Legendary Creature — Human Assassin

Achilles Davenport

Mana value4EDHREC#6,298

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The Commander

Freerunning {U} {B} (You may cast this spell for its freerunning cost if you dealt combat damage to a player this turn with an Assassin or commander.)

Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

Other Assassins you control get +1/+1.

Guide

Gameplan

Achilles Davenport anchors a Dimir Assassin tribal deck built around connecting for combat damage and pressing that into card advantage and removal. You curve out cheap evasive Assassins, buff them with the +1/+1 anthem and menace-enabled aggression, then use the freerunning discount to chain spells once you've landed a hit. The deck wins by going wide with buffed, hard-to-block Assassins while grinding opponents down with assassination-style removal and value triggers.

Strengths

Cheap commander that buffs your whole Assassin board and reduces your own recast cost via freerunning enablers
Menace plus the anthem makes early Assassins hard to block profitably, enabling consistent combat damage
Dimir gives access to the format's best targeted removal, card draw, and recursion
Freerunning support cards reward connecting, generating snowballing tempo and card advantage

Weaknesses

Tribal payoffs are fragile to board wipes since the deck commits creatures to the board
Assassin as a creature type is shallow, so you'll lean on generically good Dimir creatures
No built-in card advantage on the commander itself beyond enabling freerunning
Lacks a fast combo finish, so a stalled board can leave you grinding behind ramp/combo decks

Key Cards

Coppercoat Vanguard — A second Assassin anthem effect that also gives ward, protecting your buffed board from spot removal.
Sword of Feast and Famine — Grants evasion and untaps your lands on hit, supercharging both combat damage and your ability to recast freerunning spells.
Quietus Spike — Turns any unblocked Assassin hit into halving a player's life total, a real win condition with menace and the anthem.
Whispersilk Cloak — Makes a key Assassin unblockable, guaranteeing the combat-damage trigger that enables freerunning every turn.
Toxic Deluge — A scalable wrath you can tune around your own buffed creatures and a top reset against go-wide opponents.
Notion Thief — Punishes opponents' card draw while you refill, a classic Dimir value engine that protects your grind plan.

Upgrade Path

Tighten the curve with the best cheap evasive creatures and more freerunning enablers so you reliably connect every turn. Add premium Dimir interaction (Counterspell, Fierce Guardianship, Damnation as a panic button) and efficient card draw to refuel after wipes. To raise the ceiling, lean into Voltron equipment and unblockable enablers so a single hit threatens lethal, and consider a tutor package to find Quietus Spike or a Sword consistently.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Going wide with buffed, menacing Assassins for repeated combat damage
▸Equipment-fueled Voltron beatdown via Quietus Spike or a Sword
▸Grinding opponents out with removal, recursion, and card advantage until you out-resource them
▸Commander damage from a suited-up, evasive Achilles or a key Assassin

Archetypes

Tribal Aggro — The anthem and menace push a wide, evasive Assassin board that closes games through combat damage.
Tempo/Midrange — Freerunning discounts let you deploy threats and answers efficiently after connecting each turn.
Control — Dimir removal and counters let you protect a small evasive board while picking apart opponents.
Voltron — Equipment like Quietus Spike and Swords turn a single unblockable Assassin into a lethal threat.