Garza's Assassin MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Human Assassin
Abilities	Recover
Released	2006-07-21
Set symbol
Set name	Coldsnap
Set code	CSP
Power	2
Toughness	2
Number	57
Frame	2003
Layout	normal
Border	black
Illustred by	Paolo Parente

Key Takeaways

Garza’s Assassin ensures card presence through recovery, advantageous for consistent creature control.
Demands strategic deck building with a focus on black mana and creature sacrifice synergy.
In decks exploiting death triggers, Garza’s Assassin blends removal with resource generation.

Text of card

Sacrifice Garza's Assassin: Destroy target nonblack creature. Recover— Pay half your life, rounded up. (When another creature is put into your graveyard from play, you may pay half your life, rounded up. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, remove this card from the game.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Garza’s Assassin offers potential card advantage through its recovery mechanic. By sacrificing a black creature, you can return it from your graveyard to your hand, ensuring that you maintain card presence.

Resource Acceleration: The recovery ability is also a form of resource acceleration. It equips you with repeated usage of the same card without expending additional cards from your hand, conserving your resources for other plays.

Instant Speed: Garza’s Assassin can be sacrificed at instant speed, which means you can strategically choose the best moment during your opponent’s turn to activate this effect, disrupting their plays and maintaining the upper hand.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Garza’s Assassin demands that you sacrifice a creature or pay a hefty mana cost to recover it from the graveyard. This requirement can be a strategic drawback, especially in decks that rely on maintaining board presence.

Specific Mana Cost: The card’s reliance on black mana means it slots exclusively into mono-black or multicolor decks that can produce black mana, potentially restricting its versatility for players with a diverse deck portfolio.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its recovery cost from the graveyard tapping at three black mana and requiring you to bounce it to your hand as opposed to directly to the battlefield, other removal options might pose a more efficient use of your mana resources and tempo.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Garza’s Assassin lends itself well to various deck builds, particularly those that require creature control. Its recovery ability ensures that it is a recurring threat, able to deal with multiple threats over the course of a game.

Combo Potential: With its sacrifice mechanic, this card works seamlessly in decks that utilize death triggers for additional benefits, turning creature control into a resource-generating strategy.

Meta-Relevance: In metas dominated by creature-heavy decks, Garza’s Assassin provides consistent board control, allowing you to keep pace with an opponent’s creature plays while maintaining board presence.

How to beat

Garza’s Assassin presents a unique challenge for Magic the Gathering players due to its Recovery mechanic, which allows it to return from the graveyard to the battlefield. To effectively counter this creature, it’s crucial to limit graveyard interactions. Utilizing graveyard hate cards like Rest in Peace can negate the Recovery ability by removing Garza’s Assassin permanently when it dies. This type of strategy cripples the card’s potential and disrupts your opponent’s plans.

Another approach to outmaneuver Garza’s Assassin lies in preventing it from entering the battlefield altogether. Counterspells such as Counterspell or Mana Leak can stop Garza’s Assassin in its tracks. If it has already hit the field, exile effects like Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares can permanently deal with it without triggering its Recovery ability. As with any powerful card, understanding and anticipating your opponent’s moves will guide you toward the best method to circumvent Garza’s Assassin’s advantages, maintaining control of the game.

Finally, always keep in mind the importance of board state awareness. Having a strategy to deal with problematic creatures before they can impact the game is beneficial. In managing threats like Garza’s Assassin, your deck needs to be versatile enough to handle both the initial threat and any recurring challenges it presents.

Cards like Garza's Assassin

Garza’s Assassin is a unique card within MTG, offering a blend of control and resilience. This card shares similarities with other creature cards that provide board control, such as Royal Assassin. Both cards serve a removal purpose but operate differently. Royal Assassin takes down tapped creatures, while Garza’s Assassin requires a sacrifice but can eliminate any creature. The sacrifice synergy could potentially be exploited in various deck strategies.

Another parallel can be drawn with Skinrender, which comes into play impacting the board by distributing negative counters. While Skinrender doesn’t outright destroy a creature, it weakens or potentially eliminates smaller threats immediately upon arrival. Garza’s Assassin’s recover ability also distinguishes it, allowing reusability that Skinrender lacks, giving players a recurrent tool for creature control.

To evaluate Garza’s Assassin amidst similar MTG cards, one must consider its flexibility and the strategic depth it adds to gameplay. Its recovery option showcases a persistent threat that can continually influence the battlefield, potentially swinging the game in favor of the player who wields it wisely.

Royal Assassin - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)

Skinrender - Wizards Play Network 2010 (PWP10)

Cards similar to Garza's Assassin by color, type and mana cost

Mischievous Poltergeist - MTG Card versions

Nettling Imp - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)

Royal Assassin - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)

El-Hajjâj - Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border (4BB)

Plague Rats - Foreign Black Border (FBB)

Frozen Shade - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)

Sorceress Queen - Rivals Quick Start Set (RQS)

Wall of Bone - Duel Decks: Garruk vs. Liliana (DDD)

Lost Soul - Introductory Two-Player Set (ITP)

Hypnotic Specter - Magic Player Rewards 2006 (P06)

Mischievous Poltergeist - Classic Sixth Edition (6ED)

Strongarm Thug - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)

Lord of the Undead - Eighth Edition (8ED)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Garza's Assassin MTG card by a specific set like Coldsnap, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Garza's Assassin and other MTG cards: