Murder

Instant

Destroy target creature.

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
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (43)

plakjekaas on How Do I Explain to …

2 weeks ago

That is true, just like a gun makes a better tool for murder than a knife, Strip Mine is a better tool for salt than Murder, but neither will stop someone with bad intentions.

However, touching the lands in casual formats does come across as a bigger a*hole move than removing a creature or an artifact, or even counterspells. Armageddon is generally more hated than Farewell in that context.

Lands make you play the game, you're not removing my permanent with Strip Mine, you're hampering the ability for me to cast my spells and play the game. Most casuals will get more mad for being prohibited to play than to have your plays answered. Mana screw is a feel bad, but external intentional mana screw is rage-inducing.

Gidgetimer on Targeting rules

1 month ago

There is a rules Q&A on the site, it has some added functionality like the ability to choose an answer and is frequented by some highly knowledgeable users so your question will get answered and the answers will be double checked by the other knowledgeable users. I'm sure one of the mods will move the thread soon.

You seem to have a couple of misconceptions here, so I'm going to try and address all of them in a way that makes it easy to understand what is going on.

Once targets are chosen for a spell or ability the targets will not change (unless another spell or ability instructs someone to change the targets). If, when a spell or ability resolves, none of the declared targets are legal (this could be because they no longer exist) the spell will simply fizzle.

Spells and abilities resolve one at a time in "First In, Last Out" (FILO) order and there is a round of priority when new spells or abilities can be added to the stack between each object resolving.

Once a spell or ability starts to resolve it resolves completely before anything else can resolve.

If a card changes game zones and then returns to a previous zone, it is a new game object with no relation to its previous existence.

Using card names to make this easier to track what would happen in the scenario you are asking about:

An opponent casts Murder targeting your Gutter Skulk.

You cast Undying Malice targeting Gutter Skulk.

Undying Malice resolves. (FILO order)

You sacrifice Gutter Skulk to Ashnod's Altar to make mana.

Delayed trigger created by Undying Malice goes on the stack.

Delayed trigger resolves returning Gutter Skulk to the battlefield. (FILO order)

Murder attempts to resolve and fizzles because none of its declared targets are legal. (Spells can't retarget without an effect changing the targets; Gutter Skulk on board has no relation to the gutter skulk that was targeted)

RiotRunner789 on Choosing Equipment-based Card Draw in …

1 month ago

Fire and Ice is the best. The added evasion can also help it to get through (pro red being a bonus against the other flying heavy tribe, dragons). The Shock in commander doesn't always help a bunch but there are plenty of utility creatures to Murder.

Infiltration lens is terrible unless you have a slew of ways to force them to block.

The other two are solid budget options.

Edit: Mask of Memory is better than the gloves. White does have recursion but even without, the mask let's you sculpt your hand much more efficiently. Pitching a land in hand you don't need to draw two is better than just draw one. Plus, it uses less mana.

DemonDragonJ on Why Was Murder Investigation Not …

5 months ago

WotC reprinted Murder in Murders at Karlov Manor, because it was only too appropriate for that set, so I find it to be very weird that Murder Investigation was not reprinted, as well, considering that the central story of the set involves solving a murder; or was that the actual reason, because that card suggests that the murder and investigation are only a minor part of the story, while this set has those as the main events? If that is the case, surely, WotC could have reprinted that card in one of the Commander decks?

What does everyone else say about this? Why did WotC not reprint Murder Investigation in Murders at Karlov Manor?

solarem on Smeagol will guide you | **Primer v2.0**

6 months ago

Hey dnthymamai, thanks for the suggestions. Right now I'm working on a new list, which is nearly finished. There won't be a Murder in it anymore (;

It will soon(tm) be finished to my liking and will be updated here along the new Version of the Primer I'm writing for it.

dnthymamai on Smeagol will guide you | **Primer v2.0**

6 months ago

Some cards to consider that can replace Murder: Poison the Cup , Murderous Rider , Putrefy, and the strictly better Hero's Downfall.

Love the LotR theme of the Deck!

Rhadamanthus on What happens when Vapor Snag …

7 months ago

The land will be returned to your hand, you will lose 1 life, and Harmonious Emergence will go to your graveyard. Here's why:

• Because Harmonious emergence turns the land into a creature, that makes the land a legal target for Vapor Snag
• Harmonious Emergence's last ability only applies if something would actually "destroy" the enchanted land, meaning an effect that specifically says "destroy" (Murder, etc.) or a lethal amount of damage being dealt to it (the rules of the game say lethal damage "destroys" a creature). That isn't what's happening here
• If an Aura is on the battlefield but somehow not attached to a legal object as defined by its "Enchant [something]" ability, then it's put into its owner's graveyard

wallisface on

7 months ago

Some thoughts:

• don’t include either of those sideboard cards into your deck, they’re bad.

• Profane Tutor is much better than both Grim Tutor and Diabolic Tutor. I’d just run the Profane Tutor and ditch both of these other tutors entirely in favour of more early game interaction (killspells).

• your land count of 28 seems good, especially as Cabal Coffers ”isn’t a land” and won’t be helping you at-all until you have 3 other lands in play anyway. However, you could replace some swamps with Troll of Khazad-dum, as they can act both as land-fetches early game, and large creatures late game.

• if you’re planning on making big mana, Tainted Adversary is going to be a lot more useful than Gifted Aetherborn.

• you never want to be paying more than 2 mana for a killspell. In that vein i’d recommend either Infernal Grasp, Bloodchief's Thirst, or Sheoldred's Edict instead of Murder.

• I don’t think Hypnotic Specter is very useful - a lot of decks will already be empty handed by their own play-patterns before this thing swings. I’d swap it for one of the before-mentioned killspells (or Damnation),… if you really want a creature, maybe something like Tourach, Dread Cantor.

I think the biggest hurdle to this deck is that while you’re probably going to be able to play a land every turn, that’s still pretty slow ramp-wise, so you should be investing a lot more resources into ensuring you can slow the game down in those early turns (by killing your opponents threats) so that you can reliably do stuff with your big spells in the late game.