by Can Tran

Created on: October 30, 2009

"Scarblade Elite" is a 2/2 black elf assassin printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Morningtide." This is one of the cards in Morningtide that encourage players that build decks around a theme or "tribe" of creatures. In this respect, you may want to build an assassin themed deck for the most part. To get the most out of Scarblade Elite, you may want to build a deck set to destroy your opponent's creatures. With the right cards, you can get a lot out of the Scarblade Elite.

The converted mana cost for Scarblade Elite is two. You will need two black mana to bring Scarblade Elite from your hand and onto the battlefield. For what the Scarblade Elite can do, the converted mana cost is pretty much worth it for the most part. This is provided that you build around assassins. You may also want to make a mono black deck because most assassin cards are black cards.

What does Scarblade Elite do in the first place?

Make sure you have a few assassin cards in your graveyard. By tapping Scarblade Elite, you can Exile an assassin card from your graveyard. Doing so allows you to destroy a target creature. However, make sure that the creature neither has Shroud nor Protection from Black.

If you have assassins on the battlefield and they get killed, you can use the Scarblade Elite to get the last laugh for the most part. You simply exile the assassin sent to the graveyard via Scarblade Elite and destroy one of your opponent's creatures.

But, there are cards that can be combined with Scarblade Elite. In a red and black deck, you can make good use. The first card is called "Vicious Shadows." Vicious Shadows deals X points of damage to a target player in which X is equal to the cards in his/her hand whenever a creature gets sent to the graveyard. You can use Scarblade Elite's ability and destroy a creature. In turn, you make the creature's controller suffer. To add to the insult, you can add in "Wound Reflection." It doubles the amount of loss of life points that your opponents suffer.

The other card would be "Extractor Demon." Whenever a creature gets to the sent to a graveyard, you can make a target player "mill" the top two cards of his/her library into the graveyard. You can use Scarblade Elite to destroy and creature and make an opponent mill his/her top two cards from the library.

Overall, Scarblade Assassin is pretty good. Make sure you have plenty of assassins. In this respect, this is good for getting rid of creatures. With the right cards on the battlefield, you can set off an interesting chain reaction with Scarblade Assassin.

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