The West Indies are home to tropical climates, top-class beaches, and every outdoor activity you can imagine. Along with being a popular vacation spot, the Caribbean was also the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy and the star location of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. In Black Flag, we play as the pirate assassin Edward Kenway as he works to dismantle the Templars' influence on trade and politics while uncovering the location of the Observatory, an Isu facility holding a powerful artifact.

How did Magic: The Gathering represent Edward Kenway in Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed? We have a Blue, Black, and Red (Grixis) Legendary Creature focused on Vehicles and Treasure, much like Edward's focus on boats and loot in Black Flag. A 5/5 for five mana is an okay start, but along with that, Edward gets you a Treasure for each tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control on your end step. This makes crewing your Vehicle Artifacts every turn more viable as you swing with them for Edward Kenway's second ability. Whenever a Vehicle you control deals combat damage to a player, Edward lets you look at the top card of that player's library and exile it face down for you to use for as long as it remains exiled!

Start Your Engines!

With a deck like this, we need some Vehicles, but what to add? Looking at the Assassin's Creed set, we have two vehicles that both feel like immediate additions to our garage. Adrestia is easy to crew early game while the Jackdaw gets us card draw once we've built up a few Treasure tokens and Vehicles. There are also a few Vehicles across the other Universes Beyond sets. Fallout brings us the Brotherhood Vertibird, which scales with our artifacts and provides an easy-to-crew Flying Vehicle. Doctor Who gives us the RMS Titanic for a quick Treasure generator that we can bring back from the graveyard for additional swings later. Finally, Warhammer gives us the Night Scythe and Thunderhawk Gunship, which get us tokens to crew it immediately, and the Gunship can help us close out the game by giving all our attackers flying.

Universes Beyond Collide!

From here, picking vehicles is a matter of taste. Focusing on card advantage, you can grab Smuggler's Copter, The Belligerent, The Indomitable, and the Weatherlight as they all provide a way to either search or play off the top of your library. The Belligerent is also good for making Treasures, so let's throw in Luxurious Locomotive from Outlaws of Thunder Junction to gain an easy way for all our creatures to help Crew and double the amount of treasures we'll get from it. Along with mana from Treasures, let's grab Cosima, God of the Voyage // The Omenkeel for her Vehicle side to let us steal our opponents' lands. Rounding out our vehicles, I took Imposter Mech, Mindlink Mech, and Mobilizer Mech from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty to give the deck some flexibility when handling the opponents' board, including a free Crew and getting different attack triggers from our Pirates and Assassins. Other Vehicles to consider would be Magmatic Galleon, Nautiloid Ship, and Silent Submersible for additional advantages.

The Pit Crew

With plenty of cars, planes, and ships to crew, we'll need a crew of Pirates and Assassins to pilot them. Some early game drops like Assassin Initiate, Hookblade Veteran, and Siren Stormtamer give us some small creatures to crew with or fliers if we just need to ping for damage in the early game while we build up mana for Edward. For some bigger creatures, we can look at Breeches, Eager Pillager, Francisco, Fowl Marauder, and Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator - a classic trio from Ixalan that'll provide Treasure and card advantage when we swing with our Pirates. Then, after a few triggers, Francisco should be big enough to crew most of the Vehicles in the deck by himself when needed. For tutoring, we have Forerunner of the Coalition to find our best Pirate and Deadeye Quartermaster to find our best Vehicle for whatever the board state may be.

Since Edward gives us some theft effects, Don Andres, the Renegade fits perfectly as a backup Commander and turns all our stolen creatures into Pirates. Staff of Eden, Vault's Key from the Assassin's Creed set lets us take advantage of these newly conscripted Pirates to draw our deck for more Vehicles or key game pieces. Speaking of Pirates, let's add in cards like Breeches, Brazen Plunderer, and Ramirez DePietro, Pillager to get additional exiles from the top of our opponents' libraries whenever we swing with these stolen Pirates.

All your cards are belong to us

There are some additional creatures in my decklist, but the key factor is early card advantage or the ability to cover the field if I couldn't get a Vehicle through to combat damage or if Edward is removed from the field and I need to rebuild the board. If you really want to focus on the Pirate theme, look at Admiral Beckett Brass and Coercive Recruiter for more Theft effects along with Port Razer and Zara, Renegade Recruiter for combat-focused effects.

Finish Line: Wincons

As we round out this deck, I've included plenty of interaction pieces, including board wipes like Fiery Cannonade and Raise the Palisade to protect our pirates while removing everything else. Most of the Enchantments, Instants, and Sorceries are there to enhance our board or ramp into the 5 to 6 drop cards in the deck, but how does this deck actually win?

First, you can obviously run over your opponents with an army of Vehicles and Pirates, but in case you need something more consistent, I've included Revel in Riches to catch the win when we have enough Treasures on our upkeep. For those looking for other options, I also considered Hellkite Tyrant and Mechanized Production, but ultimately decided they didn't fit the theme of the deck.

With that, Edward Kenway is complete! I've included the decklist I chose below and I look forward to testing him out in the coming weeks as Assassin's Creed cards are released into the wild. What did you think? What would you change?

Kenway Motor Speedway | Commander | Brandon Ashcraft

• Commander (1)
• 1 Edward Kenway

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Adewale, Breaker of Chains
• 1 Assassin Initiate
• 1 Breeches, Brazen Plunderer
• 1 Breeches, Eager Pillager
• 1 Broadside Bombardiers
• 1 Captain Lannery Storm
• 1 Corsair Captain
• 1 Deadeye Quartermaster
• 1 Don Andres, the Renegade
• 1 Forerunner of the Coalition
• 1 Francisco, Fowl Marauder
• 1 Greedy Freebooter
• 1 Hookblade Veteran
• 1 Hostage Taker
• 1 Impulsive Pilferer
• 1 Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
• 1 Mary Read and Anne Bonny
• 1 Pitiless Plunderer
• 1 Ramirez DePietro, Pillager
• 1 Siren Stormtamer
• 1 Spectral Sailor
• 1 Staunch Crewmate
• 1 Thieving Varmint

• Instants (8)
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Big Score
• 1 Chain Assassination
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Fiery Cannonade
• 1 Great Train Heist
• 1 Lookout's Dispersal

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Chart a Course
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Fortuitous Find
• 1 Petty Larceny
• 1 Raise the Palisade
• 1 Strike It Rich

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Black Market Connections
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Cunning Rhetoric
• 1 Leyline of Anticipation
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Revel in Riches
• 1 Rogue Class
• 1 Rooftop Bypass

• Artifacts (19)
• 1 Adrestia
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Brotherhood Vertibird
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Golden Argosy
• 1 Hoard Hauler
• 1 Imposter Mech
• 1 Jackdaw
• 1 Luxurious Locomotive
• 1 Mindlink Mech
• 1 Mobilizer Mech
• 1 Night Scythe
• 1 RMS Titanic
• 1 Smuggler's Copter
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Eden, Vault's Key
• 1 The Belligerent
• 1 The Indomitable
• 1 Weatherlight

• Lands (34)
• 2 Swamp
• 8 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Archway of Innovation
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Choked Estuary
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Foreboding Ruins
• 1 Grixis Panorama
• 1 Maestros Theater
• 1 Mech Hangar
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Xander's Lounge

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~Brandon Ashcraft (He/Him)

Twitter (X): @Ashen_Works