A brand new Magic the Gathering card, Basim Ibn Ishaq, has shot up to more than five times its pre-order price since it went on sale on Friday. Part of the newly released MTG Assassin’s Creed set, non-foil copies of this legendary assassin were trading for $2.70 on launch day – they’re now up to $15.50.
Every version of this MTG card has seen a price spike, and while the basic version saw the highest jump, others are close. According to price data on trading website MTG Goldfish, the non-foil showcase version went from $4.80 on Thursday, through $15 on Friday, and now sits at $27.30.
Basim Ibn Ishaq is a 2/2 creature that costs one blue and one black mana, and like most of the notable cards in the Assassin’s Creed MTG set he’s a legendary human assassin. Once per turn when you cast a historic spell (a legendary, artifact, or saga), you draw a card, and Basim Ibn Ishaq can’t be blocked this turn. Whenever he deals combat damage to a player, you put a +1/+1 counter on him.
He fits in perfectly to the 99 for other assassin MTG Commanders, whether they’re the flood of new assassins that came out with the MTG Universes Beyond Assassin’s Creed set, or existing ones, like ‘Ramses, Assassin Lord’, or ‘Etrata, Deadly Fugitive’.
He also goes just fine into decks packed with historic cards, be they a ‘Jodah, the Unifier’ legends matter deck, or something stuffed with artifacts. Here’s the Command Zone’s thoughts on what you can do with him in the format:
He’s also, potentially, playable in the eternal MTG format Modern. He’s a cheap threat that can grow throughout the game, draws you a card and can’t be blocked whenever you play Mishra’s Bauble, The One Ring, or any legendary spell, and doesn’t die to Orcish Bowmasters.
While he’s not seeing play in the format yet (beyond streamer AspiringSpike experimenting with him in MTGO), we wouldn’t be surprised if he is at least playable, if not quite a staple.
As we’ve seen whenever a modern legal set appears on the MTG release schedule, we expect to see more price spikes from Assassin’s Creed as players work out the new cracked cards and the old cards enable them. We’ll be watching in case it creates any totally new archetypes, as happened with Modern Horizons 3 and Boros Energy and the cracked Nadu Bant.
Make sure you check out our guide to MTG Arena codes to grab some free online booster packs for your Timeless and Historic MTG Arena decks.
Source: Wargamer
