Royal Assassin

Creature — Human Assassin

{T}: Destroy target tapped creature.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

xram666 on Volrath: No School, like Old School

3 months ago

Cool Deck. Plus 1 from me.

My friend s and I built real Elder Dragon Highlander Decks with the same restriction as your deck. These are really cool games.

And I also have some cards for your deck:

• Ambition's Cost The price tag sucks, I know ;-) but another source of card draw is always good.
• Ashen Powder I not sure with this one because we don't want to "steal" new frame cards from opponents ;-).
• Royal Assassin is still a good card in EDH.
• Sadly your deck may not have enough creatures for Koskun Falls. As this card is so unknown everyone has to look twice, if you play a Propaganda in black ;-).

WItC on Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#4 Black)

3 months ago

Thank you for the feedback IVY54. I think the white deck is a little strong against everyone and I'm thinking of toning it down just a little.

The green deck can struggle, with the deathtouch and the Royal Assassin. In my playtests, I felt the Prey Upon evened the field a little, and was added for this matchup but I'll try some more testing.

kamarupa on Tripwire

4 months ago

it's looking a lot better! Keep at it!

I suggest swapping out Marble Chalice for Chalice of Life  ^Flip.

As a rule of thumb, I usually aim for a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 removal spells. Including Royal Assassin, you're at 11 right now. I'd suggest moving Feed the Serpent and Make Your Move to the sideboard. That will reduce your deck from 65 to 62. I'd cut Murder completely, as it's a less good version of Breathe Your Last, and I'd increase Breathe Your Last from 2 copies to 4. I believe that will bring you total to 60 spells, and bring your removal spells to 6 I think, which is 2 more than most decks. Remember that even at the casual, budget level, Modern is a very fast and powerful format. There are plenty of very cheap infinite combo decks out there that can win by Turn 3, so while it can be vital to disrupt your opponent with removal spells (etc), you will likely only get the chance to cast 1-3 removal spells in game. You'll still want to cast creature spells and in the early turns (1-4) you'll often have to choose which one spell you should cast.

You've still got the troublesome issue of quite a few spells that require 2 black mana to cast. As a rule of thumb, it's always harder to cast spells that require two the same color mana to cast in deck running more than one color. It's not impossible, but can definitely become a bothersome roadblock, especially without any dual lands.

Finally, I'm only about half sold on Dazzling Reflection. I can see how powerful it could be, but I also think it's a bit hyper specific in it's utility. I wonder if you might get more mileage out of a good old Holy Day or the worse MV of Riot Control that has a broader effect.

Bookrook on Jon Irenicus' Gifts

4 months ago

Oh almost forgot. Despotic Scepter and Royal Assassin for when there’s only two players left and the creatures you gave your opponent start being forced to attack you.

Flarhoon13 on Erebos' Totally Devoted to Death

4 months ago

Dec 13, Erebos' Totally Devoted to Death 1-1 lost a game due to mana screw. Did cast Living Death but Kurtis had Tormod's Crypt to exile my yard.

Second game I hit ramp and curved out very well. Basal Thrull into Ayara, First of Locthwain, turn 4 sacrificed Basal Thrull for Worn Powerstone and Unstable Obelisk. Turn 5 cast Erebos and used 4 mana to draw 2 cards. Turn 6 made Massacre Wurm which killed 8 Saprolings, 4 of which Mira, on Grothama, All-Devouring, made by attacking me with Shroofus Sproutsire, and 4 of which Jesse, on Brion Stoutarm *oversized* made by borrowing Shroofus Sproutsire and attacking me. I didn't mind too much, since Brion Stoutarm *oversized* hucked Shroofus at Mira. Anyway, I added a Royal Assassin to the board for more devotional black pips. Abhorrent Overlord made 9 Harpy tokens and Ayara drained my opponents for 10. Finally, Torment of Hailfire killed Mira and Abhorrent Overlord with his Harpies killed Jesse in combat.

Necramus on The Dark Brotherhood - Rogues & Riches

8 months ago

So happy to see Royal Assassin in your list. That's one of my absolute favorite magic cards!

Been a fan since revised :)

DreadKhan on Lucius, Champion of Slaanesh!

9 months ago

I feel like Transmogrifying Wand would do work in here (you both want a creature somewhere and want a specific body dead, and the 2/4 is ideal vs your Commander in a fight). Maybe Kiku, Night's Flower as removal on a stick? Royal Assassin is pretty good at getting your Commander back too, and has a different hoop to jump through. Not sure if it's too risky, but I love using Jaya Ballard, Task Mage as removal, her ping for 3 is big enough for most utility creatures, and she can just blow up any Blue permanent (such as Propaganda, and other annoying Blue Enchantments that are otherwise pretty sticky). Mask of Griselbrand is a repeatable 'big' draw effect, it also gives your Commander some useful abilities. Lyzolda, the Blood Witch can ping something if you want (to get your Commander back), and can also sacrifice your Commander if you need him dead (and want to draw a card and ping something). I think Lyzolda's ability would result in Lucius entering the graveyard with the ping ability still on the stack, meaning his death trigger would go on top and resolve first, so you could technically kill a creature with Lyzolda by sacrificing Lucius and get Lucius back right away (also a card I guess?), not sure if that's relevant in your meta. It might be hard to trigger, but Lagomos, Hand of Hatred can tutor up whatever you need situationally, and for no new mana. I'm not sure if it's enough of a buff, but Tenza, Godo's Maul is a is a nice equipment for a Red legend that likes to swing, and Equip 1 is pretty sweet for +3 and Trample.

I feel like Hellish Rebuke would be a neat trick to both wipe out some attackers and recur your Commander at the same time, nice dual purpose effect potentially. It's getting a bit pricey, but Make an Example is an incredible card for a Sorcery, since you pick the pile you'll always get at least the most problematic thing (for each player, unless you're being political) despite it not targeting and not being a destroy effect (so it gets around almost any protection yet printed).

I read some lore about this guy the other day, pretty crazy stuff!

DreadKhan on bungo

11 months ago

I'm not super familiar with Zombie decks (and have zero experience with Crime decks), but I think I can spot a few cards that you could probably cut for something better. Brain Pry seems like it'd be embarrassing to cast, I'd cut this unless you want actively bad cards (I keep them in some decks so I know when I'm drawing truly awful, but it's very suboptimal). Crippling Fear seems pretty small when there is Kindred Dominance and even Necromantic Selection, either of these is a much bigger, beefier effect. Diabolic Tutor is not a very good card IMHO, if you have access to large amounts of mana potentially (and you do from multiple sources) Diabolic Revelation is a much bigger, better effect, I like to run it with Emergence Zone. Gravestorm is a pretty uneven card if your Commander isn't out, I'd cut this for Phyrexian Arena, your Commander comes out late and resolving Arena on turn 3 feels amazing, if you miss 2 or 3 free cards you might not even be able to cast Gisa. I feel like I'd run Sadistic Hypnotist over Cabal Therapist, even at 5 mana the effect is so much stronger. I might be missing something with Hunted Bonebrute, it's not a Zombie, and Hunted Horror exists, offering a much stronger political play. I usually like Keen Duelist, but your MV might not be high enough to support this kind of effect, in general you should be regularly walloping your opponent with huge MV stuff to justify this. I guess if you throw in Kindred Dominance and/or Necromantic Selection Duelist gets a bit better, but your MV probably needs to be closer to 4 or this will just give free cards to opponents unless your Commander is out (and people are going to be wiping you a lot I suspect). Unless you throw an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in I don't know if Oblivion Sower is good enough, ymmv. If you already have it by all means keep it in, but I feel like Urza's Incubator is not a very good card in here? You have a lot of {B} mana requirements, and your zombies aren't especially big overall, I'd switch this for Sceptre of Eternal Glory if possible.

This is a bit out in left field, but can you imagine if you have Zombie Trailblazer out with your Commander and an Amulet of Vigor? That's infinite, right? Not sure if you want infinites or not, just wanted to mention it (because it'd be a sweet combo because you'd still need Haste or your Altar of Dementia, so it'd still be a 'look out next turn!' thing at 3 cards).

Generally I'd say discard effects are a lot less powerful the less of them you use, but I get that you want to commit crimes in here, perhaps you could look into repeatable removal sources? Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is a budget card that can commit a crime for BB, and if you have extra mana you can also pump Drana while killing off Blockers. You might also try out Transmogrifying Wand, this can commit 3 very useful crimes, 2/4 vanillas are about as useful as floppy carrots in Commander, especially compared to 3 of the best creatures on the board (which you can reanimate I guess, since it's a Destroy effect). There is always good old Royal Assassin, this is SO MUCH better than Urza's Glasses in practice, and it's only BB more to make a gigantic impact on the board.

Here's some stuff you might consider adding, Night's Whisper is a very good low-to-the-ground card draw effect, as is Sign in Blood, both can help you get your Commander out on time more consistently. Sign can even be used to finish off a vulnerable opponent in a pinch. You also might be curious about War Room and Bonders' Enclave, both are lands that can draw, very useful with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

Sorry if I missed some synergies, I like the idea of this deck but am a bit agog at how much this Commander can do if properly supported, Ward seems like major overkill! Have fun out there!