Tsabo's Assassin
Creature — Phyrexian Zombie Assassin
: Destroy target creature if it shares a color with the most common color among all permanents or a color tied for most common. A creature destroyed this way can't be regenerated.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Invasion
- Price
- $0.66
- EDHREC rank
- #23682
Tsabo's Assassin is a repeatable, tap-to-destroy removal engine — but only against creatures that share a type with a target commander, which makes it dead weight in pods where commanders don't care about creature types. The four-mana body with no evasion would already be marginal; the tribal-locked activation keeps it firmly niche.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is the only format where Tsabo's Assassin is worth discussing, and even there the ceiling is narrow: tribal-heavy pods with commanders like Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait or The Ur-Dragon are where the repeated destroy ability actually fires. In Legacy and Vintage it's unplayable on rate — four mana for a conditional removal creature competes against nothing reasonable in those formats. Oathbreaker is the one other home where commanders sit in a zone and share types with enough creatures to matter, but the format is obscure enough that it barely registers.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.66 bulk tier
At $0.66, Tsabo's Assassin sits in bulk rare territory, which is exactly where its narrow playability puts it. The price is stable — there's no spike risk and no reason to expect demand to grow, so pick it up cheap if your meta calls for it and don't think twice about the cost.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.