While the game has incredibly deep and compelling lore all on its own, Magic: The Gathering has also become known for its crossovers with other beloved properties over the years under the banner of Universes Beyond. Other collaborations have included The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, and Transformers, just to name a few, but this time around, MTG has teamed up with a fan-favorite stealth-action legacy franchise: Assassin’s Creed.

This release will not only include themed cards that feature nearly every game in the AC series, but it will introduce whole new mechanics that even the most seasoned Magic players will be itching to try out. Perfect for beginners and expert players alike, the Magic: The Gathering - Assassin’s Creed collaboration is an unlikely match with surprising synergy — and also perfectly highlights the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows later this year.

MTG Tells the Story of AC

The Magic: The Gathering - Assassin's Creed Expansion Aims to Capture the Story of the Games

With over fifteen years and scores of games released, the Assassin’s Creed has a sweeping history that covers a wide variety of historical periods. This Universes Beyond set seeks to pay homage to AC’s long history by including characters from (nearly) every game in the franchise, as well as some real figures from history as well, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Cleopatra, and Anne Bonney.

While the set is of course oriented around gameplay, the MTG team also sought to tell the player a story with every pack that they open. The Assassins featured from the series will include Ezio Brash, Edward Kenway, and Eivor Varinsdottir, just to name a few — while the series’ most prolific assassins are of course making an appearance, some of the lesser-known characters from the franchise will also be making surprise returns.

In addition, the new cards included with this set are designed to mimic the stealth action gameplay that the series is so well known for. Mechanics like freerunning and cloak allow players to build around the assassin archetype, both in an aesthetic and narrative sense, and in gameplay as well.

What Does the Expansion Include?

Breaking Down the Contents of MTG x AC

The Magic: The Gathering - Assassin's Creed release includes four different offerings for players to purchase: the Starter Kit, Collector Boosters, Beyond Boosters, and the Bundle.

In short, the booster release contains the following:

• 54 uncommons
• 37 rares (including 5 rare dual lands)
• 14 mythic rares (in addition to 10 full-art basic lands)

In addition to the base set, Magic: The Gathering - Assassin’s Creed also includes cards exclusive to the Starter Kit, including:

• 2 mythic rares
• 6 rares
• 8 uncommons
• 9 commons
• 4 basic lands with unique artwork

This release is also seeing the introduction of a new booster type, called Beyond Boosters, which are exclusive to Universes Beyond. These boosters are designed to tell the story that corresponds with the property the Beyond release is highlighting, and each contains up to 4 rares per booster. The Beyond Booster contents are as follows:

• 3 uncommons
• 1 Basic land or rare or mythic rare scene card
• 1 Non-foil rare or mythic rare
• 1 Traditional foil card of any rarity
• 1 Non-foil Booster Fun card or 1 traditional foil Booster Fun card of any rarity

There’s also a Collector Booster Pack, providing players with even more awesome cards to pull. The Collector Booster pack contents include:

• 3 Traditional foil uncommons
• 1 Traditional foil showcase memory corridor uncommon
• 1 Foil-etched uncommon
• 1 Traditional foil basic land, rare, or mythic rare scene card
• 1 Traditional foil rare or mythic rare
• 1 Non-foil extended-art rare or mythic rare
• 1 Traditional foil rare or mythic rare that’s an alternative-frame, extended-art, or borderless card
• 1 Foil-etched rare or mythic rare
• 1Traditional foil double-sided token

Is the Assassin's Creed Expansion Legal?

It’s also worth noting that Magic: The Gathering- Assassin’s Creed is legal in Modern, Commander, Legacy, and Vintage play. Veteran players will certainly be able to enjoy this expansion, and incorporate its various cards and mechanics into other decks and builds as well. However, Magic: The Gathering- Assassin’s Creed was created as an excellent entry point for new players, and particularly excels when it comes to casual play.

Where Will Players Find Various Cards?

Mechanics Old and New

This Release Introduces a New MTG Mechanic, While Bringing Back Some Established Rules

The Magic: The Gathering - Assassin’s Creed release will see the return of some pre-existing mechanics, but the Freerunning mechanic is a first for the classic card game. As a means of simulating the movement mechanic that helped make the AC so iconic, Freerunning in MTG allows players to cast spells for a reduced cost, assuming that an Assassin or commander they control dealt combat damage to a player earlier in the turn.

This new alternative cost doesn’t even need a Commander to apply — the player can connect with this mechanic while only using an Assassin. What’s more, the commander the player strikes doesn’t even have to be theirs, and the Assassin/Commander doesn’t have to be alive to be under the player’s control, either. The only requirement to access a card’s freerunning cost is that the player dealt combat damage to another player at an earlier point in the turn.

Finally, a card’s mana value won’t change when casting a spell for its freerunning cost, and the player can always choose to cast a spell at its normal mana cost, if they choose. This mechanic is designed to make the player feel light on their feet, as if they really are an Assassin running across the rooftops to take out their target.

Returning mechanics include historic, disguise, and cloak — all of which fit nicely into the AC branding, as well. Historic refers to artifacts, cards with the legendary supertype, and Sagas. Players can keep an eye out for any card that uses the adjective “historic,” as this batching term denotes synergies with other card actions.

Playing into the assassin’s necessity of anonymity, the disguise mechanic allows the player to cast a card face down, hiding its abilities from their opponent. What results is a face-down creature that can attack, block, don Equipment, and many other actions that creatures partake in. It will also have no name, creature types, mana cost, and have a mana value 0. There are plenty of other smaller rules here that apply to how you handle permanents, but main idea is that the opponent might attack what they think is a simple 2/2 creature that is actually disguised as a much more powerful force, like Bayek of Siwa dealing an unexpected 6 damage.

The final returning mechanic is cloak, a keyword action. If players are instructed to cloak a card, they put it face down on the battlefield, which creates a permanent 2/2 colorless creature with no name, no creature types, no mana cost, no other abilities, and ward {2}. The main difference between a cloaked and disguised card, however, is how the player turns a cloaked permanent face up. They can turn a cloaked permanent at any time by playing it at mana cost, as long as it’s a creature. This particularly comes in handy if a card doesn’t even have a disguised cost at all.

With Assassin's Creed Shadows on the horizon — set to release in November of this year — now is the perfect time to relive the classics from the AC franchise through the lens of a Magic: The Gathering set. New players will have the opportunity to explore the classic TCG, but returning players will certainly have plenty here to enjoy, especially if they're already fans of the Assassin's Creed series. If nothing else, a new mechanic is plenty of draw for enthusiasts who are always looking for new ways to experience Magic.

The Magic: The Gathering - Assassin's Creed Universes Beyond expansion releases on July 5, 2024. Preorders are available now.