Legendary Creature — Human Assassin

Arno Dorian

Mana value4EDHREC#5,729

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The Commander

Deathtouch

Other Assassins you control get +2/+0.

Disguise {B} {R} (You may cast this card face down for {3} as a 2/2 creature with ward {2} . Turn it face up any time for its disguise cost.)

Guide

Gameplan

Arno Dorian leads an aggressive Assassin tribal deck that anoints attackers with deathtouch and a +2/+0 anthem, turning small bodies into game-ending threats. You flood the board with cheap Assassins, swing in repeatedly, and leverage deathtouch synergies to trade up and clear blockers. Disguise lets Arno dodge removal and ambush an attacker before flipping up to buff your team.

Strengths

Cheap, focused tribal payoff that makes even 1/1 Assassins hit hard
Disguise gives the commander built-in protection and surprise value against blockers and removal
Deathtouch pairs nastily with trample, ping effects, and forced-block tricks
Aggressive BR shell with strong removal and reach to close games

Weaknesses

Anthem effect only buffs power, so go-wide tokens still die to a single board wipe
Heavily commander-dependent for the +2/+0 buff; loses steam if Arno is repeatedly removed
Assassin tribe is shallow, so you lean on generic aggro and goodstuff to fill out the curve
No card advantage engine baked in, so it can run out of gas against control

Key Cards

Anowon, the Ruin Thief — A premier Assassin payoff that mills and draws as your buffed Assassins connect.
Royal Assassin — Becomes a 3/2 that taps to destroy any tapped creature, deterring all attacks.
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive — Makes your small Assassins unblockable so the +2/+0 deathtouch damage always lands.
Coat of Arms — Stacks an explosive second anthem on top of Arno for a tribal overrun finish.
Quietus Spike — Halves an opponent's life on connection, a brutal payoff with so many evasive deathtouch swingers.

Upgrade Path

Add more evasion and protection so your buffs always connect: Whispersilk Cloak, Rogue's Passage, and Lightning Greaves keep threats online. Improve card flow with The Black Market Connection, Phyrexian Arena, and Sign in Blood, and tighten the curve with efficient removal like Terminate and Bedevil. For a higher ceiling, lean into a Quietus Spike/unblockable plan or a tribal overrun with Coat of Arms and Door of Destinies to push past board stalls.

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

▸Wide Assassin board buffed by Arno (and Coat of Arms) for lethal combat damage
▸Evasive deathtouch attacker carrying Quietus Spike or other punisher equipment
▸Incremental drain and burn from aristocrats payoffs and direct damage
▸Commander damage from a disguised, equipped Arno flipping up to swing

Archetypes

Tribal Aggro — Arno's +2/+0 anthem turns a board of cheap Assassins into a lethal beatdown squad.
Voltron — With deathtouch and disguise resilience, equipping Arno makes him a hard-to-block one-shot threat.
Aristocrats — BR sacrifice and assassin synergies let you drain life and grind value off dying bodies.
Control-Lite — Deathtouch blockers and tappers like Royal Assassin police the board while you chip away.