Magic: The Gathering's New D&D Drop is Actually…

After Baldur's Gate 3's final patch, fans have latched onto other ways to give the game a pulse. From lingering bug fixes to upcoming television adaptations and cross-media cameos, Larian Studios' breakout RPG continues to live far beyond its last major update. One of its latest signs of life is a recent collaboration with Magic: The Gathering.

As with any property, one of the biggest signs of extended life is crossover content. And given Baldur's Gate 3's deep roots with Wizards of the Coast, few crossovers make more sense than Magic: The Gathering. The most recent Secret Lair push steadily leaned into Dungeons & Dragons, with some of Baldur's Gate 3's breakout stars taking center stage. Unfortunately, some cards fell flat. While the latest Secret Lair D&D Superdrop should have been an easy win for BG3 fans, one fan-favorite character's inclusion was surprisingly disappointing.

After 392 Hours in Baldur's Gate 3, Here's How I Always Treat Shadowheart

Shadowheart might seem mysterious and unapproachable in the early hours of Baldur's Gate 3, but here are my tips for winning her approval.

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By Carla Carmona

Shadowheart's New Magic: The Gathering Cards Are Lackluster

Secret Lair's Roll for Initiative Superdrop launched on February 9, bringing multiple D&D-themed MTG micro-sets to the hands of collectors. Among them was Shadowheart's Devotion, a five-card bundle centered on the iconic Sharran.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

Some of the other card bundles include

Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Gale's Ambition
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Black Lights & Dark Dungeons
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows Over Baldur's Gate
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Whispers in Candlekeep
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Strahd's Descent
Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Lands of the Forgotten Realms

On paper, it sounds perfect. Shadowheart is one of Baldur's Gate 3's most beloved companions and easily among the most emotionally resonant arcs in the game. A collectible drop centered entirely around her should have been a slam-dunk. Instead, the card selection feels oddly misaligned.

Card	Ability Description
Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar	Legendary Creature. Sacrifice another creature: draw X cards, where X is that creature's power. Choose a Background
Beseech the Queen	Sorcery. Search your library for a card with mana value less than or equal to the number of lands you control, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Black Market	Enchantment. Whenever a creature dies, put a charge counter on this enchantment. At the beginning of your first main phase, add Black Mana for each charge counter on this enchantment.
Victimize	Sorcery. Choose two target creature cards in your graveyard. Sacrifice a creature. If you do, return the chosen cards to the battlefield tapped.
Ancient Bronze Dragon	Creature. Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, roll a d20. When you do, put X +1/+1 counters on each of up to two target creatures, where X is the result.

The cards lean heavily into themes of sacrifice, death triggers, and morally gray flavor. Mechanically, one of these cards can't even be played if a player were to choose Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar as a commander. Thematically, these cards fit a version of this character, just not the version that many players walked away from.

After 392 Hours in Baldur's Gate 3, This Upcoming Dungeons & Dragons Book Feels Like The DLC We'll Never Get

I spent countless hours playing Baldur's Gate 3 and mourn that there won't be any DLC. Still, this upcoming D&D book feels like the next big thing.

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By Carla Carmona

What Makes Shadowheart's Secret Lair Cards So Thematically Disappointing

Locking Players into An Ending They May Not Want

The biggest issue with Shadowheart's Secret Lair drop is perspective. The drop overwhelmingly reflects Shadowheart's Dark Justiciar route alongside some Sharran and pre-redemption characterizations, which makes what's missing just as important.

There are no references to Shadowheart's Selunite ending. No dual-ending framing, no visual nod to the version of Shadowheart that dominates fandom threads, fan art, or romance outcomes. For a character whose entire narrative hinges on transformation, freezing her at her darkest point feels like a misread. Even the headline card, Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar, locks her into a path that many players actively rejected during their playthroughs.

Gale's Drop Makes the Contrast Just a Little Worse

If Shadowheart's set existed in a vacuum, reactions could have been softer. However, it launched alongside Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Gale’s Ambition, which highlights how strong these drops can be when they land.

Cards	Ability Descriptions
Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy	Legendary Creature. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may cast up to one target card of the other type from your graveyard. If a spell cast from your graveyard this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead. Choose a Background.
Arcane Denial	Instant. Counter target spell. Its controller may draw up to two cards at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep. You draw a card at the beginning.
Archmage's Charm	Instant. Choose one: Counter target spell Target player draws two cards Gain control of target nonland permanent with mana value 1 or less.
Brainstorm	Instant. Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.
Personal Tutor	Sorcery. Search your library for a sorcery card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top.

Where Shadowheart's cards feel thematically narrow, Gale's feel careful and curated. The spell selection reinforces his identity as an obsessive scholar of magic. Even the flavor text pulls directly from defining character beats. It captures the traits that are always present regardless of his endings: his arrogance, his romantic vulnerability, his deep ties to the goddess Mystra, and his theatricality. The result is a drop that feels character-first rather than aesthetic-first.

Crossovers Live or Die on Character Fidelity

Crossovers in Magic: The Gathering occupy a strange space between collectibles and storytelling. They are curated celebrations of characters fans already love. That makes tone and depictions incredibly important. When a crossover lands, it works because it reflects the versions of a character that live in collective memory. It doesn't have to be canonical, and it doesn't have to be exclusive. It just needs to be fair and beloved.

Shadowheart's Devotion misses that nuance by exclusion. It feels emotionally out of sync with how the Baldur's Gate 3 community might see her after years of fan art, meta discussions, and romance-driven playthroughs. The art is unsurprisingly gorgeous. But the art does not necessarily compensate for Shadowheart's missing growth, duality, and transformation.