Ancient Greek philosopher Sokrates (or Socrates) is the newest historical figure to get their very own card in Wizards of the Coast’s new MTG Assassin’s Creed set – this time as a legendary creature with the Human Advisor type. Sokrates himself famously claimed that an unexamined life was not worth living, so let’s get to examining the nitty gritty of this card.
Revealed in Wizards of the Coast’s first MTG Assassin’s Creed spoilers on Wednesday, June 18, Sokrates, Athenian Teacher is a three-cost, 0/4 White/Blue legendary creature with the MTG Defender keyword.
There are some obvious jokes here – maybe the famous philosopher’s inclusion in the game necessitates renaming it Magic: The Symposium – but, all that aside, we do have a pretty good card here.
Sokrates has Hexproof as long as he remains untapped, and has the Sokratic Dialogue ability – which lets him give one target creature “If this creature would deal combat damage to a player, prevent that damage. This creature’s controller and that player each draw half that many cards, rounded down.”
Preventing player damage (or damage to your MTG Commander) is a pretty powerful play, especially when the only cost is allowing you and your opponent to both draw cards. Combine it with other cards to give you benefits (or punish opponents) on card draws, and you may have a tasty combo going.
Honestly, though, we’re just pretty excited to have this famous classical figure represented in MTG games. Creative players and ancient history fans will A. be glad it’s not Diogenes, considering what would have to go on his card, and B. realize how beautiful it would be to use the Sip of Hemlock card as a counter.
Wednesday’s WeeklyMTG debut stream (watch it below) highlighted how this latest MTG Universes Beyond set focuses more on showcasing historical figures who’ve cameoed in the videogames, more than the conspiracy-rich Assassin’s Creed lore.
“The enjoyment people have of history [in the Assassin’s Creed fandom] was something we wanted to bring into the forefront,” explains Lauren Bond, Lead Narrative Designer on the set.
“The focus of where we’re setting our cards, making sure that the vast majority of them would be set in a historical context.”
“Although I personally am a fan of the weird conspiracy theories,” Bond adds, “we wanted the modern element to be a smaller aspect of the set, to really give people the opportunity to see all those different pieces of history and eras that each of the games explore.”
Ubisoft’s Aymar Azaizia, who has worked on the franchise for fifteen years, also said during the livestream that the premise of Assassin’s Creed is to “make history a playground”, an ethos they were keen to bring across into the MTG set.
You’ll still be able to collect your favorite Assassin’s Creed characters like Ezio Auditore and Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, but history buffs can beef up their decks with Leonardo da Vinci and Cleopatra cards alongside. Each of the three historical figures cards has a variant in their own native language – Italian for Leonardo, and Greek (sadly modern Greek, not ancient) for Cleopatra and Sokrates.
The MTG Assassin’s Creed set will be released on July 5, and can be used in Modern, Commander, Legacy, and Vintage. The booster release contains 54 uncommons, 37 rares, 14 mythic rares, and 10 full-art basic lands, and can currently be pre-ordered from Amazon.
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