The first batch of MTG Assassin’s Creed spoilers are here, shown off in the Weekly MTG debut this Tuesday. Among the historical figures (did anyone have pillow fort Socrates, on their bingo card?) and a secret society’s worth of assassins, two themes really stuck out to me, pirates and sagas.
Even if you’re not a fan of the source material for this MTG Universes Beyond set, you’ll probably appreciate the support it provides for these popular Magic: The Gathering strategies.
For sagas, we have two cards inspired by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, both in the Naya color combination. We have the game’s main character, Eivor Wolf-Kissed, as well as Sigurd, Jarl of Ravensthorpe.
Eivor lets you mill cards and cheat a saga into play for free, while Sigurd buffs creatures whenever you gain lore counters, and can then boast to manipulate these counters further. We’d be happy to jam either one of these into a Tom Bombadil deck.
As for MTG pirates, we look to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag (of course). Again there are two cards supporting the theme, one main character and one protagonist from the DLC.
Edward Kenway looks great in aggressive pirate decks. He grants you treasure at the end of your turn for each tapped pirate you control, and gives you ‘impulse draw’ when you land a hit on a player with a vehicle.
Meanwhile, Adewale Breaker of Chains can search up a pirate or vehicle (or an assassin if you really want) when he enters play. He also gets to come back from the grave if a vehicle connects.
It’s interesting that both of these cards want you to get aggressive with MTG Vehicle cards, since that’s a new theme for the pirate tribe. It makes sense though, since ship sailing was a major innovation for Black Flag.
We imagine there’ll be a big ol’ boat revealed for MTG Assassin’s Creed sooner or later, and these new salty sea dogs might fit with some of the pirate ships released in Lost Caverns of Ixalan too.
For more Magic content, check out our guide to the best MTG Commanders. Or check out these powerful MTG Arena decks.