Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Frame by frame: the Edward Kenway era and the evolving look of MTG cards
If you’ve spent any time spelunking through MTG’s history, you know the card frame is more than decoration—it's a tactile map of how the game has grown, experimented, and finally settled into a look fans recognize across decades. The legend of Edward Kenway, a Legendary Creature — Human Assassin Pirate from the Assassin’s Creed crossover, sits at a fascinating crossroads: a modern, color-rich frame that nods to historic aesthetics while inviting new fans to the multiverse with a swagger that only a pirate-turned-assassin could embody. 🧙🔥💎⚔️ This card is a compact case study in how frame design supports complexity, readability, and the storytelling aura that surrounds a legendary character from a different universe colliding with Magic’s own mythos.
From the early days to the bold 2015 redesign
Early MTG cards wore black borders with bold flavor text and art that often spilled right to the edge. As the game evolved and production technologies improved, Wizards of the Coast experimented with legibility, art emphasis, and the relationship between name, mana cost, type line, and rules text. The Edward Kenway card belongs to the 2015-era frame 2015 update that many players instantly recognize: a larger art box, a more compact name and mana-cost area, cleaner typography, and a layout that highlights the creature’s type line and abilities without feeling cluttered. In a single glance, you can read its multicolored identity (colors: Blue, Black, Red) and sense the narrative weight of a Legendary Creature who wields a Treasure-generation engine and a high-stakes blink-and-exile payoff for Vehicles. The frame is black-bordered—not a borderless for this card—but it embodies the era’s ambition: more space for art, more readable text, and a silhouette of a design language that would influence subsequent sets and crossovers. 🧭
- Legibility and hierarchy: The 2015 frame rebalanced type lines, mana costs, and flavor text so that even a multitasking card like Edward Kenway remains legible at a glance in a crowded battlefield.
- Art as hero: A generous art box invites Borja Pindado’s illustration to breathe, reinforcing the mythic aura of a pirate whose story threads through Assassin’s Creed and MTG alike. 🎨
- Frame details that matter: While the card’s frame keeps the classic black border, it adds a subtle gloss and a more integrated treatment of expansion symbols, rarity markers, and the collector’s dream of foil iterations.
Edward Kenway: a bridge between universes and a testbed for frame design
Edward Kenway’s mana cost—{2}{U}{B}{R}—marks a deliberate multicolor identity that feels at home in a frame designed to showcase color options cleanly. The creature’s 5/5 stats and its two-part ability underscore a design philosophy where frame readability supports intricate text: the end-step Treasure production scales with the number of tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control, while the second ability—exile and play from the top of an opponent’s library when a Vehicle deals combat damage to a player—demands that players quickly parse multiple clauses without losing track of what’s on the battlefield. The frame’s job is to keep that information approachable, especially in Commander and Modern where tempo and value loops can get wild.
“At the beginning of your end step, create a Treasure token for each tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control.”
The second clause creates a dramatic interaction with Vehicles—a keyword-driven ecosystem where artifacts become resources, and exile becomes a form of tempo displacement. The frame’s clarity helps you see the Treasure synergy at a glance, not buried in a wall of text. That clarity matters when you’re juggling multiple card types, many of which are present in this crossover set—legendary creatures, Vehicles, and treasure-snatching hooks that feel right at home in a crossover with a swashbuckling assassin. 💀🧭
Frame evolution in practice: why collectors and players notice
Collectors often chase the tactile nostalgia of a frame that evokes a certain era while still feeling fresh. Edward Kenway sits in a mythic rarity slot, a signifier that this frame is part of an ambitious product line—Assassin’s Creed, a Universes Beyond collaboration that brings a legendary gamehouse and a storied IP together. The card’s foil and nonfoil finishes—per the data, foil versions exist and often command a premium—reflect a broader collector trend: artwork, rarity, and the story behind the card combine to elevate a single print into a cherished memento. Price points in the wild hint at a healthier appreciation for crossovers—roughly around five dollars for non-foil, a little more for foil—and a vibrant community that tracks EDH viability alongside the art’s allure. 🪙
Gameplay strategy: building around the frame’s strengths
Edward Kenway isn’t just a pretty frame with flashy text; it’s a strategic engine. In the right deck, you leverage its Treasure-generating end-step trigger to ramp into more expensive spells, or to fix mana while you assemble a fleet of Pirates, Assassins, and Vehicles. The exile mechanic on Vehicles adds a unique “play-from-exile” tempo, letting you tempt an opponent into giving up a key card—only to reveal it later from exile when the timing suits your plan. In a modern or Legacy context, this synergy scales with control elements, mana rocks, and the right assortment of green-black or blue-black-red support spells that smooth the curve. The frame’s readability helps you track which token generation effects are live and which vehicles have dealt damage to trigger that exile payoff. ⚔️🧙🔥
Design, value, and the cultural cross-pollination of MTG frames
Edward Kenway’s card design lives at the intersection of narrative mythos and mechanical experimentation. As a mythic card with a dynamic ability set, it demonstrates how a frame can carry both a dense rules text and an evocative story. The Assassin’s Creed crossover isn’t merely a marketing gimmick—it’s a design experiment about how to merge two distinct universes in a way that feels seamless on a card table. The aesthetic choices—dark, bold border; art-forward presentation; and a type hierarchy that respects both flavor and function—mirror MTG’s ongoing commitment to weaving lore, art, and gameplay into a cohesive experience. For collectors and players, that means a card that’s not just playable but tell-worthy, a conversation piece that invites nostalgia as well as new strategic possibilities. 🧩
The practical promo: a nod to shared worlds and a nudge toward new purchases
As you explore cross-promotional products that celebrate the broader hobby—like the linked 2-in-1 UV phone sanitizer and wireless charger—you’ll notice how the community loves a good pairing: your favorite deck and a clever gadget, a heroic frame and a sharp playstyle, a mythic card and a collector’s desk setup. The Edward Kenway card sits comfortably in that ecosystem, reminding us that Magic’s frame evolution is as much about storytelling as it is about numbers and keywords. If you’re assembling a collection that honors the long arc of MTG’s design history, this card is a crisp waypoint on the map. 🧙🔥🎲
Where to look next and how to dive deeper
To explore more about Edward Kenway and similar crossovers, check the available prints, foil options, and related cards like the associated Treasure tokens and Vehicle-linked effects. You’ll also find the broader Assassin’s Creed set (acr) catalog, including its place in Modern, Legacy, and Commander playspaces, where the frame’s evolution continues to influence how players perceive and value these legendary crossovers. And if you’re curious about complementing your collection with practical gear, the product link below points to a handy gadget that keeps your world running smoothly while you draft and duel—because even a pirate needs reliable gear between raids. 💎