The Gathering Assassin’s Creed Review ⏤ Good cards in bad boosters — GAMINGTREND

This was a difficult review. I’m not giving the Assassin’s Creed set (ACR) a high rating, which is a shame because it basically has fun cards in it. In fact, this set is sold in a way that I fundamentally don’t understand. I don’t like the way this set is sold at all because the Assassin’s Creed set is the first Universes Beyond set to include the new Beyond Booster. I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, though. Let’s take a moment to examine what the Assassin’s Creed set is and why I don’t like the format.

Universes Beyond has several different variations on how the cards are sold to a customer. This ranges from full draft sets (Tales of Middle-Earth), Commander sets (Doctor Who/Fallout), pack insert cards (Jurassic Park), and many Secret Lairs. All of these different formats serve different purposes, but I prefer the full draft set and Commander set because you can start playing Magic with these products right away. Wizards of the Coast has created a new “mid-size” set for Assassin’s Creed that contains 100 regular cards and is sold exclusively in the new Beyond Booster. A standard Beyond Booster contains seven cards, and a Collector Booster for ACR contains ten cards. The idea of ​​a 100-card set is that this is the middle ground between a full draft set and the smaller offerings like a Secret Lair. This is why the Beyond Booster only contains seven cards, there just isn’t enough card variety to support a play booster. Assassin’s Creed also offers a starter kit with two pre-made decks.

Seven cards, one of which is probably a land

Supposedly, the Beyond Booster was meant to mirror March of the Machine’s Aftermath Boosters. March of the Machine: Aftermath was a “micro” set that contained fifty cards and was sold in boosters of five cards each. The five-card boosters were famously panned by players because the Aftermath Booster didn’t offer enough card variety. Players would open the same cards over and over again. I’ve seen a little of how Magic sets are designed, and I know they spend years developing them. I want to acknowledge that Wizards has (in theory) taken steps to change the Beyond Booster in response to these criticisms. Whatever changes Wizards might make, I’m grateful for it, as it’s very likely that contracts with Ubisoft have already been signed and deadlines set. I’ve heard speculation that reprints were added and the set size was increased to 100, allowing the number of booster packs to increase from five to seven. Whatever changes were made, I’m grateful for it, but it’s not enough.

The simple fact that spoils Beyond Boosters for me is that you can’t draft with them. I’m coming from a drafter’s perspective and I’m interested in playing Magic with the packs I buy. I don’t play much Constructed, so I’m not excited to buy packs just to open them and build decks. The ACR cards, while legal in Modern, don’t seem to have been designed for Modern. The cards here seem to find a home in Commander, which is fine, but that limits the appeal of this set even further. I don’t want more booster packs in Magic that you can’t draft with. We already have Collector Boosters and they serve their purpose perfectly well. If there were only Collector Boosters in ACR, I’d be less confused, since I know what Collector Boosters are for. I don’t understand the point of a seven-card booster pack. I don’t like the idea of ​​Magic sets that you can’t actually play the game with. In 2025, we’ll get a Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set that will be fully draftable like Tales of Middle-Earth. Perhaps the Beyond Booster will have a very short lifespan and remain a one-off foray for Wizards of the Coast. Only time will tell.

Three cards from ACR

The other major downside is that ACR packs cost the same as other Magic packs. This may be a symptom of Assassin’s Creed being more expensive because it’s Modern-legal, or because Universes Beyond is a licensed product. If you compare the latest Magic set, Bloomburrow, to Assassin’s Creed, you’ll notice that a Play Booster of Bloomburrow is usually cheaper than an Assassin’s Creed Beyond Booster. The ACR Beyond Booster contains fewer cards and (generally) costs more. As cool as Assassin’s Creed is, that’s just poor value for the consumer. And the best part is that if you buy a box of ACR, you can’t even play Magic: The Gathering with that box.

Despite the Beyond Booster’s serious flaws, there are positives to the Assassin’s Creed set. I’m clearly not a fan of the “mid-sized” set, but the card designs in the set itself are of the quality we’ve come to expect from Wizards. Freerunning is a new mechanic that provides an alternate casting cost for a card if you’ve dealt damage to the player this turn with an Assassin or your Commander. Because of this mechanic, I’m assuming these cards are really meant for Commander, despite being Modern-legal. I like the mechanic and it feels appealing for what little I know about Assassin’s Creed. The returning mechanics revolve around Historic, Disguise, and Cloak, all of which fit Assassins incredibly well. While it feels odd to actually have historical figures in Magic now, cards like Leonardo da Vinci will make fun Commanders.

Three thematic maps from ACR

If you’re a fan of Assassin’s Creed, you’re sure to enjoy the card designs and artwork. As always, the artwork in Magic is top-notch. Even though I know basically nothing about the characters, I really like the showcase frames, all of which feature specific characters from the games. Having Assassin’s Creed-specific artwork on cards like Murder, Mortify, Terminate, Fatal Push, and Assassin’s Trophy is just cool. However, there is a lot of stabbing in the artwork.

Lastly, I mentioned that there is also a starter deck for Assassin’s Creed. This is the highlight of the set for me as it doesn’t have any of the problems that the Beyond Boosters have. If you want to play Assassin’s Creed Magic, I really like the starter set and would recommend it.

Borderless Art for Leonardo da Vinci, Display Case Frame for Lydia Frye, Extended Frame for Excalibur, Sword of Eden

Chris started playing tabletop games in college and quickly fell for the addictive world of cardboard. Starting with D&D and Catan, he developed into a lover of all games, analog and digital. Now a relapsed MtG player, Chris loves connecting with people through role-playing games, board games, and video games. He especially enjoys testing friendships through social deduction games.

Unless otherwise noted, the product in this article was provided for review purposes.

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