Templar Knight – Assassin’s Creed
Date Reviewed: July 9, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4.0
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.38
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I’m tempted to wonder if this card getting the Relentless Rats clause is a reference to how Assassin’s Creed (and other video games) has hordes of generic enemies for you to fight your way through. (It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this is why so many generic enemies wear enclosed helmets, masks, or bandanas – it saves the game’s memory from having to render faces for people who will only be alive for a few seconds, thus improving performance.) In the original game, of course, many of those enemies were Templars and other crusader knights, and they looked much like this card’s art. Some people find those generic enemies easy to cut down once they see the patterns, but you can still get surprised by them if you let your guard down – and much the same is true of this card. First of all, when your deck has a functionally infinite number of 3/1 creatures with vigilance, it’s probably going to be pretty good at attacking, and you might just win outright that way. Second of all, tutoring equipment has an incredibly powerful pedigree, and even with a restriction that rules out a lot of the usual suspects like Swords of X and Y, there are targets where you will just win outright when you search for them. Granted, it’s fairly slow as such effects go, but that kind of double threat has potential for casual play if nothing else – competitive decks might not want to cut too many other kinds of creatures or spells or such.
I have never been sure why Commander’s official rules allow cards like this to work as intended and as everyone understands them to, but not hybrid mana.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3
After years of every other color getting a Relentless Rats-style “jam this in your deck” card, white gets in on the fun, and Templar Knight is…interesting. A 3/1 with vigilance for 2 mana is serviceable at the outset, but if you have enough of them, they can search out the artifact for you, as it were. Any legendary artifact straight to the battlefield, no matter the cost, is one hell of a tutor, though you’re likely going to want plenty of hits. One downside, though, is that you need five attacking to be able to proc this effect; it’s powerful, to be sure, but you need them out and you need to get a bunch of 1 toughness creatures through a turn cycle.
I do think this will certainly be a fun card, but it feels a bit worse than a lot of the other cards of its type. The benefits to stacking them are a bit trickier to benefit from, and it’s merely passable as a body besides. Still, as far as 3/1 bodies with upside go, it has enough promise to raise an eyebrow.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
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