With Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed wrapping up, Bloomburrow basically released, and Duskmourn: House of Horror around the corner, to say things have felt like a blur lately would be an understatement - and that’s not even touching on Modern Horizons 3. With so many releases stacked so closely together it can feel hard to get a pulse on the game at times, but the plus side of this release schedule is that there are always new synergies and gameplay opportunities to master. Throughout all these releases, some newer and older picks have piqued my interest for various reasons, and I’ve laid them out below to try to make some sort of sense in this onslaught of new cards.
Assassin’s Creed
I’ll be honest and up front, I’m not a fan of Universes Beyond, and to me the Assassin’s Creed set not only lacks the card power to make it a memorable set, but also the flavor to just make it a Magic set. Does anyone, beyond Hasbro execs looking for short-term gain, truly benefit from Magic following the Fortnite model of shoving every pop culture figure into the game? Or does the homogenization of Magic with all these other fanbases truly benefit the game and bring in long-term term players?
Arguments for either of these viewpoints aside, there are a number of notable reprints in Assassin’s Creed that do warrant mention, such as Cover of Darkness and Sword of Feast and Famine, but I think the etched foil printing of Black Market Connections is the most exciting. This card hovered between twenty and thirty dollars for the longest time and never had a foil printing until now, so getting arguably the most premium version of it for $12 at writing is a steal, and absolutely worth the pickup if you've been on the fence about it. It’s a beautiful card in a set that doesn’t seem as popular or as widely opened as the also-just-released MH3, and looking back on similarly unopened sets such as Innistrad: Double Feature will show that sometimes the scarcity from lack of popularity will make certain staples jump in value over time - it’s why the Double Feature foil of The Meathook Massacre is more than twice the price of an extended art foil. Whether that’ll be the case for Black Market Connections remains to be seen, but it does work in Commander and that’s as good a reason as any to snag one.
| Black Market Connections (Foil Etched) | | |
| Black Market Connections | | |
Bloomburrow
Whether or not you enjoy the contents of Bloomburrow, you have to admit the set is one thing if not anything else, and that's cute as a button. I've seen multiple posts about building the cutest deck imaginable, and while every color can be cute with Bloomburrow, the traditional “cute” color has to be white, with notably more results popping up under that tag than any other color in Scryfall. So when you're building a predominately white deck that has to be as cute as possible, where else to go for basic lands than the two “Dog Plains?” Non-foils for the original Dog Plains from Jumpstart go for around $2, with a fancy foil printing of the same art from a later Lair drop sitting around $10; and there's also an additional Plains with different dog-centric art from the Raining Cats and Dogs Secret Lair for $3, though I prefer the former. If you want to make your deck as cute as possible (and especially if you're in multiple colors with few basics), you should add these to your next checkout cart before their price trends upwards after Bloomburrow's release.
In terms of recent cards that might work well with Bloomburrow’s mechanics, Kambal, Profiteering Mayor seems great at being able to get whatever cool token your opponent creates with their Offspring effects. Kambal is surprisingly versatile, from giving you generic value off of Treasure and Clue drops to affecting how your opponents play out their turns. And while it’s easy to write this one off for the “only triggers once each turn” clause, just play it early on in Commander and watch how much value it gives you. Token generation is more omnipresent than ever, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect at least one or two triggers on average per rotation with this in most cases, which is a great return for whatever you might get, considering it only costs three mana (and three dollars).
| Plains (45) | | |
| Plains (1513) | | |
| Plains (547) | | |
| Kambal, Profiteering Mayor | | |
| Kambal, Profiteering Mayor (Extended Art) | | |
Duskmourn
As a big fan of horror films, I'm especially looking forward to having a bloody good time playing Duskmourn when it releases in September. With the reveals we've seen so far like Overlord of the Hauntwoods, Enduring Tenacity (Japan Showcase), and Fear of Missing Out establishing an enchantment creature sub-theme, certain other cards come to mind that could work well if the set further explores this.
Firstly, Fear of Missing Out shows us there will be some aggressive enchantment creatures present in Duskmourn that could benefit from having haste, so why not give those creatures haste with another enchantment - Mark of Fury. Assuming the creature that Mark of Fury is enchanting survives combat, it'll continually bounce back to your hand for multiple future uses, in addition to giving you plenty of Constellation triggers that cards like Setessan Champion or Doomwake Giant desire. It only has one printing from Urza's Destiny and is sitting around $.50 for a non-foil and as low as $6 for some foils, so as far as speculative pickups go this one seems like a no-brainer if you think there will be more enchantment enters effects in Duskmourn.
Looking for another solid spec that can take advantage of whatever neat enchantment creatures are printed in Duskmourn? Look no further than Weaver of Harmony, a deceivingly strong Snake from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that is basically made for this sub-theme. Not only does this give you an additional trigger on any new activated or triggered abilities that might be included on enchantment creatures in Duskmourn, it also synergizes well with any Snake typal effects in Bloomburrow (along with the new Naga change), and even works with the newly revealed [card]Wildspear, Scouring Maw[/card] to give one of your enchantments an additional cascade trigger. It’s also simply plain good with many established enchantments like Aggravated Assault in giving you all sorts of extra value. Weaver of Harmony checks many boxes right now, and for under $2 a pop, getting a grip or two might not be a bad idea.
Another powerful, but oft-overlooked card that could make an impact in Commander with the release of Duskmourn is Composer of Spring. This is just great enchantment-based ramp that can help get you ahead early on, or even sneak out some bombs when the game is more established. Most notably however, this card states “whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control,” not cast, so any potential enchantment token creation in Duskmourn could really lend itself here in pushing this card into highly impactful territory. This is one to keep an eye out for.
| Mark of Fury | | |
| Weaver of Harmony | | |
| Weaver of Harmony (Showcase) | | |
| Composer of Spring | | |
| Composer of Spring (Extended Art) | | |
In Conclusion
These are but a few of the choice standouts that come to mind when I think of all the new cards we've seen as of late. Hopefully something in here grabbed your attention.
Despite any perceived negativity about the game, it's just as fun and incredible as it always has been, and I consistently look forward to discovering fresh interactions between cards. So don't fret over product fatigue, just find an aspect of the game you enjoy and make your experience about that - you'll be much happier for it.
Further Reading:
Pick Up These Cheap Modern Horizons 3 Cards Now
How to Prepare for Standard Rotation in Magic
