Magic: The Gathering is heading into video game territory with several sets this year, first with a Fallout crossover on deck and both Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed on the way, though we've already seen some Fallout cards, You can tell that they understand the fact that Fallout games are about reading lore on a terminal and accumulating crap until you're stuck in the middle of it. A small number of Assassin's Creed cards have also been published, indicating that they understand similar issues.

While the Fallout decks are specifically designed for use in the Commander format, the Assassin's Creed cards will be released in a starter kit for beginners, with two pre-made decks and a special booster pack called the "Beyond Booster" The first one will be called the "Beyond Booster". And yes, one of the cards in that booster is "Haystack".

It costs 2 mana to phase out a card, making it untargetable until the next time you untap it. Like in a video game, an ordinary wooden cart full of haystacks can make you completely invisible and safe. Other thematically appropriate cards pulled directly from the game, such as "Ezio, Blade of Vengeance," a 5/5, deathtouching legendary creature, and "Leonardo da Vinci," which not only turns random artifacts into more sopas, but also powers up sopas are.

Some cards in this set get the showcase "memory corridor" treatment, with characters against the pale background of the loading screen in Animus (and, of course, cards that can turn a creature you control into a copy of a dead creature (It is). Other characters could appear randomly with text in the appropriate language, such as Greek or Italian for Leonardo da Vinci. Which is cuter.

Magic: The Gathering-Assassin's Creed will be released on July 5