MTG Star Trek | Assimilate and Federation mechanics explained
Two new mechanics in Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek were designed to hate each other, and they both play on well-worn MTG tropes. Assimilate steals creatures and turns them into Borg. Federation counts creature types among your non-Borg creatures. Every time the Borg player assimilates something, the Federation player's math gets worse. I touched on this in my MTG Star Trek preview, but let's do a little bit of a deep dive.
What does assimilate do in MTG Star Trek?
Assimilate is a keyword action that puts a creature under your control with a +1/+1 counter and turns it into a Borg artifact creature. It loses every other creature type it had.
There are two versions, depending on where the creature is.
From somewhere other than the battlefield. Most assimilate cards work this way. You put the card onto the battlefield under your control with a +1/+1 counter on it. Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest is the poster card here, and she pulls her target out of an opponent's graveyard.
From the battlefield. You gain control of the creature first, then put the +1/+1 counter on it.
Either way, the creature ends up with this type line: Borg artifact creature, plus whatever else it had outside of creature types. Supertypes stay. Other card types stay. Non-creature subtypes stay. So a legendary creature stays legendary, and an enchantment creature keeps being an enchantment.
What changes is short: the creature types (all gone except Borg), the artifact type (added), and the counter. Its abilities, colors, mana value, power, and toughness all carry over. A 3/3 green Elf with an activated ability becomes a 4/4 green Borg artifact creature with the same activated ability.
The flavor lands. The Borg don't care what you were before, and the card doesn't either.
What is federation?
Federation is an ability word that counts the number of different creature types among the non-Borg creatures you control. Each federation card uses that number its own way, so read them individually.
The counting rules:
Each type counts once. Two Humans give you one type. A Human and a Vulcan give you two.
Multi-typed creatures pull extra weight. Wizards' example: Hoshi Sato plus Captain Benjamin Sisko gets you to three: Human, Scientist, and Officer.
Borg creatures count for nothing. If a creature is a Borg, federation skips it entirely, and none of its other creature types count either.
The same type on a non-Borg still counts. If you control a Borg Human and a regular Human, Human counts once, thanks to the regular one.
Federation is a typal mechanic turned inside out. Typal decks want 30 Elves. Federation wants one Human, one Android, one Vulcan, one Ferengi, and somebody who's both a Scientist and an Officer. For a franchise built on a crew of different species working together, that's good flavor.
How do assimilate and federation interact?
Every creature you assimilate becomes a Borg, and Borg creatures don't count for federation. So assimilate pulls creatures out of the federation count, period.
That plays out two ways at the table:
Assimilating an opponent's creature hurts their federation count and does nothing for yours. Steal their only Scientist, and they lose that type. You get a Borg body that federation ignores.
Borg creatures in your own federation deck are dead weight for the count. That includes anything you assimilate yourself. They can still attack and block. They just add zero to your type pool.
So the two mechanics really do play against each other. In a four-player Commander game, the Borg player is basically a walking federation-removal engine, and the Federation player should be the first one to point that out during table politics.
Rules questions you're going to hit
The biggest rules questions involve changelings, blink, commanders, and players leaving the game. The answers below come from the official mechanics article plus how the existing rules handle type-changing effects. Full release notes aren't out yet, so double-check once they post.
Do changelings count for federation?
No, and this one surprised me. Changeling gives a creature every creature type, and Borg is a creature type. That means every changeling is a Borg, so federation skips it completely. The card that sounds like the perfect federation enabler counts for zero.
Same trap with anything that makes your creatures every creature type. Maskwood Nexus in a federation deck turns your whole board Borg and drops your count to zero. Leave it in the binder.
What happens if you assimilate a changeling?
It ends up as just a Borg. Changeling sets its creature types first, then assimilate's type change applies on top and wipes everything except Borg.
Does an assimilated creature keep its creature-type abilities?
It keeps the abilities, but it loses the types those abilities might care about. An assimilated Sliver stops being a Sliver, so it stops getting buffs from Slivers that pump "Sliver creatures." Its own ability still works for whoever controls it, though.
What happens if you blink an assimilated creature?
It comes back as a brand new object with none of the assimilate changes. No Borg type, no artifact type, no +1/+1 counter. Who controls it afterward depends on the blink card's wording. Some say "under its owner's control," which hands the creature back to the player you took it from. Others say "under your control," which lets the Borg player keep it as a regular creature.
If you're the one who got assimilated, the usual "target creature you control" blinks won't help, because you don't control it anymore. You need something that can hit any permanent and returns it to its owner, like Flickerwisp. That gets your creature back, clean.
Can you assimilate an opponent's commander?
If it's sitting in a graveyard or on the battlefield and your card can target it, yes. It stays their commander the whole time. If it would die or get exiled, the owner can still send it to the command zone. Combat damage it deals still counts as commander damage from that commander, so yes, you can beat someone with their own commander. That one's going to start arguments.
Practically, most players move their commander to the command zone the moment it dies, so graveyard versions of assimilate will rarely get the chance.
How to build an assimilate deck
Build an assimilate deck around four things: full opponent graveyards, artifact payoffs, counter payoffs, and a way to cash in the creatures you steal.
Fill their graveyards. Graveyard assimilate is only as good as the targets available. Mill effects that hit opponents give Borg Queen better options. In Commander you're usually fine by the midgame, since removal and board wipes do the work for you.
Lean into the artifact half. Every assimilated creature becomes an artifact creature. That turns stolen creatures into fuel for artifact payoffs, anything that buffs artifact creatures, and anything that counts artifacts. You're building an artifact deck that stocks itself from other people's cards.
Lean into the counter half. Each assimilated creature shows up with a +1/+1 counter, so counter doublers and counter payoffs come along for free.
Sacrifice what you steal. A creature you took off an opponent's battlefield goes to its owner's graveyard when you sacrifice it. In a deck with graveyard assimilate, you can grab it again from there. Steal it, sacrifice it for value, assimilate it back. That loop is the most Borg thing I can think of.
Respect graveyard hate. Rest in Peace shuts off every graveyard version of assimilate. If your playgroup runs exile-based graveyard hate, play extra ways to take creatures off the battlefield.
The We Are the Borg Commander deck is the obvious starting point. Heads up for North American players: Wizards announced the Commander decks may arrive after the November 13th tabletop release, so don't plan your first Borg game night around launch weekend.
How to build a federation deck
Build a federation deck by collecting as many different creature types as you can and keeping Borg creatures out of it.
Count types per card. A creature with three types does triple duty. When you're choosing between two similar creatures, take the one with the longer type line.
Spread out on purpose. Duplicate types are wasted for federation. In Limited, track your count as you draft, the same way you'd track your curve. In Commander, singleton already pushes you toward variety, so you'll hit high numbers naturally if you avoid going heavy on any single type.
Keep Borg out. No changelings, no every-type effects, no assimilate. Anything that turns your creatures into Borg works against you.
Protect your type count. Board wipes reset you to zero, and the Borg player will pick off your unique types one at a time. A creature that's your only Scientist is worth protecting more than a third Human.
Pick up tokens with types you're missing. A token creature of a type you don't have yet adds to the count just like a card. Look for token makers that produce different types.
The Federation Fleet Commander deck is built around Picard and should give you a ready-made crew to start from.
Pick a side before you sit down
The cleanest way to play these two mechanics is to commit to one per deck. A federation deck that dips into assimilate shrinks its own count, and a Borg deck gets nothing from federation cards. If you're building for a four-player pod, the most fun setup might be one Borg player and one federation player at the same table, so the mechanics can fight the way they were designed to. Grab two precons and pick sides.
Assimilate and Federation mechanics FAQ
What does assimilate do in MTG Star Trek?
Assimilate puts a creature onto the battlefield under your control, or takes control of one already on the battlefield, and gives it a +1/+1 counter. The creature becomes a Borg artifact creature and loses all other creature types, but keeps its abilities, colors, and other card types.
What is federation in MTG Star Trek?
Federation is an ability word for abilities that count the number of different creature types among non-Borg creatures you control. Each type counts once no matter how many creatures share it.
Do assimilated creatures count for federation?
No. Assimilated creatures become Borg, and federation ignores Borg creatures entirely. Assimilating an opponent's creature also removes it from their federation count.
Do changelings count for federation?
No. Changelings have every creature type, including Borg, so federation does not count them at all.
What happens if you blink an assimilated creature?
It returns as a new object without the Borg type, the artifact type, or the +1/+1 counter. Whether it comes back under your control or its owner's depends on the blink card's wording.
Can you assimilate an opponent's commander in MTG?
Yes, if your assimilate effect can target it. It remains its owner's commander, the owner can still move it to the command zone if it would die or be exiled, and its combat damage still counts as commander damage.
Does assimilate change a creature's color?
No. Assimilate only changes creature types, adds the artifact card type, and adds a +1/+1 counter. Colors, abilities, and mana value stay the same.
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