[Update #2]: MTG Arena's August update has added the singleton, community-made Gladiator format as a limited event, and also heavily rebalanced the Baldur's Gate draft!

[Update]: MTG Arena will be adding 40 new cards for the Historic and Explorer formats on July 28th. Both anthologies have now been revealed as well, and while they're a bit of a mixed bag, there's definitely some fun new cards in there as well.

After a surprisingly brief round of teasers, MTG Arena's Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate set has now arrived for the Historic, Historic Brawl and Alchemy formats. It brings with it numerous cards from the Commander Legends: Battle at Baldur's Gate set, a bunch of cards from the same set reworked with 1v1 play in mind, as well as a variety of all-new additions to help spice things up a bit.

In terms of major keywords, there are three you'll want to pay attention to: Specialize, Double Team and Boon. Here's a brief rundown of what they all do:

Specialize - After paying the Specialize mana cost and discarding a card/land of your choice, you will be able to transform your card to one of five potential versions, each one influenced by the additional color you've added into the mix. Each of the transformed cards do pretty much the same thing with a small twist, so as wordy as the cards may appear, Specialize isn't all that complex.

Double Team - "When a creature with Double Team attacks, if it's not a token, conjure a duplicate of the original into your hand, and then both cards lose Double Team." Essentially, Double Team is a roundabout way of giving you a second copy of a creature. Simple and effective!

Boon - Instead of being a brand new mechanic, Boon is more of a helpful tool. It's basically an emblem that represents delayed triggers (for example "whenever you cast your next creature, give it +1/+1"). Once that trigger has been resolved, the Boon disappears as the reminder is no longer needed.

You can check out the full list of cards, including all of the new commanders for Historic Brawl, over at the official card gallery. Wizards of the Coast has also outlined all of the forms of the Specialize cards, so if you're still confused about the whole concept, this should help clear things up.

Besides all of the new cards, the update has also brought in a whole assortment of balance changes, many of which aimed at the Historic format. Phoenix and food decks have been toned down, while the always-problematic Winota, Joiner of Forces has been unbanned alongside a bit of a nerf. You can check out the full list of changes, as well as the reasoning behind them, over at the recent developer update.

The final thing worth mentioning is that this is a fully-featured set, despite it not being Standard legal. What I mean by this is that Baldur's Gate comes with its own limited formats like draft, as well as a Mastery Pass. So if you're a big fan of draft, and you're somewhat disappointed with Streets of New Capenna, I'd highly recommend giving Baldur's Gate draft a try. It's been a great deal of fun so far, even if Blue is a bit weak overall.

Have fun with all of the new cards, and if Wizards of the Coast announces anything major I'll make sure to let you know.