"Ob Nixilis Reignited:Card Draw Killer"

"Ob Nixilis Reignited:Card Draw Killer"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Out of the 3 planeswalkers that have come out in the Battle for Zendikar spoilers  , the one that I could really relate to is Ob Nixilis. I mean the guy lost his spark and along with it his powers , his ability to move through planes , he gets stuck in a plane that he wants to get out of but cannot , he recovers some of his powers , becomes a planeswalker but is still stuck to where he is. Now that is frustration of the highest level. Almost like the kind of frustration one experiences when one is trapped in an unmoving lane in Edsa. You have all this power and speed at your disposal(your car) and yet you are unable to move or go anywhere. I feel you Ob Nixilis. I feel you.

Still it must be great to have a little bit of his power back so I would be dissecting his new card form for today.

So what we have is a 5 mana costing black planeswalker that starts off with 5 loyalty counters. Once you are able to get him into play you are faced with two choices and what you do depends solely on what you determine is your highest priority at the moment.

If you feel the need to replenish you hand or are looking for a specific card and you need to dig into your library then use Ob Nixilis's first ability which allows you to put one loyalty counter on him while you draw 1 card and lose 1 life.

If you have a particularly annoying creature that keeps on attacking you or just maybe threatening to ruin your future combo plans then by all means use the 2nd ability. You destroy one target creature for the cost of 3 loyalty counters. Ob Nixilis might be killed by a redirected Lightning Strike at this point but heck at least you were able to destroy that huge creature that had no Shroud , Hexproof or Indestructible printed on it.

Ob's Ultimate ability is probably the main reason why some players would play him. It is a -8 Loyalty ability that gives a target opponent Emblem that states: "Whenever a player draws a card you lose 2 life.Now if we look closely at this it means that in the Standard setting an opponent with this emblem would lose at least 2 life for each draw step. 2 during his draw step and another 2 when the guy opposite him draws a card.

This somehow limits the number of decks where Ob Nixilis Reignited could be included.One is the existing Nekusar decks that also care about when opponents draws cards and punishes them dearly for it. Another shell would be in Dimir Blue/Black decks that have access to a lot of draw spells like Prosperity and Blue Sun's Zenith to do all the killing for them as they draw cards.

I expect Consecrated Sphinx to be such a key card in this kind of deck since a draw step means 6 damage for a player with this kind of Emblem. It gets even worse in a four player match where an additional 12 damage can be expected from the next two players who would draw cards. 1 turn around the table will already represent 20 damage! 

As currently there is no way of removing Emblems another turn is all it would take for a player with this particular emblem to die.(if Consecrated Sphinx was able to stick around)

It would also not be surprising for a player to just draw and go pass the turn, in the build up to all this killing. Winning over an opponent like this could be tedious and might be harder to pull off than creature kills but there is a certain sense of satisfaction when you are able to win over an opponent by merely drawing cards.

The greatest irony is when a player would be down to 2 life points and he or she would be forced to draw in their own draw step ensuring death by their own draw.

Killed by Card Draw. Seems like a very unfunny way to die.