Assassin's Creed Set Review - Minotaur

Labyrinth Adversary by Narendra Bintara Adi

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts & Lands | Allied Colors and Shards | Enemy Colors & Wedges | Reprints| Pauper/Budget

Something Stirs Under Crete

Greetings, everyone! I'll be honest in admitting I was not expecting to be writing a review for this set, but alas, fate had other ideas.

Now, I don't know a whole lot about Assassin's Creed. Most of my knowledge comes from playing Assassin Creed: Brotherhood, watching the 2016 movie, and general gaming culture osmosis. I know enough to know what it's about, but not enough to call myself a fan of the series. That said, I am interested to see what Magic's take on the franchise looks like and whether the Beyond Boosters they're packaged in has the same success as March of the Machine: The Aftermath.

This small set is legal in the Modern Format, so like with my review of Modern Horizons 3, it will be written with Minotaur Commander and Minotaur Modern decks in mind, so let's plug into the Animus and see what our past can tell us about our future.

Black

Petty Larceny

The effect is interesting in that we are stealing two of our opponents' top cards that we can use at any time, which is perfect to set up a surprise turn with the secret cards and in general create card advantage that can't be interacted with by our opponents. However, Petty Larceny is robbery for its retail mana cost. The only way I would want to cast this is for the freerunning alternate casting cost.

That means it's only useful to Minotaur EDH decks, where we can expect our commander to deal combat damage to an opponent. To me, that lands squarely with Neheb, the Worthy and Sethron, Hurloon General as both commanders are inclined to engage with combat-oriented decks.

However, this line of thinking obscures the fact that the card is best used with Magar of the Magic Strings. Magar has the unique effect of making the spell repeatable through the token he creates. This ratchets up the effectiveness of Petty Larceny by being able to set up more of these potential surprise moments to turn the tide in a pod.

Conspiracy, Cover of Darkness

I'm grouping these two cards together because they are both excellent reprints that operate on similar wavelengths.

Conspiracy is a great card to include in black kindred-based Commander decks, so any utility creatures outside of that type can benefit from the creature synergies. This applies doubly for Minotaurs as Minotaurs have keyword anthem effects.

This allows the utility creatures like Species Specialist or Labyrinth Raptor.

Cover of Darkness, meanwhile, is new to Modern and adds another piece of the puzzle that is Minotaur kindred in that it acts as a new keyword lord. Cover gives all Minotaurs fear, increasing their evasiveness immensely. Now, not only will our buffed-up beefcakes have trample, first strike, and deathtouch, they now can only be blocked by artifacts and black creatures. This card will seal the deal of many games with the Minotaur package, as so few decks are prepared to deal with fear.

Red

Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos

Alexios is an interesting case where he must attack each combat, every player gains control of him on their turns, but he can't attack us. I don't know about you, but that seems perfect for Tahngarth, First Mate!

The way Tahngarth works is that he can jump in whenever our opponents attack, so the one way to prevent a Voltron Tahngarth decimating a table is to simply not attack. That changes with Alexios, as he must attack each combat and every player will take control of him on their turns. This forces a combat step to give Tahngarth his opening, and with each combat that Alexios survives, he only gets bigger, meaning he can quickly become as powerful as Tahngarth.

The Spear of Leonidas

This weapon excites me for one reason and one reason only: each mode given on the Spear offers a little something for every Minotaur deck in EDH.

Bull Rush is primarily effective with the combat side of Minotaurs. Giving double strike to a creature already buffed up by our keyword lord Minotaurs will melt our opponents in the right circumstances. In addition, with Tahngarth it turns an annoying problem into a serious threat.

Summon creates a body, so we can have something to protect us if we go for an all-in attack. Alternatively, if we're playing a more niche sacrifice-themed Minotaur deck, it creates a useful body to repeatably create to fuel our various sac effects.

Revelation slots in well with the discard themed decks or Magar decks to speed up that game plan in a repeatable manner.

While each mode is primarily beneficial to each flavour of Minotaur kindred decks, all other modes are still useful, and that flexibility is what impresses me the most.

Labyrinth Adversary

Well well well, the actual factual Minotaur! Here he is! The monster that lives in the labyrinth beneath Crete's palace. My jaw dropped when I saw this spoiled. I knew the Minotaur was in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, but I held little hope this set would actually include him, so I'm pleased as punch over here in my corner.

Now to the actual card. Overall, it's fine. At four mana, I don't think I would play this in a Modern deck. However, in EDH I think it'll find a nice home. Being four mana actually helps its case, as the three mana slot is highly competitive, so even though its stats and ability are fine at four mana, psychologically I find it easier to justify including in my decks than if it was cheaper.

The Labyrinth Adversary's ability to prevent a creature blocking is something I'm keen to experiment with. I've had a lot of games where I decide against attacking because the opponent has a large body on their board, and when Minotaurs highly synergize with each other, it can be devastating to lose creatures in an ill-advised attack. Adversary being able to prevent that outcome I think will encourage more combat, and I'm very excited to see how it performs for me.

Colorless

Mjölnir, Storm Hammer

Mjölnir is a very interesting card for the combat-focused decks, such as Neheb, the Worthy and Sethron. What I find so compelling is that, like in my review of Labyrinth Adversary, it can remove problematic blockers. In addition, it also has the utility of shutting down creatures that rely on their tap effects, like Roon of the Hidden Realm, by placing a stun counter.

It then has the added ability of punishing players that tap out, as each opponent receives damage for every creature that is tapped, so decks that have mana dorks or try to match our aggressiveness will feel the burn. In a way, this discourages opponents attacking us when we go for a full offensive, as the crack back will only sting harder.

Another possible application is to include this with Mogis, God of Slaughter. Mogis in general is geared towards dealing incidental noncombat damage to opponents each turn. Cards such as Harsh Mentor, Painful Quandary, Zo-Zu the Punisher, and Manabarbs, so Mjölnir creates another effective source of non-combat damage. Who knew Norse weapons were so effective in the hands of a Greek-inspired God?

Smoke Bomb

Smoke Bomb I'm on the fence about. It's positioned as a defensive spell to save our creatures from removal spells or other targeted effects, which is useful tool for Minotaurs. One of the issues with Minotaurs is how vulnerable they are to disruption. If a key Minotaur is killed, it can often set us back a few turns, so cards like Smoke Bomb can be key be to preventing disaster.

Unfortunately, this isn't Teferi's Protection. We only get shroud, so while this saves us from target effects, it doesn't save us from board wipes, which is more devastating in every regard.

I think it's better to evaluate this card as a political tool for your pod. Smoke Bomb gives everything shroud, so while it can/should be used to save our board state, it will likely be more impactful and useful to use it as a way to curry favor and brownie points by saving another player.

Desynchronization

And we emerge form the Animus wiser from the lived past experiences. I, for one, feel reasonably pleased by what the set offered, more so than most sets releases these days, and I think that's due to this set being Commander- and Modern-focused, without all the chaff that a draftable set needs to contain.

I'm not overly impressed with the set as a whole outside of the Minotaur Lens, but it would be wrong for me to deny that there are gems in this set. Only time will tell if this iteration of the Aftermath-styled boosters lives past this product.

I believe it won't long until Bloomburrow previews begin, and while I don't anticipate Minotaurs to be present in the cutesy animal world, you never know what might turn up.

Until then, see you later, and be sure to check out the Assassin's Creed reviews on the Commander's Herald and EDHREC.