I won't be buying any packs. If absolutely need something for any decks I'll buy them separately. Normally I buy loads of packs of every release till I have at least r of every common and uncommon. But at this price for this amount of cards. Wizards can absolutely fuck themselves with their high quality card stock when it comes to this.
The last Set I buyed anything from was Ixalan. Then it was to much for me. I couldnt keep up with all the releases and to chase after them ruined this part of the hobby for me. Also the sets feel more and more soulless. Especially the omes with the hats.
Ugh the immersion break aside, i hate that they made Ezio have a 5 color identity on top. Im getting so tired of all these 5 color commanders for different themes theyve been pushing. Building 5c used to be a somewhat quirky thing with commander choices like Progenitus or Child of Alara but nowadays I rarely play in a pod without a 5c deck.
Yeah, as someone who specialized in 5C decks back when they were somewhat tricky to play, I'm not a fan either. Of course, I also don't actually play Commander, so that aspect doesn't affect me. Even so, Modern has way too many decks that are easily 3, 4, or even 5C now, because there's no actual skill involved in making the decks work right. Oh well.
I just tell the person playing 5c that it is borderline boring and i kindly ask them to play another deck as it has 0 identity and most of the time they dont play it twice ;)
@@Xoulrath_ I have a 5C deck that is 76% artifacts, including lands. That is the identity and theme of it, and it's the last time I've been able to- or ever will be able to build that again since I initially built my first ever commander deck with Cromat
I'm less annoyed by the "immersion break" in this set than basically any other Universes Beyond product; MOST of the stuff looks just fine on the field to be honest. What I've seen so far has been some variant of Legendary human with melee weapons (basically fine), Equipment (ditto), and artifacts (looks okay). PK might be onto something with the "look at this art, it's all just dudes with knives" and that's pretty repetitive looking when you look at the set all side-by-side but if you jam one of these into a full deck it's probably okay. They stand out way less on the field than, say, a Fallout character or Transformer. I do agree about the 5-color thing though. It always jumps out to me when a creature has a simple casting cost (one color) but then a bunch of pips in some activated ability on the bottom - it tells me that this card isn't for 60-card and those off-color pips are just there for Commander.
You're telling me that X company made something as a cash grab? Get real dude, they all do it now. I hate GoofySoft as much as the next guy, but they aren't the only one
@@Blotmossen when I started playing, there were 4 sets that whole year 🤣 This year, between January and August, the only month that *doesn't* have a set is May. That's 7/8 months. Not including whenever Duskmorn comes out 😂
Remember that feeling of climbing a tower and the map suddenly fills with shit you don't care about? That was the flavor they were going for in this set.
Imagine the alternate universe where we have duel decks, George Washington vs. Karl Marx. But seriously, if they were only going to do 100 cards anyway then it really should have been a commander deck. That would even address the issue of all the characters looking similar since a cohesive aesthetic is often a plus there.
But they made a commander precon, they just made you buy packs to actually build it. Seriously, this set looks like they wanted to make Ezio 5c assasin tribal and then they decided to make 30 more cards of draft shaf and sell it in packs.
I have 2 friends who love Assassin's Creed, it's their favourite video game series, I explained one of them the intricacies of these boosters. It ended up as "Just by all the singles from this secondary market" The other friend I learnt from my mistake "It's your birthday coming up, I'll buy you $50 worth of cards you pick out". I wish they'd stop making buying their product so confusing...
Free running just feels like a missed opportunity to me. As it is, it's just a reworked prowl cost. Which works for rogues because they are about being sneaky. Same thing with ninjas and ninjutsu. Both are mechanics that take your opponent by surprise. If you wanted an assassin specific mechanic that represents a different way of being sneaky, then do that. Have cards that phase out when you play them and only phase in under specific circumstances. Have cards that have a cool effect when they phase in. Have cards with plot, that represent the scheming of the Templars and the plans of assassins on a mission. Use the disguise, and morph mechanics to present game states where you're not sure who's who. Make an elite assassin that has an ability that says that it cannot be named. For those assassins that happen to also be ninjas bring back ninjutsu. Hell you could even make use of the new outlaw batching. So you have assassins that care about fellow outlaws. If you wanted to do a mechanic that represented parkour, make it similar to storm but instead of copying the spell the spells that you cast get more effects for every spell cast prior to it. Or perhaps spells with free running could add an effect to the next spell that you cast. Using momentum and rapid action to overcome obstacles is what parkour is all about. There could have been a mechanic to represent that but instead they went with the laziest possible interpretation of the idea.
Smoke Bomb is an example of very cool top-down design, of the kind you're describing. So they're clearly capable of it. It just felt like very little effort went into the design of the vast majority of the set.
I'm glad more people are pointing out that they're full priced, 7-card boosters. I'm excited for some of the characters sure but like.. C'mon guys. WotC (And worse, Hasbro) is going to take this hype and equate it to the market shifting towards 7-card boosters so long as they hit the 'memberberries nostalgia and we should really know better as fans, players and enjoyers of one of the already more expensive hobbies on the planet. This is not how we make this more affordable.
@@mr.nakamura9088 They sat around for far longer, I've seen unsold packs/boxes way into the 10's at traveling fairs and such. People today don't realize how dire Homelands and FE were, they were so utterly rejected by the player base that WotC did something that they have never done since, they actually forced people to have a minimum number of cards from each standard (type 2 back then) legal set in their tournament decks.
@@ankaarne facts. Anyone who has read an old deck list, the Paul Sligh red list springs to mind, has probably thought, "Why is this even in here? Why not a playset of xyz?"
We were able to get Homelands and Fallen Empires for about $5 up until about 2011 at one of my LGS. We'd get 'em for chaos drafts. Store owner thought it was a laugh, would usually kick in an extra pack or two just to get rid of 'em.
@@mr.nakamura9088I was talking to a much younger player at the LGS Friday about Fallen Empires. He nearly crapped his pants when I told him the most valuable card in the set is $5.
What you are feeling when you look at Assassins Creed is similar to what I feel whenever I look at Universes Beyond. I just can't stop seeing them as advertisements.
I remember people complaining about the Amonkhet Invocations. "These are Yugioh cards, not Magic cards" well guess what cynics, Universes Beyond are literally not Magic cards.
I definitely agree with a lot of your points here. I was the biggest UB defender for the longest time because I really liked how the design was a sort of top-down "make this card feel like the moment/character, archetypes be damned" versus in-universe sets that feel like they decided on the draft archetype first and molded everything else around it. Even though I have never seen Doctor Who, the stories of each card were told so well through the mechanics that if I took a guess as to what the card is depicting, then looked up the episode it was from, i was usually right. 40K, LOTR, and WHO all felt so vibrant and interesting, despite me having only watched the LOTR movies and knowing next to nothing about the other two IPs, that I really got frustrated when my peers would dismiss UB wholesale. Comparing the AC set to past Universes Beyond sets, it's completely indefensible. I've looked at so many of the spoilers and still know basically nothing about what Assassin's Creed is about. The mechanics are mostly really boring which both makes it hard to gather anything about the story being told through them *and* makes me completely uninterested in even finding out anything about it. You can only wade through so many cards of dudes in hoods that say "assassins you control get +1/+1" before you just kind of check out. It's just so lifeless. If this is the new standard for UB then I'm probably going to find myself on the UB hate train very soon.
I was completely fine with the AC having their own set box and all that jazz. But... I didn't know they made just little shitty packs and a very small card pool for this set. Means that actually opening a box is just gonna be duplicate on duplicate on duplicate. Only upside I can see is like... yay more Sword of Feast and Famine in the wild.
The most recent game was a vast improvement. Actually felt like an AC game again rather than just playing a reskin of the Witcher. Unfortunately the card set is absolutely trash so I’ll be an entrenched fan completely ignoring the set 😅
The art and flavor is what I really hate about this set. I never watched LOTR, but honestly the design of the cards were really interesting and there was plenty of variance. Every card I’ve seen just looks like existing cards with an assassin twist on it. And the legendaries are all just boring. It feels like the same 5 cards with slightly different color schemes. Honestly now that i think about it, I feel like this set has no redeeming qualities. Pricing is wack considering the packs are tiny. The straight into modern sets make for a soft rotation in an eternal format, and AC doesn’t fit with MTG’s flavor as seamlessly as something like LOTR did. Reprints are solid tho!
Man, I hope the Marvel sets are based more on the comics and less on the movies! Not that the movies are bad, but the bright colors of Marvel comics would look SO good as Magic cards, as opposed to the desaturated look of the films.
I strongly suspect they will do comics or a new contonuity as mcu lisencing is a very different beast from general marvel lisencing. That and they already did their own thing with Lotr.
With any luck having to license celebrities likenesses will keep them away from the MCU. Besides, I'm sure there's plenty of overlap between MTG players and comic book readers. In my town at least all the LGSs are also Comic Book stores so there's the potential for passive advertising there
The 1-mana version of Battlefield Improvisation you're thinking of is Resolute Strike, although it only allows you to attach 1 equipment, not any number (so having 2 hammers doesn't allow you to instantly swing for lethal), and it only works if you target a Warrior.
MTG x Assassin's Creed should have just been 4 commander decks. It's a 100 card set with 20 reprints. Only 80 new cards. For reference the fallout decks contain 154 cards that are not reprints. The 40k decks contained 168 and Dr. Who decks contained 229 non-reprints. This set seems like wotc trying to sell commander precons, that they didn't finish, in "beyond" (epilogue) booster format for even more money than they would sell playable precons for.
I love how we went from "We're merging set and draft boosters because it made things too confusing" to "Here's a full-priced 7-card-per-pack non-draftable booster" within about 8 months. I get that these decisions may have been set in stone long ago, but it's just funny to me.
No no bro you don't understand! They ARE draftable! The constant duplicates is so you can have 4 copies! Duuuuh! And bro, this is a NEW draft of 20 card decks instead of 40! Same price, but better experience because it's half the deck size! Wow! Pay more money for even less cardboard that costs 0.02¢ to print!!!!!
I couldn't care less about this set, but I know I'm gonna see the stupid free running ramp spell in commander. On top of that I hate that this appears wildly shoehorned into extra formats that it shouldn't be In
I remember being told I was stupid when I called that Universes Beyond was just going to be a soulless cash grab thing. "let people like things!" "it's for fans of these IPs not for you" and its really really really funny to be vindicated by the most vapid, empty, corporate cash grab I have seen in Magic. I hate what Magic has become, between FIRE design, Secret Lairs (and then the move of those to a limited amount ON TOP of a limited time frame), "Normal" sets having all the flavour of unsalted butter on hardtack lately, Universes Beyond especially like this, and the refusal to reprint powerful and now staple Universes Beyond cards into a Universes Within version that actually sticks to MtG as an IP. It's like seeing a family member with late stage Alzheimer's, who doesn't even remember who they were. It's downright depressing.
Yup. Knew shit would get bad from the moment they announced walking dead secret lair. As far as I'm concerned, that's when WotC officially went and got the shovel to start digging Magic's grave. Sad. Used to love the game, now I just find myself complaining about it a lot.
What i love about the universe beyonds sets like 40k, LotR, and DrWho is they've felt like gorgeous love letters to different worlds. They felt like they earned and deserved their place in the game. AC just doesn't feel the same way and that sucks because i want to be happy for the people who get to see characters from their fav game on a magic card. I want them to feel like i did looking through the chaos 40k deck. But this set just falls short and that's a damn shame
I came to Magic through Doctor Who and it is VERY clear that the cards are a real love letter to Doctor Who. I have played over 100 games with the WHO cards and they feel like I am telling an exciting Doctor Who Adventure - I love them - and the mechanics are so on flavour - time travel, Tardis, sonic screwdriver and the Master, Daleks and Cybermen - it all works so well. Doctors and Companions working together to win.
they also do so well with fallout in my opinion, i've been a fan of fallout since forever the reference to the game is insane. Like Jason Bright abilities "come fly with me" is a reference to the quest he's included in, a lot of the card abilities fit perfect with the character like dogmeat giving you junk token which what he does as he gives you stuff by digging the ground in the game, or junk jet an equipped card that let you sac a artifact and on etb give you junk token, which what it does in the game it shoot out junks like teddy bears. Moira brown gives you a unique artifact token name "wasteland survival guide" since she was the author of said book. This set reignite my love again for fallout it even push me to play 76 the only fallout game i haven't played. Only time will tell if AC is the same as the other UB and i hope AC fans could get the same feeling as me.
@@MeilynMei glad to hear fallout gave you the same feelings 40k did for me! I didn't mention fallout because it's less popular with my group so I didn't have as much context for how good the UB was at representing fallout
Really hope these continue working well like these less than like the AC set. I would scream if they made a set for a franchise I loved, like Monster Hunter.
I literally got back from my LGS after picking up my first batch of MH3 cards after they came out, and was greeted to the spoilers for this set. I can't express how much I hate wizards constantly shoving products down our throats
That comment about commander decks taking the sting out of the cash-grabbiness of Universes Beyond sets really resonates with me. Precons are a great product for just picking up and playing with friends who may like Magic, but who aren't invested enough to go making their own decks, and that's a lot of Magic I play now, when I can. We all know that the decks are balanced against one another, and yeah, it does feel real nice to my collector brain to know that I can grab the decks, enjoy them with friends, and have a complete experience of the set with them. I also like that precons have a built-in space for themselves. I have some friends who don't like their series and genres to touch, so UB sets showing up in decks bug them, but playing with self-contained, pre-defined decks helps them get over that frustration.
I fully agree that if they stuck to 3 or 4 commander decks they could have given fans something much better. Off the top of my head you could do the first 2 games as one with Ezio and Altair (very similar themes), one for black flag (the best selling game by far), one for unity and syndicate (france and england are close enough), and maybe one for the more modern games like a greece/norse one (similar themes ish). Seems like they could have put more love into it for sure, especially with the opportunity to recontextualize so many classic magic card that fit the themes.
Altair, Ezio, and Connor would work for one. Edward, Arno, and the twins for another. Bayek, Cassandra, and Eivor for the third. The last could be Isu and other tie ins because for awhile Ubisoft cared a lot about AC story.
I think that it not being draftable is a great point. Not that that should be a prereq for UB sets going forward but because it’s not draftable it’s hard not to look at it as anything more than a cash grab. I think you’re right on the money. It feels cynical and maybe if the cards were better designed things would be different. But they’re not/aren’t.
Personally, I don't have much to say on Universes Beyond. The Assassin's Creed product is a perfect example of them pushing an idea that's not going to work as a full LotR-like product, because they know the IP will likely sell. It should have been a more crafted experience, maybe even only two structured decks. Like "Assassin's Wardrobe" vs "The Animus" where it's the assassin's and equipment matters deck pitted against the historic matters deck using the big named historic figures. Something similar to Yugioh and Pokemon where they actually provide you a functional product to bring into the modern format, or enough that if you buy two it finishes the missing playsets. Or more likely... Go for making it for commander. But nah, "Reprint Equity go brrrrr."
I'm a huge fan of Assassin's Creed, and I budgeted money to buy a whole collector booster box (which I have never done before, hell, I've only bought one collector booster PACK in my whole life and that was because Godzilla was in Ikoria) for this just because I wanted the whole blinged out set (I would've done this with the Warhammer release too but they were only commander decks). But with the set so small, and only focusing on the Protagonists and hardly any of the incredible cast of real life people... It feels pointless to me to buy large amounts of packs like I wanted to because I'll just get 40 duplicates of some uncommons before I pull my last Mythic. There are many clear opportunities that have been missed here with the cards, and while some are home runs (Edward, Haytham, Rest in Peace, Shay, most of the cards that deal with The Animus) there are a lot of designs that dont really capture what they portray. I think its extremely clear that there was nowhere near the level of passion, dedication, and knowledge that went into other UB sets went into this one. This set was made for people like me and now I am just going to quietly buy a single set on the secondary market.
I'm waiting patiently for Universes Beyond: Dune. I really want to fight Corrino vs Atreides/Fremen vs Harkonnen vs Bene Gesserit in Magic. I would even settle for a secret lair, but I would hope for at least commander decks.
I feel the same way about Universes Beyond as I do about Secret Lairs: f*ck 'em! F*ck 'em right in the ear! Magic should be focussed on it's own multiverse. There is a CRAZY amount of planes we could re-visit. There's more than enough planes we have NEVER explored, despite them being mentioned in the lore, either in Flavor-text or Planechase or whatever else.
I think you got a good point when you made the comparison to Doctor Who. That was released as a commander deck 'set'. Each deck had a theme and a story to tell within it, so all the flavour could tie back to that and made the whole thing cohesive. Since this is like Aftermath, it doesn't have that guidance. There's no colour identity to tie themes together, no gameplan around with a lot of cards can help, it's just... cards. In some of his MTG design blog posts, Maro talks about how regular sets use 'skeletons'. They construct the idea of what cards should be before they make the cards. So they'll say that black needs a removal spell, green needs a beater, etc. And then you create cards which fill those archetypes. This feels like they took that approach. Sculpting a set skeleton full of 'reasonable' cards, then backtracking to fit them into Assassin's Creed flavour.
I feel the majority of those packs from the lotr set were collectors farming out for the one of ring card, so that could be inflating that number by quiet the margin because of just that
I thought there were no commander decks because there weren't enough characters and stuff to fill commander decks. But seeing the cards, I can remember so many characters that could've gotten cards, and I haven't even played all the AC games (finished 2, 4, Rogue and Origins).
It was wild getting into Scryfall and seeing that apparently the whole set was spoiled, and that I couldn't get myself to actually looked over the whole fucking half-set.
Assassins Creed was made for me. I've played all the games except the newest one Mirage. I have feel I was priced out though. These prices are just a nope. I can move on.
@@reigh_leigh 60 seconds and no one else mentioned they were excited? I was pretty excited until the prices were announced earlier this year. I may buy some singles but def not cracking any boxes like I had been planning.
Another thing about this set is that it made me think, a set based on real world history would have been so much more interesting. With AC There's all these assassins and templars and legendary alien artifacts or whatever, just leave all that at the door and give me a set based in Renaissance Italy (like P3K did for Three Kingdoms China, I guess) and I'd actually be fascinated to see how they would handle that. But of course there's a lot less money in that prospect.
The bit about this set being all memberberries was so on point. You just summed up my feelings towards universes beyond as a whole. It feels so "say the thing."
I hadn't realized the set and its packs were so small. I saw some of the recent spoilers, and expected them to continue. You're right that this set is kind of falling flat. I'm not a fan of the AC series (I played the first one, enjoyed it, never got into the others) but it doesn't bother me that they tried this. This could have been a neat draft set, really digging into the "Assassins vs Templars". It's kind of sad how it turned out, but I hope people who love AC are able to enjoy it. It's unfortunate that this came out right after MH3, and just before Bloomburrow
As much as I'm cynical about WOTC, I think the generic and boring feel of the cards is just a symptom of them being Assassins Creed cards rather than design issues at Wizards. Having played a lot of these games, there's really just so little differentiating one assassin from another, besides their stories. Just "guy with hood and hidden blade" is enough to describe every AC protagonist. Even with the stories there is a lot of sameness, you have legends like Ezio and Edward, but most others are pretty generic.
This was honestly one of the things that got me out of the AC series. It was cool at first, but then when we started putting a hood and hidden blade on anyone that moved it sort of ruined it for me.
@@Nephalem2002 No, in fact that Fortnite-ification of things is not perfectly fine, and stuff like this highlights that fact. If there were less products an Assassin's Creed booster in Magic would still be terrible.
So big fan of AC and played all mainline games and even read a few comic series. I had been very excited for the franchise. Started getting nervous when I saw the epilogue boosters and then just heartbroken when I saw the cards. No wrath of god style card to represent the Toba Catastrophe and maybe a half assed one for the one Desmond stopped. Next to no cards involving Juno and nothing portraying her as a villain. Even the Apple of Eden was messed up, all they needed to do was Godzilla treatment Mindslaver because that’s basically what the Apple does by default; there are other things but that’s the basic function. There’s nuggets of interesting ideas amongst the cards but the vibe I got was no one on the design team liked or played the series and used the notes and Wikipedia and did their best. This isn’t to be mad at the design team, they are doing Gods work while being overworked and underpaid for it, but WoTC for not making sure they had a team that could support the series line with Warhammer, Fallout, and Doctor Who.
I left a very similar comment and I'm very happy to see another fan here explaining their thoughts. I bet we could spitball another 50 cards for this set easily, probably 100 by the end of the week. The IP is rich enough to have proper respect paid like LotR, and theres just...so much missing. What would you add to this set?
@@captainflapjax7240 Shroud of Eden. Equipment. If equipped creatures toughness would change instead put x counters on it. If shroud of Eden is removed from equipped creature deal x damage to it equal to the number of counters on it. If the creature would die this way instead exile it. Equip legendary: 4
@@Magnaboss Aerial Assassination - BU Instant - Target creature gains flying until end of turn. When that creature deals combat damage to a player this turn, destroy up to 1 target creature that player controls.
In my opinion all universe Beyond products are cashgrabs. Universe Beyond products generally annoy me. If they were only released as Commander decks and Secret layers, I could basically ignore them. So for me, the useful and worth-buying products are limited to 0-1 per year.
I’m a big fallout fan, so I bought the Caesar deck when those came out. I think a big problem with universes beyond (especially as we are expanding into more mainstream less fantasy IPs) is that rather than trying to capture the feel or flavor of the source material, they are trying to just cram as many recognizable characters as they can into the product. In the fallout set, none of the legendaries had effects that really felt unique, so the only thing that could carry them is the flavor - which wizards kinda fucked up by just jamming random fallout characters into decks together. Craig Boone is in the Caesar deck. What? That’s like putting Harry Potter in the Voldemort deck. It just feels like they are checking boxes with these products in a way that doesn’t create interesting card designs AND doesn’t scratch the flavor itch.
At most I might get the starter product to teach friends and family how to play magic, but F the booster products. Literally will always skip boosters that can’t draft and I hope this rots like aftermath lol
for battlefield improvisation - there's only about 3 1 mana alternatives to it. magnetic theft - which is only 1 equipment, and only the equipment. resolute strike - which is only 1 equipment, but only onto a warrior, and gets the +2/+2 sigarda's Aid - which given its effect is drastically different, only reason its on this list is its 1 mana and can do the equipment attach at instant speed.
I love AC. I love Magic. They don't necessarily need to be smooshed together. As someone who should be the middle of the venn diagram that is the target market for this set - I couldn't care less about it. I'll grab singlse when I need the cards, and maybe grab some packs when the price crashes, but that's about it.
Same with me and Lord of the Rings. But then again, I dislike Universes Beyond in general. I don't run any UB cards in my decks, and I feel a pang of sorrow whenever I see them across the table.
I'm worried that Final Fantasy is gonna be the same. When FF and AC were announced I kinda went "what? Why?" and it feels like Wotc feels that way too.
I have faith that the FF one will be better, simply because there's more source material to draw from. With AC, all they could really do is throw in hooded guys and historic/assassin synergies. But with FF, you've got 16 mainline titles to choose from, and they could integrate various new thematic mechanics (kinda like fallout integrating the interesting rad system). I imagine they could create materia as equipment, a new system of MP counters, maybe a whole new mechanic that could summon tokens of the eidolons, etc. The possibilities just seem endless with the FF set.
it's funny to me, because this set is the first one where i finally accepted that i wouldn't be keeping up with every new card anymore. and it wasn't even a decision i made consciously, i just didnt look at any spoilers, and i didnt feel like i was missing out on anything, even though i don't know what's in the set. even just a few months ago, i would feel like something was wrong if i didn't see the cards the very day they were revealed, and now i kinda just... don't care? but like in a nice way.
Dang, just went back over this set, and from what I can tell, the best cards in here are reprints of Black Market Connections, Assassin's Trophy, and the Canopy lands. And most of those were hovering around 5-8 bucks, tops.
I like to joke around that Magic, particularly Commander, has become Cardboard Fortnite. I get the idea that especially long-time players might want MtG to stay MtG, as it were. I also like to joke that, at this rate, it won't be long before we see Universes Beyond: The Bible. ...Please, don't do it, WotC. For the love of _literal God,_ don't do it. But this is the same company that looked at Tolkein's allegory of the One Ring as a self-destructive lust for power that none can resist and thought "I just came up with a brilliant idea to make a ton of money..." so if irony is no object, I can't imagine good taste being much of a barrier.
As an assassin’s creed fan (it’s tattooed on my body) there is a lot of flavor but some of the cards are definitely just generic. I’m excited for the set but I think your points are valid. Honestly it wouldn’t matter whether it was assassin’s creed or not. You’re right about how they set it up. We’ll see with final fantasy later this year
Of all the things I hate about this product I would have to say that the packs not having 5 or 6 bulk commons in it is not something I care about. I'd personally be fine with non-draftable products cutting down on the trash in them, I already have enough random bulk commons to build a small log cabin.
110 cards sold in boosters… the reason this set fucking sucks, beyond product fatigue, beyond the modern legality being shoved in, is the fact that they are just selling people a pushed Assassin Tribal commander precon that’s locked behind having to buy singles or be lucky with pulls rather than just selling a commander precon.
I think a big part of the reason it feels like such a cash cow grab, is because the big universes beyond drops up to this point are hall of fame nerd stuff. Lord of the rings, Doctor who, Warhammer 40k, Fallout I guess is the most removed but even that has a history of being beloved since the 90's, but Assassins Creed? I'm not trying to yuck someones yum, but its not as if its something that has a massive cult following in the space, they are remembered largely as a franchise that has some peaks, but mainly a lot of repetative slop that gets churned out year after year with only the setting really changing, and its reflected in the cards. That's why its all people in hoods, thats why the weapons look the same, that's IMO why it feels so cheap, because what its based on was cheap, it in the same vain of having a FIFA set or Call of Duty, the only difference is because its different time periods they can make it seem vastly different because one assassin is a pirate and the next is in ancient greece.
@kenpatchiramasama1076except it was slop. You don't define the definition of slop. I thought that the AC series sucked from day one. There wasn't anything particularly enjoyable about them. And at 47, I can assure you that I'm no baby. It's actually OK for you to like something that the comment or doesn't like. As he (or she) mentioned, AC does NOT have the history of the other UB products offered thus far. It is way off the mark. It's a mid video game series at best. Please try to justify for a second how that compares to LotR, Dr. Who, or even Fallout which is also decades old and old school nerdgasm type stuff?
@kenpatchiramasama1076 my guy, I said there where peaks, and im not trying to suggest you can't enjoy what you enjoy, but are you going to pretend that the games didn't essentialy have the same gameplay loop year after year with basically nothing new added? Stop trying to misrepresent the franchise, 1 was new, 2 added to it, but brotherhood and the other BS one + 3 where just copies. 4 was fun with the ship stuff, but then everything up until the new ones is just the same trash, then all the new ones do the same shit with copying it. You call me a baby, but atleast im not overdosing on COPIUM LULW
At least the cards in this set are majority assassins, warriors, pirates which are actual fantasy things and not doctor who that just random people who are basically civilians as cards
I think you are very biased here. Assassin's Creed is really not far behind. Assassin's Creed is, imo, much worse than it started, but Doctor Who too has seen its glory days come and go a long, long time ago. Warhammer 40k is absolutely niche compared to AC or Fall Out. Estimates put it at 3.5M - 5M players - at most around than half of how many buy every new AC release. Fall Out 4 recently got a boost in sales (thanks to the series), but until then it was comparable in sales to Assassin's Creed. I think the aesthetics are a bit... repetitive (to put it mildly), but it fits in much better with general Magic than anything in 40k and Warhammer.
actually the same thing happened in the Outlaws set ...everything just wore a cowboy hat and had all BUT FLAVOR .... AI ART AI CARDS AI SETS .....and MODERN ROTATION 3 just released F wizards
Well people say you can't draft Homelands, but years ago my LGS did a Homelands draft. It was fun because it was low powered jank. I bought the rest of the packs to eventually make a Homelands cube to play with my friends when we want a break. But it got a little sideboarded by my unstable/conspiracy cube project.
As someone who played AC for a bit longer than you (stopped after 3 had been pretty bad and 4 was... not an assassin's creed game), I don't disagree that a lot of the cards don't excite me, but I think we are also pre-biased: As you say, you have an image of AC being a franchise that exemplifies basically.... qualitative decay. That being said, I honestly don't mind the card looks here. They are a bit samey (guys in hoods), but I feel like they fit in better than 40k, transformers, a good portion of the Jurassic Park cards, Doctor Who and Fall Out. I have heavily disliked seeing the 40k, Doctor Who and Fall Out cards in the game purely because I don't think they fit the overall aesthetics of Magic. The AC cards at least feel like they could be out of any new set. A decent portion of them could be part of a Return to [Kaldheim/Amonkhet/Fiora/something else]. The animus/futuristic ones aside. It is the same reason that I didn't mind the LOTR set that much - it looks like a Magic world. I completely agree with everything you have said about the Ubisoft/WOTC greed/cashgrabby nature. It does feel like that. Also, it would have redeemed the entire set if I got to make a commander deck with the Pope as my commander. Where's the damn Borgia cards?
I go for singles, and only ONE card of this set caught my interest: Templar Knight. I fear how much 30 copies will cost, but I want them so I can have the entire cycle of the "Limitless Cycle" it's a part of, aside from black. Not sure what I'd want for that color.
I looked at each of the cards once they were shown online, and it definitely appeared to me at least that you could take any 3 colored legend from the set and make a commander dec using all the cards in that color identity. I did so for naya and esper colors. Not saying it was the most cohesive really but there were enough cards to fill out a commander deck. Second, about the reduced pack size: honestly reminds me of Yugioh releases where it's just kind of cards in a pack with loose connection to a theme. Third, on that note. If they wanted to do a UB set as packs rather than preconstructed decks, I would be interested in a limited environment where there's maybe 120 cards to draft from rather than nearly 300 for a full set release.
The commander life total thing is interesting, I assumed effects like that would always say 'if your life total is X more than your starting life total' at this point.. I really wonder if that is intentional or just clumsy/untested design. Neither outcome fills me with hope :/
It's 100% intentional, with every card design passing through so many hands and commander being the biggest format currently there is no way that no one thought about it. The freerunning cards specifically mentioning commanders even shows that the set designers thought about commander specifically
I absolute love Assassin's Creed. I'm going to pick up product cuz I love the IP. That being said: - I had no idea it was releasing in early July. This release schedule sucks and it's killing me. - A lot of the cards don't wow me. - I thought this was going to be a full set we could draft. Pissed about it being the epilogue boosters. - This feels like it should've been a commander set similar to Dr Who. You could've made much more interesting thematic decks as opposed to what we have here. All in all, I feel super conflicted on this set. I love AC, but I'm just.. idk confused? excited? I don't really know the right word for how I feel about this set. I hope the cards play well.
@@PleasantKenobi I had that initial "Oh there's the character I love" feeling or the "I understand that reference" moment and it was great. Then it dawned on me that "MH3 literally released yesterday", coupled with the realization that many of the cards didn't wow me, and it just left me feeling confused. It's a really weird situation.
You took all the words right out of my mouth. Especially the bit about it being better served as a commander set akin to Dr Who. I want the cards as a collector, but I can’t help but feel MEH about the whole thing.
I feel like the power creep for mainly legend tribals is really bad and it feels like the power creep is only here for the sake of selling cards. But on another note I’m really waiting for activison to come in with their buckets of money for a set and it’s going to be shit that doesn’t belong in magic like predator missiles and UAVs and it’s really gonna hurt when someone board wipes me with a fucking hellstorm or some shit
The Doctor Who set felt like Whovians put their whole ass into the set, and the cards are a lot of fun to play and build with. This set feels like Hasbro and Hasbro only. There's no Wizardry here, just oatmeal gruel. Deeply inthematic.
As a Fallout and 40k fan, those decks felt the same way. The flavor and references, some of them deep cuts, were just so perfect and it felt like they had actual fans helping out with the designs.
Man I sincerely hope that this product flops HARD so that Hasbro gets the message that not all UB is a money printer. It has to be an IP that people like and should be a complete set or well thought out commander decks. The reprints are good though so hopefully that decreases the prices of the singles for those cards.
Closest versions we have to Battlefield Improvisation at one mana would be Magnetic Theft and Resolute Strike. Both only work with one equipment though and Strike only works with Warriors. There is some other 2 mana versions that are also similarly narrow though as those though or not legal in Modern.
Resolute Strike is the 1 mana version of Battlefield Improvisation. But it only let's you equip 1 thing and only to a Warrior, but without the must be attacking clause.
Honestly, the only thing I like about the Ass Creed stuff, is the Staff of Eden. Which can go infinite with ONE card. Moritte. Moritte in grave, any decent ETB proccing card[let's say, Altar of the Brood for an example] Play Eden, grab Moritte, have Moritte enter as a copy of the Staff, and Legend rule bin the Moritte. Use the MoritteStaff ETB to grab itself out of the grave, *and enjoy*
I mainly play commander and I'm just completely unimpressed with this set. There's only one card that seems remotely interesting to build around, and that's Havi the All-Father and that's just because I can't remember seeing a "legends matter" deck that does graveyard stuff in Naya before. A couple cards seem useful or like they could be interesting in the 99, but that's like 3 or 4 out of 103 total, which doesn't feel like a great rate to me.
The alternative problem with free running is, if it doesn't state "or commander," how many people will actually play those cards in decks? Making a mechanic that only works with 1 type of creature would make the set basically only worth it for Assassin's Creed fans and not for other magic players given the mana cost for most of those cards that have it. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some cards even pop up into the CEDH realm with something like Malcolm keen-eyed navigator or anything with evasion that simply makes more efficient use out of the cards than a lot of assassin decks would just on their own.
I think you hit the nail on the head … the way they did the Assassin’s Creed is just sterile and boring. Not interesting art and/or mechanics like WHO and LTR.
I started playing magic during the Lord of the rings set and my first experience was drafting it with my fiance and I absolutely adore it and it made me love magic as a game, the whole point of the universe beyond precons is that you can pick up and play them as well so I just don't know what this is supposed to do for people trying to enter magic through their love of assassins creed I'm just sad cause I do really love the early games and was excited to see them represented
@@PleasantKenobi when will universes within variants of WH40K be printed? It’s nearly been 2 years. How about transformers? When will LoTR be reprinted? Will it be at a reasonable scale? Do all of the concerns over the walking dead cards not matter just because it’s too late now? WoTC does not have a clear and effective reprint strategy for the UB staples they print under temporary licenses.
From what I could understand looking at the cards designs of this "set" is that they initially wanted it to be a Secret Lair and\or Commander decks, but also had to make people gamble and added extra draft chaff(despite those booster not being desinged for drafting). "The Creed is Good', right MaRo?
Its clear they are actively trying to find the threshold where they can sell a fraction of a booster for an elevated price (aka microtransaction strategy). I would bet they have a long-term goal of something like "half the cards of a booster, but 75% of a full booster's price. Line goes up. Durr-durr..." It wont be all at once- they roll it out like half the cards @55% of the full price, and if it sells then they start turning up the dial on the price. The next logical step is eliminate the 15 card booster so we have to buy 2X "half boosters" at the higher total price. Profits!
The fandom issue is the least compelling argument because everyone will have IPs they like or dislike. So they should either all get UB treatment or none should.
Honestly if I could put my conspiracy hat on a second. I honestly wouldn't be surprised that the "outlaw" mechanic from Thunder Junction was either a call from Ubisoft or Wizards adding assassins to what an Outlaw is in order to provide support for the Assassin's Creed set.
Initially, I was super excited for this set, but I think an inherent lack of unique mechanics/alternate mechanics turned me off. E.G: The only commander deck I really play is a 'Sauron, the Dark Lord' deck, which was what brought me into magic.
I feel like the way to correct this is to not buy the box unless it's a reasonable price. $80 would be a fair price for this product. That puts each pack at $3.33 for bulk pricing, and if a store can sell individual packs for $4
Yeah, definitely wish more of the named/legendary characters had their faces shown in either of their card arts. Also for the Freerunning mechanic, replacing “Commander” for “Legendary” would’ve been less blunt, but at the same time I look at it like some other Tribal/Kindred named mechanics like Prowl.
Maro himself said they tested in as a commander product and the call to make it modern legal came from above. Ngl, I would be fine buying a couple commander decks, but no way in hell do I waste money on cards that have no real impact in modern.
As someone who's worked on multiple AC, this set is weird. On one hand you've got Path of Exile reprint, which is a perfect use of Odyssey's origin story as flavor, which tells me they cared enough to look deeper into the franchise as a whole. Then you've got Jacob Frye weilding the sword cane, which is a weapon exclussive to his sister, which is not a small detail if you've played Syndicate... Most cards are mechanically interesting but I don't feel they've represented most of them well enough, not as much as they did in Dr Who. Deimos and Ezio (young one) are a great match of mechanics and flavor, but the spear of leonidas is such a miss. Plus, I would expect evasion to be the basic theme of assassins, or at least have the ability to kill stuff like Royal Assassin. Freerunning is such a bad ability.
I'll just be buying singles for this set. I'm very excited for Kassandra and Ezio getting cards but I can generally give or take everything else. I definitely would've preferred commanders precons to a mini set.
Agree with what you are thinking, plus I think the timing is pretty poor with it wedged between two sets people have been excited for and maybe some universes beyond fatigue is kicking in. These kind of sets and jumpstart where the chance of getting multiples of cards you don't play that much is something I wish they would think through a bit more.
It seems very strange that you seem confident that they'll make more boosters of this variety when they explicitly said that they were cancelling these kinds of boosters moving forward due to Aftermath's abysmal reception/performance and were only doing this Beyond Booster for AC because it was too late to do any major changes to the product as a whole.
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
When you actively try NOT to say it's a cashgrab and physically can't, it's probably a cash grab.
I won't be buying any packs. If absolutely need something for any decks I'll buy them separately.
Normally I buy loads of packs of every release till I have at least r of every common and uncommon. But at this price for this amount of cards.
Wizards can absolutely fuck themselves with their high quality card stock when it comes to this.
The last Set I buyed anything from was Ixalan.
Then it was to much for me. I couldnt keep up with all the releases and to chase after them ruined this part of the hobby for me.
Also the sets feel more and more soulless. Especially the omes with the hats.
bro, actively literally physically, bro bro fr ong ong
The funniest part is they picked another IP that rushes unfinished product out the door to the detriment of the franchise's reputation
@@wobblycobbly3562 Hahaha nice, you make my day =D.
Ugh the immersion break aside, i hate that they made Ezio have a 5 color identity on top. Im getting so tired of all these 5 color commanders for different themes theyve been pushing. Building 5c used to be a somewhat quirky thing with commander choices like Progenitus or Child of Alara but nowadays I rarely play in a pod without a 5c deck.
Yeah, as someone who specialized in 5C decks back when they were somewhat tricky to play, I'm not a fan either. Of course, I also don't actually play Commander, so that aspect doesn't affect me. Even so, Modern has way too many decks that are easily 3, 4, or even 5C now, because there's no actual skill involved in making the decks work right. Oh well.
I just tell the person playing 5c that it is borderline boring and i kindly ask them to play another deck as it has 0 identity and most of the time they dont play it twice ;)
@@Xoulrath_ I have a 5C deck that is 76% artifacts, including lands. That is the identity and theme of it, and it's the last time I've been able to- or ever will be able to build that again since I initially built my first ever commander deck with Cromat
I'm less annoyed by the "immersion break" in this set than basically any other Universes Beyond product; MOST of the stuff looks just fine on the field to be honest. What I've seen so far has been some variant of Legendary human with melee weapons (basically fine), Equipment (ditto), and artifacts (looks okay). PK might be onto something with the "look at this art, it's all just dudes with knives" and that's pretty repetitive looking when you look at the set all side-by-side but if you jam one of these into a full deck it's probably okay.
They stand out way less on the field than, say, a Fallout character or Transformer.
I do agree about the 5-color thing though. It always jumps out to me when a creature has a simple casting cost (one color) but then a bunch of pips in some activated ability on the bottom - it tells me that this card isn't for 60-card and those off-color pips are just there for Commander.
@@yargolocus4853 so, you built a deck around Cromat that is 3/4ths artifacts?
You're telling me that Ubisoft made something as a cash grab!?! I can't believe it
~Ohhhhh Ubisoft....!~ 🤮
You are telling me Ubisoft made something that could be good but they fucked it up...
That wouldn't be a first
You're telling me that X company made something as a cash grab? Get real dude, they all do it now. I hate GoofySoft as much as the next guy, but they aren't the only one
I thought that was their entire effing catalog of IPs? Did I miss something, or did Ubisoft leave the Brotherhood of Evil?
🤣🤣🤣
Product fatigue is so fkin real right now
Yeah, I really don't get why they're shoving in so many UB at us so soon. They're gonna run out of good IP 🤣
Literally mh3 has been out for like 3 weeks and they are already about to put out something else. It’s stupid
Always has been 🧑🚀🔫👨🚀
@@Blotmossen when I started playing, there were 4 sets that whole year 🤣
This year, between January and August, the only month that *doesn't* have a set is May. That's 7/8 months. Not including whenever Duskmorn comes out 😂
How dare you! Here are 13 more sets to beat you into happiness!
Remember that feeling of climbing a tower and the map suddenly fills with shit you don't care about? That was the flavor they were going for in this set.
Imagine the alternate universe where we have duel decks, George Washington vs. Karl Marx.
But seriously, if they were only going to do 100 cards anyway then it really should have been a commander deck. That would even address the issue of all the characters looking similar since a cohesive aesthetic is often a plus there.
I actually want to see that duel deck now.
It would be templar vs assassin duel decks no ?
Why would you rather make me spend £60 on a commander deck instead of a simple booster?
Unset cards or community cards proxied? Rule 0 is handy
I was GENUINELY amazed that Assassin’s Creed wasn’t given Commander Precons; One for our Protagonists and Antagonists.
omg I was sure we were getting like a knights precon and an assasins precons lol.
Ubisoft chose gambling over a $70+ entry because WotC wouldn't let them do both
But they made a commander precon, they just made you buy packs to actually build it. Seriously, this set looks like they wanted to make Ezio 5c assasin tribal and then they decided to make 30 more cards of draft shaf and sell it in packs.
@@morecrafty247 I’ll be amazed if ANYONE does that event.
And we got commander decks for MH3 😂
I have 2 friends who love Assassin's Creed, it's their favourite video game series, I explained one of them the intricacies of these boosters. It ended up as "Just by all the singles from this secondary market"
The other friend I learnt from my mistake "It's your birthday coming up, I'll buy you $50 worth of cards you pick out". I wish they'd stop making buying their product so confusing...
"I wish they'd stop making buying their product so confusing..."
That's completely by design
the montage of "art featuring a hooded guy posing dramatically" cracked me up
Free running just feels like a missed opportunity to me. As it is, it's just a reworked prowl cost. Which works for rogues because they are about being sneaky. Same thing with ninjas and ninjutsu. Both are mechanics that take your opponent by surprise.
If you wanted an assassin specific mechanic that represents a different way of being sneaky, then do that. Have cards that phase out when you play them and only phase in under specific circumstances. Have cards that have a cool effect when they phase in. Have cards with plot, that represent the scheming of the Templars and the plans of assassins on a mission. Use the disguise, and morph mechanics to present game states where you're not sure who's who. Make an elite assassin that has an ability that says that it cannot be named. For those assassins that happen to also be ninjas bring back ninjutsu. Hell you could even make use of the new outlaw batching. So you have assassins that care about fellow outlaws.
If you wanted to do a mechanic that represented parkour, make it similar to storm but instead of copying the spell the spells that you cast get more effects for every spell cast prior to it. Or perhaps spells with free running could add an effect to the next spell that you cast. Using momentum and rapid action to overcome obstacles is what parkour is all about. There could have been a mechanic to represent that but instead they went with the laziest possible interpretation of the idea.
This is a genius comment, something very thoughtful. Sadly, it seems that WotC haven't done it
Fantastic ideas! I *especially* like the "cannot be named" clause you mentioned. Genius!
Smoke Bomb is an example of very cool top-down design, of the kind you're describing. So they're clearly capable of it. It just felt like very little effort went into the design of the vast majority of the set.
Congratulations, you put more thought into this set than the design team!
When the lead designer says "uhh. i played the first two games in high school" on drive to work, you know little passion was put into this
If anything, the only AC character that should be 5 colours is Desmond Miles.
I'm glad more people are pointing out that they're full priced, 7-card boosters.
I'm excited for some of the characters sure but like.. C'mon guys. WotC (And worse, Hasbro) is going to take this hype and equate it to the market shifting towards 7-card boosters so long as they hit the 'memberberries nostalgia and we should really know better as fans, players and enjoyers of one of the already more expensive hobbies on the planet. This is not how we make this more affordable.
Considering the amount of people who just throw away most commons, i really dont see it as a problem
Homelands was 8 card boosters and 140 cards! Its a call back! lol.
Talk about a gutless pack alongside Fallen Empires, they sat on the shelves for all of the mid to late 90's because no one would touch them.
@@mr.nakamura9088 They sat around for far longer, I've seen unsold packs/boxes way into the 10's at traveling fairs and such. People today don't realize how dire Homelands and FE were, they were so utterly rejected by the player base that WotC did something that they have never done since, they actually forced people to have a minimum number of cards from each standard (type 2 back then) legal set in their tournament decks.
@@ankaarne facts. Anyone who has read an old deck list, the Paul Sligh red list springs to mind, has probably thought, "Why is this even in here? Why not a playset of xyz?"
We were able to get Homelands and Fallen Empires for about $5 up until about 2011 at one of my LGS. We'd get 'em for chaos drafts. Store owner thought it was a laugh, would usually kick in an extra pack or two just to get rid of 'em.
@@mr.nakamura9088I was talking to a much younger player at the LGS Friday about Fallen Empires. He nearly crapped his pants when I told him the most valuable card in the set is $5.
What you are feeling when you look at Assassins Creed is similar to what I feel whenever I look at Universes Beyond. I just can't stop seeing them as advertisements.
Cause they all are advertisements
I remember people complaining about the Amonkhet Invocations. "These are Yugioh cards, not Magic cards" well guess what cynics, Universes Beyond are literally not Magic cards.
"a Ubisoft original" is not a selling point
It really has become a warning.
It's LJN all over again
The best part is the grammar mistake.
@@casteanpreswyn7528what grammar mistake?
I assume it’s meant to be pronounced “yubisoft” so “a” rather than “an” works here.
@@nonsuperimposable it is not pronounced like that, so it doesn't work.
I definitely agree with a lot of your points here. I was the biggest UB defender for the longest time because I really liked how the design was a sort of top-down "make this card feel like the moment/character, archetypes be damned" versus in-universe sets that feel like they decided on the draft archetype first and molded everything else around it. Even though I have never seen Doctor Who, the stories of each card were told so well through the mechanics that if I took a guess as to what the card is depicting, then looked up the episode it was from, i was usually right. 40K, LOTR, and WHO all felt so vibrant and interesting, despite me having only watched the LOTR movies and knowing next to nothing about the other two IPs, that I really got frustrated when my peers would dismiss UB wholesale.
Comparing the AC set to past Universes Beyond sets, it's completely indefensible. I've looked at so many of the spoilers and still know basically nothing about what Assassin's Creed is about. The mechanics are mostly really boring which both makes it hard to gather anything about the story being told through them *and* makes me completely uninterested in even finding out anything about it. You can only wade through so many cards of dudes in hoods that say "assassins you control get +1/+1" before you just kind of check out. It's just so lifeless. If this is the new standard for UB then I'm probably going to find myself on the UB hate train very soon.
well said
I was completely fine with the AC having their own set box and all that jazz. But... I didn't know they made just little shitty packs and a very small card pool for this set. Means that actually opening a box is just gonna be duplicate on duplicate on duplicate. Only upside I can see is like... yay more Sword of Feast and Famine in the wild.
People wanted assains creed games to be shorter but they made the set instead
The most recent game was a vast improvement. Actually felt like an AC game again rather than just playing a reskin of the Witcher. Unfortunately the card set is absolutely trash so I’ll be an entrenched fan completely ignoring the set 😅
Which title?@@jonlangthorne7924
@@jasonmolenaar119 Mirage, the one set in Baghdad as Basim
The art and flavor is what I really hate about this set. I never watched LOTR, but honestly the design of the cards were really interesting and there was plenty of variance.
Every card I’ve seen just looks like existing cards with an assassin twist on it. And the legendaries are all just boring. It feels like the same 5 cards with slightly different color schemes.
Honestly now that i think about it, I feel like this set has no redeeming qualities. Pricing is wack considering the packs are tiny. The straight into modern sets make for a soft rotation in an eternal format, and AC doesn’t fit with MTG’s flavor as seamlessly as something like LOTR did.
Reprints are solid tho!
Man, I hope the Marvel sets are based more on the comics and less on the movies! Not that the movies are bad, but the bright colors of Marvel comics would look SO good as Magic cards, as opposed to the desaturated look of the films.
I strongly suspect they will do comics or a new contonuity as mcu lisencing is a very different beast from general marvel lisencing. That and they already did their own thing with Lotr.
@@WilhelmScreamerYeah but marvel oftentimes forces things to be more like the mcu
With any luck having to license celebrities likenesses will keep them away from the MCU. Besides, I'm sure there's plenty of overlap between MTG players and comic book readers. In my town at least all the LGSs are also Comic Book stores so there's the potential for passive advertising there
Agh, Christ, there's going to be Marvel cards? BLECH.
@@MattTheSpratt it was announced earlier this year for summer 2025.
The entire direction of Magic these days is so screwed up I barely even recognize it.
WOTC/Hasbro has definitely jumped the shark.
The 1-mana version of Battlefield Improvisation you're thinking of is Resolute Strike, although it only allows you to attach 1 equipment, not any number (so having 2 hammers doesn't allow you to instantly swing for lethal), and it only works if you target a Warrior.
MTG x Assassin's Creed should have just been 4 commander decks. It's a 100 card set with 20 reprints. Only 80 new cards.
For reference the fallout decks contain 154 cards that are not reprints. The 40k decks contained 168 and Dr. Who decks contained 229 non-reprints.
This set seems like wotc trying to sell commander precons, that they didn't finish, in "beyond" (epilogue) booster format for even more money than they would sell playable precons for.
they keep expectin me to buy packs that are not draftable ... lol
Does.. does Hasbro seriously not understand that’s the second most popular format among paper players???
They are in for a rude awakening
I love how we went from "We're merging set and draft boosters because it made things too confusing" to "Here's a full-priced 7-card-per-pack non-draftable booster" within about 8 months. I get that these decisions may have been set in stone long ago, but it's just funny to me.
No no bro you don't understand! They ARE draftable! The constant duplicates is so you can have 4 copies! Duuuuh! And bro, this is a NEW draft of 20 card decks instead of 40! Same price, but better experience because it's half the deck size! Wow! Pay more money for even less cardboard that costs 0.02¢ to print!!!!!
I couldn't care less about this set, but I know I'm gonna see the stupid free running ramp spell in commander. On top of that I hate that this appears wildly shoehorned into extra formats that it shouldn't be In
Viewpoint Synchronization? It's decent, but I don't think we'll see it that much. Green is often not very commander-attack-focused
I remember being told I was stupid when I called that Universes Beyond was just going to be a soulless cash grab thing. "let people like things!" "it's for fans of these IPs not for you" and its really really really funny to be vindicated by the most vapid, empty, corporate cash grab I have seen in Magic. I hate what Magic has become, between FIRE design, Secret Lairs (and then the move of those to a limited amount ON TOP of a limited time frame), "Normal" sets having all the flavour of unsalted butter on hardtack lately, Universes Beyond especially like this, and the refusal to reprint powerful and now staple Universes Beyond cards into a Universes Within version that actually sticks to MtG as an IP.
It's like seeing a family member with late stage Alzheimer's, who doesn't even remember who they were. It's downright depressing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way (and I too got a lot of flack over my anti-universes beyond takes).
Yup. Knew shit would get bad from the moment they announced walking dead secret lair. As far as I'm concerned, that's when WotC officially went and got the shovel to start digging Magic's grave. Sad. Used to love the game, now I just find myself complaining about it a lot.
What i love about the universe beyonds sets like 40k, LotR, and DrWho is they've felt like gorgeous love letters to different worlds. They felt like they earned and deserved their place in the game. AC just doesn't feel the same way and that sucks because i want to be happy for the people who get to see characters from their fav game on a magic card. I want them to feel like i did looking through the chaos 40k deck. But this set just falls short and that's a damn shame
I came to Magic through Doctor Who and it is VERY clear that the cards are a real love letter to Doctor Who. I have played over 100 games with the WHO cards and they feel like I am telling an exciting Doctor Who Adventure - I love them - and the mechanics are so on flavour - time travel, Tardis, sonic screwdriver and the Master, Daleks and Cybermen - it all works so well. Doctors and Companions working together to win.
they also do so well with fallout in my opinion, i've been a fan of fallout since forever the reference to the game is insane. Like Jason Bright abilities "come fly with me" is a reference to the quest he's included in, a lot of the card abilities fit perfect with the character like dogmeat giving you junk token which what he does as he gives you stuff by digging the ground in the game, or junk jet an equipped card that let you sac a artifact and on etb give you junk token, which what it does in the game it shoot out junks like teddy bears. Moira brown gives you a unique artifact token name "wasteland survival guide" since she was the author of said book. This set reignite my love again for fallout it even push me to play 76 the only fallout game i haven't played. Only time will tell if AC is the same as the other UB and i hope AC fans could get the same feeling as me.
@@MeilynMei glad to hear fallout gave you the same feelings 40k did for me! I didn't mention fallout because it's less popular with my group so I didn't have as much context for how good the UB was at representing fallout
Really hope these continue working well like these less than like the AC set. I would scream if they made a set for a franchise I loved, like Monster Hunter.
I literally got back from my LGS after picking up my first batch of MH3 cards after they came out, and was greeted to the spoilers for this set. I can't express how much I hate wizards constantly shoving products down our throats
yeah.. and bloom burrow is only a month out. I literally cant afford even a passing attempt at buying some cards from each set
That comment about commander decks taking the sting out of the cash-grabbiness of Universes Beyond sets really resonates with me.
Precons are a great product for just picking up and playing with friends who may like Magic, but who aren't invested enough to go making their own decks, and that's a lot of Magic I play now, when I can. We all know that the decks are balanced against one another, and yeah, it does feel real nice to my collector brain to know that I can grab the decks, enjoy them with friends, and have a complete experience of the set with them.
I also like that precons have a built-in space for themselves. I have some friends who don't like their series and genres to touch, so UB sets showing up in decks bug them, but playing with self-contained, pre-defined decks helps them get over that frustration.
I fully agree that if they stuck to 3 or 4 commander decks they could have given fans something much better. Off the top of my head you could do the first 2 games as one with Ezio and Altair (very similar themes), one for black flag (the best selling game by far), one for unity and syndicate (france and england are close enough), and maybe one for the more modern games like a greece/norse one (similar themes ish). Seems like they could have put more love into it for sure, especially with the opportunity to recontextualize so many classic magic card that fit the themes.
Altair, Ezio, and Connor would work for one. Edward, Arno, and the twins for another. Bayek, Cassandra, and Eivor for the third. The last could be Isu and other tie ins because for awhile Ubisoft cared a lot about AC story.
Even the boosters look like a shitty promotional product that you'd find at Walmart in between two shitty plastic toys
In terms of reprints, there's also Cover of Darkness, which at time of comment is $45 on TCG Player.
I think that it not being draftable is a great point. Not that that should be a prereq for UB sets going forward but because it’s not draftable it’s hard not to look at it as anything more than a cash grab. I think you’re right on the money. It feels cynical and maybe if the cards were better designed things would be different. But they’re not/aren’t.
Personally, I don't have much to say on Universes Beyond. The Assassin's Creed product is a perfect example of them pushing an idea that's not going to work as a full LotR-like product, because they know the IP will likely sell. It should have been a more crafted experience, maybe even only two structured decks. Like "Assassin's Wardrobe" vs "The Animus" where it's the assassin's and equipment matters deck pitted against the historic matters deck using the big named historic figures. Something similar to Yugioh and Pokemon where they actually provide you a functional product to bring into the modern format, or enough that if you buy two it finishes the missing playsets. Or more likely... Go for making it for commander.
But nah, "Reprint Equity go brrrrr."
I'm a huge fan of Assassin's Creed, and I budgeted money to buy a whole collector booster box (which I have never done before, hell, I've only bought one collector booster PACK in my whole life and that was because Godzilla was in Ikoria) for this just because I wanted the whole blinged out set (I would've done this with the Warhammer release too but they were only commander decks).
But with the set so small, and only focusing on the Protagonists and hardly any of the incredible cast of real life people... It feels pointless to me to buy large amounts of packs like I wanted to because I'll just get 40 duplicates of some uncommons before I pull my last Mythic.
There are many clear opportunities that have been missed here with the cards, and while some are home runs (Edward, Haytham, Rest in Peace, Shay, most of the cards that deal with The Animus) there are a lot of designs that dont really capture what they portray. I think its extremely clear that there was nowhere near the level of passion, dedication, and knowledge that went into other UB sets went into this one.
This set was made for people like me and now I am just going to quietly buy a single set on the secondary market.
I'm waiting patiently for Universes Beyond: Dune.
I really want to fight Corrino vs Atreides/Fremen vs Harkonnen vs Bene Gesserit in Magic.
I would even settle for a secret lair, but I would hope for at least commander decks.
I feel the same way about Universes Beyond as I do about Secret Lairs: f*ck 'em! F*ck 'em right in the ear! Magic should be focussed on it's own multiverse. There is a CRAZY amount of planes we could re-visit. There's more than enough planes we have NEVER explored, despite them being mentioned in the lore, either in Flavor-text or Planechase or whatever else.
I think you got a good point when you made the comparison to Doctor Who. That was released as a commander deck 'set'. Each deck had a theme and a story to tell within it, so all the flavour could tie back to that and made the whole thing cohesive.
Since this is like Aftermath, it doesn't have that guidance. There's no colour identity to tie themes together, no gameplan around with a lot of cards can help, it's just... cards.
In some of his MTG design blog posts, Maro talks about how regular sets use 'skeletons'. They construct the idea of what cards should be before they make the cards. So they'll say that black needs a removal spell, green needs a beater, etc. And then you create cards which fill those archetypes. This feels like they took that approach. Sculpting a set skeleton full of 'reasonable' cards, then backtracking to fit them into Assassin's Creed flavour.
I feel the majority of those packs from the lotr set were collectors farming out for the one of ring card, so that could be inflating that number by quiet the margin because of just that
I'm actively mad about how terrible they made Arno, since it was the one card I was saying I would maybe build a vommander deck or something for.
I thought there were no commander decks because there weren't enough characters and stuff to fill commander decks. But seeing the cards, I can remember so many characters that could've gotten cards, and I haven't even played all the AC games (finished 2, 4, Rogue and Origins).
If they weren't cowards, I would have gotten a Karl Marx Commander deck about making every spell costing less.
@@Sup4ast4r but for everyone B-)
It was wild getting into Scryfall and seeing that apparently the whole set was spoiled, and that I couldn't get myself to actually looked over the whole fucking half-set.
Assassins Creed was made for me. I've played all the games except the newest one Mirage.
I have feel I was priced out though. These prices are just a nope. I can move on.
Scrolled for 60 seconds specifically looking for someone who said they wanted this product, but even you are priced out.
@@reigh_leigh 60 seconds and no one else mentioned they were excited?
I was pretty excited until the prices were announced earlier this year. I may buy some singles but def not cracking any boxes like I had been planning.
If you are priced out of the product that thus means the product was not made for you. Which begs the question who this set actually was meant for?
@@PinkDevilFish I actually only found one other person other than you who said they were excited
Charging $7 for this dollar store ass set is wild
Another thing about this set is that it made me think, a set based on real world history would have been so much more interesting. With AC There's all these assassins and templars and legendary alien artifacts or whatever, just leave all that at the door and give me a set based in Renaissance Italy (like P3K did for Three Kingdoms China, I guess) and I'd actually be fascinated to see how they would handle that. But of course there's a lot less money in that prospect.
It's too bad Leonardo Da Vinci is now immortilized on a magic card as a random character of a pointless video game indeed
The bit about this set being all memberberries was so on point. You just summed up my feelings towards universes beyond as a whole. It feels so "say the thing."
I hadn't realized the set and its packs were so small. I saw some of the recent spoilers, and expected them to continue. You're right that this set is kind of falling flat. I'm not a fan of the AC series (I played the first one, enjoyed it, never got into the others) but it doesn't bother me that they tried this. This could have been a neat draft set, really digging into the "Assassins vs Templars". It's kind of sad how it turned out, but I hope people who love AC are able to enjoy it.
It's unfortunate that this came out right after MH3, and just before Bloomburrow
As much as I'm cynical about WOTC, I think the generic and boring feel of the cards is just a symptom of them being Assassins Creed cards rather than design issues at Wizards. Having played a lot of these games, there's really just so little differentiating one assassin from another, besides their stories. Just "guy with hood and hidden blade" is enough to describe every AC protagonist. Even with the stories there is a lot of sameness, you have legends like Ezio and Edward, but most others are pretty generic.
This was honestly one of the things that got me out of the AC series. It was cool at first, but then when we started putting a hood and hidden blade on anyone that moved it sort of ruined it for me.
Magic is getting the slop it deserves when universe beyond was first announced
bUt It MaKeS tHe GaMe MoRe AcCeSsIbLe
Universes Beyond is perfectly fine.
The problem is product fatigue.
@@Nephalem2002 No, in fact that Fortnite-ification of things is not perfectly fine, and stuff like this highlights that fact. If there were less products an Assassin's Creed booster in Magic would still be terrible.
@@Nephalem2002 fitting, since Assassins Creed is Product Fatigue: The Game Series
@@Nephalem2002 No. It is not fine.
So big fan of AC and played all mainline games and even read a few comic series. I had been very excited for the franchise. Started getting nervous when I saw the epilogue boosters and then just heartbroken when I saw the cards.
No wrath of god style card to represent the Toba Catastrophe and maybe a half assed one for the one Desmond stopped. Next to no cards involving Juno and nothing portraying her as a villain.
Even the Apple of Eden was messed up, all they needed to do was Godzilla treatment Mindslaver because that’s basically what the Apple does by default; there are other things but that’s the basic function.
There’s nuggets of interesting ideas amongst the cards but the vibe I got was no one on the design team liked or played the series and used the notes and Wikipedia and did their best. This isn’t to be mad at the design team, they are doing Gods work while being overworked and underpaid for it, but WoTC for not making sure they had a team that could support the series line with Warhammer, Fallout, and Doctor Who.
I left a very similar comment and I'm very happy to see another fan here explaining their thoughts. I bet we could spitball another 50 cards for this set easily, probably 100 by the end of the week. The IP is rich enough to have proper respect paid like LotR, and theres just...so much missing.
What would you add to this set?
@@captainflapjax7240 Shroud of Eden. Equipment. If equipped creatures toughness would change instead put x counters on it. If shroud of Eden is removed from equipped creature deal x damage to it equal to the number of counters on it. If the creature would die this way instead exile it.
Equip legendary: 4
@@Magnaboss Aerial Assassination - BU
Instant - Target creature gains flying until end of turn. When that creature deals combat damage to a player this turn, destroy up to 1 target creature that player controls.
In my opinion all universe Beyond products are cashgrabs.
Universe Beyond products generally annoy me. If they were only released as Commander decks and Secret layers, I could basically ignore them. So for me, the useful and worth-buying products are limited to 0-1 per year.
Welcome to how I felt about the whole universes beyond products so far.
I’m a big fallout fan, so I bought the Caesar deck when those came out. I think a big problem with universes beyond (especially as we are expanding into more mainstream less fantasy IPs) is that rather than trying to capture the feel or flavor of the source material, they are trying to just cram as many recognizable characters as they can into the product. In the fallout set, none of the legendaries had effects that really felt unique, so the only thing that could carry them is the flavor - which wizards kinda fucked up by just jamming random fallout characters into decks together. Craig Boone is in the Caesar deck. What? That’s like putting Harry Potter in the Voldemort deck. It just feels like they are checking boxes with these products in a way that doesn’t create interesting card designs AND doesn’t scratch the flavor itch.
Also, a "non magic" set shouldn't be the most sold product. This says a lot about the state of MTG lately.
At most I might get the starter product to teach friends and family how to play magic, but F the booster products. Literally will always skip boosters that can’t draft and I hope this rots like aftermath lol
It is kinda on point that the Ubisoft collab is a cynical cash grab.
for battlefield improvisation - there's only about 3 1 mana alternatives to it.
magnetic theft - which is only 1 equipment, and only the equipment.
resolute strike - which is only 1 equipment, but only onto a warrior, and gets the +2/+2
sigarda's Aid - which given its effect is drastically different, only reason its on this list is its 1 mana and can do the equipment attach at instant speed.
I love AC. I love Magic.
They don't necessarily need to be smooshed together. As someone who should be the middle of the venn diagram that is the target market for this set - I couldn't care less about it. I'll grab singlse when I need the cards, and maybe grab some packs when the price crashes, but that's about it.
Same with me and Lord of the Rings. But then again, I dislike Universes Beyond in general. I don't run any UB cards in my decks, and I feel a pang of sorrow whenever I see them across the table.
I'm worried that Final Fantasy is gonna be the same. When FF and AC were announced I kinda went "what? Why?" and it feels like Wotc feels that way too.
I have faith that the FF one will be better, simply because there's more source material to draw from. With AC, all they could really do is throw in hooded guys and historic/assassin synergies.
But with FF, you've got 16 mainline titles to choose from, and they could integrate various new thematic mechanics (kinda like fallout integrating the interesting rad system). I imagine they could create materia as equipment, a new system of MP counters, maybe a whole new mechanic that could summon tokens of the eidolons, etc. The possibilities just seem endless with the FF set.
it's funny to me, because this set is the first one where i finally accepted that i wouldn't be keeping up with every new card anymore. and it wasn't even a decision i made consciously, i just didnt look at any spoilers, and i didnt feel like i was missing out on anything, even though i don't know what's in the set.
even just a few months ago, i would feel like something was wrong if i didn't see the cards the very day they were revealed, and now i kinda just... don't care? but like in a nice way.
Dang, just went back over this set, and from what I can tell, the best cards in here are reprints of Black Market Connections, Assassin's Trophy, and the Canopy lands. And most of those were hovering around 5-8 bucks, tops.
I like to joke around that Magic, particularly Commander, has become Cardboard Fortnite. I get the idea that especially long-time players might want MtG to stay MtG, as it were.
I also like to joke that, at this rate, it won't be long before we see Universes Beyond: The Bible. ...Please, don't do it, WotC. For the love of _literal God,_ don't do it. But this is the same company that looked at Tolkein's allegory of the One Ring as a self-destructive lust for power that none can resist and thought "I just came up with a brilliant idea to make a ton of money..." so if irony is no object, I can't imagine good taste being much of a barrier.
As an assassin’s creed fan (it’s tattooed on my body) there is a lot of flavor but some of the cards are definitely just generic. I’m excited for the set but I think your points are valid. Honestly it wouldn’t matter whether it was assassin’s creed or not. You’re right about how they set it up. We’ll see with final fantasy later this year
Of all the things I hate about this product I would have to say that the packs not having 5 or 6 bulk commons in it is not something I care about. I'd personally be fine with non-draftable products cutting down on the trash in them, I already have enough random bulk commons to build a small log cabin.
110 cards sold in boosters… the reason this set fucking sucks, beyond product fatigue, beyond the modern legality being shoved in, is the fact that they are just selling people a pushed Assassin Tribal commander precon that’s locked behind having to buy singles or be lucky with pulls rather than just selling a commander precon.
I think a big part of the reason it feels like such a cash cow grab, is because the big universes beyond drops up to this point are hall of fame nerd stuff. Lord of the rings, Doctor who, Warhammer 40k, Fallout I guess is the most removed but even that has a history of being beloved since the 90's, but Assassins Creed?
I'm not trying to yuck someones yum, but its not as if its something that has a massive cult following in the space, they are remembered largely as a franchise that has some peaks, but mainly a lot of repetative slop that gets churned out year after year with only the setting really changing, and its reflected in the cards. That's why its all people in hoods, thats why the weapons look the same, that's IMO why it feels so cheap, because what its based on was cheap, it in the same vain of having a FIFA set or Call of Duty, the only difference is because its different time periods they can make it seem vastly different because one assassin is a pirate and the next is in ancient greece.
@kenpatchiramasama1076except it was slop. You don't define the definition of slop. I thought that the AC series sucked from day one. There wasn't anything particularly enjoyable about them. And at 47, I can assure you that I'm no baby.
It's actually OK for you to like something that the comment or doesn't like. As he (or she) mentioned, AC does NOT have the history of the other UB products offered thus far. It is way off the mark. It's a mid video game series at best. Please try to justify for a second how that compares to LotR, Dr. Who, or even Fallout which is also decades old and old school nerdgasm type stuff?
@kenpatchiramasama1076 my guy, I said there where peaks, and im not trying to suggest you can't enjoy what you enjoy, but are you going to pretend that the games didn't essentialy have the same gameplay loop year after year with basically nothing new added?
Stop trying to misrepresent the franchise, 1 was new, 2 added to it, but brotherhood and the other BS one + 3 where just copies. 4 was fun with the ship stuff, but then everything up until the new ones is just the same trash, then all the new ones do the same shit with copying it.
You call me a baby, but atleast im not overdosing on COPIUM LULW
At least the cards in this set are majority assassins, warriors, pirates which are actual fantasy things and not doctor who that just random people who are basically civilians as cards
I think you are very biased here. Assassin's Creed is really not far behind.
Assassin's Creed is, imo, much worse than it started, but Doctor Who too has seen its glory days come and go a long, long time ago.
Warhammer 40k is absolutely niche compared to AC or Fall Out. Estimates put it at 3.5M - 5M players - at most around than half of how many buy every new AC release.
Fall Out 4 recently got a boost in sales (thanks to the series), but until then it was comparable in sales to Assassin's Creed.
I think the aesthetics are a bit... repetitive (to put it mildly), but it fits in much better with general Magic than anything in 40k and Warhammer.
actually the same thing happened in the Outlaws set ...everything just wore a cowboy hat and had all BUT FLAVOR .... AI ART AI CARDS AI SETS .....and MODERN ROTATION 3 just released
F wizards
Well people say you can't draft Homelands, but years ago my LGS did a Homelands draft. It was fun because it was low powered jank. I bought the rest of the packs to eventually make a Homelands cube to play with my friends when we want a break. But it got a little sideboarded by my unstable/conspiracy cube project.
As someone who played AC for a bit longer than you (stopped after 3 had been pretty bad and 4 was... not an assassin's creed game), I don't disagree that a lot of the cards don't excite me, but I think we are also pre-biased: As you say, you have an image of AC being a franchise that exemplifies basically.... qualitative decay.
That being said, I honestly don't mind the card looks here. They are a bit samey (guys in hoods), but I feel like they fit in better than 40k, transformers, a good portion of the Jurassic Park cards, Doctor Who and Fall Out. I have heavily disliked seeing the 40k, Doctor Who and Fall Out cards in the game purely because I don't think they fit the overall aesthetics of Magic. The AC cards at least feel like they could be out of any new set. A decent portion of them could be part of a Return to [Kaldheim/Amonkhet/Fiora/something else]. The animus/futuristic ones aside. It is the same reason that I didn't mind the LOTR set that much - it looks like a Magic world.
I completely agree with everything you have said about the Ubisoft/WOTC greed/cashgrabby nature. It does feel like that.
Also, it would have redeemed the entire set if I got to make a commander deck with the Pope as my commander. Where's the damn Borgia cards?
I go for singles, and only ONE card of this set caught my interest: Templar Knight. I fear how much 30 copies will cost, but I want them so I can have the entire cycle of the "Limitless Cycle" it's a part of, aside from black. Not sure what I'd want for that color.
I looked at each of the cards once they were shown online, and it definitely appeared to me at least that you could take any 3 colored legend from the set and make a commander dec using all the cards in that color identity. I did so for naya and esper colors. Not saying it was the most cohesive really but there were enough cards to fill out a commander deck.
Second, about the reduced pack size: honestly reminds me of Yugioh releases where it's just kind of cards in a pack with loose connection to a theme.
Third, on that note. If they wanted to do a UB set as packs rather than preconstructed decks, I would be interested in a limited environment where there's maybe 120 cards to draft from rather than nearly 300 for a full set release.
The commander life total thing is interesting, I assumed effects like that would always say 'if your life total is X more than your starting life total' at this point.. I really wonder if that is intentional or just clumsy/untested design. Neither outcome fills me with hope :/
It's 100% intentional, with every card design passing through so many hands and commander being the biggest format currently there is no way that no one thought about it. The freerunning cards specifically mentioning commanders even shows that the set designers thought about commander specifically
exactly this!
Well back in the day you had so many cards that came out like that as EDH was a afterthought for Wizards since it was not big enough yet
I absolute love Assassin's Creed. I'm going to pick up product cuz I love the IP.
That being said:
- I had no idea it was releasing in early July. This release schedule sucks and it's killing me.
- A lot of the cards don't wow me.
- I thought this was going to be a full set we could draft. Pissed about it being the epilogue boosters.
- This feels like it should've been a commander set similar to Dr Who. You could've made much more interesting thematic decks as opposed to what we have here.
All in all, I feel super conflicted on this set. I love AC, but I'm just.. idk confused? excited? I don't really know the right word for how I feel about this set. I hope the cards play well.
It's part of my frustration. Even fans of the franchise must be left lacking.
@@PleasantKenobi I had that initial "Oh there's the character I love" feeling or the "I understand that reference" moment and it was great. Then it dawned on me that "MH3 literally released yesterday", coupled with the realization that many of the cards didn't wow me, and it just left me feeling confused. It's a really weird situation.
You took all the words right out of my mouth. Especially the bit about it being better served as a commander set akin to Dr Who. I want the cards as a collector, but I can’t help but feel MEH about the whole thing.
Ah ha! I knew SOMEONE here was going to say they would buy the product!!
I feel like the power creep for mainly legend tribals is really bad and it feels like the power creep is only here for the sake of selling cards. But on another note I’m really waiting for activison to come in with their buckets of money for a set and it’s going to be shit that doesn’t belong in magic like predator missiles and UAVs and it’s really gonna hurt when someone board wipes me with a fucking hellstorm or some shit
The Doctor Who set felt like Whovians put their whole ass into the set, and the cards are a lot of fun to play and build with.
This set feels like Hasbro and Hasbro only. There's no Wizardry here, just oatmeal gruel. Deeply inthematic.
As a Fallout and 40k fan, those decks felt the same way. The flavor and references, some of them deep cuts, were just so perfect and it felt like they had actual fans helping out with the designs.
Man I sincerely hope that this product flops HARD so that Hasbro gets the message that not all UB is a money printer. It has to be an IP that people like and should be a complete set or well thought out commander decks.
The reprints are good though so hopefully that decreases the prices of the singles for those cards.
Closest versions we have to Battlefield Improvisation at one mana would be Magnetic Theft and Resolute Strike. Both only work with one equipment though and Strike only works with Warriors. There is some other 2 mana versions that are also similarly narrow though as those though or not legal in Modern.
Resolute Strike is the 1 mana version of Battlefield Improvisation. But it only let's you equip 1 thing and only to a Warrior, but without the must be attacking clause.
Honestly, the only thing I like about the Ass Creed stuff, is the Staff of Eden. Which can go infinite with ONE card.
Moritte.
Moritte in grave, any decent ETB proccing card[let's say, Altar of the Brood for an example]
Play Eden, grab Moritte, have Moritte enter as a copy of the Staff, and Legend rule bin the Moritte. Use the MoritteStaff ETB to grab itself out of the grave, *and enjoy*
I mainly play commander and I'm just completely unimpressed with this set. There's only one card that seems remotely interesting to build around, and that's Havi the All-Father and that's just because I can't remember seeing a "legends matter" deck that does graveyard stuff in Naya before. A couple cards seem useful or like they could be interesting in the 99, but that's like 3 or 4 out of 103 total, which doesn't feel like a great rate to me.
A basically commander set without precons. A modern horizons sets with commander precons, cards not legal in modern. What the fuck wizards ?
The alternative problem with free running is, if it doesn't state "or commander," how many people will actually play those cards in decks? Making a mechanic that only works with 1 type of creature would make the set basically only worth it for Assassin's Creed fans and not for other magic players given the mana cost for most of those cards that have it. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some cards even pop up into the CEDH realm with something like Malcolm keen-eyed navigator or anything with evasion that simply makes more efficient use out of the cards than a lot of assassin decks would just on their own.
I thought I explicitly talked about that in the video? That I think making the mechanic "non-parasitic" is a good thing? Did I cut that part?
I think you hit the nail on the head … the way they did the Assassin’s Creed is just sterile and boring. Not interesting art and/or mechanics like WHO and LTR.
Current day Wizards and Ubisoft are so similar. Both constantly break my heart.
I started playing magic during the Lord of the rings set and my first experience was drafting it with my fiance and I absolutely adore it and it made me love magic as a game, the whole point of the universe beyond precons is that you can pick up and play them as well so I just don't know what this is supposed to do for people trying to enter magic through their love of assassins creed I'm just sad cause I do really love the early games and was excited to see them represented
There is the assassin's creed starter kit that has two decks, but the main "set" is lacking.
But I thought universes beyond wasn’t damaging magic and was fun actually. :/
It isn't. But not all products are created equally.
@@PleasantKenobi when will universes within variants of WH40K be printed? It’s nearly been 2 years. How about transformers? When will LoTR be reprinted? Will it be at a reasonable scale?
Do all of the concerns over the walking dead cards not matter just because it’s too late now? WoTC does not have a clear and effective reprint strategy for the UB staples they print under temporary licenses.
From what I could understand looking at the cards designs of this "set" is that they initially wanted it to be a Secret Lair and\or Commander decks, but also had to make people gamble and added extra draft chaff(despite those booster not being desinged for drafting).
"The Creed is Good', right MaRo?
Its clear they are actively trying to find the threshold where they can sell a fraction of a booster for an elevated price (aka microtransaction strategy). I would bet they have a long-term goal of something like "half the cards of a booster, but 75% of a full booster's price. Line goes up. Durr-durr..." It wont be all at once- they roll it out like half the cards @55% of the full price, and if it sells then they start turning up the dial on the price. The next logical step is eliminate the 15 card booster so we have to buy 2X "half boosters" at the higher total price. Profits!
The fandom issue is the least compelling argument because everyone will have IPs they like or dislike. So they should either all get UB treatment or none should.
Honestly if I could put my conspiracy hat on a second.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised that the "outlaw" mechanic from Thunder Junction was either a call from Ubisoft or Wizards adding assassins to what an Outlaw is in order to provide support for the Assassin's Creed set.
Initially, I was super excited for this set, but I think an inherent lack of unique mechanics/alternate mechanics turned me off. E.G: The only commander deck I really play is a 'Sauron, the Dark Lord' deck, which was what brought me into magic.
I feel like the way to correct this is to not buy the box unless it's a reasonable price. $80 would be a fair price for this product. That puts each pack at $3.33 for bulk pricing, and if a store can sell individual packs for $4
I will say I am excited to try out reconnaissance in modern with the legendary corgi but I certainly agree this feels really sleazy.
Yeah, definitely wish more of the named/legendary characters had their faces shown in either of their card arts. Also for the Freerunning mechanic, replacing “Commander” for “Legendary” would’ve been less blunt, but at the same time I look at it like some other Tribal/Kindred named mechanics like Prowl.
Maro himself said they tested in as a commander product and the call to make it modern legal came from above. Ngl, I would be fine buying a couple commander decks, but no way in hell do I waste money on cards that have no real impact in modern.
As someone who's worked on multiple AC, this set is weird. On one hand you've got Path of Exile reprint, which is a perfect use of Odyssey's origin story as flavor, which tells me they cared enough to look deeper into the franchise as a whole. Then you've got Jacob Frye weilding the sword cane, which is a weapon exclussive to his sister, which is not a small detail if you've played Syndicate... Most cards are mechanically interesting but I don't feel they've represented most of them well enough, not as much as they did in Dr Who. Deimos and Ezio (young one) are a great match of mechanics and flavor, but the spear of leonidas is such a miss. Plus, I would expect evasion to be the basic theme of assassins, or at least have the ability to kill stuff like Royal Assassin. Freerunning is such a bad ability.
I'll just be buying singles for this set. I'm very excited for Kassandra and Ezio getting cards but I can generally give or take everything else. I definitely would've preferred commanders precons to a mini set.
Agree with what you are thinking, plus I think the timing is pretty poor with it wedged between two sets people have been excited for and maybe some universes beyond fatigue is kicking in. These kind of sets and jumpstart where the chance of getting multiples of cards you don't play that much is something I wish they would think through a bit more.
It seems very strange that you seem confident that they'll make more boosters of this variety when they explicitly said that they were cancelling these kinds of boosters moving forward due to Aftermath's abysmal reception/performance and were only doing this Beyond Booster for AC because it was too late to do any major changes to the product as a whole.
oh my god how did they not make an assassins vs templars duel deck