Over the last few years, a multitude of Universes Beyond sets have introduced a plethora of incredible powerhouses to various formats. Lord of the Rings: Tales of middle-earth definitely earned a place in the spotlight as a super iconic set that brought broken cards like The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters to the table. Still, Lord of the Rings is far from the only crossover to make an impact on competitive MTG.
One Universes Beyond set that’s starting to make a bit more noise is MTG Assassin’s Creed. Despite being a relatively small and underpowered set overall, there are a few key cards that have risen to stardom. At the top of that list, we have Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
Ezio packs a big punch at very little cost. Ezio may not be a household name among Modern and Legacy players. Nonetheless, in a high-powered Commander variant that’s picking up steam, Ezio is a force to be reckoned with. Just recently the potent legend put up excellent results in a major tournament series, and we felt it deserved to be highlighted.
Ezio in Duel Commander
- Mana Value: 1B
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 3/2
- Card Type: Legendary Creature- Human Assassin
- MTG Sets: MTG Assassin’s Creed
- Card Text: Menace. Assassin spells you cast have freerunning BB. (You may cast a spell for its freerunning cost if you dealt combat damage to a player this turn with an Assassins or commander.) Whenever Ezio deals combat damage to a player, you may pay WUBRG if that player has 10 or less life. When you do, that player loses the game.
In traditional Commander, Ezio makes for a powerful general to lead an Assassin army. However, what if I told you that Ezio’s biggest claim to fame comes in a Commander shell with only one other Assassin in the 99? That may sound shocking, but Ezio has proved its worth in Duel Commander, even with minimal support.
For those unfamiliar, Duel Commander is a unique one-versus-one Commander variant popular in France. Players start at 20 life, just like in a typical Constructed match. Duel Commander features its own unique banlist, which you can check out here.
Recently, Magic Online began hosting Duel Commander tournaments. Professional MTG player Corey Baumeister has been running the show, and the format has garnered quite a bit of support. Following a handful of trial events, qualified players were able to compete in the Duel Commander Finals tourney this past week.
Ezio was the second-most played Commander in the Finals, and three Ezio players managed to secure spots in top eight. While we do not have these exact decklists yet, we do have one of the top eight competitor’s Ezio decklists from the trial events, shown above.
Overall, the main goal behind running Ezio as a Commander is two-fold. First and foremost, Ezio is an elite aggressive Commander that threatens to deal a ton of damage by itself. As a two-drop with three power, Ezio is quite an efficient beater. Menace makes Ezio difficult to block. Once you’ve reduced your opponent’s life total from 20 to 10, then they’ll have to start fearing for Ezio’s final ability.
Speaking of the final ability, the second reason why Ezio is so popular is that, because this ability requires all five colors to activate, you’re free to run cards of all colors in your deck. From Domain payoffs like Territorial Kavu to multi-color value engines such as Omnath, Locus of Creation, the world is your oyster with Ezio as your Commander of choice.
Support Cards for Ezio
- Mana Value: UB
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 1/2
- Card Type: Creature- Frog
- MTG Sets: Modern Horizons 3
- Card Text: Whenever Psychic Frog deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, draw a card. Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Psychic Frog. Exile three cards from your graveyard: Psychic Frog gains flying until end of turn.
Most of the rest of the deck is made up of individually strong creatures from across the color spectrum. With a wide range of Fetchlands and Dual lands, you should have no problem casting your spells under normal circumstances.
In the one-drop slot, premier threats like Deathrite Shaman join the protective pair of Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes. At two mana, busted creatures ranging from Psychic Frog to Ajani, Nacatl Pariah routinely make an appearance.
Going further up the curve, you’ll find all sorts of devastating haymakers, including White Plume Adventurer and Aragorn, King of Gondor. By using tempo to your advantage, you can slam the door shut with a solid mix of counter magic and removal.
This deck is well set up to beat most strategies that can be thrown your way. Your threats are stronger on average than those out of hyper aggressive shells, and your spells are cheap enough to keep synergy-driven archetypes such as Aminatou, the Fatestitcher control at bay.
Fighting Against Ezio
- Mana Value: 1UR
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 3/2
- Card Type: Legendary Creature- Tyranid Human
- MTG Sets: Warhammer 40,000 Commander
- Card Text: Ward 2 (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays 2.) Three Autostubs– Whenever another source you control deals exactly 1 damage to a permanent or player, Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph deals 2 damage to that permanent or player.
All that being said, that doesn’t mean Ezio is unbeatable. In fact, the winner of the event managed to beat Ezio decks three times on their way to the finals. They were playing an extremely assertive Ghyrson Starn strategy that lines up quite well against what the Ezio deck is trying to accomplish.
The Ghyrson Starn deck utilizes a lot of very cheap removal to help keep Ezio’s threats in check. Plus, with Ghyrson Starn on the board, removal spells like End the Festivities become complete blowouts. Throw in cheap value engines like Third Path Iconoclast and you’re in great shape to take down the Ezio menace.
Duel Commander is a neat format that lets some underrated legends shine bright. It’s nice to see this iconic Assassin’s Creed character get some love.
