Abdel Adrian, Gorion’s Ward – Baldur’s Gate
Date Reviewed: May 30, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 1.00
Casual: 3.00
Limited: 3.13
Multiplayer: 3.00
Commander [EDH]: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
So, if you’re familiar with the Baldur’s Gate games and their tie-ins, this guy will be incredibly familiar and also, perhaps, surprising. If you’re not, here’s the quick version: “Abdel Adrian” was the name of one of the pre-generated characters you could use in the first game, and also that of the protagonist of the novelizations of the saga. Those novels were somewhat loose with the story of the games, and Abdel was not very popular on the old fan forums on top of that. In hindsight, I wonder whether that unpopularity was overblown – we’ve seen so many occasions where the internet didn’t represent real life. And either way, Abdel is the closest thing we have to a canon Gorion’s Ward / Last Bhaalspawn.
Regardless, Abdel is in Magic now and he’s ready to do some interesting stuff. A Background is an enchantment, of which there are several in Battle for Baldur’s Gate, that gives your commander/s bonuses and follows the same rules as a commander for starting zones and castings. There’s a good range of abilities that they have, letting you tailor some of the details of how your deck will play. And Abdel’s own ability is reminiscent of the recent Glorious Protector, trading the combat trick in favor of giving you tokens to use until your creatures come back (and leveraging anything that takes advantage of those) – that’s a bargain some decks may want to make. He’ll shine most in Commander, but has a certain degree of depth to him.
Constructed: 1/5 (he’d be okay in Standard, but he’s not legal there!)
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
There’s a bit to unpack with our first card from Commander Legend: Baldur’s Gate, so let’s get on with it. Abdel Adrian, Gorion’s Ward is one of the uncommon legendary creatures with the new “Choose a Background” mechanic, allowing you to pair him with one of the “Background” enchantments in the set as to create a multi-colored pairing. It’s a reined-in version of partner, a particularly fiddly mechanic with a lot of room for abuse.
As for Abdel Adrian, he’s interesting enough as a way to try and protect parts of the board in case you’re readying a massive board wipe, and you can even raise an army in the process. Soldier has decent support, and there are ways to use flickering or blinking to get Abdel Adrian to raise a massive army. While he himself is underwhelming, Soldiers have always been more about what they can do as a squad, and he certainly has plenty of room to do rude things. I don’t think he’s great, but he has plenty of room for intrigue.
Constructed: 1 (the only intrinsic formats Commander Legends cards are legal in are Legacy and Vintage, and he’s too slow and fair for both of those)
Casual: 3
Limited: 3.25 (probably better if you can pair him with a nice background)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3 (probably a bit weak as a commander, but he can be insurance against a board wipe)
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 4,000 more MTG Cards of the Day! Daily Since 2001.
