Ob Nixilis Reignited Deckbuilding Challenge thread

Hibernum_JC

Post your decks here!

buscemi

Ob Nixilis, lvl 60 deck

Ruinous Path
Grip of Desolation
Painful Truths
Aligned Hedron Network
Transgress the Mind
Mire's Malice

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Smouldering Marsh
Sunken Hollow
Shambling Vent

This deck is designed to showcase one of Ob Nixilis' greatest strengths: the creatureless deck. Playing without creatures yourself allows you to circumvent many of the strategies your opponents might use against you, often making some of the cards in their deck completely useless. The path to victory is very simple... generate loyalty as quickly as possibly, play his 3rd ability, and then sit back and wait for Forbidden Knowledge to win you the game. In the meantime, Ob Nixilis has to keep himself alive, which he does by killing his opponent's creatures with Grip, Path, and Painful Truths. Alighned Hedron Network can be used to slow down the opposing army for a single turn, but it's main use it is allowing you to kill creatures with hexproof. Spells and supports can be kept in check with the discard cards Transgress the Mind and Mire's Malice.

Generating loyalty is key to this deck, but taking loyalty matches over color matches is often not advised, since you'll need to keep casting spells throughout the game until such time as you can play Forbidden Knowledge. 3 gem changing supports have been included to help with this; they can create extra matches at the start of your turn, making extra mana and loyalty for you. Adding a high number of supports to the deck also helps protect Forbidden Knowledge from support destruction spells like Demolish.

The deck takes advantage of both the Awaken and Converge mechanics from Zendikar. Awaken gives you the option of playing creatures if you choose to, as both Ruinous Path and Mire's Malice will allow you to put Swamp Token creatures into play (and also allow you to gain life with Shambling Vent). Painful Truths is the most powerful Converge card in the set... and as well as killing creatures, it will also allow you to deal extra damage directly to you opponent (as well as drawing cards to help Forbidden Knowledge deal even more damage).

g0dai

Ob Nixilis End Game (Level 60) Deck by g0dai

Grip of Desolation
Scour from Existence
Painful Truths
Ruinous Path
Pathway Arrows
Titan's Presence
Transgress the Mind
Hedron Archive
Mirrorpool
Kozilek, the Great Distortion


It's too bad we have to stick with just what's in his expansion cycle - there are quite a few Origins cards that work well in Ob's decks!

That said, though, my deck is slightly different than the first deck posted here by buscemi. It has a similar mission: to gather enough Loyalty to be able to fire off Forbidden Knowledge, then punish the opponent through card draws. This deck takes a slightly different path to get there, mostly in the methods of stalling the opponent long enough to activate Ob's ultimate ability.

Ob's Torment ability is often very tempting when the opponent gets out some formidable creatures. A majority of cards in this deck provide a good reason to be patient with one's Loyalty: Grip of Desolation and Scour from Existence provide fast, straightforward creature removal. Painful Truths is powerful not only against the enemy planeswalker, but against large creatures as well. Ruinous Path also provides an option to save up for its Awaken ability to add some Swamp Elemental tokens to the fray, if the opponent is in check once its basic ability is filled. While not always a sure thing, Pathway Arrows can Disable a creature until it can be eliminated through one of the options above. Titan's Presence is very effective creature removal, as long as the one creature in this deck is in your hand.

Transgress the Mind is another way to slow down your opponent, through a very fast, and if timed well, very impactful Discard action.

Once Forbidden Knowledge is on the board, Hedron Archive will do 16 points of damage when you draw 2 cards (and is overall helpful on the way to the endgame by supplying mana and cards).

Most of these cards are fairly low in mana cost and very fast, with the exception of Painful Truths - and Ruinous Path, if the Awaken cost is paid - but in these cases, the effect is well worth the cost. In the meantime, there should be cards in hand that can be cast relatively quickly, providing the time needed to slowly build Loyalty while countering the opponent's moves. To speed things up even further, Mirrorpool provides the opportunity to throw spells out on the field one after the other rapid fire (as long as one is mindful of hand order and the situation!).

The last card is meant to provide a devastating endgame - and if the rest of the deck is firing on all cylinders, perhaps an early threat to add to the opponent's worries. Kozilek, the Great Distortion is no doubt an expensive creature - but has great synergy with Ob's Forbidden Knowledge. It also drains mana from the opponent, slowing them down even further, which is great for all stages of the game when it comes to this deck. Aside these points, though, casting Kozilek is just straight-out fun, especially when Mirrorpool is on the board and it arrives on the board reinforced: a 24/24 Menace monstrosity that lays down 10 special gems. The rest of the deck is fast enough to offset Kozilek's high cost. Far from a frivolous addition to this deck, he(?) can often be slowly fed mana on turns when the opponent is in check and your hand has a creature removal spell full and at the ready.

span_argoman

Ob Nixilis Reignited

Level 1
Malakir Familiar
Hagra Sharpshooter
Ulamog's Despoiler
Pilgrim's Eye
Retreat to Hagra
Chitinous Cloak
Spatial Contortion
Grip of Desolation
Complete Disregard
Transgress the Mind

Deck playstyle
Ob Nixilis starts off with 5/5/5 creatures/spells/supports. This actually gives Ob much more flexibility when building his level 1 deck compared to other planeswalkers. Bearing in mind that you have no planeswalker abilities, you want creatures that have good power-to-mana ratios and also aren't too expensive lest they take too many turns to summon out. Bear in mind your own colour matches for only 4 mana at this level.

Unfortunately Black doesn't have the best of creatures in this bloc. Hence you have to go with the larger creatures which will slow you down due to their cost but thankfully the rest of your deck helps make up for that.

Your spells help maintain control of the battlefield with two removals spells in the form of Grip of Desolation and Complete Disregard. Transgress the Mind is the proactive counterspell which allows you to destroy some big card charging in the opponent's hand before it sees the light of day. Chitinous Cloak is nice for a permanent boost to your creatures while Spatial Contortion can either give a small boost in power or play the same role as Complete Disregard to remove a small creature.

Notable cards/combos
Ulamog's Despoiler: With your spells Ingesting gems on the board, this creature could potentially be a 9/9 for 14 mana. At level 1, that's a very big creature.
Grip of Desolation: One of the best Black creature removal spells across the sets. 5 mana to remove a creature typically of much higher mana cost and with 1 Ingest to boot, giving it a slight tinge of mana denial.
Transgress the Mind: This card being only 3 mana makes it a really solid trade card-for-card against an opponent's deck. Best used by firing it off after you see the opponent charging up a card over a few turns, thereby wasting their efforts.


Level 40
Desolation Twin
Void Winnower
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Sunken Hollow
Prairie Stream
Shambling Vent
Ruinous Path
Grip of Desolation
Titan's Presence
Transgress the Mind

Deck playstyle
At level 40 you gain access to your planeswalker abilities and increased mana gains. Although Ob Nixilis does not have particularly good mana gains at this level (+0/+1/+2/+1/-1) and his abilities are not up to speed yet, he can still pack a mean punch.

One big plus is that Ob has a high health total, and this is intentional for him to be able to make use of his abilities. So we have gem converters to help us gain mana and loyalty quickly: Sunken Hollow, Prairie Stream & Shambling Vent. To top that off we add Shrine of the Forsaken Gods which is one of the best ramp supports in the game.

The setup for this deck takes a little longer but you have Ruinous Path, Grip of Desolation, Titan's Presence and Trangress the Mind to control the opponent's board in the meantime.

Notable cards/combos
Desolation Twin: This is the best rare creature in the game if you can afford the summon cost. 21 mana for 2 10/10 creatures has a lot of advantages. It is crazily mana-efficient being 21 mana for 20 power. It is also highly card-efficient as one card packing 20 power. 6 rounds is enough for Desolation Twin to take out any planeswalker without life gain. Reinforce it and that drops to 3 rounds which is a pretty short window to react to these hulking creatures. Two creatures also means it requires twice the creature removal spells to counter.
Void Winnower: Void Winnower fits in this deck for two main reasons. Its passive ability gaining you mana for every match the opponent makes helps to make up for Ob's low mana bonuses. Secondly as Ob is heavy on creature removal, the other ability of giving the opponent's non-Defenders the Defender trait is not as big a disadvantage as there should rarely be any creatures on their side of the board. However if there are the creature is likely to be Hexproof to have been able to avoid your removal spells, which is a good thing because you then get to remove that Hexproof thorn in your side.
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods: Shrine works well in this deck not just because of the usual 3 mana per turn, but also because its Activate 3 ability benefits 7 (!) of the cards in this deck (including itself) which means it will almost always be useful.
Ruinous Path: A strong Black creature removal spell with a nice bonus from its Awaken cost. While you have to play carefully to make sure you don't sink too much mana into the Awaken if you do not want the Elementals, when you do 9 mana for a 6/6 is a pretty good power-to-mana ratio.
Grip of Desolation: One of the best Black creature removal spells across the sets. 5 mana to remove a creature typically of much higher mana cost and with 1 Ingest to boot, giving it a slight tinge of mana denial.
Transgress the Mind: This card being only 3 mana makes it a really solid trade card-for-card against an opponent's deck. Best used by firing it off after you see the opponent charging up a card over a few turns, thereby wasting their efforts.
Titan's Presence: To be cast, this card requires a colourless creature in hand with 8 Power or more. Normally that means you have to risk filling your deck with big expensive creatures which you may not be able to summon out consistently enough. You have two big colourless creatures in your deck and they both aren't cheap to summon out, so while you're charging the card with mana you can surely find 2 mana to deal with any pertinent threats.


Level 60
Desolation Twin
Void Winnower
Mirrorpool
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Sunken Hollow
Prairie Stream
Shambling Vent
Ruinous Path
Grip of Desolation
Transgress the Mind

Deck playstyle
At level 60, you gain access to your planeswalker's full potential. In particular, Ob's third ability is now a potent alternative win condition. It deals 8 damage to the opponent whenever either player draws a card. You can then use Ob's first ability to draw two more cards whenever possible to accelerate the opponent's swift descent into darkness. The second ability is also useful for regaining some control of the board when your removal spells aren't coming up.

In order to be able to trigger Ob's third ability more quickly, we go with gem converters to help us gain mana and loyalty quickly: Sunken Hollow, Prairie Stream & Shambling Vent. While setting up the deck, we have Ruinous Path, Grip of Desolation and Trangress the Mind to keep a hold on the opponent's board.

Notable cards/combos
Desolation Twin: This is the best rare creature in the game if you can afford the summon cost. 21 mana for 2 10/10 creatures has a lot of advantages. It is crazily mana-efficient being 21 mana for 20 power. It is also highly card-efficient as one card packing 20 power. 6 rounds is enough for Desolation Twin to take out any planeswalker without life gain. Reinforce it and that drops to 3 rounds which is a pretty short window to react to these hulking creatures. Two creatures also means it requires twice the creature removal spells to counter.
Void Winnower: Void Winnower fits in this deck for two main reasons. Its passive ability gaining you mana for every match the opponent makes helps to make up for Ob's low mana bonuses. Secondly as Ob is heavy on creature removal, the other ability of giving the opponent's non-Defenders the Defender trait is not as big a disadvantage as there should rarely be any creatures on their side of the board. However if there are the creature is likely to be Hexproof to have been able to avoid your removal spells, which is a good thing because you then get to remove that Hexproof thorn in your side.
Mirrorpool: This 4 mana support can either reinforce your creatures or charge your first spell in hand fully. In this deck, it is best to be used to reinforce your Desolation Twin or Void Winnower. Although under circumstances you might want to use it for a free cast of your Ruinous Path as it will fully fill the Awaken portion of the casting cost as well.
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods: Shrine works well in this deck not just because of the usual 3 mana per turn, but also because its Activate 3 ability benefits 7 (!) of the cards in this deck (including itself) which means it will almost always be useful.
Ruinous Path: A strong Black creature removal spell with a nice bonus from its Awaken cost. While you have to play carefully to make sure you don't sink too much mana into the Awaken if you do not want the Elementals, when you do 9 mana for a 6/6 is a pretty good power-to-mana ratio.
Grip of Desolation: One of the best Black creature removal spells across the sets. 5 mana to remove a creature typically of much higher mana cost and with 1 Ingest to boot, giving it a slight tinge of mana denial.
Transgress the Mind: This card being only 3 mana makes it a really solid trade card-for-card against an opponent's deck. Best used by firing it off after you see the opponent charging up a card over a few turns, thereby wasting their efforts.

mingninja

Detail - The deck build around these theory
1.AI will use 1st ability the most and sometime 2nd. Ob hurt himself and draw card. You need cheap cost card and healing.
2.The deck for each Planeswalker must also contain only cards of the expansion it came in. It suppose to face the deck in the same condition.
3.AI can't order combo. So we avoid complicated play.

---

Early Game (Planeswalker levels 1 to 40, build using level 1 restrictions) deck by ThaiGuy
Only commons and uncommons.

Reaver Drone
Skitterskin
Pilgrim's Eye
Walker of the Wastes
Blighted Fen

Scour from Existence
Demon's Grasp

Trangress the Mind
Grip of Desolation
Retreat to Hagra

---

Mid Game (Planeswalker levels 40 to 60, build using level 40 restrictions) deck by mingninja
Mostly uncommons, rares, and 1 Mythic maximum.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Trangress the Mind
Grip of Desolation
Remorseless Punishment
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Shambling Vent
Drana's Chosen
Ruinous Path
Sanctum of Ugin
Matter Reshaper

---

End Game (Planeswalker level 60, build using level 60 restrictions) deck by mingninja
Go nuts! No restrictions, but must be a top-tier deck.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Trangress the Mind
Grip of Desolation
Remorseless Punishment
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Shambling Vent
Ruinous Path
Matter Reshaper
Sanctum of Ugin