Magic: The Gathering - Shay Cormac Commander Deck Guide

Thanks to Magic: The Gathering's latest Universes Beyond expansion, the world of Assassin's Creed has brought us an incredible new commander. Shay Cormac is the maverick assassin from Assassin's Creed Rogue who goes on a rampage against his former brothers to save the new world.

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In Magic, Shay's prowess for murder is showcased by his activated ability which ensures your ability to kill things that might otherwise be out of reach. On top of that, with every opposing death, Shay grows into an imposing threat too great to ignore. Combine these abilities with the colors of life and death, and you've got everything you need to make a great Commander deck.

The Commander: Shay Cormac

Creatures are usually the mainstay of most Commander decks, and most players will do everything they can to keep their creatures safe. That usually means bestowing keywords like protection, indestructible, hexproof, shroud, and ward, thus preventing other players from easily removing them with something like a Murder.

Enter Shay Cormac. For the low cost of one mana, you can temporarily remove every single one of those keywords from every permanent your opponent controls.

However, Shay mostly cares about removing protections from creatures thanks to its triggered ability. Every time you target an opposing creature with a spell or ability, it gets a bounty counter, and whenever a creature with a bounty counter dies, Shay gets two +1/+1 counters.

This makes Shay the perfect commander topair with a lot of removal spells. Every time you target an opposing creature, the triggered ability puts a counter on it, and once the spell resolves, the creature dies, making Shay Cormac an escalating threat.

Although we're focusing on creatures, Shay removes protections from all permanents, not just creatures. This means nothing will be safe when you draw your Vindicate.

But it doesn't always have to be a straight-up kill spell. Targeting opposing creatures with softer abilities will still give them a bounty counter, and if they happen to die due to some other means, Shay still gets the benefit.

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Building Your Shay Cormac Commander Deck

With Shay's powers in mind, the idea is to build a Commander deck that focuses on targeting opposing creatures. The easiest and most efficient way to do that is with kill spells, something that Magic's black and white colors have a lot of.

Shay's ability only triggers when a creature dies, so cards that exile creatures like Swords fo Plowshares and Path to Exile won't trigger Shay's bounty counters.

Although the deck has several sources of repeated removal, the majority of your spells are one-time-use only. For that reason, you'll also want to include plenty of ways to refill your hand if you have to burn a lot of kill spells to keep opponents away from you.

With the flexibility to remove any threat, all you need is a few high-power cards to tip games in your favor as you slice and dice your way through opposing armies.

Removal

As you'd expect, there's a lot of removal in Shay's deck. Cut Down, Bovine Intervention, Ultimate Price, Go for the Throat, and Murder are examples. Cards like Vindicate, Mortify, and Fracture give you the ability to remove cards other than creatures, but the focus is on killing creatures to give Shay more +1/+1 counters, using Shay's activated ability if that creature happens to have any protective keywords.

There are plenty of one-time kill creatures, such as Ravenous Chupacabra, Noxious Gearhulk, and Shriekmaw, but also some repeated-use kill creatures like Royal Assassin, Avatar or Woe, and Guul Draz Assassin. Bounty Hunter can even speed up its usually two-turn kill rate by pairing with Shay to kill anything that already has a bounty counter through some other means (more on those later).

Shay Synergies

Bounty Hunter and anything that helps with bounty counters (such as Termination Facilitator and Bounty Board) are the most obvious things to include in a Shay Cormac deck, but there are other ways to get the most out of Shay. Killian, Ink Duelist, for example, reduces the cost of all those kill spells by two mana, and Kaervek, the Punisher gives you a double use for your kill spells.

Endbringer, Giant Killer, and Walking Ballista are great examples of "soft" ways to throw out bounty counters through their abilities. The Ozolith helps to bank Shay's tokens so that even if he dies, he can come back later at the same size he died. And Black Market is a great card to include as every death gives you more and more black mana to work with.

Black/White Staples

Besides Vindicate, Mortify, and other black-and-white removal spells, both colors provide something that a Shay deck can use. White provides excellent board sweepers like Austere Command, while black provides card draw from the likes of Barbed Servitor, Syphon Mind, and Night's Whisper.

Of course, don't forget Smuggler's Share, a white enchantment that'll give you extra cards and Treasure tokens if your opponent happens to draw more than one card or play more than one land: fair's fair, and all that.

Game Winners and Big Bombs

Two great enchantments come to mind for winning games. Since there will certainly be a lot of dead creatures in any game with Shay Cormac, Debtor's Knell will bring them back into play under your control. You can even pair this card with an evoked Shriekmaw for repeated kills on every turn.

Grave Betrayal is the other card that immediately springs. This enchantment will bring back any creature you killed under your control with an additional +1/+1 counter to boot. And since you'll be killing a lot with Shay, Grave Betrayal will quickly provide you with an army of monsters.

Besides these enchantments, Avatar of Woe can quickly get out of hand with Shay, Tetzimoc is often a one-sided board wipe, and Athreos is a lot like a cheaper Grave Betrayal.

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Shay Cormac Commander Deck Sample Deck List

Here's a sample decklist for a Shay Cormac Commander deck.

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Commander (1)

Shay Cormac

Creatures (26)

Guul Draz Assassin

Hopeful Initiate

Giant Killer

Bounty Agent

Servant of the Stinger

Killian, Ink Duelist

Termination Facilitator

Royal Assassin

Kaervek, the Punisher

Morbid Opportunist

Murderous Rider

Rattleback Apothecary

Bounty Hunter

Ravenous Chupacabra

Barbed Servitor

Deathbringer Liege

Gisa, the Hellraiser

Shriekmaw

Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

Harvester of Souls

Noxious Gearhulk

Athreos, Shroud-Veiled

Endbringer

Tetzimoc, Primal Death

Avatar of Woe

Walking Ballista

Planeswalkers (1)

Ob Nixilis, Reignited

Sorcery (8)

Damn

Insatiable Avarice

Night's Whisper

Feed the Swarm

Vindicate

Syphon Mind

Hex

Austere Command

Instants (15)

Cut Down

Final Showdown

Bovine Intervention

Fateful Absence

Infernal Grasp

Ultimate Price

Fracture

Cast Down

Go for the Throat

Valorous Stance

Mortify

Murder

Stroke of Midnight

Chain Assassination

V.A.T.S.

Artifacts (8)

Sol Ring

Arcane Signet

Mindstone

Lightning Greaves

Bounty Board

Bandit’s Haul

The Ozolith

Cauldron of Souls

Enchantments (4)

Smuggler’s Share

Black Market

Debtor's Knell

Grave Betrayal

Lands (37)

Witch-Blessed Meadow

Hagra Broodpit

Fell Mire

Bojuka Bog

Mortuary Mire

Sejiri Glacier

Rogue's Passage

Vault of the Archangel

Command Tower

Vault of Champions

Isolated Chapel

Shineshadow Snarl

Shattered Sanctum

Godless Shrine

Shadowy Backstreet

Fetid Heath

Temple of Silence

Desolate Mire

Brightclimb Pathway

Orzhov Basilica

Concealed Courtyard

Swamps (9)

Plains (7)

Budget Substitutions

The good news for Magic players on a budget is that many of the cards you'll need for Shay are relatively cheap instants and sorceries. The bad news is that white and black aren't the easiest colors to make a mana base for, and there are a few pricey cards in the suggested deck list.

Here are a few substitutions if you'd rather save some cash.

Gisa, the Hellraiser

Visara the Dreadful, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, Aryel, Knight of Windgrace

Walking Ballista

Triskelion, Triskelavus

Insatiable Avarice

Cut a Deal, Sign in Blood, Your Temple Is Under Attack, Grim Tutor

Final Showdown

Wrath of God, Vanquish the Horde, Cauldron Haze, Shelter

The Ozolith

Bloodthirsty Blade, Laser Screwdriver, Wayfarer’s Bauble

Lightning Greaves

Swiftfoot Boots, Trailblazer’s Boots, Whispersilk Cloak

Vault of Champions

Scoured Barrens, Goldmire Bridge, Silverquill Campus, Sunlit Marsh, Forlorn Flats

Shattered Sanctum

Scoured Barrens, Goldmire Bridge, Silverquill Campus, Sunlit Marsh, Forlorn Flats

Godless Shrine

Scoured Barrens, Goldmire Bridge, Silverquill Campus, Sunlit Marsh, Forlorn Flats

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Tips For Playing Shay Cormac In Commander

• This is probably obvious, but Shay Cormac should almost always be your second-turn play. You'll want him around to place bounty counters whenever you cast spells in the future.
• Don't be too aggressive with your kill spells. It's often better to hang back and let your opponents weaken themselves, saving your removal for when an opponent thinks they might have the upper hand.
• The exception to this rule is when you have Rogue's Passage and Lightning Greaves. First make Shay unblockable with Rogue's Passage, then give him Lightning Greaves to make him untargetable, and then throw out a few removal spells to give him enough +1/+1 counters to go in for the kill.
• Hex is a hilarious spell to cast with Shay. First, Shay ensures each creature you target can't be protected, and since it targets six individual creatures, it creates six bounty counters and gives Shay 12 +1/+1 counters.
• Cauldron of Souls might seem like it will only keep your creatures alive, but you can also target opposing creatures. Do this at the end of your opponent's turn to give all their creatures bounty counters without actually giving them anything useful.
• Don't be afraid to use Final Showdown and Valorous Stance to keep Shay alive rather than kill anything. These spells offer great flexibility, and you've got plenty of more kill spells to go around.

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