With the Magic: The Gathering release of Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed, you may find yourself wondering about the new keywords and mechanics. This set has several returning mechanics like Historic, Disguise, and Cloak, but I will be talking about the only new one this time around: Freerunning.

What is Freerunning?

"You may cast this spell for its freerunning cost if you dealt combat damage to a player this turn with an Assassin or commander." Essentially, Freerunning is an alternative casting cost, that applies when a card with the Assassin Creature Type or a Commander you controlled deals combat damage. This does not change the Mana Value of the card you Freerun, that stays consistent with other Magic: The Gathering Rules. Combat damage from a Commander can be from any you control, so if you are "borrowing" someone else's Commander the combat damage they inflict counts for this as well. The Commander or Assassin doesn't have to survive the combat or remain under your control either. As long as they did their job dealing damage, Freerunning is still apllicable until the end of the turn. The best Freerunning Commander is Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who can build an Assassin army by passing along the ability to them, and is a great finisher once your opponents life totals are whittled down. The best card with Freerunning is Overpowering Attack, as it synergizes perfectly with itself, granting its caster an extra combat and main phase provided they attacked and dealt combat damage.

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