Overview:

This Assassin-themed deck leverages Ezio Auditore da Firenze as a cost-reduction engine and alternate win condition. The primary strategy revolves around deploying evasive Assassins to deal combat damage, enabling freerunning costs for explosive plays and triggering potent damage-based abilities. Secondary themes include historic synergy (artifacts/legendaries/Sagas), equipment voltron, and late-game emblem wins via The Capitoline Triad. Ezio is essential for enabling freerunning casts and providing a game-ending ability against low-life opponents, though the deck can function without him using its robust Assassin roster.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Early Setup (Turns 1-4): Deploy mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet), evasion enablers (Reconnaissance, Whispersilk Cloak), or low-cost Assassins like Poison-Blade Mentor/Basim Ibn Ishaq. Prioritize connecting combat damage to enable freerunning.
2. Mid-Game Value (Turns 4-7): Cast discounted Assassins via freerunning (e.g., Achilles Davenport, Restart Sequence). Equip key pieces like Brotherhood Regalia or Swiftfoot Boots to ensure damage triggers. Leverage draw engines (Coastal Piracy, Black Market Connections) and recursion (Layla Hassan, Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine).
3. Win Condition Execution:
   • Combat/Commander Damage: Use equipment (Excalibur, Sword of Eden, Mjölnir, Storm Hammer) to amplify threats. Ramses, Assassin Lord enables wins via Assassin combat kills.
   • Ezio's Ability: Activate Ezio's {W}{U}{B}{R}{G} instakill against opponents at ≤10 life.
   • Alternate Kills: Unstoppable Slasher halves life totals; The Capitoline Triad emblem creates overwhelming boards.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 2-3 lands, including color-fixing (Command Tower, Path of Ancestry).
• Prioritize early Assassins, evasion tools, or ramp. Freerunning enablers (e.g., Poison-Blade Mentor) are critical.
• Include at least one piece of interaction (Path to Exile, Terminate) or protection (Haystack).
• Avoid hands lacking damage enablers or with only high-cost cards.

Key Tips:

• Sequence Freerunning: Cast Assassins post-combat to maximize cost reduction. Overpowering Attack enables multiple combat phases for repeated triggers.
• Protect Engines: Use Swiftfoot Boots/Darksteel Plate on Ezio or key Assassins. Reconnaissance protects attackers post-damage.
• Leverage Historic: Basim Ibn Ishaq draws off artifacts/legendaries; The Capitoline Triad cost reduction scales with graveyard historic density.
• Tutor Wisely: Demonic Tutor finds win cons (Ramses, Assassin Lord, Unstoppable Slasher) or answers.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Severe vulnerability to fog effects, damage prevention, and forced block mechanics, which prevent combat damage triggers and freerunning activation.
• Board wipes cripple the creature-dependent strategy; limited mass recursion outside Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine.
• Hexproof/shroud nullifies targeted equipment attachment and Ezio's ability; relies on Arcane Lighthouse as sole counter.

Moderate

• Stax pieces (e.g., Propaganda, Ghostly Prison) tax attacks, delaying freerunning setup.
• Graveyard hate disrupts Layla Hassan, The Capitoline Triad, and Restart Sequence.
• Artifact destruction removes key equipment/ramp; limited protection beyond Darksteel Plate.

Minor

• Life gain strategies delay Ezio's instakill threshold.
• Hand disruption can remove critical combo pieces or protection.

Most Important Cards:

• Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Freerunning enabler/alternate win)
• Ramses, Assassin Lord (Alternate win condition/Assassin lord)
• Brotherhood Regalia (Unblockable evasion/freerunning enabler)
• Najeela, the Blade-Blossom (Combat multiplier/freerunning activator)
• Demonic Tutor (Finds key win cons/interaction)
• The Capitoline Triad (Late-game emblem win)
• Unstoppable Slasher (Life-halving threat/recurring damage)
• Overpowering Attack (Enables multiple freerunning triggers)
• Reconnaissance (Combat damage protection)
• Swiftfoot Boots (Protection for Ezio/key Assassins)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 6/10

• Can threaten wins via combat/commander damage or Ezio's ability by turns 7-8 with ideal equipment setup, but relies heavily on combat resolution.

Resilience: 5/10

• Moderate protection (hexproof, phasing) and recursion exist, but core strategy folds to fog effects or repeated board wipes. Freerunning requires sustained combat success.

Consistency: 6/10

• Freerunning provides cost reduction, and tutors/draw engines find key pieces, but lacks redundancy for critical effects like evasion.

Interaction: 6/10

• Efficient targeted removal (Assassin's Trophy, Terminate) and board wipes (Blasphemous Act), but minimal stack interaction or stax to protect the game plan.

Rating Justification:

The deck operates at a Focused level, leveraging combat synergies and freerunning for T7-8 win potential, but its critical vulnerability to combat disruption and reliance on Ezio's damage triggers cap its speed and resilience. It lacks the fast mana, combos, or robust protection of higher tiers.

Power level: 6.0 - 6.5