While earlier decks of this type had experienced mixed results, the combination of cheap first strike and exalted earned this the name of the fabled Persian fortress associated with Hasan-i-Sabbah and the hashishins (assassins), the approach to which was a set of stairs carved into the hillside and wide enough for single-file travel so it could be defended by a lone archer. Farrel’s Mantle, exalted, and shadow make a deadly combination, freeing up the first-strike creatures for defense. The 8/16/12/6 curve made the deck cheap enough (if not exceptionally so) at a 2.38 average cost.