Royal Assassin

Creature — Human Assassin

: Destroy target tapped creature.

Discussion (50)

king-saproling on Marchesa unfinished

2 weeks ago

This is a good start! You might consider these: Warstorm Surge (causes your general and your assassins to murder a dude when they enter), Fire Whip , Power of Fire , Unquestioned Authority , Asha's Favor , Stuffy Doll , Lapse of Certainty , Royal Assassin , Mogg Maniac , Dread .

I have a Queen M deck too if you wanna check it out. It has rattlesnakes and a lot of atypical stuff too that you might find interesting.

jonmaior on Sorry you can't do a thing but... GG

2 months ago

nice I've been experimenting a lot with the Near-Death Experience Wall of Blood combo. the best deck Ii have made so far is a mardu deck that uses Faithless Looting to dig and takes advantage of Fling to get a t3 kill sometimes with Wall of Blood . Some cards to consider for you are Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim , Darksteel Myr is good with Worship . Here is an old version of my deck. It has proven to be somewhat competitive actually. it has got 2-1 at local modern tournaments several times. (the newer version) that version isn't updated yet. so cool to find someone else who saw this combo. nobody I know has heard of Wall of Blood . its super underrated in my opinion even not in a combo deck it sort of works like a Royal Assassin or Spear of Heliod .

Cipher001 on Tap-Down Control

4 months ago

I want to make a deck based around tap-down control. As in, Downpour and Feeling of Dread control. For years, I’ve been trying to make this idea work, ever since I first started playing, in Return to Ravnica. It started with the cards Gideon's Avenger and Sunblast Angel . I thought I could make something work, and I sort of did. I made a budget deck that achieved mild success on T/O called Frozen Solid. People liked it because it was cheap and gimmicky, but I wanted it to be more than a cheap trick, which is unfortunate, because that’s all it could have really been at the time. The deck suffers from a core weakness that other forms of control don’t have to deal with, namely that after your cheap tap-down spell has resolved, all your opponent has to do is wait another turn and build up their army even further. Sunblast angel requires a land drop every turn for six turns. The game ends up being about prolonging an inevitable loss instead of winning. Nevertheless, I tried my best to make it at least semi-competitive.

I tried every combination of U/W/X. I tried esper with its access to cards like Royal Assassin and Murderous Compulsion . A way to get rid of tapped cards is great, but why would anyone ever spend two mana on a Murderous Compulsion when they could spend it on Doom Blade , Ultimate Price , Walk the Plank , Cast Down , or half the mana on Fatal Push ? Royal assassin at least sticks around to be able to make use of a mana-free kill to complement your tap-down effects, but it dies to even the gentlest of creature removal. It dies to Lightning Bolt . It dies to Shock . Heck, it even dies to Darkblast . And aside from the assassin, there isn’t a whole lot to support tap-down control in black.

U/W/G has Glare of Subdual , which answers one problem the deck has, namely of a lack of creatures to serve as a wincon. At the same time though, you’re still tapping them down, so they can’t be used to attack with (unless you have something to untap them with, which splits your available resources even further) and if you have a big enough field presence to control the board by tapping stuff down, you could have probably won already through some Overrun kind of playstyle instead. I found merfolk a flavorful and surprisingly synergetic tribe for what I was going for here, as seen by cards like Merrow Reejerey , Merfolk Trickster , and Harbinger of the Tides . I thought that of all the ideas I’ve made thus far, this had the biggest chance of doing what I wanted, with built-in tribal support that aligned with a tap-down aesthetic. You could even finish games with a well-timed Wake Thrasher .

In R/W/U, I experimented with Aurelia's Fury . With cards like Assemble the Legion , stalling becomes a legitimate strategy. Battlefield Thaumaturge could be used to make the spell a two mana overloaded Blustersquall . Along that route, Gridlock and Glimpse the Sun God could be used to support it, but the idea is heavily reliant on thaumaturge, which doesn’t always see play, even as a 4-of.

A truly depressing match against Red Deck Wins made me realize that the deck is entirely reliant on the opponent’s having creatures. Thus, the idea to include something from the hunted cycle was born. Hunted Phantasm , for example, provides me with a good beater and plenty of things to make use of for my spells.

Every now and then, some piece of deck-tech makes me have that flutter of naïve hope, like when we got Time of Ice in Dominaria or Verity Circle in Ravnica Allegiance. Verity circle could be the answer, the missing link. It provides me with the ability to refuel my spells and dig through my deck to get to the wincon, whatever it should be. In any other kind of deck, it’s mediocre at best, but it’s the best support my jank idea has ever gotten. I could be missing something that comes clearly for you. I’m asking you to help me realize my seven-year-old dream: to create a tap-down control deck that holds its own against at least semi-competitive decks. (Decks that have a reasonably achievable means to win and efficient support to help it achieve its chosen way of winning.) I’m not asking for anything that’d make the top 8 list anywhere, just something I can be satisfied with. So long as the primary theme of the deck is controlling the field through tap-down effects, I’m happy.

Please help me out here. I’m at my wits end lol. A big thanks to any and all who put their two cents in.

Zaane2 on Eight-Armed Arms Dealer

5 months ago

@thrane Thanks! Royal Assassin is on-theme, but I didn't like how slow and obvious he was.

As I started to run more punishing cards, I slowly phased out the cards that also gave me Tokens. Sylvan Offering is certainly great for giving others Tokens, but I wanted to take less damage from my own Incite Rebellion and whatnot.

I ran Disrupt Decorum for a long while, but eventually cut it for how long it'd end up sitting in my hand. It might be that I spent too much time waiting for an opportune moment, or maybe it's just not as good with Thantis in your Command zone.

Assault Suit is kinda gimmicky. I understand the idea behind it, but it's quite the mana investment to donate Thantis around the table. This ended up being one of my first cuts.

I could see Mirage Mirror being a good addition. You could certainly run it if you want to.

thrane on Eight-Armed Arms Dealer

5 months ago

Super nice deck! This was just what I needed. Some suggestions; Royal Assassin , Sylvan Offering , Disrupt Decorum , Assault Suit and Mirage Mirror .

x2Relentless on Combo Queen Likes Pillow Forts

6 months ago

Royal Assassin is pretty good. However, it is very easy to kill and very slow. There are much better cards this deck wants to be playing with 3 mana ( Solitary Confinement Phyrexian Arena Necropotence Coalition Relic , etc.) Also this deck runs lots of board wipes so we don't really want a creature in play that doesn't have an immediate effect.

JulianV on Combo Queen Likes Pillow Forts

6 months ago

What about Royal Assassin ? It might prevent your opponents of attacking.

Botanicum81 on Royal Assassin Out of Retirement

8 months ago

Xica I am aware of Viridian Longbow being a superior like card, but I just like the flavor of Royal Assassin and want it in a deck.