Magic: The Gathering – Assassin’s Creed Impressions

Earlier this month, Wizards of the Coast released the latest Universes Beyond set titled Magic: The Gathering – Assassin’s Creed. I was sent a starter kit and some booster packs to take a leap of faith to unveil weapons, characters, and locations from the Assassin’s Creed series of games by Ubisoft.

The Assassin’s Creed starter kit is an excellent entry point for both Magic novices like me and established fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. It includes two pre-constructed decks, each captained by a recognisable assassin: Ezio Auditore from the earlier Assassin’s Creed titles that I played back in the early Xbox 360 days, and Eivor Varinsdottir, the Viking protagonist of 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Ezio’s deck leans towards strategic artifact manipulation and evasion, reflecting his cunning and agile nature. Eivor’s deck utilises aggressive tactics that mirror her more brutal combat style.

The decks are thoughtfully designed for new players, with clear mechanics and a focus on these iconic Assassin’s Creed characters, making them easy to pick up and play. A helpful learn-to-play guide is also included, offering a step-by-step breakdown of Magic’s fundamentals. The two decks themselves provide enough variety to keep players engaged as they learn the ropes. They can experiment with different strategies and get a taste of the core gameplay loop before diving deeper with booster packs. Additionally, the inclusion of a mythic foil legendary creature in each deck adds a touch of excitement, especially for collectors who appreciate special treatments.

For seasons Magic players, there is one new mechanic introduced in Magic: The Gathering – Assassin’s Creed and that is Freerunning. This is an alternate cost mechanic that allows you to cast certain spells for a reduced cost if you’ve dealt combat damage to a player with an Assassin creature or your Commander that turn. It rewards aggressive play with Assassins and offers strategic flexibility by giving you options for what mana to spend. The set also brings back a couple of returning mechanics from previous Magic sets in the form of Historic, Disguise and Cloak.

Historic is a returning game term that refers to artifacts, things with the legendary supertype, and Sagas collectively. Historic itself is used as an adjective to describe other things, so on cards, you’ll see phrases like “a historic spell,” “a historic permanent,” or on cards like Abstergo Entertainment, “a historic card.” The disguise ability allows you to cast a creature spell face down for a specific cost. The creature enters the battlefield as a colourless 2/2, it has ward {2} but no other abilities, essentially keeping your opponent guessing about its true identity until you choose to reveal it by paying an additional cost. The cloak mechanic isn’t new functionally, but ties into the Assassins’ focus on stealth. Rather than pay its disguise cost, which it may not have, you can turn a cloaked permanent face up at any time if it’s actually a creature card by paying its mana cost.

For Magic players who are already invested in the game and want to delve deeper into the Assassin’s Creed theme, the Universes Beyond booster packs offer a treasure trove of possibilities. These seven-card booster packs hold cards featuring iconic characters, locations, and abilities from the Assassin’s Creed franchise. This is a great way to expand your collection with unique Assassin’s Creed-themed decks, particularly for the Commander format, where singleton deckbuilding (one copy of each card except for basic lands) allows for more creative freedom.

Fans of Assassin’s Creed will undoubtedly find joy in acquiring cards that depict their favourite characters, reference iconic locations from the games, and translate signature abilities into Magic’s gameplay mechanics. The set also boasts a good showing for the Commander format, introducing several legendary creatures with interesting mechanics that can helm unique Commander decks. Additionally, there’s the chance to find reprints of valuable cards from other Magic sets, potentially scoring some sought-after additions to existing decks.

Overall impressions are that the Assassin’s Creed Starter Kit is a well-designed product for new Magic players or fans who want to explore the game through the lens of their favourite franchise. It was fun sifting through the cards to see weapons and characters that I recognised from the games. The pre-constructed starter decks offer a fun and accessible entry point, while the booster packs provide opportunities to build up some exciting decks, especially for Commander.

These impressions utilised a media kit provided by Wizards of the Coast and you can read more about Magic: The Gathering – Assassin’s Creed over at the official website.