Hixus

Phillmoore

i have just played totp and I can’t believe how many hixus I came up against. Unbelievable.  I hate that card and hope I can craft it.  Hehehe

Tilwin90

I only sporadically run into Hixus, and generally with so many supports in the game it's quite dangerous to not play support removal. So for your safety there are three options:
- Play support removal. Green, white and red offer a lot of options in standard right now, with green and red offering the best options. Depending on how controlling your deck is, you might be able to even try sweepers such as The Great Aurora and Hour of Revelation. Those are the safest approaches against support heavy decks (Angel of Invention ironically offers a great means of protecting a Nyx/Hixus).
- Play ramp spells - green gem changers can get you rid of supports en-masse. This is not guaranteed unlike direct support removal but usually works great against Hixus, especially when you play more than one.
- Black/Blue decks in Standard have a bit of a problem with Hixus, so here I go the non-creatures approach, though a Gideon's Intervention + Nyx combo can render you completely powerless. Ob's ultimate in conjunction with supplementary damage can slowly overpower intervention (repeated card draw, Cruel Reality etc.), but if your opponent also plays Oketra's Last Mercy you're in for a huge challenge.

I used to play Hixus/Bonds quite often in the past, but with so much ramp in the format and the AI managing to break them very often (too often), it's just as risky for you as it is for your opponents. I don't like high-risk strategies.

blacklotus

best counter against hixus: use critterless decks. 

Mainloop25

Really? I almost never see hixus in Totp. I see cast out a lot more often. 

Tilwin90

blacklotus said:

best counter against hixus: use critterless decks. 

Which often becomes quite unfun and linear after a while. I can think of a handful of relevant strategies in this direction (not necessarily mutually exclusive):
- Dynavolt Tower - so slow it bores me to death every time I play it.
- Approach of the Second Sun - faster, but also super linear.
- Imminent Doom - this one is the fastest and most powerful in my honest opinion. I still have fun with it from time to time, but more often than not it becomes really boring.
- Any OB deck - if you're not including Lost Legacy in it and combo-ing it with the ultimate, you're doing it wrong. (I am talking Standard here)

I am definitely a control guy, so it's probably why I don't really care that much about Hixus, but I can see the frustration when you're lacking some of these cards to make it work (which with the exception of Ob strategy are  either rares or mythics).

ertaii

Hixus I can deal with. It's Nyx I can't stand

joerginger

And of course there are two completely different versions of Hixus: The one you play, which is put right next to two other white gems for the AI's convenience - and the other one, the one the AI presents you with, which is usually in the bottom right corner with not a single white gem anywhere near it.  

Phillmoore

@joerginger I thought that only happened to me!  Lol

Firinmahlazer

That card (among a few others) is why I always pack support removal when possible. 

Sirchombli

I routinely play ob "wrong". Funny thing is that there really is no "wrong" way to play him. Getting out of that mindset might lead to fun. Ob is pretty powerful is any configuration. When I play lost legacy, I get 3 of em in my opening hand. Not into that.