Modern Horizons 3 might be busy reinventing the Modern format yet another straight-to-Modern MTG set is right around the corner. While Magic’s newest Universes Beyond crossover, Assassin’s Creed, may be meant for Modern, it is almost undeniably a Commander set.
From a Modern perspective, there are very few cool toys that will be of any interest to players. Given the current state of post-Modern Horizons 3 Modern, this sadly isn’t too much of a surprise. Fortunately, there sure are a lot of cool toys for Commander players to enjoy.
Recently, we took a look at some of the best Assassin’s Creed cards that excel in the 99 of most Commander decks. Buried in this list there were a few Modern-playable cards, but the set’s focus is nonetheless clear. To make it even clearer, today we’ll be looking at the set’s best and most interesting Commanders.
Despite being a set all about Assassins, Assassin’s Creed supports a surprising variety of Commander archetypes. With interesting abilities creating unique decks, there’s a lot to love as a casual brewer and builder. Today, we’ll be focusing on some new and novel ideas being given game space, but will ultimately fall back on what new Commanders look to be the most powerful.
Honorable Mention: Ezio Auditore Da Firenze
If you want to run Assassins as a Commander without worrying about color restrictions, Ezio Auditore Da Firenze is the card for you. The Freerunning casting cost can help you get a lot of expensive haymakers into play ahead of schedule. A two-mana Vein Ripper or Thraximundar is enough to turn any board state on its head.
Sadly, Ezio’s second activated ability is a lot finickier than it looks. Ten life is already an incredibly low life total for Commander, making this ability somewhat redundant. It does create a unique one-two punch with Sorin Markov, but that card will devastate your opponents even without Ezio Auditore.
Ezio gets a lot of points for allowing five-colored Assassins to be a thing but doesn’t actually do anything particularly powerful. For that reason, he stands at the bottom of this list; worth mentioning, but weaker than the other options.
Shaun & Rebecca, Agents
Shaun & Rebecca are basically screaming for someone to try them as a Commander. Able to fetch The Animus from anywhere it may be hiding, Shaun & Rebecca are all about enabling this iconic piece of Assassin’s Creed technology.
The Animus has the ability to turn one of your creatures into a temporary copy of a Legendary creature exiled with it. Thanks to being able to respond to other triggers, this means you can exile the original Eldrazi Titans to this card, too!
Of course, in order to utilize The Animus, you need to get some Legendary creatures into the graveyard. Shaun & Rebecca come equipped to do that with a mana ability that mills two cards from the top of your deck. Between this and finding The Animus, Shaun & Rebecca don’t do much else. For that reason, the rest of your deck will need to be equipped with Legendary creatures to remember with The Animus and ways to set everything up.
This sort of Reanimator idea is as old as time for Magic, but doing it in Bant colors is something uniquely new. As far as power level goes, Shaun & Rebecca, Agents looks like an interesting deck for casual Commander tables that can pull off some powerful things. We would recommend staying away from this Commander at cEDH tables, however.
Read More: Amazing Common Turn-Three Death Combo Dominates Major Event!
Edward Kenway
From a game design perspective, this is the best Commander in the Universes Beyond Assassin’s Creed crossover. A cross between Assassins, Pirates, and Vehicles is incredibly flavorful, and something that doesn’t exist in Magic before this point. The idea of plundering opponent’s cards with Vehicles is incredibly Pirate-y, and yet it is more or less a new concept to the world of Magic.
Edward Kenway encourages a new kind of Commander deck and gives players massive rewards for playing by his rules. If you load up your board with Assassins, Pirates, and Vehicles and turn them sideways, you get a ton of Treasure Tokens to use in future turns. Between this and the Vehicle-based card advantage, Edward Kenway gives Commander players everything they need to rule the seas at a casual table.
With ramp and card advantage checked, Edward Kenway can be an absolute monster. Neither of these are given in major excess, however, and as a creature, Edward Kenway is a simple on-rate 5/5 with no keywords. This looks strong, but not overpowered by any means.
Havi, the All-Father
Havi, the All-Father is another potential Commander that reimagines a gamespace that MTG players could already explore. While this may seem underwhelming at first, Havi, the All-Father is nonetheless a powerful and interesting new Commander option.
This Commander functions similarly to Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle, but there’s a lot less infinite combo potential. Havi is still an incredibly powerful creature that becomes Indestructible rather quickly. With only four Historic cards in the graveyard, Havi gets one of the strongest keywords in all of MTG.
Otherwise, Havi’s second ability can create some absolutely disgusting sequences. You do need to set things up, but the board states that Havi creates are not only quite sticky but can lead to devastating combo sequences as well. Finding a Legendary Creature that can return something of higher mana value can create an infinite loop with Havi.
Havi, the All-Father is a step above all of the cards we’ve mentioned so far in terms of power level. Six mana is rather expensive for a Commander, but this Commander can easily whip up some infinite combos while being Indestructible the entire time. This should do work at a higher-power Commander table, but may not be quite ready for cEDH.
Mary Read and Anne Bonny
Despite Edward Kenway being a fresh new take on the rules that govern Magic’s world, Mary Read and Anne Bonny are still a more powerful Commander. This card is incredibly easy to enable with Wheel effects. Windfall and Wheel of Fortune are going to create a lot of tapped Treasure Tokens. Untap them with Amulet of Vigor, and winning on an early turn becomes incredibly trivial.
Mary Read and Anne Bonny do share some themes with Edward Kenway, making this a great inclusion in that, and many other 99s. As a Commander, Mary Read and Anne Bonny simply want a lot of powerful tools that both enable her payoff and can be used for it. Cards like Smuggler’s Copter that can both create Tapped Treasure Tokens and become one have a lot of value.
This appears to be the strongest Commander in Assassin’s Creed thanks to all the broken synergies that already exist for Mary Read and Anne Bonny. The specific types of cards needed to trigger Mary Read and Anne Bonny could be a stronger restriction to this Commander’s power level than it appears, however. We would expect this card to be competitive at stronger Commander tables.
Read More: Elite Eldrazi Combo Can Make The Opponent Sacrifice 15 Permanents At Once!
