Freerunning in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on June 26, 2025

Ezio Auditore da Firenze | Illustration by Alexander Gering

The Universes Beyond crossovers have brought many interesting mechanics to Magic. These mechanics are designed to capture the flavor of whatever property MTG is crossing over with.

Some of them are riffs on old favorites, like all the time traveling cards in the Doctor Who set that worked with suspend and vanishing. Others are more unique, like the mechanic that came with the beyond boosters: freerunning!

How does this MTG mechanic work, and what freerunning cards should you eye for your Commander decks? Let’s break it all down!

How Does Freerunning Work?

Restart Sequence | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

Freerunning is an alternative cost you can pay if an assassin or commander you control dealt combat damage to a player this turn. The freerunning cost is often cheaper than the spell’s regular casting cost, rewarding your combat damage with a cheaper spell.

You can only cast a spell with freerunning during a turn you dealt combat damage with an assassin or commander; dealing it the previous turn doesn’t count.

The damage dealt must be combat damage–that is, damage dealt by an attacking creature in the combat phase. If your commander is Niv-Mizzet, Parun, you can only cast spells for their freerunning cost if the big dragon attacked and dealt combat damage. Pinging your opponent and dealing direct damage doesn’t count.

The History of Freerunning in MTG

Freerunning was introduced in 2024 with the Assassin’s Creed Universes Beyond set. This set introduced 13 cards with the freerunning mechanic.

In the Assassin’s Creed video game series, freerunning is the term for the acrobatic maneuvers the Brotherhood trains its assassins to use—all the flips, leaps, and climbing techniques they employ. The mechanic captures this idea in its cost reduction. It captures the idea that freerunning allows the trained to move faster and more nimbly than the average civilian, who you would need to pay full cost for.

Given that the mechanic has strong ties to the Assassin’s Creed franchise, we won’t likely see it reprinted in regular Magic sets. These might be all the freerunning cards we ever see, especially if the licensing agreements between WotC and Ubisoft require some form of mechanical exclusivity.

Is Freerunning an Alternative Cost?

Yes! Freerunning is an alternative cost that can only be paid under specific circumstances as we’ve seen from the prowl and spectacle mechanics.

Do You Have to Cast a Card for Its Freerunning Cost?

No. Even if you’ve dealt combat damage with an assassin or commander, you can still cast a card for its regular mana cost. Freerunning lets you choose between the regular mana cost or the alternative.

Does Freerunning Change a Card’s Mana Value?

No. Regardless of how much mana you pay for a spell, its mana value and cost remain unchanged.

If I cast Achilles Davenport for its freerunning cost, it would still be considered a 4 mana value spell on the stack and the battlefield. For example, you could still counter it with Disdainful Stroke.

When Do You Play a Card with Freerunning?

If you've met the conditions for freerunning, you may cast the spell with it's normal timing. For most spells, this is during your main phase, while the stack is empty and you have priority. If it's an instant or you managed to give that spell flash, you just need to have priority.

How Does Freerunning Work with Morophon?

Morophon, the Boundless gives you a cost reduction of only colored mana, so the freerunning costs can only be reduced by colored mana. For example, if you control Morophon, the Boundless and can cast a freerunning spell with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the cost will be one .

Does Freerunning Work in Legacy?

Yes. Cards from Universes Beyond expansion sets are legal in Legacy, so you can put cards with freerunning into your deck. Since the Legacy format does not have commanders, you can only enable the mechanic by dealing combat damage with assassins.

Freerunning vs. Spectacle

Freerunning and spectacle are very similar mechanics; both give spells an alternative cost contingent on damaging your opponents. The primary difference comes from the requirement. Freerunning requires combat damage dealt by assassins or commanders while spectacle costs only require that an opponent lost life. Spectacle includes combat damage as well as noncombat damage and life loss from cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel. This makes spectacle substantially easier to enable than freerunning.

Freerunning vs. Prowl

Freerunning and prowl share some similarities as both mechanics care about creatures of a certain type dealing combat damage to enable their alternative cost. The primary difference comes from the requirement. Prowl spells need a creature that shares a creature type with them to work whereas freerunning cards don’t need to share a type, which is open to more design space. That, plus freerunning getting enabled by non-assassin commanders, makes it significantly more flexible than prowl.

Gallery and List of Freerunning Cards

• Achilles Davenport
• Brotherhood Ambushers
• Chain Assassination
• Distract the Guards
• Eagle Vision
• Escape Detection
• Ezio Auditore da Firenze
• Merciless Harlequin
• Monastery Raid
• Overpowering Attack
• Petty Larceny
• Restart Sequence
• Viewpoint Synchronization

Best Freerunning Cards

#5. Chain Assassination

Chain Assassination is interesting. You need to jump through a couple of hoops to reach this black instant‘s full potential, but 2 mana to kill a creature and draw a card is a fantastic rate. It doesn’t care who controlled the creature that died, so I like this in aggressively-slanted sacrifice strategies.

#4. Eagle Vision

I don’t play Eagle Vision in decks that can’t routinely enable freerunning, but drawing three cards for with this blue sorcery is amazing.

#3. Escape Detection

Repulse isn’t the strongest card in the world and Escape Detection is harder to cast. But the freerunning cost for no mana is cool. Free spells are good spells and if you bounce a blue creature with a strong ETB, this blue instant is almost a free draw-two.

#2. Restart Sequence

Your average reanimator spell costs 5 mana, so Restart Sequence starts strong. The freerunning cost is an absolute steal for this reanimation effect, so this black sorcery has a lot of potential.

#1. Overpowering Attack

Overpowering Attack has incredible potential out of all the freerunning cards. Five mana is a reasonable rate for an extra combat spell and this sometimes costs less. It works well with aggressive extra combat commanders like Otharri, Suns' Glory and Isshin, Two Heavens as One, and is notable for giving you an additional main phase along with your extra combat.

Decklist: Freerunning Assassins in Commander

Ezio Auditore da Firenze | Illustration by Fajareka Setiawan

This EDH deck puts the 5-color commander, Ezio Auditore da Firenze in the command zone for a 5-color assassin typal brew. Ezio is the premiere freerunning commander, and overall it's among the best commanders from Assassin's Creed and one of the strongest assassin commanders.

This deck keeps a low curve, though we have big assassins to cheat into play like Thraximundar and Vein Ripper. All the assassins get a boost from typal synergies. Some of these are generally good typal cards like Kindred Discovery, but the archetype has some specific support.

The support from the Assassin’s Creed set, show up on Ezio, Blade of Vengeance and Achilles Davenport, and we also get cards like Etrata, Deadly Fugitive and Mari, the Killing Quill to back our assassins with card advantage.

The deck can sneak off with alternative win conditions through cards like Etrata, the Silencer and Ramses, Assassin Lord, as well as Ezio’s activated ability, so your opponents need to stay on their toes—they can never know when you’ll get them.

Wrap Up

Chain Assassination | Illustration by Filipe Pagliuso

Freerunning is an interesting mechanic, and far from evergreen. I appreciate that you can enable it with assassins or commanders, which allows more decks to utilize these cards than a narrow typal strategy. The strongest freerunning cards don't require assassins at all.

What do you think of freerunning? Did it capture the flavor of the video game mechanic, or do you wish R&D had taken a different approach? Let me know in the comments or in the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe and keep freerunning!