Is Murderous Redcap good in Commander?

Murderous Redcap

Creature — Goblin Assassin

When this creature enters, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.
Persist (When this creature dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

CMC: 4
Mana cost
Color identity: BR
Rarity: uncommon
Set: Modern Masters
Price: $1.31
EDHREC rank: #4217

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Murderous Redcap enters the battlefield dealing damage equal to its power and comes back every time it dies — that's a repeatable removal and drain engine stapled to a two-color body. The four-mana cost is the only real friction, and commanders like Celes, Rune Knight or Gev, Scaled Scorch make that investment look cheap the moment persist triggers.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

Celes, Rune Knight

63.3% of decks · synergy 0.60

Celes, Rune Knight cares about creatures with counters, and Murderous Redcap's persist counter feeds that engine while the enters-the-battlefield ping deals incremental damage every time the loop resets.

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden

51.6% of decks · synergy 0.48

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden repeatedly cheats creatures onto the battlefield from the bottom of the library, and Murderous Redcap turns every reanimation trigger into a free ping — stacking lethal damage without ever casting it again.

Gev, Scaled Scorch

44.2% of decks · synergy 0.41

Gev, Scaled Scorch rewards you for pinging small damage over and over, and Murderous Redcap's persist loop turns a single four-mana investment into a repeating source of that damage.

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

43.6% of decks · synergy 0.40

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad cares about creatures dying with counters, and Murderous Redcap's -1/-1 persist counter means every death feeds Altaïr's assassination triggers while the board ping clears small blockers.

Wort, Boggart Auntie

35.6% of decks · synergy 0.32

Wort, Boggart Auntie returns Goblins from the graveyard to hand, giving Murderous Redcap a second life as a recast threat and keeping the enters-the-battlefield drain accessible across multiple turns.

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

Commander is where Murderous Redcap earns its reputation — persist-based combo lines are abundant in black-red, and the card appears in over eleven thousand Gev, Scaled Scorch decks alone. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but sees virtually no play, crowded out by faster interaction and more efficient threats. Modern has the same problem: four mana for a 2/2 with a one-time ping doesn't compete in a format that moves at that speed. Murderous Redcap is a Commander card through and through, built for the grindier, synergy-rich environment where persist loops and repeated death triggers are actually exploitable.

Key Combos