Dethrone in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on October 11, 2024

Scourge of the Throne | Illustration by Alexander Ostrowski

A throne isn’t supposed to be shared. Anyone wishing to sit on it needs to remove the person that’s already there. Dethrone is a mechanic designed to do exactly that: to give your minions an edge when you decide the current ruler shouldn't live that long.

As they say in the High City of Paliano, “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

Let's see how dethrone can help you sit at the top of a game of Magic!

How Does Dethrone Work?

Marchesa's Emissary | Illustration by Tyler Jacobson

Creatures with “dethrone” get a +1/+1 counter whenever they attack the player with the most life or one tied for the most life.

Notice that dethrone considers players, not opponents: If you're the player with the most life, your dethrone creatures won't trigger.

Dethrone is a triggered ability. Each instance of dethrone triggers when you declare the creature as an attacker and resolves before opponent's blockers are declared.

Once dethrone triggers, it doesn't matter what happens to anybody's life total – that's to say, if you Lightning Bolt your foe's face while the dethrone trigger is on the stack, the trigger still resolves even if by that time said foe is no longer the healthiest player at the table.

To trigger dethrone, the creature needs to attack a player. Attacking a planeswalker or battle doesn't count.

Other than that, dethrone is a fairly simple MTG mechanic: When attacking the healthiest player, place a +1/+1 counter on that dethrone creature.

The History of Dethrone in MTG

Dethrone was introduced by the Conspiracy Magic set in June 2014.

Conspiracy was designed around a novel concept: multiplayer drafts. Many of its cards and mechanics were designed with multiplayer matches in mind. Dethrone works okay in 1-vs-1 matches, but in multiplayer formats, it adds a political layer since it gives you a good, objective answer (“Well, I want my creatures to grow”) to the age-old question in Commander (“Hey! Why are you attacking me!?”).

Dethrone itself wasn’t too successful: There are just nine dethrone cards in Conspiracy, and the keyword reappeared only once on Streets of New Capenna‘s Park Heights Maverick.

The general concept has reappeared in other cards. Seraphic Greatsword from Commander Legends and Preacher of the Schism from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, for example, have the exact same attack trigger (and with better effects than a +1/+1 counter!).

Does Dethrone Trigger if I Have the Most Life?

No, it doesn't (unless you're tied for most life).

If the opponent you're attacking has less life than you, or less than any other player at the table, dethrone doesn’t trigger.

Does Dethrone Trigger if I’m Tied for the Most Life?

Yes, as long as the player tied with you is the player you're attacking.

Dethrone cares about the life of the player being attacked, not your life in particular. If nobody else at the table has a higher life total than the attacked player, dethrone triggers.

Do Multiple Instances of Dethrone Stack?

Yes, they do! If a creature has multiple instances of dethrone, each triggers separately.

If you have Marchesa, the Black Rose in play, Scourge of the Throne has two stacked instances of dethrone. Each triggers separately when the Scourge attacks, and if they resolve, the Scourge gets two +1/+1 counters.

And if you cast Dack's Duplicate and clone the Scourge, Dack's Duplicate has three instances of dethrone (Scourge's original dethrone, the dethrone instance added by the Duplicate, and the one added by Marchesa).

Gallery and List of Dethrone Cards

• Dack's Duplicate
• Enraged Revolutionary
• Grenzo's Cutthroat
• Marchesa's Emissary
• Marchesa's Infiltrator
• Marchesa's Smuggler
• Marchesa, the Black Rose
• Park Heights Maverick
• Scourge of the Throne
• Treasonous Ogre

Best Dethrone Cards

Marchesa, the Black Rose

Marchesa, the Black Rose is one of the strongest Grixis commanders, and one of the most popular overall. It's very solid as an aristocrat commander and one of the very best +1/+1 counter commanders.

It's also a 10/10 flavor win: Marchesa has dethrone in Conspiracy and becomes Queen Marchesa (and with the monarch!) in Conspiracy: Take the Crown.

Treasonous Ogre

Treasonous Ogre has one of the best activated abilities in the game, making this ogre an excellent red ritual. Which in turn makes it good enough to make the cut in cEDH decks… although, if we're being honest, probably not because of dethrone.

Scourge of the Throne

Scourge of the Throne presents an interesting twist: It has “dethrone on steroids,” so to speak. It adds a pretty brutal dynamic: “Dethrone, but an extra combat phase instead of a counter.”

As with Preacher of the Schism, Scourge of the Throne shows how WotC has reused the main concept behind dethrone (“attack the healthiest player”) without reusing dethrone itself.

Wrap Up

Marchesa, the Black Rose | Illustration by Matt Stewart

And that's pretty much all there is about dethrone: a simple keyword with very few cards to its name, but a concept that WotC has explored with later cards.

While I doubt we'll see dethrone ever again, I fully expect to find its attack trigger from time to time in future Magic sets because it can play well in 1-vs-1. Preacher of the Schism, for example, is a Standard staple and adds an interesting layer to multiplayer matches.

I hope you've enjoyed this mechanical deep dive, and if you have questions or concerns please drop a comment below, or stop by the Draftsim Discord for a chat.

Good luck out there!