Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Welcome to the Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed Commander upgrade blog. Coming hot off the heels of Modern Horizons 3, this is another straight into Modern. Wait! There aren't actually any Commander decks with this set. Well, I guess I will have to blend in and do something different. I will be going over my top 10 cards from the set. These are the ones that I think will have the most impact on Commander. While this is a modern legal set, there aren't many cards powerful enough to have an impact. Tax Collector is the most likely to see any play.
I will put a caveat on this list. Due to the amount of Legendary Creatures, you will probably see more of these used as a commander as people try them out. But I don't want this just to be all legendaries. Although I have included a couple of the stronger ones. I will also only review the new cards as the older cards are known quantities.
There are some good ones, though, when talking about reprints. Notably Black Market Connections, Temporal Trespass, Sword of Feast and Famine. There is also one of my favourite tech cards in Reconnaissance. You can use it to remove unfavourable blocks and, after damage has been dealt, to give a sudo vigilance to creatures.
Table of Contents
Honourable Mentions
I will start with a couple of honourable mentions. The first being Templar Knight.
This is the final card in the “any number in your deck” cycle. This is arguably the best one as it can tutor Thrumming Stone. A key card in these decks as it lets you chain cast all the cards. They can also pull other cards that work well, such as Akroma Memorial, Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut, Horn of Gondor and The One Ring to name a few.
The other honourable mention I want to talk about is The Capitoline Triad.
This is relegated here due to the limited use in decks. While it is powerful and can be a free card, it restricts deck building. I also prefer ‘go wide’ strategies, so my suggestions for commanders would be Kethis, the Hidden Hand and Jodah, the Unifier. These are both of these kindred decks that care about Legends. So, satisfying the historic requirement and can reasonably get the second ability off. You could also do this in a Voltron deck, although the second ability is less relevant. As you want to be going tall on one creature.
With that, it's time to take a Leap of Faith (Wizards really missed this one) and dive into the list. Let's just hope there is a Haystack to catch us.
1 - Staff of Eden, Vaults Key
Staff of Eden, Vaults Key is the first card I want to discuss. This is best in a theft deck like the recent Grand Larceny deck. It can do work outside of these decks especially if you have ways to blink like Displacer Kitten. Being able to repeatedly steal your opponent's legendaries while drawing an ever increasing amount of cards. The main thing holding this card back is the legendary requirement. This stops it from being a new generic staple for every Commander deck. But in the right deck, this can be a massive value engine drawing stacks of cards.
2 - Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine
Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine is the next card. This is one being slept on. I have yet to see much talk about this card. Quicksilver Amulet is the card I put this closest to. Being able to cheat in a creature on an artifact. I put Yggdrasil over Amulet. This is because you can use it as reanimation to bring back a creature from your graveyard, and it gives it haste. The only downside is if you don't have any more creatures to bring back, you need to take a turn off by tapping it to exile 3 more, which does have a chance to miss. There is the nice upside to the first trigger being an enter the battlefield trigger. If you can flicker the Yggdrasil you can do it all over again with the same creatures if they are killed. Just be careful flickering it with the card already exiled, as these will be permanently exiled. Yggdrasil will be a new instance and not “see” the other cards. This differs from cards like Karn, the Great Creator, which exiles with a counter and looks for these cards with those counters.
3 - Caduceus, Staff of Hermes
My next card is Caduceus, Staff of Hermes. This interesting equipment card comes with another equipment card and my final honourable mention, Excalibur, Sword of Eden.
Excalibur is the honourable mention as it gives more stats and is unconditional. It is limited to being in an Equipment Voltron deck only. You can put it in a high mana value commander as a backup win condition, but it really isn't a good idea. In an Equipment Voltron deck, you can reduce this cost significantly, possibly free. This also will enable either 1 or 2 shot kills with commander damage. It also suffers from being only able to equip to Legendary Creatures. Unlike Caduceus, Staff of Hermes. This is one that threw me when I first saw it as Wizards has changed how they usually word cards. This is going back to how they originally worded cards. Before Commander existed, they used to word cards with set life totals such as on Serra Ascendant. All the formats started with 20 life; thus, you needed to gain life to get the extra effects. But as Commander starts at 40 life, you already have it with full effects. Turn 1 Serra Ascendant is a powerful play, a Flying 6/6 with Lifelink. Then they moved to wording X more life than your starting life total, so you must gain life in both Commander and 20 life formats. But by the same amount, an example is Angel of Destiny. However, Caduceus goes back to older wording only requiring 30 life. This means you get the full effect if you get it early. Getting Lifelink by default is good and can help you regain any life lost, so you can get the main reason for this card - +5/+5 and Indestructible. Preventing any damage dealt to this creature is redundant with Indestructible, but it does help get around all the effects that remove Indestructible. As well as interactions with Wither, Infect or Lifelink etc.
4 - Edward Kenway
My next card is the protagonist of Assassin's Creed 4, Black Flag. Edward Kenway is a new Pirate commander but also cares about Assassins and Vehicles. It is getting extra value from having them tapped by getting Treasure tokens. This could be from crewing the vehicles or just attacking. Edward also has an inbuilt card advantage if you can connect with Vehicles. All this combines to make a solid commander or an excellent addition to a deck.
5 - Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass
Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass is another value card. While being a more expensive mana rock, it also has inbuilt card advantage allowing you to play off the top of your library. There isn't much to talk about this card as it isn't flashy but is a role player. This one will be quietly added to decks. There is a bit of deck building tech if you put in a number of historic lands, likely Legendary lands to mitigate getting stuck on lands. But you can also use artifact lands, although these are more limited in quantity.
6 - What Must Be Done
What Must Be Done is an interesting board wipe. While being more expensive than I prefer for a board wipe at 5 mana. There are enough 4 mana board wipes instead. However, this one has some different options, as the other expensive board wipes usually get more card types included. But they all suffer from the same problem. If you are ahead, you don't want to use one and reset everything. This is where What Must Be Done shines. Being modal, you get another option. Being able to bring back a historic permanent, putting yourself further ahead.
7- Desynchronization
On the topic of board wipes, Desynchronization, is the next card. If Cyclonic Rift and Whelming Wave had a baby, then there would be Desynchronization. This can be a similar one sided board wipe, like Whelming Wave, but a lot less restrictive. While also being able to put back any enchantments as well. Just remember that all Planeswalkers are now legendary, some of the older ones won't have this printed on them because it is a newer rules change. So they won't be returned with Desynchronization. While not as good as Cyclonic Rift, I don't think we will likely see a card that matches it. But even a worse version of Cyclonic Rift is still a good card.
8 - Ratonhnhaké:ton
Ratonhnhaké:ton is one of the hardest to pronounce alongside Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar. Ratonhnhaké:ton is also another protagonist of the Assassins Creed games, this one being AC3. He is also more commonly known by his western name Connor. Ratonhnhaké:ton is an interesting take on an equipment voltron deck. Being Esper instead of a normal Boros. You still have white cards for a lot of the key tutors and equipment matters cards. You can access more generic tutors in black and counter spells and card draw from the blue. Which is something traditional boros decks suffer from. Ratonhnhaké:ton also has inbuilt recursion for any of your equipment and makes blockers to stop any swing backs. These have menace for evasion while being equipped with any recurred equipment. So, it can act as a backup if your commander is taken out too many times and you are having difficulty casting him.
9 - Haytham Kenway
They say like father like son, but this isn't the case for Haytham Kenway as cononicly Haytham is Ratonhnhaké:ton father. Haytham is a Templar Knight climbing to the rank of Grand Master. However, we find out that Haytham is the son of assassin Edward Kenway. So, I guess Haytham is the black sheep. As a magic card, he comes with some strong abilities. Being a double Lord giving +2/+2 to all your knights and the fringe benefit of protection from assassins. It is a shame that Haytham Kenway is Blue/White, as the knight cards from Throne of Eldraine were Mardu (Black, White, Red). But being Blue/White does fit in with his second ability. Being a Deputy of Detention but getting all your opponents simultaneously. The only downside is you can't mass remove tokens. It is still a worthy include more likely to see play in decks as a removal spell than as a dedicated commander.
10 - Mary Read and Anne Bonny
Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed is bringing back something Wizards has avoided since 1999 and Portal Three Kingdoms. That is using historical figures in magic. When magic first started, Wizards was a far smaller company and pulled ideas for sets from history or, in the case of Arabian Nights, a book (One Thousand and One Nights), which gave way to cards like Ali Baba. For historical figures, they tended to be in the 3 Asian influenced sets of Portal, with cards like Sun Quan, Lord of Wu. Wizards have avoided these to avoid any potential issues with racism/discrimination. 90s magic was wild with cards like Jihad and Invoke Prejudice. But with how Assassin's Creed is done, they have had to include Mary Read and Anne Bonny is the only one I'm including on the list. These two don't have a lot of documented history but are famous for being one of the few female pirates due to the “golden age of pirates’. I first dismissed this card when I read it. Thinking it was just a Looter and a worse version of Anje Falkenrath. But when I reread the card, I realised the abilities weren't linked. The treasure isn't linked to the looting ability. This allows you to use discard cards like Tormenting Voice or wheel cards like Wheel of Fortune to gain value. Combine it with an Amulet of Vigor, and you can use the treasure straight aways to cast the new cards.
Final Thoughts
While Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed only has 100 cards, 20 of which are reprints, I think this will inject some fun new cards into Commander. As much as it is labelled as a Modern set, it has been aimed at Commander players, and some cards might incidentally see Modern play. This is due to the inherent power level of cards in Modern already.
Assassin's Creed was a beloved game by many others and me. Seeing some cards come to life in Magic the Gathering is great. Seeing how the lore behind the characters translates into the game's mechanics. While Assassin's Creed doesn't have as big of a fanbase as Lord of the Rings, which is currently the best selling set, I still think it will sell well to fans of the game and Commander players who want to try something new. With 37 new possible commanders, it's likely to see some of them being played.
There is controversy around Universes Beyond and also about Wizards choosing to release products like this. Also, with the number of products being released, I won't get into it. I think there is a lot of product fatigue. I like these sets, as Magic players are usually gamers and will be playing other franchises. Being able to see crossovers and getting to play with some of their favourite characters is awesome. I will admit the classic MTG style isn’t maintained here. But isn't that the point of it being Beyond Universe? My main sticking point is that you can get down to “generic guy in a hood” and not remember what abilities certain creatures have, especially in a Commander game. I think this is a topic for another day. So I will leave you and hope to see you in the next one.
As always, good luck and have fun.
Looking to pick up Universes Beyond Assassin's Creed? Shop all things Magic: The Gathering right here at Gathering Games.
