Star Trek’s Borg Give Old Artifact Creatures New Abilities

Star Trek gives 11 Borg cards abilities that apply to every artifact creature you control, allowing Thopters and Constructs to join the hive without becoming Borg. That choice makes the new creatures useful alongside cards from Antiquities through The Brothers' War, rather than requiring a deck full of Star Trek characters.

The set releases on November 13, 2026, with a Borg draft archetype and a Commander deck, We Are the Borg. Wizards announced the preconstructed deck in its October 29 decklist announcement; the main-set drones offer cheaper ways to give an existing artifact-creature army new jobs.

The Borg Share Abilities Beyond Their Creature Type

Scryfall’s Borg card catalogue lists 33 distinct cards on November 6, 2026: 14 in Star Trek and 19 in its Commander release. The main set has 6 mono- Borg, 7 mono- Borg and 1 Borg. Its rarity distribution is 4 commons, 6 uncommons and 4 rares, with no mythics.

The Commander cards expand into , include the colorless Reconnaissance Partition, and comprise 16 rares and 3 mythics. Across both releases, 11 Borg use a static effect giving artifact creatures an ability; Organic Avulsion Unit is a twelfth ability-sharing card, but requires an activation to grant menace. Another 4 Borg grant power/toughness bonuses instead.

Command Subadjunct demonstrates the distinction for : it gives artifact creatures vigilance, including itself. Chief of the Foundry is the older comparison, supporting the same card-type category with a power boost. You can put both beside Steel Overseer without caring whether the rest of the battlefield consists of Borg, Myr or Thopters.

Gavin Verhey identified as Borg artifact creatures in Wizards’ October 23 design article. The main set contains 34 artifact creatures and 12 artifact-creature-synergy cards, so the drones have non-Borg partners even within their own Limited environment.

Assimilate Changes Who Belongs

Wizards’ October 20 mechanics explanation presents assimilate as a keyword action that recruits an opponent’s creature into the Collective. Borg Cube carries the full reminder text for assimilating a card outside the battlefield:

To assimilate a card, 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.

For a creature already on the battlefield, you gain control of it first, then add the counter and make the type changes. Its other card types, supertypes and noncreature subtypes remain. Assimilating a legendary creature does not remove legendary, and the action does not inherently make control temporary.

8 cards use assimilate. The main set has Borg Cube and Death Is Irrelevant. Commander adds The Borg Queen, Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest, Assimilation Assessor, Assimilate the Wounded, Gift of Perfection and The Best of Both Worlds. The last is a deliberate exception to permanent recruitment: its final chapter exiles the assimilated Borg and returns it under its owner’s control.

Control Magic supplies the familiar theft comparison; Liquimetal Coating supplies the artifact conversion, temporarily making any permanent an artifact in addition to its other types. Assimilate combines those ideas with a counter and a replacement creature identity. Karn, Silver Golem and Sydri, Galvanic Genius work from the opposite direction, turning noncreature artifacts into creatures rather than recruiting an opponent’s creature.

The immediate consequence is mechanical membership. A stolen creature becomes eligible for Command Subadjunct’s vigilance, Steel Overseer’s counters and every other effect that checks for an artifact creature. Ordinary creature theft does not give you those connections.

Artifact Creatures Have Decades of Support

Antiquities established the foundation with 17 artifact creatures, including Ornithopter. In his March 15, 2021 history, Mark Rosewater described it as Magic’s first mechanically themed expansion, with nearly every nonland card either an artifact or referencing artifacts. Mishra’s Factory extended the army into the mana base.

Urza’s block added 19 printed artifact creatures: 8 in Urza’s Saga, 4 in Urza’s Legacy and 7 in Urza’s Destiny. Karn, Silver Golem let noncreature artifacts participate in combat, while Urza’s Destiny supplied Metalworker and Junk Diver. The Borg can inherit those creatures without inheriting their creature types.

Mirrodin made artifacts the block’s central structure. Rosewater’s March 2, 2026 design account explains that affinity for artifacts originally appeared in more colors before being narrowed for release. Darksteel alone has 31 artifact creatures and Fifth Dawn has 23; modular, exemplified by Arcbound Ravager, made an artifact creature’s death a way to move counters onto another.

Scars of Mirrodin block contains 86 artifact creatures: 39 in Scars of Mirrodin, 25 in Mirrodin Besieged and 22 in New Phyrexia. Metalcraft rewarded controlling 3 artifacts, as Rosewater explained on October 18, 2010. That condition counted equipment and mana artifacts alongside creatures, a broader requirement than the Borg’s creature-focused rewards.

Kaladesh has 25 printed artifact creatures, but that count excludes the Servo tokens made by fabricate and Vehicles that become creatures when crewed. In his October 3, 2016 design column, Rosewater explained that energy, Vehicles and fabricate expressed technology without directly rewarding artifact counts. Individual cards supplied those incentives.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has 44 artifact creatures, including reconfigure cards that normally stop being creatures while attached. The Brothers' War has 55, with prototype offering smaller casting options and Powerstones helping pay for artifact spells. Phyrexia: All Will Be One has 25, plus Phyrexian Mite artifact-creature tokens. Printed-creature counts describe only part of the army the Borg can support.

Affinity Made Artifact Density Dangerous

Mirrodin Standard Affinity made each artifact do several jobs. Artifact lands produced mana while discounting affinity spells, then became food for Arcbound Ravager and damage through Disciple of the Vault. The magic.gg historical account traces how Skullclamp let the deck draw toward those payoffs before its Standard and Block Constructed bans in June 2004.

Cranial Plating replaced Skullclamp as a major payoff, and Affinity remained dominant. Arcbound Ravager, Disciple of the Vault and all 6 artifact lands were banned in Standard in March 2005. That history explains why a cheap artifact creature needs scrutiny even when its individual ability looks modest: it may also discount spells, enable mana and carry the deck’s damage.

Modern Affinity used Ornithopter and Memnite to establish artifact count, with Arcbound Ravager and Cranial Plating turning small bodies into threats. Mox Opal was banned on January 13, 2020, then unbanned on December 16, 2024. The later versions described by magic.gg lean more heavily on Thought Monitor and Kappa Cannoneer than the classic combat package.

Pauper Affinity has repeatedly survived losing payoffs. Sojourner’s Companion, Atog and Disciple of the Vault were banned before All That Glitters followed on May 13, 2024; the Pauper Format Panel’s explanation singled out sudden, polarizing attacks. Current guides instead describe discounted creatures such as Myr Enforcer and Refurbished Familiar, supported by Thoughtcast and Reckoner’s Bargain.

Hammer Time uses some of the same bodies for a different purpose. Its Modern deck guide describes Ornithopter carrying Colossus Hammer, with Puresteel Paladin or Sigarda’s Aid bypassing the expensive equip cost. Stoneforge Mystic and Urza’s Saga find the equipment. A Borg must improve that attack or its resilience to justify a slot; being an artifact creature is only the entry requirement.

Slivers Share Abilities, Phyrexians Convert Bodies

Slivers are the closest mechanical relatives. In his December 2, 2024 Tempest account, Rosewater traced Mike Elliott’s designs to Plague Rats, replacing shared stat growth with shared abilities. Their hive-mind flavor explained why one creature learning to form wings could let the others fly.

The Borg use the controller-limited model that Slivers adopted in Magic 2014, rather than helping opposing creatures too. Rosewater explained that change in Sliver Pâté on July 1, 2013. The important difference is membership: a Sliver reward checks a creature type, while Command Subadjunct checks two card types. Metallic Sliver can receive both kinds of support.

Phyrexians supply the closer villain comparison. Rosewater explicitly compared their unrelenting drive to the Borg in his October 4, 2010 column, describing propagation as their singular goal. Wizards’ January 31, 2023 lore guide describes glistening oil preparing bodies for compleation, with organic matter replaced by machinery and varying amounts of intelligence retained.

That differs from the group consciousness Wizards assigns the Borg. Nor is compleated the rules equivalent of assimilate: on planeswalkers, it trades paying life for fewer starting loyalty counters. Asked on October 31, 2026 whether Phyrexians might use assimilate, Rosewater answered, “There’s a possibility.” That leaves the door open without announcing its return.

Artifact Rewards Need Not Be Parasitic

Rosewater defined parasitic design in Design 103 on November 6, 2006 as overly self-contained ideas that push players toward a tiny subset of cards. A theme can encourage concentrated deckbuilding without being that narrow. Rewarding artifact creatures is restrictive, but the available partners stretch from Ornithopter to Breya, Etherium Shaper.

We think the Borg’s card-type requirement is the right choice because it preserves the shared-ability identity while letting players keep their existing artifact creatures. Rosewater was a playtester rather than a member of Star Trek’s design team, as he wrote on October 20, 2026; the mechanical case for that openness is visible in the cards themselves.

The Borg With Roles Beyond Limited

Collation Trimatrix is our strongest potential Constructed engine among the cheap drones. For , it lets you tap 3 untapped artifact creatures to draw a card and lose 1 life, without spending mana on the activation. Its drawback is exacting: equipment and artifact lands cannot pay that cost unless they are also creatures.

Collation Trimatrix

Artifact Creature — Borg

Tap three untapped artifact creatures you control: You draw a card and lose 1 life.

$1.09 · €7.77

Command Subadjunct makes that engine easier to use after attacking. Cast it on turn 1, Assembly Specialist on turn 2 and Collation Trimatrix on turn 3: your earlier creatures can attack with vigilance, then supply the 3 untapped artifact creatures for a card. Locutus, the One Who Speaks is the more direct aggressive payoff, costing for a team-wide +1/+1 bonus.

Antagonist Incorporator costs and turns each connecting artifact creature into a potential Borg token for another . We prefer it in Commander, where flying Thopters can repeatedly connect, over Hammer Time’s concentrated equipment kill. Assembly Specialist supplies 2 artifact bodies immediately; Tenacious Drone, a common costing , leaves a token when it dies and offers Pauper the more relevant sacrifice role.

Hugh, First of Many is the most flexible new commander for an existing artifact collection. The four-mana legend gives artifact spells replicate , allowing you to copy Steel Overseer while casting it rather than retrieving it later with Osgir, the Reconstructor. Locutus of Borg costs the same amount and colors but favors combat, giving every artifact creature a token-making damage trigger.

Hugh, First of Many

Legendary Artifact Creature — Borg

Artifact spells you cast have replicate . (Whenever you cast an artifact spell, copy it for each time you paid its replicate cost. Each copy becomes a token.)

$14.46

The expensive legends serve different jobs. One, Borg Evolved is a seven-mana finisher, granting flying and double strike alongside vigilance, menace, lifelink and ward . The Borg Queen also costs 7 mana across , but supplies +2/+2 and an assimilated creature on entry and each attack. Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest costs , offers +2/+0 and recruits once from an opponent’s graveyard.

Breya, Etherium Shaper supplies flying Thopters for Antagonist Incorporator and bodies for Collation Trimatrix. Osgir, the Reconstructor can copy Borg support creatures, while Urza, Lord High Artificer can use the Co-Option Adjutant to turn its Construct’s combat damage into cards. Mishra, Eminent One’s temporary Warform can receive that same draw trigger.

Shorikai, Genesis Engine needs more care: its Pilot tokens are not artifacts. The Vehicle benefits while it is an artifact creature, but its token army does not automatically receive Borg abilities. Steel Overseer and Chief of the Foundry remain cleaner partners because their support already checks the same category.

First Prices Ahead of Release

Scryfall’s prerelease paper price history puts Command Subadjunct at $0.88 on November 5, 2026, down from $1.99 on October 25, 2026. The Borg Queen’s first recorded observation is $9.99 on November 5, 2026.

For the first Constructed lists after release, watch Collation Trimatrix and Locutus, the One Who Speaks: one rewards keeping 3 artifact creatures available, while the other turns the whole board into a faster attack. In Commander, Hugh, First of Many can start with an older artifact collection and copy the cards already doing its best work.