Hello all,
I've had this deck for a few years now. I don't play it often, I take it out when I'm facing people I don't know. Usually this means I get my ass handed to me because the deck is underpowered, but for a first impression I think it's better not to bring out the big guns immediately

The deck can be a lot of fun to play, because it has some cards you don't see very often. It was my intention to make a deck that scales well: I'll play your cards, not mine. So if your cards are good, I'm having a good time. If you don't have an answer, I'm screwed.
The Core Ramses Overdark Dragon Shadow Dragon Wings False Demise Fool's Demise Unhallowed Pact Shade's FormI went with Ramses because I wanted a Legends OG. This card has an interesting design, but a 4/3 for 6 CMC with a situational ability won't win you any battles. The aura's are pretty good though, you could even put these on your own creatures.
As Ramses is an assassin, and
Royal Assassin has been one of my favorite cards since I started (somewhere before Ice Age was released), I thought these cards should go in the same deck.
Assassins Suq'Ata Assassin Big Game Hunter Royal Assassin Dark Impostor Wei Assassins Nekrataal Agent of the FatesShriekmaw came out for
Agent of the Fates. I had to rework the deck to make that card work, but with
Willbreaker around I wanted more stuff that targets anyway. As a general rule I take out non-theme cards when I want to add theme cards.
Avatar of Woe and
Visara the Dreadful went out some time ago. No, I don't think that makes the deck better either...
Assassins need tools. I could pretend I was looking for thematic equipment, but that'd be a lie. To some extent... I did add
Cloak and Dagger and
Whispersilk Cloak (which has a version mentioning assassins), but I need shroud/hexproof to keep my stolen creatures (somewhat) safe. I found
Glistening Oil to be thematic, as there's some thematic overlap with assassins and poison. It's also good with Ramses, but I found it's not so good on my own weenies.
Tools of the Trade Lightning Greaves Cloak and Dagger Thousand-year elixir Whispersilk Cloak Thornbite Staff No Mercy The deck has more cards that didn't really have a place, but I turned this into a theme.
Favorites Nevinyrral's Disk Sword of Fire and Ice Shadowmage Infiltrator Damnation Cool utility Sol Ring Solemn Simulacrum Oblivion Stone Skull of Orm Crystal Chimes Doomwake Giant - need to keep the tokens off my back
Theft is the main strategy of the deck.
Steal Talent of the Telepath - trying this because it's new
Vedalken Shackles Dominating Licid Silent-Blade Oni - ninjas are basically assassins
Willbreaker Domineering Will - the best reason to play blue... plus it untaps my assassins
Rite and Stolen Identity got added for Willbreaker, and coincidentally they trigger Agent of the Fates as well. The Metamorph is a prerelease promo, so I have to play it.
Copy/Paste Rite of Replication Phyrexian Metamorph Stolen IdentityFrom cards like
Fool's Demise you'll end up with
River Kelpie pretty soon. This engine is what I love about the deck. The other card draw just happens to be cards I like for nostalgic reasons. Sygg could be the general if I wanted to switch. That, or Lazav.
Draw Sygg, River Cutthroat River Kelpie Fact or Fiction Deep AnalysisMorphs are fun. With Royal Assassin you're hanging back anyway, so something random on the table makes me less of a target. If I'm no threat, and nothing will good from attacking me, then at least I won't be dead soon. I had more morphs in the past.
Morphs Vesuvan Shapeshifter Chromeshell Crab Willbender Kheru Spellsnatcher Grave robbers Ink-Eyes, servant of Oni Geth, Lord of the Vault Memory Plunder Puppeteer clique Altar of Dementia Consuming Aberration Reduce Reuse Recycle Kokusho, the evening star - it didn't have a home, and it's good with
False Demise Mimic Vat Cauldron of Souls - added this with Willbreaker, heh
Necromancy Beacon of Unrest Mana Burnished Hart Mind Stone Wayfarer's Bauble Expedition map - first card is always Academy Ruins...
8
Island7
Swamp Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Maze of Ith Command Tower Creeping Tar Pit Dimir Aqueduct Dreadship Reef Drowned Catacomb Lonely Sandbar Polluted Delta Salt Marsh Secluded Glen Sunken Ruins Tainted Isle Temple of the False God Underground River Underground Sea Minamo, School at Water's Edge Volrath's Stronghold Academy ruins Tolaria west Terramorphic Expanse Jwahr island refuge Rogue's PassageThere's never enough space in a deck for all the cards I want to play. I'm contemplating
Staff of Domination: it's an
Icy Manipulator, it untaps my Royal and it triggers Willbreaker.
Stronghold Assassin is high on the list. I'm looking for a promo
Overtaker.
Sepulchral Primordial and
Diluvian Primordial make sense in the deck, but I try to keep the curve low. Random cards I like:
Havengul Lich,
Hedonist Trove (as I'm light on graveyard hate as well...),
Infernal Offering,
Oona, Queen of the Fae,
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind,
Necropotence