Master of Cruelties card art

Master of Cruelties

Creature — Demon MV 5

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

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What it doesCombosRulingsIn the 99Every version

What it does

First strike, deathtouch

This creature can only attack alone.

Whenever this creature attacks a player and isn't blocked, that player's life total becomes 1. This creature assigns no combat damage this combat.

Combos with Master of Cruelties

The lines this card is part of, what it needs alongside it, and what the cards do together. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.

Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.

Rulings

6 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

  • 2013-04-15

    If Master of Cruelties attacks alone, another creature entering the battlefield attacking will have no effect on it. Master of Cruelties continues to be an attacking creature. The other attacking creature will assign combat damage normally, regardless of whether Master of Cruelties's last ability triggers.

  • 2013-04-15

    For a player's life total to become 1, what actually happens is that the player loses (or in some rare cases, gains) the appropriate amount of life. For example, if the player's life total is 4 when the last ability resolves, it will cause that player to lose 3 life. Other effects that interact with life loss (or gain) will interact with this effect accordingly.

  • 2013-04-15

    Assigning no combat damage isn't the same as preventing that damage. Effects that make damage unpreventable will have no effect if no combat damage can be assigned.

  • 2013-04-15

    Master of Cruelties isn't forced to attack, but if it does, it must do so alone. If you control another creature with an ability that says it must attack if able, that creature must attack and Master of Cruelties won't be able to.

  • 2013-04-15

    An ability that triggers when something "attacks and isn't blocked" triggers in the declare blockers step after blockers are declared if (1) that creature is attacking and (2) no creatures are declared to block it. It will trigger even if that creature was put onto the battlefield attacking rather than having been declared as an attacker in the declare attackers step.

  • 2024-01-12

    Master of Cruelties's last ability won't trigger if it attacks a planeswalker or a battle.

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

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Master of Cruelties, whatever its commander.

Decks running it 2
Games played 0
Win rate — Fewer than 5 completed games, which is not enough to publish a rate yet.
Confirmed on board 0 Games where a board photo caught it actually in play.

Every version of Master of Cruelties

9 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 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 Master of Cruelties. It runs a name search across every version, which covers 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.