Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Strategic Moments to Deploy Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
When you pull Ob Nixilis, the Adversary onto the battlefield, you’re not just playing a powerful planeswalker—you’re unlocking a dynamic engine of control, sacrifice, and late-game inevitability. Hailing from Streets of New Capenna, this black-red star pulsing with the energy of devils and deadlier bargains invites you to lean into calculated risk. Its Casualty ability transforms a single creature into a two-for-one spell, the copy not being legendary, which means you can stack the board with multiple Ob Nixilis engines if you stack the power of your creatures just right. 🧙🔥💎
Casualty: Copying the Spell for Multiplier Value
The heart of Ob Nixilis’s design is the Casualty X mechanic: as you cast this spell, you may sacrifice a creature with power X to copy it. The copy isn’t legendary and arrives with starting loyalty X. In practical terms, you’re often flickering a big swinger to generate a second walker with a meaningful loyalty pool, creating a multiplication of your plan rather than a single strike. This isn’t a roll of the dice; it’s a blueprint for exponential threat if you’ve got bodies to spare. Imagine trading a high-powered creature into a double dose of Ob Nixilis—your board then holds two active engines ready to pressure opponents on multiple fronts. ⚔️
To maximize Casualty, you want creatures with robust power that yield a comfortably high starting loyalty for the copy. A well-timed sacrifice can push your plan into an unstoppable rhythm: two planeswalkers with shared aims, each plucking away at life totals with your choice of leverage. The synergy with a Demon or Devil presence—whether you’ve already got those tokens on the field or you plan to generate them via the -2 ability—amplifies the payoff, creating a feedback loop of pressure and resource generation. 🧙🔥🎲
Early to Mid Game: Establishing the Board Presence
- Turn 3–4 play: If you’ve got a creature with decent power, Casualty can cash in early to produce a second Ob Nixilis with a respectable loyalty. This lets you enjoy two of the same effect in rapid succession, doubling your immediate threat while you develop additional resources. The +1 ability starts chewing away at opponents’ life totals and their hands (if they don’t discard), while the Demon/Devil condition can gravy-train into life gain. 🧙🔥💎
- Life-swing alignment: The +1 checks for life loss versus discard, and if you control a Demon or Devil, you gain 2 life. That small lifegain buffer matters in attrition strategies and helps you survive early game skirmishes as you push for removal-driven advantages. In decks that recur or reanimate, this can snowball into lasting inevitability. ⚔️
- Debt and discounting: Each opponent’s hand size becomes a metric by which you measure urgency. Forcing discards through the +1 while stacking loyalty in multiple planeswalkers means you can accelerate toward the ultimate with fewer draws and more reach.
Mid to Late Game: The Devil Token Toolkit
The −2 ability creates a 1/1 red Devil creature token with a classic twist: when it dies, it deals 1 damage to any target. This is more than flavor—it's a built-in fuel for burn-or-chorus strategies. Those Devil tokens can soak damage, be sacrificed again for more Casualty value, or pressure planeswalker-based boardstates with ping damage and direct removal. The synergy shines when you’ve got a plan to chain sacrifices and re-emit value from your graveyard or their board state, turning small bodies into a sustained tempo engine. 🎨
In practice, building around these tokens means you’re not simply dumping creatures; you’re engineering a tempo-to-win pipeline. Use the Devils as fodder for more Casualty triggers, or as sources of damage while Ob Nixilis accrues loyalty and you grind down opponents. It’s a dance of risk and reward, with every sacrifice feeding lifeblood back into your battlefield presence. 🪄
Late Game: The Ultimate Push—Light the Board, Light the Way
The −7 emblematic ultimate is a dramatic closer: “Target player draws seven cards and loses 7 life.” It is the kind of finish line that shifts the balance of power quickly, especially if you’ve engineered multiple Ob Nixilis copies and a chorus of Devils to keep pressure while you assemble your hand advantage. In a world of mass draw and heavy disruption, delivering seven cards to a single opponent while draining them on the same turn can collapse a game state and tilt the table in your favor. It’s not always about drawing the entire library—it’s about forcing decisions and wearing down your rivals until they stumble into a fatal misplay. 🎲
“Every bargain must be weighed, every risk calculated—the table trembles when the Adversary smiles.”
Deck-building Considerations and Practical Play Tips
- Sac outlets matter: Pair Ob Nixilis with reliable sac effects so you can maximize Casualty X. Creatures with power that scales across turns—pump effects, anthem buffs, or temporary combat boosts—make your X larger and the copy more potent.
- Devil synergy: The Devil tokens aren’t just damage sticks; they’re fuel for more waves of pressure. If you’re running a lean curve, you’ll want at least one or two Devils ready to board with other synergy pieces to ensure you’re always threatening more than a single walker can deliver.
- Plan for the ultimate: Don’t race to −7 if you don’t have enough gas to actually close. In practice, you want to stack card advantage and board presence so that the moment you drop the ultimate, you’re drawing into answers or finishing moves that seal the game within a couple of turns.
- Commander-friendly reality: In formats like Commander, Ob Nixilis plays well with other heavy hitters and sack outlets. Its multi-copy potential with Casualty becomes a bigger engine in singleton formats, especially when paired with recursion and token generation that can outpace opposing threat removal.
For fans who relish the lore of New Capenna—the smoky underworld where power is traded in whispers and bracelets of Demon and Devil contracts—the character of Ob Nixilis, the Adversary, feels perfectly at home. The design teases a blend of menace and mischief, a flavor-forward embodiment of the city’s “deal with the devil” aesthetic. The art by Yongjae Choi captures that slick, noir-soaked vibe, and the card’s mechanics mirror the schemer’s temperament: bite, barter, and brutal efficiency. And while the wild synergy can steal tempo in a heartbeat, it also rewards clutch, well-timed sacrifices with a payoff that can swing an entire game. 🧙🔥💎
If you’re building a deck that leans into the red-black axis, Ob Nixilis, the Adversary deserves a spot on the shortlist. It’s a card that invites you to weigh risk against reward, to turn a single creature into a mini-army of options, and to close games with a final, devastating vow. And while you’re plotting your next big play, there’s a little something to sweeten the leak: a stylish accessory to carry you between matches. For those who savor the thrill of tabletop strategy and the thrill of collecting beautiful cards, a certain glossy, ultra-slim phone case might be the perfect companion on your next tournament day. 📈
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