Magic: The Gathering - Basim Ibn Ishaq Commander Deck Guide

Basim Ibn Ishaq is one of the main villains of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Mirage and one of the many legendary creatures included in Magic: The Gathering's Assassin's Creed set. Assassin's Creed is a part of Magic's Universes Beyond product line, which converts characters and items from outside franchises and brings them into the world of Magic by converting them into cards.

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Basim Ibn Ishaq is a Dimir (blue/black) commander that has useful effects that encourage the usage of historic spells to get the most out of his abilities. The deck works best with multiple Equipment spells to put on Basim while it does all the attacking.

Sample Decklist

Commander: Basim Ibn Ishaq

Baleful Strix

Blade of the Oni

Brass Squire

Brotherhood Spy

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Etherium Sculptor

Ezio, Blade of Vengeance

Forensic Gadgeteer

Foundry Inspector

K-9, Mark I

Loyal Inventor

Ornithopter of Paradise

Ramses, Assassin Lord

Sai, Master Thopterist

Silent Arbiter

Solemn Simulacrum

Thought Monitor

Eagle Vision

Fabricate

Feed the Swarm

Night's Whisper

Thoughtcast

Toxic Deluge

An Offer You Can't Refuse

Arcane Denial

Counterspell

Countersquall

Desynchronization

Infernal Grasp

Negate

Pongify

Rapid Hybridization

Tainted Strike

Arcane Signet

Assassin Gauntlet

Blackblade Reforged

Brotherhood Regalia

Champion's Helm

Commander's Sphere

Cranial Plating

Excalibur, Sword of Eden

Fireshrieker

Goldvein Pick

Grafted Exoskeleton

Hammer of Nazahn

Lightning Greaves

Loxodon Warhammer

Mask of Memory

Mask of Riddles

Masterwork of Ingenuity

Mithril Coat

Nettlecyst

Pip-Boy 3000

Sol Ring

Swiftfoot Boots

Sword of the Animist

Talisman of Dominance

Thought Vessel

Thran Power Suit

Wayfarer's Bauble

Winged Boots

Ballad of the Black Flag

Combat Research

Phyresis

Rooftop Bypass

Archway of Innovation

Buried Ruin

Command Tower

Darkslick Shores

Darksteel Citadel

Drowned Catacomb

x8 Island

Karn's Bastion

Mistvault Bridge

Mystic Sanctuary

Reliquary Tower

Rivendell

River of Tears

Rogue's Passage

Seat of the Synod

Shipwreck Marsh

Spire of Industry

Sunken Hollow

x6 Swamp

Tainted Isle

Underground River

Vault of Whispers

The decklist consists of 17 creatures, six sorceries, ten instants, 28 artifacts, four enchantments, and 34 lands. Since the deck is a Voltron deck (a deck that focuses on putting multiple Equipment cards on a single creature), artifacts make up a majority of the deck since your commander is the only creature you need.

Key Cards

Basim Ibn Ishaq

The commander of the deck, Basim Ibn Ishaq, is the most important card since it's the main creature you'll be attacking with. By casting any historic spell, which half of your deck is, you can have Basim attack without having to worry about it being blocked.

Basim slowly grows with +1/+1 counters each time it deals combat damage. This makes each attack you do with Basim get larger, and since it's your commander, this is commander damage that once someone takes 21 or more damage from Basim, they'll be out of the game.

Basim is the creature that you will attach all your Equipment to. Since you want to take people out of the game with commander damage as quickly as possible, stacking up Basim with +1/+1 counters and stat-boosting Equipment is the best way to accomplish that.

Fireshrieker

Fireshrieker is the most important Equipment for the deck. This is because of how useful double strike is for what the deck wants to do.

Double strike causes your creature to deal first strike damage and regular combat damage. This means that it will trigger Basim's effect two separate times, giving it two +1/+1 counters in total instead of just one.

Fireshrieker is useful for getting two Basim effect triggers and dealing large amounts of commander damage later in the game with double strike, making it possible to take someone out of the game with just one attack if Basim's power is 11 or greater.

Fireshriker is a bit expensive to attach and Equip, but more than worth the price of admission. Since Basim can hit the battlefield early, you'll have a lot of excess mana quickly so you can get Fireshrieker onto the battlefield with the mana to utilize it.

Phyresis

Since Basim Ibn Ishaq is easily made unblockable, Phyresis means with the card having ten power, it can now take someone out of the game. Phyresis has no downside and simply gives the enchantment creature infect.

While you shut down the ability to deal commander damage, Phyresis lets you win the game even faster since the amount of damage you have to do is cut in half to have someone lose the game.

Basim will slowly grow its own stats without outside help, so by the time you enchant it with Phyresis, if you're in the game for three total turn cycles, you can take everyone out and win the game.

Silent Arbiter

Silent Arbiter won't affect you very much since you'll primarily be attacking with just one creature. It shuts down your opponent's ability to attack with more than one creature. There is a low amount of creatures in the deck, so you won't have a lot of creatures to block with.

Silent Arbiter gives you protection from being attacked by a wide board of creatures. Outside of a large creature going your way, you'll not have to worry about taking a lot of damage, letting you swing Basim without worrying about holding it back for a blocker.

Ramses, Assassin Lord

In most Voltron decks, you need to focus on one player at a time since you can only take people out of the game slowly. Ramses, Assassin Lord helps to counteract this downside. Whenever a player loses the game, you win the game automatically so long as an Assassin attacked them.

Basim Ibn Ishaq is an Assassin, meaning once a swing makes someone lose the game, if Ramses is on the battlefield, everyone else loses as well. In addition, any of your other Assassin cards will get a minor stat boost, including Basim itself.

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How To Play The Deck

The deck focuses on stacking one creature, in this case Basim Ibn Ishaq, with a ton of Equipment. This lets you quickly raise its stats to high amounts and swing out for massive damage to slowly take your opponents out of the game with commander damage.

To make Basim unblockable you'll need to cast a historic spell, so sometimes it's better to wait to cast an Equipment spell to make sure you can make Basim unblockable every turn.

As with most Voltron decks, there are various support cards that make it easier to win the game quickly. Phyresis and Tainted Strike both help to win through infect, and Ramses, Assassin Lord, takes more than one player out of the game.

Since Basim is integral to the strategy, protecting it is the most important part of the deck.

That's why the deck plays a lot of low-mana counterspells like An Offer You Can't Refuse and Arcane Denial to ensure you can counter any card that would remove Basim from the battlefield.

You can't always rely on counterspells, so having protection on permanents is important to keep Basim safe from targeted removal spells.

Cards like Champion's Helm, Mithril Coat, and Swiftfoot Boots all make the equipped creature hexproof or indestructible, and plenty of Equipment also provides ward for an extra layer of protection.

Since there are so many artifacts in a Basim deck, ways to discount them and take advantage of having a lot on the battlefield are included. Foundry Inspector and Etherium Sculptor both make artifact spells one mana less, and cards with affinity like Thought Monitor help to get a creature on the battlefield and draw cards for you.

The most important thing to note when playing Basim is that you will make yourself a target since if you're not checked, you'll run away with the game.

You will need to determine who is the most dangerous to your game plan and target them first before they can swing at you. Threat assessment is key and is the difference between winning or losing.

Basim can hit the battlefield very early, but sometimes it's better to wait until you can give it some form of protection to prevent it from getting removed and forcing you to start from square one.

Once Basim is protected, you can start swinging out and growing in +1/+1 counters to start snowballing from there.

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