have grown to colossal proportions and dwarf their younger brethren. The cycles of Dragons in the set help to reflect the concept that these particular Dragons are the Elders or the ancient ones. Their powers reflect the growth they've achieved, and they represent ancient and powerful beings from D&D. As a former Advanced Dungeons and Dragons player, I assure you that ancient Dragons are both Elder in age, and terrifyingly powerful in AD&D. Tangling with an ancient Dragon is usually a recipe for death and subsequent hours of new character creation. These Dragons are actually incredibly well designed, and their moniker of non-Legendary “Elders” is basically perfect. Rolling a D20 when they hit is super exciting, and truly does capture the feel of playing D&D while playing in the Magic world.

I remember playing Magic as a kid in high school, and also playing plenty of D&D as well. Our playgroup would sometimes struggle between choosing Magic or D&D, and I can't help but shake my head thinking that we could've combined the two in one afternoon so simply as now. The possibilities and options available seem so different from those old times, but also somehow the same. The nostalgia and the cutting edge advancement that Magic offers in this Battle for Baldur's Gate set is truly a work of, well, magic. These Dragons are exciting, and I know now that they truly are correctly printed as non-Legendary “Elder Dragons”. Until next time, may the Elders and the cards be ever in your favor!