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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

DreadKhan on bungo

2 days 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!

DemonDragonJ on Indulgent Tormentor or Visara the …

2 months ago

griffstick, both Royal Assassin and Ophiomancer are too weak for my liking; I would like creatures that provide me with more options.

griffstick on Indulgent Tormentor or Visara the …

2 months ago

Ok, I've used all of those cards befor and the problem with them is

• Indulgent Tormentor, it's just a bad card, if it was 4 mana to cast I'd say yea it's just another version of Loyal Subordinate and you can run it. With giving your opponents 3 options it's bad.

• Visara the Dreadful, the cost to cast this at 6 mana is really one of the biggest problems with this card. Secondly, because it doesn't have haste, you'll have to wait a turn to use it. It's tap ability to destroy is really what's the best part of the card but because it's a tap ability you can't attack with the flying 5/5. That also applies to Avatar of Woe. Although Dread doesn't do anything that you can see (like Ghostly Prison). It seems like it's a bad card. But it's not. It hits for 6 with fear. And protection from the crack back.

In my honest opinion, you'd be better off running Royal Assassin in place of Visara the Dreadful or WOE. And running Ophiomancer in place of Dread.

DreadKhan on BBEG Deck Ideas

7 months ago

I feel like you could also look into running a lot of wipes, stax or other salt inducing things, such that the deck will naturally end up the archenemy and everyone will unite against them. Do the other decks compete with one another? If so, something that does Goad or Goad-like effects would be cool. TBH, if I had to pick a commander to try out as an Archenemy type deck, I'd be very tempted to go with Kresh the Bloodbraided. 5 mana for a 3/3 isn't very spicy, but he quickly can get very, very out of hand, it's not unusual for you to do something like Mandate of Abaddon or Phyrexian Scriptures and then one shot people one at a time with your gigantic Kresh. Lots of cards synergize with Kresh, ranging from Grim Feast and anything that works with/is Rite of the Raging Storm. Big Goad effects like Disrupt Decorum and Spectacular Showdown also add a nasty surprise, and Insurrection is a great turn-around-is-fair-play type effect for an Archenemy. You can even make the deck on the cheap using stuff like Fleshbag Marauder (there are a bajillion at this point, especially if you'll pay 4 for a 4 power one), these generate a lot of power if you also have Savra, Queen of the Golgari (or something similar) out. Pestilence and similar effects are very good in here, they let you both clear out weenie blockers while also pumping Kresh ever bigger by winnowing away the chaff. Kresh will quickly crush everyone, you just need to add fun stuff like evasion or trample to make his immense power count. If you build this right it should be quite scary to play against, and the odd Fling can be a nice way to punish the players for killing Kresh.

Another great option might be Sauron, the Dark Lord, the more the party does the bigger the 'threat' gets, and it's almost impossible to remove Sauron. It's easy to sneak in some powerful Changelings to work as a better base army, but the whole 'orc army' thing is in and of itself very stereotypical in D&D. I like Grixis because you get Blue, meaning you have access to the odd counter. In particular I'd look into stuff like Stronghold Machinist, effect-on-a-stick creatures are good for an Archenemy because they tend to soak up the opponent's cards, even something like Royal Assassin is card advantage over time. Since the Army can get pretty big you can use Voltron stuff with it, and if you use Anthems (Berserkers' Onslaught, Dauthi Embrace, and Whip of Erebos come to mind) they'll work on both the Army and Sauron, which is cool Big Bad energy for the deck.

TheMeadiator on

9 months ago

Firstly, this deck is awesome and I really want to play it! Really nice to see a true budget build that looks very functional. Secondly, you should add this deck to more hubs so it can get seen! I'd suggest Pillow Fort and Budget at the very least. Thirdly, here are a few suggestions:

Royal Assassin can help control your opponents side of the board with Archelos - though I realize he's not a turtle. Might still be good to squeeze him in there for the free kills.

Theft of Dreams would be great here to draw you a bunch of cards! And card draw is suuuper important in any deck.

Asking the same lines, Elemental Bond is great for card draw in green decks, but it will only count for about half your turtles.

Freed from the Real is a little on the costly side for your budget build, but might be really hot on Archelos so you can tap and untap him without committing to attacking.

I love the idea of Hissing Miasma and Revenge of Ravens, but they might prevent your opponent from attacking - meaning when you drop your commander and tap him (using say Freed from the Real) they'll still be untapped. They might actually work against your strategy of locking your opponent down. Just a thought!

I love this deck though and it's very impressive for your first build!! Bravo, really awesome.

metalflame on Budget Minotaur Tribal EDH - Digeridont hurt me!

1 year ago

Moraug, Fury of Akoum is a must include if you are Minotaurs. I would also suggest at least double the cheap ramp artifacts to get to your commander reliably early.

Royal Assassin, and Steel Hellkite are good in just about every deck it can get into. Dragon Throne of Tarkir is a cheap, and effective finisher for combat centric decks. Chaos Warp is a staple for control in red as well.

Check out my minotaur commander. Moraug's Relentless Attack! *C*

NV_1980 on The Melody of Silence

1 year ago

I play-tested this a few times and found that the land-count is a bit low. You have some rocks, cheap-to-cast draw, one instant-mana spell and one ramp-spell in here to compensate but I found mana was still lacking in most cases. It's probably enough to increase your land-count by 4 (and keep the above mentioned cards of course :)).

As for other feedback, I think Opposition Agent fits extremely well with the themes you mentioned in your description. Another pretty good fit would be Command the Dreadhorde; you can compensate the cost of life-loss with the deck's lifegain ability after all. Karmic Justice puts a rather severe tax on lots of actions opposing players might want to use against you (so opposing spells you didn't manage to counter, could still end up hurting opponents). Royal Assassin could be superb in this deck; makes any opponent think twice about creatures without vigilance attacking or using tap-abilities. Lastly, Grave Betrayal seems tailor-made for the strategy you want to follow. It's a bit of an expensive cast, but omg is it worth it in a deck that goes all out on destroying the opposing armies.

Hope you deck works out for you.

amarthaler on EDH Skithiryx, the Blighted Dragon

1 year ago

Deck overhaul list!

Out: Cabal Ritual... Dark Ritual... Dark Confidant... Dash Hopes... Dauthi Voidwalker... Feign Death... Lotus Petal... Mana Crypt... O-Naginata... Oubliette... Royal Assassin... Sign in Blood... Sword of the Chosen... The Meathook Massacre... Vorpal Sword... Wasteland... Withering Boon... 1x Swamp

In: Blightbelly Rat... Contagion Clasp... Decanter of Endless Water... Drown in Ichor...Hand of the Praetors... Infectious Inquiry... Mirrex... Necrogen Communion... Nimraiser Paladin... Pestilent Syphoner... Phyrexian Arena... Sudden Spoiling... The Seedcore... Thought Vessel... Trailblazer's Torch... Vraska's Fall... Vraska, Betrayal's Sting... Whisper of the Dross