There are a lot of MTG cards based on swords, but it’s taken Wizards of the Coast’s new Assassin’s Creed set to bring the most famous sword of all time to the tabletop: that’s right, Excalibur is a real Magic card now, and it’s a hilariously expensive, hard-hitting artifact.
Revealed by MTG Twitch streamer Alyska on Wednesday as part of the ongoing MTG Assassin’s Creed spoiler season, Excalibur, Sword of Eden is an absolutely colossal 12-cost MTG equipment artifact card that packs a huge punch, giving your creature +10/+0 and the MTG Vigilance keyword.
It plays nicely into the AC Universes Beyond set’s themes of myth, legend, and history, too, as that massive casting cost gets reduced equal to the total mana value of ‘historic’ permanents you control (that’s artifacts, legendaries, and sagas). Plus – and we love this – only legendary creatures are capable of wielding it; after all, not just any old soldier can pull the sword from its stone, you know.
The card art shows AC’s science-fantasy interpretation of the mythical blade, just as it appears in 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – where it was a powerful endgame weapon found by unlocking a secret chamber under Stonehenge.
AC: Valhalla’s protagonist Eivor, Wolf-Kissed also gets their own card in this special MTG set, as do other series heroes including Kassandra from 2018’s AC: Odyssey, and Bayek from 2017’s Origins.
Assassin’s Creed has been known for its cameos from historical figures, and a few of these iconic names get their own cards as well. We covered Sokrates, Athenian Teacher earlier in the week, but he’s far from alone; Leonardo da Vinci paints a pretty picture as an artificer, Cleopatra commands as a noble, and Mary Read and Anne Bonny are, naturally, MTG pirate assassins.
This is the first time Excalibur – the legendary sword gifted to King Arthur by the Lady of the Lake in a farcical aquatic ceremony – has been officially represented in a Magic card. The closest we got before was in a different MTG color, and easier to play, though (we think) less fun: the 6-cost Red sword Embercleave, from 2019’s Throne of Eldraine set.
A few familiar favourite MTG sword cards get AC-ified reprints in this set as well. The Sword of Light and Shadow gets a Valhalla-style reimagining, while the Sword of Feast and Famine sports a look reminiscent of the fields of Vinland. The Conspiracy card is, naturally, redesigned to resemble the shadowy order of Templars – the chief antagonists of the AC series.
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