Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond crossover initiative is a great concept that combines the stellar card gameplay of the beloved franchise with other beloved IPs, such asFalloutand Assassin’s Creed.Magic The Gathering’sFalloutsetis a lot of fun to play, with part of that fun being the world ofFallouttranslated intoMTG’s card mechanics. The next set, releasing July 5, isAssassin’s Creed. Fans of the franchise are in for a real treat as it gets the same treatment, including characters like Ezio and Eivor, concepts like the Brotherhood, and iconography like parkour and freerunning.
Final Fantasy and Marvel crossovers are also currently confirmed for Magic: The Gathering.
During Summer Game Fest’s Play Days event, Game Rant got to sit down and check out theMagic: The GatheringxAssassin’s Creedstarter kit in two Standard games. We first played with a Red/White deck, which was described as an Equipment-focused deck, and then a Blue/Black more Assassin-based deck. While we had two completely different games, each was fun from a technical standpoint and fulfilling as a diehardAssassin’s Creedfan.
General Impressions
Before jumping into the games, we did take a moment to look through each deck. The card arts are truly divine and everything I’ve wanted to see out of this crossover. There are younger versions of Ezio that really capture his naivete and priorities, whileEzio, Blade of Vengeance, captures his skills as a full-blown Assassin. That subtlety is not lost with Eivor either, as her card captures her heritage and warrior spirit in just as much detail. Perhaps the most impressive visual was, surprisingly, Achilles Davenport, who is captured in a way that neitherAssassin’s Creed 3norAssassin’s Creed Roguedisplays him - at his best as an Assassin.
What’s more is that it runs the entire gamut of the franchise. I can’t say for certainty that every novel concept or game is represented here, but it feels like it. Fans can even expect to see some ofAssassin’s Creed’s mythological foraysrepresented here, with there being a powerful minotaur card (a laAssassin’s Creed Odyssey), Jotuns (a laAssassin’s Creed Valhalla), and modern elements like Abstergo Entertainment.
MTG x Assassin’s Creed Red/White Deck
Unfortunately, we ran into a commonMTGissue when playing the Red/White deck. We simply were not drawing enough lands, but at the very least, neither was our opponent. We each got out about 4 lands and basically never drew another, but Assassins are used to working within limitations. We set out to do the best we could. We didn’t get to do much with the equipment elements of this deck, but we did have Bureau Headmaster and Headsplitter out together at one point that was able to, at least, keep our opponent at bay around that time. The Blue/Black deck did have a few insta-kill cards, like Murder, so keeping some kind of creature on the field felt necessary. However, one thing we did notice was how good of a deck this was at controlling our opponent as well. Luckily, this Red/White deck proved to be a prettyeasyMagic: The Gatheringdeck to learn.
Detained by Legionnaires kept our opponent at bay a couple of times, while Misthio’s Fury (while Headsplitter was out) kept their field limited and dealt damage too. The tide of the game seemed to turn when our opponent finally had another land, but around this time, we managed to have a decent number of creatures on our field and brought out Labyrinth Adversary as well. We used the rest of our field as defenders, paid the mana cost for Labyrinth Adversary’s card effect each turn, and whittled away at the opponent’s health. We’re lucky they didn’t have a Murder card when we pulled out ourAssassin’s CreedMinotaur, and a lot of this game felt like pure luck as the Standard format sometimes does. One thing was clear, however. Despite being severely limited the entire game, the fun itself was not limited.
Assassin’s Creed x MTG Main Set Preview
Returning and New Keywords/Mechanics
Freerunningis a new Keyword for theMagic: The Gathering x Assassin’s Creedcrossoverthat lets players pay less mana for an Assassin if another Assassin (or Commander) dealt combat damage to a player earlier in the turn.Historic,Disguise, andCloakalso return in this set.
MTG x Assassin’s Creed Blue/Black Deck
Our opponent used this Blue/Black deck against us when we ran the Red/White deck, so against our second opponent we chose to use this set. Unfortunately, we ran into the opposite problem of our first game: we were flooded with too much mana. That’s Lady Luck for you, but just like the first game, it was still a lot of fun (and we won too). ThisMagic: The Gatheringstarter deckis more built around getting Assassins out, making the most out of the new Freerunning keyword, and otherwise playing the game at one’s own pace. We managed to do this by taking out powerful enemies with weaker Deathtouch cards, using Murder at the right time against a strong card, and popping a couple of Tranquilizes on enemy walls.
Each deck had a wall card to support its assassins in the air, and we found that Tranquilize did a lot of work in preventing our opponent from using theirs. We also managed to get Ezio, Blade of Vengeance, out and kept poking at our opponent in hopes of drawing something that wasn’t a land (spoiler alert: we did not), but constant pokes, the use of Tranquilize, and a few other Assassins got us the win.
Overall, it feels like we barely scratched the surface of what each deck was capable of. These may just be starter decks, but they take full advantage of the core conceits of theMTG x Assassin’s Creedcrossover. Once modified with boosters, these decks will be serious threats and tons of fun to play, and it’ll be interesting to see how decks are built around the variousAssassin’s Creedprotagonistspresent in the crossover.
