Is Chain Assassination good in Commander?

Chain Assassination in Commander — Combos, Decks & Price

Chain Assassination kills a creature and then kills another one if the first target was a token — two removals for three mana in black is a clean rate when the board is full of Treasures, Soldiers, and other incidental tokens. The catch is narrow: without a token target first, this is a vanilla three-mana sorcery-speed kill spell, and Ezio Auditore da Firenze aside, most decks aren't consistently guaranteed the setup.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01

Ezio Auditore da Firenze

45.5% of decks · synergy 0.44

Ezio Auditore da Firenze creates Assassin tokens as part of his core loop, which means Chain Assassination almost always has a free first target sitting in play — the token eats the first half, a real threat eats the second, and you've spent three mana to advance the Assassin synergy and clear a blocker simultaneously.

02

Ramses, Assassin Lord

31.7% of decks · synergy 0.31

Ramses, Assassin Lord runs enough Assassins and supporting creatures that Chain Assassination slots in as cheap, on-theme removal that keeps the tribal engine clean while incidentally punishing token-heavy opponents with two-for-one upside.

03

Etrata, Deadly Fugitive

29.5% of decks · synergy 0.28

Etrata, Deadly Fugitive wants efficient, low-cost removal to keep the path clear for Assassin attacks, and Chain Assassination provides that while fitting inside the Dimir color identity and occasionally doubling up when enemy tokens are in the way.

04

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton

27.3% of decks · synergy 0.27

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton cares about Assassins and creatures with abilities, so Chain Assassination fills a removal slot that also stays on-tribe — and the token trigger becomes increasingly relevant as opponents develop boards with creature tokens mid-game.

05

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

25.5% of decks · synergy 0.25

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad rewards killing creatures with experience counters, and Chain Assassination can convert one kill into two in the right position, theoretically triggering that experience payoff twice off a single card.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

Format	Verdict
commander	legal
legacy	legal
modern	legal
pioneer	not legal
standard	not legal
vintage	legal
pauper	not legal
oathbreaker	legal

Chain Assassination is a Commander card in practice — the token trigger is most relevant in a format where board states are cluttered with Treasure tokens, creature tokens from go-wide strategies, and incidental 1/1s, making the two-for-one a realistic expectation rather than a pipe dream. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes against Fatal Push, Swords to Plowshares, and Force of Will as the removal baseline, and a three-mana sorcery-speed spell with a conditional second kill doesn't make that cut. Oathbreaker gives it the same Commander-style environment where the token clause fires more often, so it's playable there in Assassin-adjacent builds. Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper don't get it at all, which is largely irrelevant since those formats wouldn't want it anyway.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.29 bulk tier

At $0.29, Chain Assassination is bulk in every meaningful sense — low enough that there's no financial barrier to picking up a copy, and low enough that it's unlikely to spike unless a new Assassin commander dramatically warps demand. It holds bulk pricing for the foreseeable future; buy it for the deck, not for the binder.