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Haystack

Artifact

{2}, {T}: Target creature you control phases out. (Treat it and anything attached to it as though they don't exist until your next turn.)

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Assassin's Creed
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#4501
Buy on TCGplayer
Haystack card art
Haystack is a free-to-cast zero-drop that feeds assassin and creature-death synergies without spending a card slot on mana, which makes it a natural fit for commanders like Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad who need cheap, expendable bodies to generate value. The cost is essentially nothing on rate — Emet-Selch, Unsundered // Hades, Sorcerer of Eld aside, zero-mana permanents that slot cleanly into an engine are rarely a cut.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

50.4% of decks · synergy 0.49

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad runs Haystack because it's a free target to assassinate — triggering Altaïr's investigation and counter-distribution engines without investing any mana on the turn you cast it.

02
Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Ezio Auditore da Firenze

46.4% of decks · synergy 0.45

Ezio Auditore da Firenze wants the same thing: Haystack provides a cheap, sacrifice-ready body that fuels Ezio's kill-trigger and hidden-agenda mechanics without crowding the mana curve.

03
Ratonhnhaké꞉ton

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton

22.5% of decks · synergy 0.22

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton picks up Haystack as an incidental piece — it's a zero-cost creature that can enter, die, or get sacrificed to satisfy any trigger that cares about creatures entering or leaving the battlefield.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Haystack is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but the Assassin's Creed crossover context means it's almost exclusively a Commander card in practice. In Legacy and Vintage the bar for zero-drops is extremely high — Haystack doesn't pressure the board or generate direct card advantage the way those formats demand, so it won't see play outside of niche combo fringe. Modern is similarly uninterested unless a dedicated sacrifice or death-trigger shell emerges. Commander is where Haystack actually lives: the singleton format rewards cheap redundancy, and any assassin-tribal or death-trigger deck will find real value in a no-cost body that doesn't dilute the curve.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Haystack isn't currently available, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live quote before buying. Given its narrow application — primarily Commander assassin-tribal shells — expect it to behave like most crossover-set role-players: low floor, modest ceiling tied directly to how popular Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze decks remain.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.