My Favorite Assassin Commander Is Now COMPLETE! | Etrata Assassins | $100, $200
Hey friends and welcome back to Budget Commander! Assassin's Creed might be old news for some since it's uhhh like a whole month old, but I was on vacation when it came and went so I'm still hyped for the set and want to talk about it!
While there's a few new commanders that caught my eye -- Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, Basim Ibn Ishaq, and Sigurd, Jarl of Ravensthorpe all are high up on my "to brew" pile -- there's an older commander that I love that got SO MANY new upgrades from the set that I wouldn't shut up about during previews, and unsurprisingly it's been the most requested topic to cover, so let's do it: here's my AC update to Etrata, Deadly Fugitive!
Assassin's Creed Was Made For Etrata
So a few months ago I made 25 Commander Decks Under $25 and one of my favorite decks to come from it was Etrata, Deadly Fugitive: it's an aggressive tempo deck that is all about attacking with cheap evasive assassins to maximize Etrata's manifest ability, essentially doubling our army each swing and also letting us play the manifested cards. It's essentially a casual version of Edric, Spymaster of Trest, one of my original favorite decks and my all-time favorite playstyle.
While I love the deck so much that I even built a paper version of it to add to my collection, it was a bit frustrating that there were so few assassins to work with, which led to some consistency issues with the deck. But now we've gotten SO MANY upgrades with Assassin's Creed that we're actually in the privileged position of needing to cut good Assassin cards and the deck runs so much smoother!
I feel like the Assassin's Creed designers had Etrata in mind when designing the set because there's so many cards here that work with her specifically and no other legendary in the set: Roshan, Hidden Magister is the most notable example here, turning ALL of our face-down creatures into Assassins, giving them menace, and adding card draw to when we flip them up! Why is this here when no legendary creature in the set makes face-down creatures? I don't know but I'm grateful because this is the single best upgrade for Etrata! And Become Anonymous is so cool here too. It's a bit overcosted, but we can protect a creature from removal, flip it up, and use Etrata's ability to flip up any cards we cloak off it!
We also get a bunch of new cheap evasive assassins to curve out with! These are the bread and butter of Etrata because they are the most efficient way to trigger Etrata's powerful ability, allowing us to turn 1 Assassin, turn 2 Assassin, turn 3 Etrata and get multiple cloak triggers immediately. These cards are basically trash in any other Assassin deck, but in Etrata they are all-stars! We now have a filled out roster of these and it's amazing!
We also have a ton of noncreature support cards that are wildly powerful in Etrata in particular! Staff of Eden, Vault's Key is another one that seems out of place in any AC Commander deck but is incredible with Etrata since we're cloaking a ton of cards off our opponents, so this is a reanimate + absurd repeatable card draw. Then we've got stuff like Rooftop Bypass for more assassins, the freerunning cards like Eagle Vision, and so much more!
We even get a great reprint with Cover of Darkness, giving our team evasion for cheap. This card was prohibitively expensive before because it had only seen one printing decades ago, but the reprint from AC has dropped it down to less than $5!
$100 List
The $100 brew has nearly all the AC upgrades I'm interested in, which is about 20 cards, wild! Etrata runs SO MUCH BETTER with AC, it's actually scary how much better and "complete" the deck feels. Initially, I wanted to do a $50 version but Assassin's Creed cards are strangely expensive, maybe because they haven't been opened much I don't know:
$200 List
The $200 brew has the final AC card that was missing from the $100 list: Ezio, Blade of Vengeance. It's honestly not even that great a card being mostly an overpriced Reconnaissance Mission but it's thematic, so if you've got the spare cash then it's a fine inclusion.
The bigger upgrades comes from older cards like Irenicus's Vile Duplication and Roaming Throne to double up on Etrata / Assassin triggers, Maskwood Nexus as another way to turn all your cloaked creatures into Assassins, or classic staples like Cyclonic Rift. The busted MH3 cards are always worth adding too like Flare of Malice and Flare of Denial for powerful interaction or the MDFCs like Sink into Stupor.
I started upgrading the lands too so we've got good fixers like Underground River and Shipwreck Marsh.
Further Upgrades
The final strong thematic upgrade I would consider is Thassa, Deep-Dwelling: it's one of the rare blink effects where the cards returns to the battlefield under your control, not the owner's. This means you can blink permanents you steal with Etrata and they'll come back on your side, letting you use ETB triggers and flip up permanents for no mana. Plus randomly being a 6/5 indestructible creature ain't bad!
- Better lands Morphic Pool, Watery Grave, Polluted Delta, Cavern of Souls, Ancient Tomb
- Better countermagic Mana Drain, Fierce Guardianship
- Better tutors Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor
- Better ramp Mana Crypt
Thanks For Reading!
I know Assassin's Creed is old news at this point and wasn't even that popular when it was still fresh so I doubt most people care about this article, but I love Etrata and got hyped for this update so I wrote it anyway. If it inspires a single person to try her out too then all the better! I'm still awaiting the AC upgrades in the mail and can't wait to give the upgraded Etrata list a go at FNM soon!
I've got some more budget brews in the pipeline soon, they will be focused on Bloomburrow, so check back next week for a new article! Thanks for reading :)
