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Tools of the Trade

Welcome back to the EDHREC and Commander’s Herald Set Review for Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed. In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the Assassins' tools of the trade as well as some of the legendary relics that everyone seems to be fighting over.

This set has been full of synergy for historic cards, which means artifacts, legendaries and Sagas, so I’m excited to see how these artifacts are going to enable some crazy Commander plays. Without further ado, let's dive in!

Mythics

Apple of Eden, Isu Relic

Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed is a bit of a smaller set than usual, but that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of mythic legendary artifacts. There are three of them in colorless and the first of them is the Apple of Eden, Isu Relic. Now, I know that four mana legendary artifacts from Universes Beyond products have caused a bit of a shake-up to magic in recent years (stares in The One Ring) but this apple is a little easier to swallow.

This Apple allows us to pick an opponent, look at their hand and play cards right out of it, though if we do then they get to draw a card to replace the one we took. We give the cards we didn’t play back at the end of the turn, so as far as stealing cards from our opponent goes this feels kind of fair? Apart from being a slam dunk in theft decks, this Apple is going to be widely dependent on the cards in your opponent's hand, though it does allow you to exhaust their resources while keeping a hold on your own. It’s a fun flavourful mythic but make sure you’re getting your mana’s worth because four life to play cards out of someone else’s hand had better be worth it when you can... you know. Just run those cards in your deck? Using someone else's removal while keeping our own seems like the best play here.

Staff of Eden, Vault's Key

This staff has me intrigued, and while it continues the theme of caring about cards you control but don’t own like the apple before it, I’ve got to admit it’s that first paragraph that has me the most excited.

This card is reanimation that isn’t tied to a color and that makes it kinda a big deal. Black is the colour of reanimation, with white sitting closely behind and red reanimating creatures in creative but temporary ways. There’s not really ways to reanimate creatures in colorless, but the fact that this card could see play in blue and green certainly makes it interesting.

Not only that but this card can reanimate from anyone’s graveyard and it doesn’t even have to be a creature, any legendary permanent is fair game. This Staff also triggers on entering the battlefield, so any deck that’s able to flicker permanents like this one is going to be able to get a lot of value out of it. It’s sneaky good and provides something new in the Commander design space. That gets it two thumbs up from me.

Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine

This latest mythic offers card advantage and cost reduction for the right deck, but it also presents a lot of risk. Yggdrasil notably only cares about creatures, so we’re not able to get any of our other spells and permanents back as we exile them away. It’s also going to be limited to getting us one creature per turn rotation without a way to untap it and even then the cost of four generic mana is rather high.

Yggdrasil allows us to take all those precious creature cards we’ve been subtly filling up our graveyard with and ensuring that our reanimation plan can go off without a hitch, even in the face of a Bojuka Bog. However, this target is going to be a lightning rod for removal and I’m not entirely sure how much we’re going to want to put all our eggs in one basket here.

Rares

Abstergo Entertainment

Abstergo Entertainment is our only rare land in this article, and while it might look a little out of place in a historical setting let’s see if it will fit in nicely in our Commander decks. Here we have a land that taps for colorless mana, which is enough for it to be considered by all the Eldrazi players, so they can all stop reading here. For the rest of us however, this mana allows us to filter generic mana into mana of any color. There are plenty of lands like this in Commander and they don’t see too much play, so I see this as a nice to have rather than a card I’d be relying on for mana fixing.

The final and most interesting feature is the ability to exile this land and return a historic card from our graveyard and then exile all graveyards. That’s a lot of utility so let’s assess each part. Returning a historic card from our graveyard to our hand is going to be very useful in decks that are running lots of artifacts or are looking to recur their Sagas. There’s also a great bit of utility here if you’re playing a commander that might get hit by removal fairly often as if the commander tax begins to exceed two, then it may end up being cheaper for you to let your commander hit the graveyard and recur it to hand with this instead. Finally, graveyard hate is nothing to ignore. Bojuka Bog is a staple in black for a reason, and I run Pit of Offerings in my multicolour decks that don’t run black just to get that extra bit of graveyard hate.

Take a look at the Themes section at the top of the website to see how many decks are graveyard-themed and you’ll see why you want all the help you can get. Throw this in a blue, white, or red deck and you’re really going to surprise an opponent who is going to bet against you having answers for their reanimator deck.

Excalibur, Sword of Eden

Now this card is exciting, a legendary artifact that can only equip legendary creatures and gets some cost reduction depending on the total mana value of historic permanents you control. You might look at that mana value of twelve and think twice about including this card in your decks, but you only need to look at cards like The Great Henge and see how often these cards hit the battlefield a lot sooner than you might expect. If you’re running a deck that isn’t green, then it’s likely your mana rocks are going to more than account for half the casting cost here, and they’re going to be able to tap for mana to account for the rest.

Don’t forget that if your commander is in play, then you’ll be reducing the mana value of this card by their mana value too. Decks like Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale are going to adore this card. You’re going to have to watch out because that 21 commander damage could be coming a lot sooner than you think with cards like this around.

Mjölnir, Storm Hammer

Our latest legendary artefact is an Equipment that can help you push through damage whilst punishing opponents for their aggression. How often has a Commander player gone all in on their attack step, while leaving a single blocker up so they don’t feel the repercussions from the rest of the table? I’m sure you’ve seen it happen at your game table; Mjölnir is going to have that player thinking twice.

I kinda see this being a trick that gets your opponent once before they begin to leave multiple blockers up. However, that does mean they’re not attacking you as aggressively and you’re going to survive a couple of extra turns to execute your gameplan.

The Animus

The Animus is a key part of the lore of Assassin’s Creed, allowing descendants to relive the past lives of their ancestors. With this, you’re able to remove legendary creatures from graveyards while granting your own legendary creature in play the ability to become a copy of one of the exiled creatures. There’s a lot of beauty in this card design and it reflects the game perfectly.

In terms of playability, I don’t think it’s too bad. Graveyard hate is always nice, and I appreciate how it will allow you to either rebuy your own dead creatures or snatch one of your opponents. The legendary clause is going to be a bit of a limiting factor and you might not always have a reanimation target unless your deck is stacked full of legends. If it is though, the Animus is going to be the best card to give your legends another lease of life.

Uncommons & Commons

Brotherhood Regalia

Speaking of iconic cards, the Brotherhood Regalia is perhaps the most iconic outfit in the whole Assassin’s Creed series and when many of you think of Assassin’s Creed, you’re probably going to picture a certain someone wearing this outfit.

You don’t have to be an assassin to wear this regalia, however, and we’re all the better for it. This card rules. It bears a resemblance to Whispersilk Cloak, a staple in plenty of Voltron, equipment and aggro-focused commander decks for years now. Brotherhood Regalia looks like a modern retelling of the classic Commander card, offering ward instead of shroud, enabling you to easily target your own creature while still maintaining that unblockability.

Not only that, this card costs only a single mana to equip a legendary creature, meaning you’re very easily going to be able to suit your commander up with this and start dealing damage. Even if your commander is removed, the equip cost of one is going to be payable on top of any commander tax, meaning this card is going to be useful even in the face of the most persistent removal.

Smoke Bomb

Another wonderfully creative card. I feel like the artifacts in this set are punching above their rarity and Smoke Bomb is no exception. For three generic mana you’re able to give all creatures on the battlefield shroud until your upkeep. This is a very powerful ability that will help you dodge removal and prevent your opponent from buffing their own creatures with auras and combat tricks.

When it finally comes round to your upkeep you’re going to be able to sacrifice this card and give one of your creatures unblockable until the end of the turn. I really like the utility here, it allows you to protect one of your threats for essentially a full table rotation and then it actually continues to benefit you as on your own turn too! I feel much better about using this to protect my commander than using a counterspell as this feels like two cards in one. If you’re able to cast this card again from the graveyard in a deck like Muldrotha, the Gravetide or Emry, Lurker of the Loch, then you’re going to keep getting the best out of this card turn after turn.

Assassin’s Creed really shines when it comes to artifacts, perhaps fitting for a series that draws so much from all the eras of history. Here you’ll find some extra combat tricks, evasion and power to beef up your aggressive, commander damage-focused decks.

Now we’d like to know which commanders you think will be best powered up by these cards, let us know in the comments below! As we’re nearing the end of the Set Reviews, we’d love to hear about what you think of this set as a whole too. For now though, I’ve been Joshua and I’ll see you next time. Bye for now!

Joshua Clough

Joshua is a Medical Researcher from the UK. He's played Magic since Dragons of Tarkir and loves all things Commander, the more colours the better! When not playing Commander, he can be found insisting Jund is still a viable deck in Modern and painting tiny plastic miniatures on Twitter @PrinceofBielTan