Magic’s new Universes Beyond offering MTG – Assassin’s Creed will be releasing this Friday, July 5 and for Commander fans there are a ton of new legendary creatures you can build decks around. I’m not familiar with the game so there is no particular character that calls to me, but I do really like some of the iconic legendary people from our real world realized on cards.
One new card that caught my eye was Havi, the All-Father, a sweet Naya commander!
Now, “All-Father” is something I’ve heard describing the Norse god Odin, so I was curious if this was an alternate name for him – you know, like Mr. Wednesday from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Sure enough, Havi is indeed another name for Odin as per the Assassin’s Creed Fandom Wiki:
Odin, also known as the All-Father by worshippers and Havi by the Æsir, was an Ásgarðrian Isu who became a widely revered god in both Norse and Germanic mythology.
Havi’s first ability keys off of historic permanents in your graveyard – specifically, if you have four or more historic cards in your graveyard, Havi has indestructible. I really like this ability, since it allows your opponents to interact with Havi with graveyard control, something that all Commander decks ought to be playing. Historic cards are artifacts, legendaries, and sagas; Sagas naturally end up in the graveyard, and we can look for artifacts and legendaries that self-sacrifice to reach that threshold by the time you deploy Havi to the battlefield.
Havi’s other ability is called Sage Project – whenever Havi or another legendary creature you control dies, return target legendary creature card with lesser mana value from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. This seems like a more powerful riff on Scrap Trawler, but instead of returning to your hand it puts it directly onto the battlefield. So, a Havi deck is going to want a good number of legendary creatures to satisfy the historic graveyard count.
Let’s dig in!
Historic Matters
There have been a ton of cards that care about historic cards printed in sets since its debut in Dominaria, especially in Doctor Who and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and of course MTG – Assassin’s Creed too! I’ve been looking for a place to run Displaced Dinosaurs and even though it’s not historic itself, maybe this is the place for it? I do really like Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle for this deck since it is legendary and can also reanimate lower cost creatures from the graveyard.
The Capitoline Triad is another MTG – Assassin’s Creed card that also cares about historic cards in your graveyard and has the wild ability to create an emblem, something I think we haven’t seen outside of planeswalker cards. I’m not entirely sure I’d want to nuke my own graveyard of historic cards early and often, but with enough creatures on the battlefield making them all base power 9/9 might just end the game.
Artifacts to Graveyard
There are a lot of artifacts that sacrifice for a cool effect, so I imagine I’d run a fair number of these to help ensure the historic card threshold in the graveyard to turn on Havi’s indestructible. Lotus Petal and Goldhound can help cast Havi a turn early while filling the graveyard. RMS Titanic seems like a spicy inclusion – adding an historic card to the graveyard while hopefully creating a ton of Treasure tokens!
Legendary Creatures to the Graveyard
Two cards that immediately leapt to mind for a Havi deck were Saffi Eriksdotter and Boromir, Warden of the Tower since they both self-sacrifice for a powerful effect and can come back to the battlefield with Havi’s Sage Project ability. Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard and Lena, Selfless Champion also self-sacrifice to protect your team. Lieutenant Kirtar is a card I haven’t seen at a Commander table for a long time but seems like it would find a great home here as a removal spell attached to a legendary body.
Other Legendary Cards to the Graveyard
There’s a couple more artifacts that can sacrifice for effect that are also legendary like Hylda’s Crown of Winter for card draw and The Filigree Sylex for removal. There are also legendary sorcery cards that you can’t play unless you control a legendary creature or planeswalker that will naturally hit the graveyard upon resolution, such as Jaya’s Immolating Inferno.
Legendary Cards Matter
We’ll want to run a lot of legendary creatures so cards that care about legendaries seem awesome, especially if they themselves are legendary. Reiki, the History of Kamigawa will keep the cards flowing, while Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful will keep on growing. Captain Sisay will be a removal magnet because it is incredibly strong, but hopefully Havi’s Sage Project ability will bring it back for eventual use.
Bard Class is a fun enchantment that will give your legendary creatures a boost, and with second level it will provide colored mana discount which is always welcome.
Sagas
Sagas are historic permanents that (usually) put themselves in the graveyard eventually to satisfy Havi’s historic needs, so I’d play some number of these in the deck. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is an incredible Magic card but works doubly good here since its Chapter II can help fill the graveyard with historic cards or legendary creatures to get back. Notably though, its transformed state Reflection of Kiki-Jiki can’t copy legendary creatures, so that’s a little awkward.
The Night of the Doctor is a nice battlefield sweeper when your commander is indestructible, clearing the way for your attack, and Havi’s Sage Project might bring back some legendary creatures from your graveyard. Plus, Chapter II can bring back another legendary creature from the graveyard with your choice of a first strike, vigilance, or lifelink counter – those last two options seem the best for Commander.
Looting
In addition to Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, I may want to run a few more looting effects to help ensure four historic cards in the graveyard by the time Havi is deployed, like Faithless Looting and Big Score.
Self-Mill
I might consider some self-milling cards to help stock the graveyard with historic cards or legendary creatures to get back with Havi. I love Monster Manual for its ability to put a creature card from my hand onto the battlefield, but I might actually be interested in using its Zoological Study Adventure in this deck. Wreck and Rebuild is a nifty modal spell from Outlaws of Thunder Junction that mills and ramps you if you don’t need to destroy an artifact or enchantment, and it even has flashback!
Eivor, Wolf-Kissed is another MTG – Assassin’s Creed card that seems perfect for this deck, being a legendary creature that mills based on combat damage and you get to put a Saga card, a land card, or both from among them onto the battlefield.
Sacrificing for Profit
To trigger Havi’s Sage Project ability, we might want to run some cards that lets you sacrifice a legendary creature on demand. Greater Good is great and good, letting you draw cards but also toss three cards into the graveyard to further fuel that ability. I’d also be tempted to run The Golden Throne, which can help cast your six-mana commander, and it lets you think about running sweet “No Guts, No Glory” cards like Final Fortune or Chance for Glory.
Bring Back from the Graveyard
I might consider running some more cards that bring creatures back from the graveyard once you’ve got more than four historic cards in the graveyard. Legendary creatures that do this are particularly valuable like Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and Celestine, the Living Saint.
I’ve thought Jailbreak was a neat multiplayer card for a while but haven’t found a good home for it, but I think this might be just the deck for it.
Destroy All Creatures
While Havi doesn’t have any evasion, it will often be indestructible, which breaks the symmetry of battlefield sweepers like Wrath of God and Vanquish the Horde. More “friendly” versions like Depopulate and Shatter the Sky might make the second or third time you do this more palatable to the table, and since Havi satisfies both of the card-draw clauses you’ll get the benefit too.
I used to run Novablast Wurm in the earliest days of EDH, and even though it’s not legendary or historic I’d be tempted to dust it off and use it here to help close out games!
Redirect Damage
Having a commander that will often have indestructible means you can use damage redirection to Havi for fun and profit. In particular, I like Pariah’s Shield and even General’s Regalia since they are historic cards that will help satisfy Havi’s indestructible if they end up in the graveyard. Though there is something to be said about the surprise value of something like Gideon’s Sacrifice!
Which other cards might go great with Havi, the All-Father? Which legendary creature from MTG – Assassin’s Creed are you most excited to build around?
Talk to Me
Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter! I run polls and start conversations about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun! You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.
I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl, and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can. If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel. You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews.
And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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