Desmond Miles
Menace Desmond Miles gets +1/+0 for each other Assassin you control and each Assassin card in your graveyard. Whenever Desmond Miles deals combat damage to a player, surveil X, where X is the amount of damage it dealt to that player.
How Desmond Miles decks play in EDH
Desmond Miles is a mono-black commander costing 1B, and its legendary creature - human assassin line shapes the whole deck around it. The payoff is combat damage, so evasion and extra-combat effects matter more than raw power. Built-in evasion means damage gets through reliably, so effects that scale that damage are worth more than extra bodies. The cards below are the ones Desmond Miles decks actually play most often, grouped by the job they do.
Most-played cards
20 cards · about $15.32Play rates from EDHREC. Prices from Scryfall, refreshed daily.
Card draw (5)
Removal (4)
Creatures (9)
Synergy & payoffs (2)
Build the full 100
Grimoire generates a complete, Commander-legal Desmond Miles decklist with a written strategy, a full mana base and live prices — from the whole card pool, or only from cards you already own.
Start with Desmond MilesDesmond Miles deck questions
What colours can I use in a Desmond Miles deck?
Desmond Miles has a mono-black colour identity, so every card in the deck must be black or colourless. That includes mana symbols in rules text, not just casting cost.
What are the best cards for Desmond Miles?
The cards played most often in Desmond Miles decks include Dark Matter Manipulator, Reverent Howl, Liliana the Repentant. The full list of staples above is grouped by the job each card does, so you can see the deck's skeleton rather than just a pile of names.
How much does a Desmond Miles deck cost?
The 20 most-played cards shown above come to roughly $15.32 at current market prices. A complete 100-card build costs more, and Grimoire can generate a budget version instead if you set a price ceiling.
Can I build a Desmond Miles deck from cards I already own?
Yes. Import your collection into Grimoire and choose "my cards" when you build. The generator will only use cards you actually own, and the Missing Cards page shows what you would need to buy to finish any list.