Assimilate is a keyword action from Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek. When you assimilate a creature, you gain control of it or put the creature card onto the battlefield under your control. Either way it gets a +1/+1 counter and becomes a Borg artifact creature that loses all its other creature types. It keeps its name, colors and abilities.
Updated September 25, 2026. Wizards has not published the Star Trek release notes yet, so the rulings section below is our reading of the printed text under Magic's current rules. We will check it against the official notes the week they go up.
What is assimilate in MTG?
Assimilate is the Borg mechanic, and it does exactly what the Borg do on screen: it takes an enemy and makes it part of the collective. The first card to print it is Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest, and this is its reminder text, word for word:
"Put it onto the battlefield under your control with a +1/+1 counter. It's a Borg artifact creature and loses all other creature types."
In plain English: you steal a creature, it comes to your side a little bigger, and it turns into a Borg robot. Wizards' first-look article says the keyword action covers two versions, one that takes a creature already on the battlefield and one that pulls a creature card onto the battlefield (the Borg Queen's version pulls from an opponent's graveyard).
Assimilate key facts
What it is: a keyword action (a verb, like scry or mill), not a keyword ability.
First card with it: Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest, a {4}{B}{B} 1/4 legendary Borg Noble mythic from the black Star Trek Welcome Deck (released August 5, 2026).
Main home: the We Are the Borg Commander deck, Esper (white, blue, black), led by the Borg Queen. MSRP $74.99, or $159.99 for the Collector's Edition. Our guide to all four Star Trek Commander decks covers the other three.
Dates: prereleases November 6 to 12, MTG Arena November 10, tabletop release November 13, 2026.
Official rules: the Star Trek release notes are not out yet (as of September 25). Wizards usually posts them just before prerelease.
Legality: the Borg Queen carries the Commander-side TRC set code, so plan on Commander and eternal formats, not Standard.
How does assimilate work, step by step?
Here is how the graveyard version on Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest resolves:
The ability triggers and targets. When the Borg Queen enters, you choose a creature card in an opponent's graveyard. If you can't find a legal target, the trigger does nothing.
Everyone gets to respond. If that card leaves the graveyard before the trigger resolves (exiled with graveyard hate, for example), the trigger has no legal target and fizzles. The Queen stays on the battlefield either way.
The card enters under your control with a +1/+1 counter. It enters with the counter already on it, so it is never on the battlefield without it.
It becomes a Borg artifact creature. It adds the artifact type and the Borg creature type and loses every other creature type. Its name, colors, mana value, other card types, supertypes (like legendary) and abilities stay the same.
Its enters triggers fire for you. You control it as it enters, so its own "when this enters" abilities trigger under your control, and so do your "whenever an artifact enters" and "whenever a creature enters" payoffs.
It has summoning sickness. It can't attack or use tap abilities this turn unless it has haste.
It stays yours until it leaves the battlefield. Then it goes to its owner's graveyard, hand or exile, as a brand new object with no memory of being Borg.
Assimilate rulings and edge cases
These follow from the printed text and existing rules. They are our reading, not official rulings, until the release notes publish.
Colors don't change. A red creature you assimilate is still red. Assimilate changes types only, so color-matters cards still see its real color.
Card types stack, creature types get replaced. An enchantment creature becomes an enchantment artifact creature. A Human Wizard becomes just a Borg.
Changelings end up as only Borg. Changeling grants every creature type first, then assimilate strips all but Borg. Our reading, pending release notes.
Legendary still matters. If you assimilate a legendary creature and already control one with the same name, the legend rule makes you keep only one.
Tokens can't be assimilated from the graveyard. A token that dies stops existing, so the graveyard version only finds real cards.
Commanders are rarely available. When a commander would go to the graveyard, its owner can move it to the command zone instead, and almost everyone does. If one is left in the graveyard and you assimilate it, it is still that player's commander. Combat damage it deals still counts as commander damage from that commander, and its owner can send it back to the command zone when it would leave the battlefield.
If you leave the game, it leaves with you. In multiplayer, when you lose or concede, anything you control but don't own is exiled. If its owner leaves the game, the card leaves the game with them.
The control-changing version is still unrevealed. Wizards says assimilate can also take control of a creature on the battlefield, but no card with that wording has been shown yet, so how long that control lasts is unconfirmed.
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Assimilate examples
Example 1: stealing a Titan. An opponent's Grave Titan died to a board wipe. You cast the Borg Queen and target it. Grave Titan enters under your control as a 7/7 Borg artifact creature (6/6 plus the counter), and the Queen's "Artifact creatures you control get +2/+0" makes it a 9/7. Its enters trigger gives you two 2/2 black Zombie tokens. The tokens are regular Zombies, not Borg, because only the assimilated creature changes type.
Example 2: the response. Same board, but your opponent holds Relic of Progenitus. With the Queen's trigger on the stack, they exile their graveyard. The Titan is gone, the trigger fizzles, and you are left with a 6-mana 1/4. This is the real cost of the graveyard version: it is only as good as what is left in their yard when the trigger resolves.
Example 3: the flicker trap. You assimilated a creature and later blink it with Ephemerate to reuse its enters trigger. Blink effects return a card "under its owner's control", so it goes back to your opponent as a normal, non-Borg creature. Blink your own cards, not the ones you stole.
Which cards have assimilate?
As of September 25, 2026, exactly one revealed card has assimilate: Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest ({4}{B}{B}, 1/4, "Artifact creatures you control get +2/+0", assimilates a creature card from an opponent's graveyard when it enters). EDHREC's first-look recap reports that assimilate appears only in the black Welcome Deck and the We Are the Borg Commander deck, so expect the rest of the assimilate cards to come with that decklist. We will add each one here as it is revealed.
The set also has Borg cards that don't assimilate but make assimilated creatures better, since each one is an artifact creature:
Bio-Asset Allocator (rare, TRC): artifact creatures you control drain each opponent for 1 whenever they attack.
Hive Mind Coprocessor (uncommon): artifact creatures you control can pay 1 life to draw a card when they deal combat damage to a player.
Collective Drone (uncommon): its power equals the number of artifact creatures you control.
Assault Drone (common): artifact creatures you control get +1/+0.
Organic Avulsion Unit (uncommon): {2} gives your artifact creatures menace until end of turn.
Best assimilate cards for Commander
With one assimilate card revealed, the best assimilate deck today is built from the Borg Queen plus cards that do the same job. Colors below stay inside Esper so they fit the We Are the Borg precon. Our We Are the Borg upgrade guide has the full list with budget picks.
Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest: the anthem and the steal in one card. It goes in any Borg deck.
Sepulchral Primordial: the Queen's effect once for each opponent. One creature from every opponent's graveyard, all at once.
Grave Betrayal: every creature an opponent loses comes back on your side with a +1/+1 counter. Assimilate as an enchantment.
Animate Dead and Reanimate: both can target any graveyard, so they grab opponents' bombs for one or two mana.
Rise of the Dark Realms: the finisher. Every creature card in every graveyard comes to your side.
Steel Overseer: puts a +1/+1 counter on every artifact creature you control each turn, and assimilated creatures count.
Master of Etherium: other artifact creatures get +1/+1, and it grows with every creature you assimilate.
Altar of Dementia: a free sac outlet that mills an opponent, filling the graveyard you want to assimilate from.
How does assimilate interact with common Commander effects?
+1/+1 counter doublers: the creature enters with its counter, and that counts as a counter being put on it. Doubling Season and Hardened Scales apply, and proliferate adds more.
Clones: a Clone copying an assimilated creature copies the original card only. It is not Borg, not an artifact, and has no counter, because type-changing effects and counters are not copied.
Blink: the creature returns under its owner's control, as in Example 3.
Sacrifice and death triggers: it dies like any creature, so your Blood Artist style triggers fire. It then goes to its owner's graveyard, where you can take it again.
Graveyard hate: Rest in Peace empties the graveyards the Queen needs, and Grafdigger's Cage stops creature cards from entering the battlefield from graveyards at all. Both shut down the graveyard version.
Artifact removal: once assimilated, the creature is an artifact, so Vandalblast and other artifact removal can hit it.
Federation: Star Trek's Federation ability word counts creature types among your non-Borg creatures, so anything you assimilate stops counting toward it.
Is assimilate good?
Yes, in Commander. Stealing from three opponents' graveyards means there is usually a good target by the midgame, and the stolen creature comes back bigger and on your side. The Borg Queen's version costs six mana for a 1/4, which is a lot to pay if the graveyards are empty or someone has graveyard hate ready. On an early turn it can whiff. Later in the game it is closer to a Sepulchral Primordial with an anthem attached. The control-changing version on the battlefield, once revealed, could be stronger, because it doesn't depend on graveyards at all.
What deck uses assimilate?
The We Are the Borg Commander deck is built around it: Esper, led by the Borg Queen, with Borg artifact creatures that buff each other the way Slivers do. The only other product with assimilate is the black Welcome Deck. Compare all four precons in our Star Trek Commander decks guide, or see the full upgrade plan in the We Are the Borg upgrade guide. If the Borg aren't for you, the other three decks have their own guides too: Federation Fleet, Landing Party and Klingon Fury.
Where can you play assimilate cards?
Star Trek comes in two parts. The main set, TRK, is Standard legal. The Commander side, TRC, is legal only in Commander and the other eternal formats. The Borg Queen is printed as a TRC card, so it won't be in Standard. The Hobbit used the same main-set and Commander-set split. Every date through 2027 is on our MTG release calendar.
Frequently asked questions
What does assimilate do in MTG?
You gain control of a creature, or put a creature card onto the battlefield under your control. It gets a +1/+1 counter and becomes a Borg artifact creature that loses its other creature types. The first card with it, Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest, takes a creature card from an opponent's graveyard.
Is assimilate a keyword ability?
No. Wizards calls it a keyword action, the same category as scry, mill and surveil. It is something a spell or ability tells you to do, not something a creature has.
Does an assimilated creature keep its abilities?
Yes. It keeps its name, colors, mana value and every ability, including enters triggers, which trigger for you. Only its creature types change (to just Borg), and it becomes an artifact.
What happens when an assimilated creature dies?
It goes to its owner's graveyard as a normal card. It is no longer Borg or an artifact, and it loses the counter. Because it went back to an opponent's graveyard, another assimilate effect can take it again.
Can you assimilate an opponent's commander?
Only if it is in their graveyard, and most players move their commander to the command zone instead. If you do take it, it is still their commander, so the damage it deals counts as commander damage from that commander. Its owner can send it back to the command zone when it would leave the battlefield.
Does assimilate work with Doubling Season?
Yes, based on current rules. A creature that enters with a +1/+1 counter gets that counter doubled by Doubling Season, or gets one extra from Hardened Scales. We will confirm it against the Star Trek release notes when they publish.
Is Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest the We Are the Borg commander?
Not as far as we know. Perfection Manifest is mono-black and comes from the black Welcome Deck. The We Are the Borg face commander is an Esper Borg Queen whose card text has not been revealed yet.
Is assimilate in Standard?
The only assimilate card revealed so far has the TRC Commander set code, so it won't be Standard legal. That could change if an assimilate card turns up in the main TRK set.
Sources: Wizards: Collecting Star Trek, a first look, Wizards: Star Trek Welcome Decks, EDHREC first-look recap, MTG Wiki: Assimilate. Card text as revealed September 25, 2026. Rulings are SparkMTG's reading until the official release notes publish.
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