Assassin's Trophy

Instant

Destroy target permanent an opponent controls. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle their library.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

hyalopterouslemur on Bottom-up deck design

3 weeks ago

Technically, it's top, bottom, top, bottom, but that's harder to say.

Step 1: Create a deck concept, and choose a Commander. You can do either first, but you must do both before continuing.

Step 2: Nuts and bolts So this is your stuff you need: Removal/counterspells, draw, ramp, wipes, recursion, tutors, protection, and land destruction. Here we're looking for reasonable overlap with our deck concept, and with each other. Boundless Realms is not a ramp spell; it's a landfall enabler. Spread the Sickness is a proliferate spell that happens to kill a creature. Rhystic StudyGC is a Stax piece, pretty much until an opponent plays a wincon.

Step 3: Themes So, these are the cards that make our deck unique. Again, look for overlap between your themes, and continue to look for overlap with your necessities; that's where infinite combos are born.

Step 4: Lands There really isn't much here. Like. if you're hating nonbasic lands with [card:Back to Basics]] or Ruination or the like, you should probably limit yourself to five nonbasic lands at most. On the flip side, if you're in four or five colors, maybe limit yourself to exact;y ten basic lands so you have something to play with if someone drops a Path to Exile or Assassin's Trophy or Boseiju, Who Endures. You can just use an algorithm to find your ideal land configuration for properly matched mana. And be aware, if you're in 3+ colors and playing mostly basics, something like Bolas's CitadelGC or March of the World Ooze or Twilight Shepherd or Garruk, Primal Hunter or NecropotenceGC is unlikely to be hardcast.

Step 5: Testing and revisions The final step. Test your deck. Goldfish. Play it against friends. Make revisions where it's weak.

Does anyone else make decks like this?

lohow9608 on Faceless Menace PreCon

2 months ago

Add: Arcane Signet, Assassin's Trophy, Beast Within, Break Down the Door, Brine Elemental, Broodhatch Nantuko, Cyber Conversion, Dreamroot Cascade, Drowned Catacomb, Echo Tracer, Equilibrium, Etrata, Deadly Fugitive, Exit Specialist, Experiment Twelve, Hauntwoods Shrieker, Hinterland Harbor, Ixidor, Reality Sculptor, Kozilek, the Broken Reality, Obscuring Aether, Overwhelming Forces, Panoptic Projektor, Primordial Mist, Printlifter Ooze, Roshan, Hidden Magister, Simic Signet, Thought Vessel, Threats Around Every Corner, Ugin's Mastery, Ugin, Eye of the Storms, Vannifar, Evolved Enigma, Whisperwood Elemental, Wilderness Reclamation, Woodland Cemetery, Yedora, Grave Gardener, Zoetic Cavern

Hydr0x on The Hidden Tree-Folk with sideboard

2 months ago

Woodfall Primus is actually able to return each time it gets knocked out, this helps because utilizing the Assassin's Trophy like you've suggested, will ultimately cause the opponent to have the bonus lands destroyed, and both The Great Henge and Earthbender Ascension remove the '-1/-1 counter'.

DragonMaster420 on The Hidden Tree-Folk with sideboard

2 months ago

Ignoble Hierarch, Arbor Elf, Utopia Sprawl, Verdant Catacombs, Overgrown Tomb, Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy.

SyntheticEvil13 on Gruul Hardened Scales

3 months ago

Thank you DragonMaster420! It was late when I entered the info. I thought that I had gone back over everything, but I somehow missed that, lol.

I agree that Snakeskin Veil and Revitalizing Repast are interesting options, especially because +1/+1 counters matter so much in Hardened Scales. That said, I would not automatically call them better than Tamiyo's Safekeeping.

The big advantage of Tamiyo's Safekeeping is that it protects any permanent, not just a creature. That means it can protect cards like Hardened Scales, The Ozolith, Urza's Saga, Inkmoth Nexus, Agatha's Soul Cauldron, or a key creature. That flexibility matters a lot. Snakeskin Veil adding a +1/+1 counter is nice, but being creature only is a real limitation.

The idea of dropping red and moving into black is not crazy in theory, but I think that becomes a different deck. Black gives access to cards like Winding Constrictor, Abrupt Decay, and Assassin's Trophy, which are definitely strong. But red is not only here for Whipflare. Red also gives access to Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp's sacrifice ability, which is very relevant for modular lines, The Ozolith, and moving counters around at the right time.

DragonMaster420 on Gruul Hardened Scales

3 months ago

the sideboard has 16 cards in it. i think Snakeskin Veil and Revitalizing Repast would be better than Tamiyo's Safekeeping. if Whipflare is going to be your only red card, you might as well drop the red. black would give you access to Winding Constrictor, Abrupt Decay, and Assassin's Trophy

DragonMaster420 on Clan's Tenacity

6 months ago

you'll want good removal like Abrupt Decay or Assassin's Trophy. probably trade the swindler for Badgermole Cub. marsh, glade, and wastes can be traded for basic lands. they'll etb tapped at inopportune times and the life loss isn't worth it.

pyyraus on Yurlok of Scorch Thrash Mana Burn

7 months ago

The mana base needs some improvement. Playing only 33 lands is not enough in a deck that cares about lands as much as this one does. All the land mana doublers are more and more powerful with every additional land- up to a point, but you're well away from that. I'd try to go to at least 37 and up to 39 with the current amount of lands-matter cards. Specifically adding some basic lands so you can get more out of cards like Lavaleaper which currently only works with three cards in your deck. This would also encourage adding more land ramp spells like Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. I would recommend switching to these spells independent of any other details of the deck because you can easily remove cards like Arcane Signet and Chromatic Lantern to make room for instants and sorceries; I personally almost never run Chromatic Lantern in green decks because of these spells. I also think you can drop Animist's Awakening for a more consistent spell like Three Visits, Skyshroud Claim, Migration Path, or even Hour of Promise. It's an okay mana sink but it's not great when in the early turns when you need to get lands but don't have mana to put in. And when you have a lot of mana, you don't necessarily more lands. I think the few mana dorks you have are good and you're not running the more redundant ones like Elvish Mystic, etc.

I think the deck's removal package is solid but could use a few more targeted non-creature removal spells to work with Assassin's Trophy- currently, the only card that can really hits those; maybe good ol' Beast Within? I do like Comet Storm as a mana sink & removal in one card but I don't think it fits the wrath slot as it's more of a multi-targeted removal spell. That doesn't necessarily drop it but I strongly recommend at least one more consistent wrath for a more passive deck like this; Blasphemous Act and Damnation off the top of my head are solid.

Apart from that, I feel like there is a good mix of mana sinks and sluggey effects at the core and the card draw and is good. However, I think it can be improved by dropping some miscellaneous cards to make room for improvements to the aforementioned categories.

• Vexing Shusher/Destiny Spinner: this is a good ability but Hexing Squelcher is better and I don't think you need this much redundancy especially since these only protect from a single, impactful granted, type of threat

• Heartstone: this doesn't reduce Yurlock's ability due to the wording- does it work with something else I'm missing?

• Regrowth: Eternal Witness is honestly just better because it comes with a body

• Leyline of Abundance: I don't think this is really worth it with only four creatures that add mana; I think 8 mana is a bit awkward for a mana sink and the counter aren't super great in a deck that doesn't like combat that much

• Scytheclaw Raptor: I'm not definitively recommending you to drop this but it seems a bit weak on paper

• Torment of Hailfire/Exsanguinate: at least one pls :(