MTG Assassin’s Creed’s underrated Rogue Commander leaves opponents defenseless

Shay Cormac is one of the most interesting cards released as part of Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed. This two-mana Orzhov card can cut through opponents’ defenses with ease, stripping them of protection and powering itself up.

The Assassin’s Creed franchise contains a huge number of entries, with the series spanning a huge number of time periods and protagonists. While each game in the series has its fans and detractors, Assassin’s Creed Rogue is a genuine highlight that was sadly overlooked at the time of release.

Rogue had the misfortune of being a previous-gen entry released in the same window as the next-gen Assassin’s Creed: Unity. While Unity had its share of release problems, mostly due to technical issues, Rogue faded into the background.

Those players that have picked up Assassin’s Creed Rogue in the years since have found it to be a surprising stand-out entry, continuing the boat-based gameplay that fans loved in Assassin’s Creed 3 and Black Flag.

One of Rogue’s highlights is the unique perspective offered by Assassin-turned-Templar protagonist Shay Cormac. Shay offers a fresh look at the Assassin-Templar conflict, and the character has been done justice by their MTG appearance.

Ubisoft/WotC

Shay Cormac is a 1/1 Human Knight Rogue Legendary Creature. While Shay’s combat capabilities may start out weak, the card can quickly boost itself as the game proceeds.

Shay’s main use is in its first ability. For a single generic mana, opponents’ permanents lose the hexproof, indestructible, protection, shroud, and ward abilities until the end of turn. By stripping almost all forms of protection from opponents’ cards, Shay leaves otherwise irremovable threats open to being taken off the board.

As well as this useful ability, Shay Cormac doles out bounty counters to opponents’ Creatures whenever they are targetted by an effect you control – which is easier when you’ve stripped away targeting protection with the card’s first ability.

Whenever a Creature with a bounty counter on it dies, Shay gets two +1/+1 counters, quickly growing from a simple 1/1 into a hard-hitting threat.

Even with Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed’s reduced size compared to a standard MTG release, the set has still packed in a huge variety of Assassins from throughout the franchise. It’s heartening to see that, as well as franchise all-timers like Ezio and Altaïr, the set still has a place for intriguing characters like Shay Cormac.