Assassins have existed in Magic since Alpha with the fittingly-named Royal AssassinRoyal Assassin. And this first card really painted the picture for what Assassins would look like for years to come!

While some splash and they can be found in every color, Assassins are overwhelming . They tend to have low power and toughness but some ability to destroy other creatures, be it deathtouch, wither, or an activated ability that destroys the creatures directly.

Others are unblockable or have a form of protection such as hexproof or shroud.

Assassins got their largest shift in the Assassin's Creed Universes Beyond set, tying in the Assassin's Creed universe alongside a number of its characters.

These included a fair bit of cross-type support for Pirates as well as the freerunning keyword. This allows you to cast a spell for a reduced cost if you dealt combat damage to a player that turn with an Assassin or commander.

In Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Assassins were batched into being an "Outlaw" alongside Mercenaries, Pirates, Rogues, and Warlocks. References to Outlaws therefore affect Assassins, though 'Assassin' is still a creature type distinct from other Outlaws.

Assassinating

As their name implies, Assassins are adept at taking lives. In particular, they have just about every way to perform targeted creature removal in the game.

Most Assassins don't have the ability to affect multiple targets at once or exile permanents, though some do. Deathtouch is the main form this comes in, though they employ everything from wither to abilities that destroy a creature directly.

There are even Assassins that allow you to strip protective keywords such as indestructible and hexproof from your opponents' creatures, to ensure the hit goes through. Then, other Assassins give you benefits for destroying them.

Avoiding Combat

Most Assassins prefer to avoid combat in some capacity, either by being unblockable, possessing menace, or providing value from non-combat abilities. Some also have protective keywords such as hexproof or shroud. A few even have keywords such as disguise, allowing them to be cast face down and only revealed at a later time.

Assassins then benefit from dealing direct damage to an opponent, drawing cards or creating Treasure tokens or creating Assassin tokens. They provide their maximum value through bypassing your opponents' defenses and striking directly. This may also involve opening up their defensive line to allow for other creatures to ignore blockers.

Cheap to Hire

Assassins might have a reputation for high costs, but in Magic they're actually quite cheap. They tend not to have a converted mana cost of more than , even named legendary characters or high-impact commanders.

There are certainly some Assassins that are more expensive or whose activated abilities require a large amount of mana, but they tend towards immediate value at a repeatable cost. These dirty deeds done dirt cheap allow for a good number of Assassins to enter the battlefield at a time, dismantling an opponent's defensive strategy and attacking directly.

Or spreading the removal around and ensuring no one opponent gets too strong.

Full Force

Assassins prefer to skulk along the sidelines, meaning they struggle at head-to-head combat with an opponent. A particularly aggressive aggro deck or even just a big creature with trample will slam into an Assassin's field. Due to their statlines, Assassins can't really defend against that!

Of course, Assassins can respond by removing particular threats. And the ability to remove threats begets the ability to use that as a negotiation tactic to avoid incoming attacks in the first place.

While decks composed primarily of Assassins can't withstand a full-frontal assault, they can certainly make it costly-enough for opponents to think twice.

Protection from Black

Many Assassins range in colors, with a good number of them being only . However, the vast majority of Assassins are either or involve it in a multicolor spread.

Any degree of protection from black really hurts Assassins' abilities, given their conditional indestructibility. But you should have enough non- Assassins to respond to such threats. You'll just need to pivot around them instead of dealing with them head-on, much like an Assassin.

Ezio Auditore da FirenzeEzio Auditore da Firenze

Ezio Auditore da FirenzeEzio Auditore da Firenze is a 3/2 Assassin with menace who grants all of your Assassins freerunning . Freerunning N is a keyword that allows you to cast a spell for N mana if you dealt combat damage to a player that turn with an Assassin or commander.

Even your more expensive Assassins can be cast for cheap, given how easy it is for your other creatures to attack an opponent directly.

You can also spend upon Ezio dealing combat damage to a player who has 10 or less life. If you do, they lose the game.

Not only does this allow Ezio as a commander to count for every color, it gives a great way to take out an opponent a few turns earlier than anticipated. Assassins have a myriad of ways to grant their creatures a means of becoming unblockable and protected, meaning Ezio can build out your board with freerun Assassins before safely going for the kill.

Altaïr Ibn-La'AhadAltaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

Altaïr Ibn-La'AhadAltaïr Ibn-La'Ahad is a 3/3 with first strike, giving it a fantastic synergy with anything granting deathtouch. And even without, any improvement to power makes Altaïr an incredible striker to take out mid-range creatures.

Whenever Altaïr attacks, you may exile up to one Assassin from your graveyard and place a memory counter on it. Then, for each exiled creature you own with a memory counter, you create an attacking token copy that's exiled at the end of combat.

Altaïr specializes in alpha-strikes, where a single combat can overwhelm an opponent. Though Altaïr needs a few attack activations to set up the memory counters, its effect triggers on attack, meaning so long as you can survive to combat you can build the effect. Then it's a matter of exiling select Assassins that have decent power or deathtouch, thinning out defenders and dealing solid damage.

As a bonus, this temporary swarm of Assassins triggers any freerunning effects you have!

Etrata, Deadly FugitiveEtrata, Deadly Fugitive

Etrata, Deadly FugitiveEtrata, Deadly Fugitive is a 1/4 with deathtouch that cloaks the top card of your opponent's library upon dealing combat damage to them. To cloak a card, it's placed face-down as a 2/2 with ward . This allows you to build your board when dealing damage to an opponent, even stealing their creatures for your own should you be able to pay their mana cost.

What if you cloak a noncreature spell, like an instant or sorcery?

Etrata grants all your face-down creatures the ability to be turned face up for . If the creature can't be turned face up, such as through not being a creature spell, it's instead exiled and cast from exile for free. This means you can get value out of just about anything you're cloaking from an opponent's library, with even lands being able to provide limited value as a 2/2 creature with ward .

Ramses, Assassin LordRamses, Assassin Lord

Ramses, Assassin LordRamses, Assassin Lord is a 4/4 with deathtouch who grants other Assassins you control +1/+1. And it comes with the unique alternate win condition that if you attack an opponent with an Assassin and they lose the game that turn, you win the game.

This doesn't need to be that they lost the game via combat damage, this simply requires an Assassin to have attacked them. Poison counters, mill, and creatures such as Ezio Auditore da FirenzeEzio Auditore da Firenze mean that you don't even need to reduce the opponent to zero life. So long as you have a means of ensuring an opponent loses, you can throw an Assassin at them to ensure your victory.

Edward KenwayEdward Kenway

Edward KenwayEdward Kenway is a 5/5 that creates a Treasure token for each tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control on your end step. And whenever a Vehicle you control deals combat damage to a player, you can exile the top card of their library and play it as long as it remains exiled.

Notably, this doesn't specify you can cast the spell by spending mana of any color, meaning you need to rely on your Treasure generation to ensure you can continue playing exiled cards. This reinforces an active, forward-moving playstyle where all of your creatures should be consistently on the offensive both to eliminate opponents' blockers as well as have tapped creatures to make more Treasures.

Edward itself is a fairly expensive commander, at least for Assassins. So it's very important to get at least a few Treasures out early so you can accommodate that commander tax should it be removed.

Ezio, Blade of VengeanceEzio, Blade of Vengeance

Ezio, Blade of VengeanceEzio, Blade of Vengeance is a 5/5 with deathtouch that allows you to draw a card whenever an Assassin you control deals combat damage to a player.

This iteration of Ezio is very straightforward and is good at what Assassins want to be good at, namely killing creatures and dealing direct damage. With just a little bit of support to either grant it first strike, hexproof, or menace, Ezio will put in a significant amount of work.

This isn't a centerpiece of the deck in the same way a lot of other Assassin commanders are; this is a solid Assassin you can complement by implementing really any strategy Assassins lend themselves to. Not only does that lead to more creative deckbuilding, but it also obscures your intentions until you start playing.

Queen MarchesaQueen Marchesa

Queen MarchesaQueen Marchesa is a 3/3 with deathtouch and haste who has an enter the battlefield (ETB) effect to become the monarch. As the monarch, you draw an additional card during your end step but any other player can become the monarch by dealing combat damage to you.

Marchesa accounts for this by creating a 1/1 Assassin with deathtouch and haste on your upkeep if an opponent is the monarch. Not only does this mean you'll have a contingency for should someone become the monarch, it also means you can trigger other effects.

With Marchesa, you either get additional card draw or additional deathtouch tokens. For Assassins who are so cheap, both are good options! Retaining the monarch position is ideal, but you aren't punished by losing it.

Ratonhnhaké꞉tonRatonhnhaké꞉ton

Ratonhnhaké꞉tonRatonhnhaké꞉ton is a 3/3 who has hexproof and is unable to be blocked, though those both only apply so long as it hasn't dealt damage yet. This means that Ratonhnhaké꞉ton is a perfect candidate for applying +1/+1 counters and power bonuses to, given its effective removal from interaction with the board until you field it in combat.

Once Ratonhnhaké꞉ton deals damage to a player, it creates a 1/1 Assassin with menace and returns an Equipment card from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to the token. Menace on a 1/1 that triggers effects based on dealing combat damage to opponents opens doors even before supplementing them with Equipment cards. These can be stat increases, though provide the most value off of keywords that synergize with menace such as deathtouch or abilities that trigger upon dealing combat damage to an opponent.

Royal AssassinRoyal Assassin

Royal AssassinRoyal Assassin can tap to destroy a tapped creature. This has no mana cost, meaning so long as an opponent activates their mana producers or attacks with a big creature, they have left themselves vulnerable. And because it's only a 1/1, there isn't a reason to attack with it or tap it otherwise.

This also triggers effects such as Edward KenwayEdward Kenway, allowing you to generate Treasure off of your now-tapped Assassin.

Evie FryeEvie Frye

Evie FryeEvie Frye can tap for to draw a card and then discard a card. If you discard a creature card this way, a creature you control of your choice can't be blocked this turn.

This provides the ability to turn any of your Assassins unblockable for a turn, which with how many triggers are dependent upon dealing combat damage to an opponent is a big deal! This is a cheap means of drawing cards and, should you have any means of graveyard retrieval through spells such as Altaïr Ibn-La'AhadAltaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, it sets those up.

Massacre Girl, Known KillerMassacre Girl, Known Killer

Massacre Girl, Known KillerMassacre Girl, Known Killer is a 4/4 with menace who grants all of your creatures wither. Whenever they deal damage to a creature, that creature receives a -1/-1 counter. A creature reduced to zero toughness dies, and Massacre Girl allows you to draw a card each time this happens.

Wither across all of your creatures is a very powerful keyword to impart when put together with how oriented around creature-destruction Assassins are. Card draw helps fill your hand with additional cheap Assassins, though it does discourage you from directly destroying creatures without combat damage. This is a good problem to have, but is a consideration to make when you balance a quick Cut DownCut Down vs withering away their toughness.

HaystackHaystack

HaystackHaystack allows you to tap it and pay to phase out a creature you control. This means the creature and anything attached to it is treated as if they don't exist until your next turn.

This is a great way to protect your Assassins that otherwise are vulnerable to targeting from your opponents. You have to time it right and are limited to once per round, but it can allow you to take an aggressive play without leaving one of your load-bearing Assassins vulnerable. Alternatively, you can just use it to generally keep a creature safe from a threat you know is coming, such as a board wipe.

Hidden BladeHidden Blade

Hidden BladeHidden Blade is attached to a creature upon entering the battlefield, granting it +1/+0 and first strike. If it's attached to an Assassin, they gain death-strike until end of turn.

The fact it has flash grants a quite effective first strike and deathtouch combo for any of your Assassins, most useful for baiting out an attack from a creature you otherwise are struggling to deal with. Alternatively, you can use it offensively to swing into a blocker the opponent would prefer not to lose and take them out.

This attacking strategy has the added benefit of rewarding your more aggressive Assassins, potentially intimidating an opponent into allowing you to bypass their blockers entirely.

Assassin GauntletAssassin Gauntlet

Assassin GauntletAssassin Gauntlet immediately attaches to a creature upon entering the battlefield and then taps all creatures an opponent controls. That attached creatures gains +1/+1 and allows you to draw a card and then discard a card upon dealing combat damage to a player.

This further cements your benefits from dealing combat damage to a player while also opening up a significant opportunity to strike. Not only will you be drawing a card from the Gauntlet's effect, but any of your other Assassins that have similar triggers will have an available attack.

The Gauntlet can then be equipped to a different Assassin on future turns to best utilize its player-damage ability.

Rooftop BypassRooftop Bypass

Rooftop BypassRooftop Bypass allows you to create a 1/1 Assassin with menace upon dealing combat damage to a player. This doesn't trigger via token damage, but it allows you to have a consistent buildup of creature tokens that can fill out your board.

With menace, they're quite useful at absorbing blockers when attacking en masse and can be paired with deathtouch to clear them out. They can also be used as a defensive backline or sacrifice fodder. The generation just requires consistent noncombat aggression on your part.

Black Market ConnectionsBlack Market Connections

Black Market ConnectionsBlack Market Connections grants you the ability to lose one life and create a Treasure, lose two life and draw a card, and/or lose three life and create a 3/2 Shapeshifter with changeling. Changeling allows the Shapeshifter to be every creature type, including Assassin.

You can choose all or one of these on your first main phase of each turn, granting you a great variety of mana generation, card draw, or token creation. The life loss will add up quickly if you use more than one at a time, but with any Equipment or stat improvements a 3/2 Assassin will be a useful creature to have. Even more so should you field multiple.

Card draw will be your most versatile option, with creating a Treasure token being useful to help facilitate that.

The Revelations of EzioThe Revelations of Ezio

The Revelations of EzioThe Revelations of Ezio is a saga, progressing through each phase after each of your draw steps. It begins by destroying a tapped creature, then progresses to putting a +1/+1 counter on any of your Assassins which attack that turn, before closing on returning an Assassin from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter.

Assassins don't have much native stat improvement, which makes the second ability of the saga particularly useful if you can get a healthy board state. The third allows you to reclaim a powerful Assassin you may have lost, though if you've yet to lose one then it's entirely reasonably to reclaim a low-cost Assassin.

The +1/+1 counter is less important than the reclamation, though can still push a low-toughness Assassin above a gate such as Elesh Norn, Grand CenobiteElesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.

Chain AssassinationChain Assassination

Chain AssassinationChain Assassination allows you to destroy a creature and then draw a card if another creature died this turn. An additional benefit of it is that Chain Assassination has freerunning , making it a very affordable creature destruction spell after successfully attacking an opponent with an Assassin.

While it can be used any time, its greatest value comes after combat on your turn, to hit that cost-reduction. However, it can act as an emergency intervention should you need to eliminate a priority target on their turn. In such cases, you can block or sacrifice a weak creature to trigger the card-draw effect.

DesynchronizationDesynchronization

DesynchronizationDesynchronization returns each nonland permanent that isn't historic to its owner's hand. Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are all historic, meaning your Equipment and most of your notable Assassins will be fine.

This is best used when you're at risk by an opponent and need to clear their board, even if only temporarily. The same is true in casting it prior to attacking with one or more legendary Assassins, removing most or all of your opponents' blockers.

But it also has application on returning your own Assassins to your hand to retrigger their ETB effects.

Restart SequenceRestart Sequence

Restart SequenceRestart Sequence allows you to return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield, with a reduced freerunning cost of .

This allows flexibility in how you treat your Assassins, since reclaiming them from the graveyard for is trivial. You can make more aggressive attacks to ensure you hit an opponent directly or bait out removal from an opponent on your own terms.

All you need to do is be able to hit an opponent directly after the fact.

Sorin MarkovSorin Markov

Sorin MarkovSorin Markov begins with four loyalty counters and has the following abilities:

+2. Sorin deals two damage to a creature or player and you gain two life. This is not only good removal for low-toughness creatures or ping damage on players, but it also ensures you'll be able to pay life costs for various spells you want to cast. Life is a resource to be spent, but Assassins don't have many ways to reclaim it.

-3. An opponent's life total becomes 10, which allows you to more easily rush them down to zero. Or you could pair this with Ezio, Blade of VengeanceEzio, Blade of Vengeance in order to ensure an easy defeat, which is why it's so often included in Ezio decks.

-7. You control another player's next turn, which can be absolutely devastating. Sorin grants you the ability to ruin an opponent's gameplan, but that's the sort of ultimate ability that most players will make sure to respond to prior to its activation. It's powerful, and therefore it's a threat.

Vraska the UnseenVraska the Unseen

Vraska the UnseenVraska the Unseen begins with five loyalty counters and has the following abilities:

+1. Until your next turn, creatures that deal combat damage to Vraska are destroyed. This is a good protective measure to allow it to gain in loyalty counters relatively uninterrupted, though doesn't provide protection against targeted removal or expendable tokens.

-3. Destroy a nonland permanent, which is incredibly versatile in its use-cases. It synergizes with Assassin abilities and furthers your ability to oppress an opponent's board state.

-7. Create three 1/1 black Assassins that, when they deal combat damage to a player, cause them to lose the game. You'll have plenty of ways of making creatures unblockable and have the means to eliminate defenders, meaning this should be a slam dunk if you pull it off. They don't have haste and have no protection, so you'll be a target following their creation. You need to be able to respond should an opponent attempt to remove them.

Dihada, Binder of WillsDihada, Binder of Wills

Dihada, Binder of WillsDihada, Binder of Wills begins with five loyalty counters and has the following abilities:

+2. One legendary creature gains vigilance, lifelink, and indestructible until your next turn. This ensures that your most valuable Assassins remain on the board, while simultaneously keeping them active as a blocker upon their attack. With how aggressive Assassins like to be, this gives you a bit more room to breathe after an attack.

-3. You look at the top four cards of your library, putting any number of legendary cards into your hand. The others go in your graveyard and you create a Treasure token for each card put in the graveyard this way. This means you'll be able to pay the cost of your legendary Assassins, which not only are your most powerful creatures but also are historic and synergize with other spells.

-11. Gain control of all nonland permanents until end of turn, untapping them and granting them haste. This is another ultimate which can win games, but as such is a major threat for any opponent who is paying attention. It's often not worth pursuing this as Dihada's primary contribution to your board, instead building up its loyalty and activating abilities based on what makes sense in the moment rather than pursuing an ambitious one-turn win.

Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage

Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage allows you to tap it for to have a creature be unable to be blocked this turn. Paired with all of Assassins' abilities that trigger on dealing combat damage to an opponent, that turns them from conditional into guarantees!

Access TunnelAccess Tunnel

Access TunnelAccess Tunnel is a similar story, tapping for and giving the same ability to a creature with power three or less. It's slightly cheaper at the cost of being slightly more restrictive, but most Assassins have a power falling under that range.

Their main value doesn't come from direct damage but ability activation. And having both Passage and Tunnel allow for even more ability triggers, at a fairly steep cost of .

Assassins want to attack an opponent without dealing with their blockers. They might be unblockable, have menace, fear, or flying, or even tap opponents' creatures to allow for easy attacks.

What Assassins want to avoid is a battle of attrition or one where they get caught actually fighting other creatures. Most Assassins will lose any combat with another creature, though they may have deathtouch to ward off opponents from trying.

Aggressive, probing attacks where weak Assassins draw the attention of blockers and slip past defenders is the main strategy. Eliminate key targets with targeted removal, hit the opponent to trigger ability activations, then retreat. This will leave you vulnerable, but ideally you'll have disrupted their strategy and board enough that it won't matter.

There are a variety of ways to win with Assassins, most commonly in effects that blanketly make an opponent lose the game. This won't win you the game automatically in Commander, unless you have a creature such as Ramses, Assassin LordRamses, Assassin Lord.

If you have Ramses on the board, if an opponent loses the game and you attacked them with an Assassin, you win the game. This could be Ezio, Blade of VengeanceEzio, Blade of Vengeance's ability or transferring ownership of Archfiend of the DrossArchfiend of the Dross to an opponent before its counters run out.

No matter the method, all that matters is being able to attack them with an Assassin that same turn with Ramses on the board.

You can also leverage life-manipulating abilities such as Sorin MarkovSorin Markov's second ability, making an opponent's life total become 10. This then can combo into Ezio, Blade of VengeanceEzio, Blade of Vengeance, though your opponent will be able to prepare for this should Ezio be your commander.

As Ezio is both and , you could include Hidetsugu's Second RiteHidetsugu's Second Rite as a contingency to allow for the same synergy with Sorin without signposting Ezio. Or you can pair it with unblockable Assassins who finish them the old-fashioned way on an expedited timetable.