Lethal Scheme card art

Lethal Scheme

Instant MV 4

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

What it does

Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)

Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Each creature that convoked this spell connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)

Rulings

11 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

  • 2022-04-29

    If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to connive but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still connives. If you discard a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything. Abilities that trigger "when [that creature] connives" will trigger.

  • 2022-04-29

    Once an ability that causes a creature to connive begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the conniving creature after you discard a nonland card but before it receives a counter.

  • 2022-04-29

    You can't tap more creatures to convoke Lethal Scheme than it takes to pay for its total cost. This means that normally no more than four creatures can convoke it.

  • 2022-04-29

    When multiple creatures are instructed to connive simultaneously, they connive one at a time in the order of their controller's choice.

  • 2022-04-29

    If no card is discarded, most likely because that player's hand is empty and an effect says they can't draw cards, the conniving creature does not receive a +1/+1 counter.

  • 2024-01-12

    When calculating a spell's total cost, include any alternative costs, additional costs, or anything else that increases or reduces the cost to cast the spell. Convoke applies after the total cost is calculated. Convoke doesn't change a spell's mana cost or mana value.

  • 2024-01-12

    Because convoke isn't an alternative cost, it can be used in conjunction with alternative costs.

  • 2024-01-12

    If a creature you control has a mana ability with T in the cost, activating that ability while casting a spell with convoke will result in the creature being tapped before you pay the spell's costs. You won't be able to tap it again for convoke. Similarly, if you sacrifice a creature to activate a mana ability while casting a spell with convoke, that creature won't be on the battlefield when you pay the spell's costs, so you won't be able to tap it for convoke.

  • 2024-01-12

    Tapping an untapped creature that's attacking or blocking to convoke a spell won't cause that creature to stop attacking or blocking.

  • 2024-01-12

    You can tap any untapped creature you control to convoke a spell, even one you haven't controlled continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn.

  • 2024-01-12

    Tapping a multicolored creature using convoke will pay for 1 or one mana of your choice of any of that creature's colors.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Lethal Scheme, whatever its commander.

Decks running it 7
Games played 1
Win rate Fewer than 5 completed games — not enough to publish a rate yet.
Confirmed on board 0 Games where a board photo caught it actually in play.

Most played under

Colors it shows up in

  • Grixis 4 decks
  • Rakdos 1 deck
  • Sultai 1 deck

Every version of Lethal Scheme

13 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly — a printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall genuinely publishes none for some of them.

Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Lethal Scheme — a name search across every version, for the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.

Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only — no individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.