4 Nezumi Graverobber
4 Kiku, Night's Flower
4 Royal Assassin
4 Orzhov Euthanist
4 Nekrataal
4 Unliving Psychopath
2 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
4 Crime/Punishment
4 Mortify
2 Icy Manipulator
1 Debtors' Knell
7 Swamp
4 Godless Shrine
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Orzhov Basilica
2 Golgari Rot Farm
2 Caves of Koilos |
  The
Replacement Killers.
Description of deck by its author (quoted):
In part two of my 102 part series, Better Know
Standard Tribal Wars, I'm going to take a look at Assassins. The fightin'
Assassins! There are only five of them in Standard, four Humans (Kiku,
Night's Flower, Royal Assassin, Orzhov Euthanist, and Nekrataal) and one
Zombie (Unliving Psychopath). I'm not sure how the Psychopath became a
Zombie, but according to the rumours, he accidentally assassinated
himself during an Assassin's Guild hazing ritual gone awry. I'll have to
check the latest Darwin Awards to be sure, though.
There are a number of ways to build an Assassin deck.
You could max out the flavour by including some of the Black ninjas. (I'm
pretty sure “assassinating” is part of Throat Slitter's job description.)
I decided to include just one ninja, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni. Her ability
is especially relevant here because your opponents will have a lot of
creatures and you have so many ways to kill those creatures. Along these
same lines, I'm using Debtors' Knell, Nezumi Graverobber, and Crime to
raid opposing graveyards.
Since the format is played without sideboards, it
doesn't hurt to have some general answers to problem permanents. The
Punishment half of Crime // Punishment is a great answer to Snake or
Saproling tokens, and it can also destroy annoying untargetables like
Silhana Ledgewalker. Mortify gives this nearly mono-Black deck an answer
to enchantments, while Icy Manipulator can neutralize creatures that you
might not want to kill (like Keiga, the Tide Star). Of course, Royal
Assassin loves a little icy manipulation, so the deck's got that going for
it, too.
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