Exclusive Universes Beyond Assassin's Creed Preview: Black Market Connections
Assassin's Creed is about to be released, and thanks to Wizards hooking us up, we have an exclusive preview card to show off for you today! It might not be a new card, but it is a good one: Black Market Connections!
Since first being printed in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Commander, Black Market Connections has developed into a Commander staple and is currently one of the 20 most played black cards in the entire format according to EDHRec. In Commander, two things matter above all else: getting ahead on mana and getting ahead on cards. And Black Market Connections allows you to do both, at the cost of some life, for just three mana, which makes Black Market Connections a card you can jam into just about any deck. That said, the most popular homes for Black Market Connections are decks that can take advantage of the Shapeshifter changeling token it makes, which includes decks trying to assemble a party, like Burakos, Party Leader and Nalia de'Arnise, or decks that actively want to lose life, like Rowan, Scion of War and Mortarion, Daemon Primarch.
It's also worth mentioning that despite a recent reprinting in Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander, Black Market Connections is still $25. Hopefully, showing up in Assassin's Creed will make it a bit more accessible. This will also be the first time that it has been printed in foil, which is pretty important since some Commander players really love blinging out their decks. Worst case, it gives players a flavorful new printing with Assassin's Creed–themed art.
The other interesting aspect of this reprinting is it will bring Black Market Connections to Modern for the first time. I would be surprised to see it make a major impact on the format. The life you have to spend on it adds up in Commander, where you start at 40. In a format like Modern that's built around fetch lands and shock lands and where you start with 20 life, spending somewhere between one and six life a turn seems risky, and it is pretty slow. But it could have some relevance in fringe brews.
The first place I plan on trying it is with Magda, Brazen Outlaw. While not top tier by any stretch of the imagination, we've seen some Magda Changeling decks pop up in the past. And Black Market Connections seems perfect for the archetype, making a Treasure you can sacrifice to Magda to find a Dragon and a Changeling token that's technically a Dwarf to make even more Treasures. While I do think that Black Market Connections will make the deck tier, it does seem fun.
Another possible home would be something like Mono-Black Coffers—Black Market Connections fits what the deck is trying to do by ramping and drawing cards. But I think the competition is to too strong for the enchantment to make the cut. Not only do we have The One Ring, but we also have Necrodominance now as well thanks to Modern Horizons 3, both of which offer way more immediate value than Black Market Connections and faster bursts of card advantage.
Maybe I'm missing some other Modern possibilities, but overall, I think that Black Market Connections is mostly a great Commander reprinting that will (hopefully) make the surprisingly expensive enchantment a bit more accessible while also offering some fun possibilities for Against the Odds or more casual Modern play!
Anyway, that's all for today! Can Black Market Connections make it in Modern? What Commander decks do you play it in? Let me know in the comments! Thanks again to Wizards for hooking us up with the preview, and as always, you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
