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
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
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	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 (44)

Hydr0x on Dragon Blitz

3 months ago

It seems like a good deck, I'd compare it to a mono-black deck, but instead of Murder you have a plethora of different methods, and the Dragons are hella cool... similar to a death touch agro build.

Optimator on

4 months ago

Cards to potentially cut:

Banefire - Dark Petition - Murder - Anthem of Rakdos - Death Wind - Hideous End - Foul-Tongue Invocation - Fall of the Hammer - all four Planeswalkers

Optimator on

4 months ago

If you like Rakdos dragons, which is a very fun color pair for them, you may want to check out Rivaz of the Claw as a commander. Comes out a lot earlier and can get you to your dragons sooner, along with some recursion. The mass Haste of your current commander is super convenient for dragon decks, though. If you switched commanders, you might want another effect or two that give haste. Lightning Greaves is classic. Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind is cute and could be an upgrade over another mana rock. Even the humble Fervor is playable in big-creature decks.

You have a great amount of ramp, but you may still want two more lands or two cheap (1 or 2 mana) draw spells, with such a high average CMC for the deck. For versatility, you could do two MDFCs like Shatterskull Smashing and Agadeem's Awakening for instance. Fell the Profane is good, Malakir Rebirth is good, Boggart Trawler could sneak in some graveyard hate, Kazuul's Fury could be cute and steal a game, Bloodsoaked Insight is decent in big-mana decks. Lands like Bonders' Enclave aren't amazing but can be nice in big-creature decks that make good mana (in a pinch).

Howling Mine could be upgraded to Palantir of Orthanc for safer card-draw. {B} has no shortage of good draw spells these days; cheap stuff like Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood can get you your earlier land drops for more consistency. I kind of like stuff like Ancient Craving and Damnable Pact in decks that get a lot of mana. Later in the game, stuff like Ambition's Cost or Seize the Spotlight or Syphon Mind could allow you a partial refill along with playing a second spell played from the new cards. "draw three/draw four" spells are underrated IMO. Depends on the deck.

Some people swear by lots of cheap draw cards, some prefer big-time hand-refillers, and some only like incremental draw like Phyrexian Arena and Outpost Siege. It depends on a lot of deck-building factors as well as personal taste. I kind of like effects like Phyrexian Arena because it could come out early, before all the big dragons. Then again, Phyrexian Arena feels way worse on turn 12 than Ancient Craving. They all have their place.

Big scary dragons tempt boardwipes a lot. It's the psychology of Commander. In big-creature decks that can't prevent wraths (An Offer You Can't Refuse) or make all your creatures resist them (Heroic Intervention/Dawn's Truce), I am a big fan of mass-reanimation effects like Haunting Voyage, Rise of the Dark Realms, Behold the Sinister Six!, and Bloodline Bidding. Could be worth considering running a silver-bullet copy of one of those. Makes mass-haste effects real nice.

Personally, I don't love Planeswalkers in big-creature decks. I feel like I always want to attack with the big guys so it's hard to defend the Planeswalkers. I have a Saheeli, the Gifted deck (Junk in the Trunk) and it's pretty easy to protect her with all the thopters and servos. In my experience, opponents like to attack open Planeswalkers for the value, even if they aren't huge threats.

In big-mana decks, I actually still really like In Garruk's Wake. Big shout-out for you running Cut / Ribbons. Love that card. All is Dust could be nice since you have so many strong artifacts. It's nice to punish a boardwipe with another, bigger boardwipe. Bedevil is a potential upgrade over some of your other removal. Be sure to note Baleful Mastery too. Soul Shatter is better than things like Murder. Untimely Malfunction does double-duty as removal. No Mercy is nice in big-creature decks as well. Mudslide is cute in dragon decks.

Kcin on Why are These Cards Banned …

5 months ago

As a player of Drannith MagistrateGC, I definitely disagree with banning him. He is strong, and therefore a massive removal target. Yes, he can shut players and certain strategies down but he "dies to removal" (not to be cliched, but it is true). He dies to Murder, Dismember, all destroy all creatures type board wipes, he can be Counterspelled, Lightning Bolted, Swords to Plowsharesed, or Path to Exiled. He is strong but fragile. I am lucky if he sticks for even one turn, much less a full cycle of turns. And I use Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC for the one commander deck he is in. So I have plenty of protection and counters to keep him. Even with all that, it's still a huge target and really hard for me to keep him. In the mulitplayer sense of commander, if your pod allows him to stay, and does not provide any answers to him, they deserve to lose because of him. He FORCES your opponents to waste resources, he is a key stax piece for resource denial, forced resource mis-management, and he can also allow for your beaters to stick around more, by forcing removal spells to be used on him instead of something like Consecrated SphinxGC or similar.

RiotRunner789 on How Many Players Use the …

6 months ago

Ramp comes from Rampant Growth. It's mtg game lingo as much as saying Murder for any single-target creature kill spell.

I use ramp and don't see mana people use acceleration. Though, it doesn't really matter one way or another as long as every knows what your referring to.

Flarhoon13 on Gilanra and Alena love sixes

7 months ago

Roast-O-Matic 9000

The "I Found This in a Shoebox" Special: Alena & Gilanra Holy shit. I’ve seen some budget decks in my time, but this looks like you robbed a literal garbage can behind a local game store after a Lost Caverns of Ixalan Prerelease. This isn't a Commander deck; it's a pile of draft chaff that's been taped together with hope and a complete misunderstanding of the mana curve.

The "Strategy": Casting One Spell Every Three Business Days Your commanders are Alena and Gilanra. One wants you to cast big shit to make mana, and the other wants you to spend mana to draw cards. It’s a classic Gruul "Stompy" engine. The problem is, you’ve filled the deck with creatures that make a 6-mana 6/6 look like a competitive masterpiece.

Notable "Why is this here?" Inclusions:

Balamb T-Rexaur: You’re playing a Final Fantasy crossover card that is literally just a worse version of cards that cost 10 cents.

The Land Base (Or Lack Thereof) You are running 26 basic lands and a collection of "enters tapped" garbage that would make a Pauper player weep.

Dwarven Ruins and Havenwood Battleground: You’re playing sacrifice lands in a deck where your average CMC is higher than your credit score. You sacrifice these for a one-time boost, fail to win because your creatures are French Vanilla trash, and then sit there with three lands on turn nine like a total jackass. The Cycling "Fixing": You have about twelve creatures with Landcycling. You realize you could just... put lands in the deck, right? You’re spending 2 mana to find a tapped mountain so you can eventually cast a Quakestrider Ceratops—a card that has literally zero abilities. It’s a 12/8. That’s it. One Murder and your entire turn (and dignity) is gone.

Final Thoughts This deck is the MTG equivalent of bringing a club to a sniper fight. You aren't "playing tall," you're playing "slow and predictable." You have no protection, no interaction, and your "bombs" are cards that most people use as bookmarks.

If your goal was to make a deck where you spend 40 minutes shuffling because of landcycling just to play a Spectral Force that stays tapped for the rest of the game, then mission accomplished. Otherwise, buy some goddamn Ravnica Duals and stop trying to make Agonasaur Rex happen. It’s not going to.

legendofa on Should the Number of Mana …

1 year ago

Mana Leak vs. Counterspell. Murder vs. Vanquish the Weak. Greenweaver Druid vs. Llanowar Tribe. There aren't a ton of cards that are directly comparable for color weight and effect, keeping rarity the same, but my general statement is that the more specific the mana cost is, the better the effect is. There's probably a handful of counterexamples, but I submit that not only should it be the case, it generally is the case.

legendofa on Is Anyone Else Concerned with …

1 year ago

Card quality isn't just about raw output. It's the ratio of input to output.

If Jumbo Cactuar cost just {G}, even if you cut its toughness way down, it would be broken. 7 mana is pretty reasonable for a modern (not necessarily Modern) creature with deathtouch, something like "If this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game," and no other abilities. Compare Vorpal Sword, Summon: Primal Odin, Phage the Untouchable, etc. Jumbo Cactuar has a huge output, but requires special preparation and lots of mana to make it work. High input, high output--good for style points, not for tournaments.

Overkill is somewhere between Murder and something like Flay Essence. It kills indestructible creatures, but that's the main perk it has over Murder. Moderate input, moderate output--functional, but there's better.

Zacama, Primal Calamity is notable in EDH, which is generally slower and allows for more setup than Modern. It's far from useless there, offering a big body with lots of combat abilities that can clear out obstacles as soon as it comes down. {R} and {G} are strong ramp colors, so you can get it out quickly. Even if it dies immediately, it's taking at least one problem with it. But to wallisface's point, it's nothing special in Modern. Commander: moderate input, high output--beware of Triplesaurus. Modern: high input, low output--not worth it.

For something I would call overpowered, Ocelot Pride works as an example. The game's filled with 1-cost 1/1s. The game's not filled with 1-cost 1/1s that reinforce themselves in all areas, providing the extra life and bodies to take over a match, either stalling until something else comes out or just incrementally building up until it can alpha strike by itself. Sure, it dies to any removal down to Scorching Spear. But if you don't do that immediately, it'll take over. And it's very easy to build around, since it doesn't need much more than incidental lifegain and one turn of survival to be a threat. And the first strike can be relevant, too. There's a reason the price tag is solidly in the double digits. Lifelink -> life gain -> cats -> army of cats, and that's eithout any outside support. Not bad for one mana. Low input, high output--kill on sight.