I first started using Ob Nixilis when I read up on Tom Servo's Primer. Since then Its grown to fit my playstyle. Not to mention its had to evolve to compete with my playgroup. It can hold its own in a 1 V 1 matchup, however, this decklist is not tailored for it.
The List is meant to be used most effectively in Multiplayer EDH. I tried to give it as many resistances as possible. Check it!
Ancient Tomb - This land Ramps you and against other fast decks the speed is really important. The two life loss is irrelevant in EDH imo. Plus you'll be packing Exanguinate, Consume Spirit, and Tendrils of Corruption to build your life back up later. The land will put you ahead and thats where you want to be.
Deserted Temple - I've never really gotten both this and the Coffers in play. I'm actually contemplating cutting it. Its been lackluster.
Thawing Glaciers - Albeit a bit slow it plays into the Ob Nixilis strategy giving you a constant stream of Landfall. More importantly it searches out your basic lands to benefit Gauntlet and Lens.
Strip Mine - Takes care of problematic Lands. You can also be a dick and lock someone out with Crucible.
Maze of Ith - Stops fatties from wrecking your face. If you don't like the fact that it doesn't add mana and it costs you a land drop you can consider not playing it. its not incredibly necessary.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Amazing. Turns all your nonbasic lands including the aforementioned Maze into swamps and powers Coffers. Nothing is better than tapping your fetches and stuff like dark depths for black mana lol.
Vesuva - Utilized to copy tech lands you or you opponents control. A card I'm on the fence about. I've definitively found myself copying a basic swamp with it before for no value. <__<
Cabal Coffers - Does this need any mentioning? It lets you add big mana for your fireball spells and helps play your flashier spells.
Dark Depths - Combos with Vampire Hexmage. Its tutorable with Expedition Map and if you see your opponent is vulnerable to a 20/20 flying indestructible then go for it.
Fetches including the Panoramas - You need Landfalls for Mr. Ob Nixilis. Not to mention they give you shuffle effects which may not seem like much but if you have Sensei's Top and see you don't have any answers you can crack a Fetch and Top again.
Snow-Covered Swamp - You need lands to play stuff. heh. The snow-covered are simply to give you an advantage with the Extraplanar Lens instead of giving your opponents the nice boost.
Artifacts
Lightning Greaves - Primarily for Ob Nixilis, however, it works just as well with one of your big guys like Grave Titan. The shroud is pretty big. I've found myself tutoring for it a few times.
Whispersilk Cloak - See explanation for Greaves. This one is more important sometimes with the unblockable aspect. You can basically end one person in one to two swings.
Rings of Brighthearth - This card is primarily to gain you value with things like fetchlands, but it works with various things. It seems like a win more card sometimes so I'm still iffy on this card. However, I did drop two people to ten with Sorin Markov by copying his ability. Followed by an Exanguinate.
Darksteel Ingot - Mana Rock. Helps you ramp. Its indestructible which is really nice. Don't undervalue this card.
Mana Crypt - Mana Rock. Helps you ramp. The life loss is irrelvant when you're getting explosive plays. Not to mention you're playing spells like Exanguinate, Consume Spirit, Tendrils of Corruption, and Corrupt.
Sol Ring - Mana Rock. Helps Ramp. Pretty self explanatory when its in almost every EDH deck.
Mind Stone - Nice early mana rock. It also helps draw the card you need after you've used a vampiric tutor and/or used the tutoring ability of Liliana Vess.
Expedition map - Tutors for your Cabal Coffers or your Urborg. Also if you feel your opponent is vulnerable to a 20/20 flying indestructible and you have the Vampire Hexmage then you can tutor for the Dark Depths. Also gets tech lands like Maze of Ith and Strip Mine if you have the crucible online.
Pithing Needle - Its utility. Use it to shut down anything remotely aggravating. There are countless edh staples this thing shuts down.
Crucible of Worlds - Used for value with all the fetchlands. And of course you can always strip lock someone out of the game. The latter is not as effective in a multiplayer. Still this card is amazing and most of the time it wont stay in play for more than two turns.
Nevinryrral's Disk - One of black's few ways of getting rid of pesky artifacts and enchantments. Imo its a "must" in any mono black deck.
Oblivion Stone - Look at the Nevinryrral's Disk explanation.
Sensei's Divining Top - Lets you draw the card you tutored for with Vampiric Tutor and Liliana Vess. It fixes your draw and its just invaluable when you're playing with multiple fetchlands.
Helm of Obedience - Its part of the two card combo with Leyline of the Void. You mill their entire libraby and it gets around things like the Eldrazi Titans because the cards are exiled as opposed to them going to the graveyard.
NOTE: All the artifact mana also make it so that you're not completely blown out after someone decides to blow up all lands. Not to mention being turns ahead of your opponents is usually a good thing.
Sorceries
Decree of Pain - Board sweeper with the added benefit of card advantage. If you're getting swarmed you can cycle it for maximum value. Plus its cycle makes it that much more difficult to counter.
Damnation - Effective board sweeper. This might as well be as timeless as Wrath of God. Imo its an auto include to any black deck.
Barter in Blood - Perhaps this is a preference card. Its always done great for me. In EDH it can work just as good as damnation. Unless they're ramping out tokens they're bound to lose something significant.
Mutilate - Board sweeper. The fact that it gives -1/-1 is great against creatures with the ability to regenerate.
Night's Whisper - Card draw is really important and I tried fitting as many optimal choices as I could. This one is cheap and effective.
Ancient Craving - Blue gets a lot of card advantage and mono black needs to keep up.This helps to refill your hand and keep you from running out of gas.
Ambition's Cost - Reprint from P3k. Functional reprint of Ancient Craving.
Profane Command - So many uses. Use it to combo with Xiahou-Dun, Give Ob Nixilis fear ftw, recur utility creatures, or drain an opponent ftw. Very versatile. Don't leave home without it.
Exsanguinate - Great finisher. It also keeps you alive after using multiple card drawing spells like the aforementioned night's whisper, ambition's cost, etc.. not to mention cards like phyrexian arena and Necropotence.
Consume Spirit - Great Finisher. It follows the same line as Exsanguinate.
Corrupt - Card on the chopping block. Supposed to function in a similar fashion as the previous two cards. Its been good some games and underwhelming in others.
[card]Mind Twist[/car] - I know its a lot less effective in a multiplayer environment, but when someone has the win in their hand and is about to go off next turn you're going to be glad you have this card at your disposal. You can put someone out of the game with this card. Plus the fact that they have to discard at random is nothing to scuff at. It can ruin your opponent's plans really quick.
Yawgmoth's Will - Gives you the ability to play your spells twice. It lets you recur things black wouldn't originally be able to get back like enchantments as well as artifacts. If you play this card you're probably going for the win or getting massive advantage. Its too good not to be played.
Why OB Nox here? Aside from fetch lands, you really have no way of abusing him at all. Your build is a generic MBC, where you could use just about any black general. If you are going for Ob, why not focus more on strategies to dump tonnes of land into play? Otherwise, guys like maga, traitor to mortals would serve you better here.
Not to answer for the deck builder, but I run an Ob Nixilis EDH as well, and the deck is so removed from the idea of "abusing" its general that I've had MANY games where I've never played him at all. At least with my build, it runs smoothly on the deck alone. Given a good opening hand or decent tutors, however, I can switch my strategy to playing Ob and using crucible/thawing glaciers to get x2 landfall per turn and start swinging for general damage.
As a suggestion, I would HIGHLY recommend putting Deserted Temple back in, unless you took it out simply because you didn't want to have the chance for infinite mana...the rings/coffers/temple combo is always a nice little combo to ease onto the field and then surprise everyone with an exsanguinate for a billion.
The List is meant to be used most effectively in Multiplayer EDH. I tried to give it as many resistances as possible. Check it!
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Land
1 Vesuva
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Dark Depths
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Maze of Ith
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Deserted Temple
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Polluted Delta
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Esper Panorama
1 Jund Panorama
1 Snow-Covered Swamp 21x
Artifacts
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Grim Monolith
1 Expedition Map
1 Pithing Needle
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Nevinryrral's Disk
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Decree of Pain
1 Damnation
1 Barter in Blood
1 Mutilate
1 Night's Whisper
1 Sign in Blood
1 Ancient Craving
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Profane Command
1 Exsanguinate
1 Consume Spirit
1 Corrupt
1 Mind Twist
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
Creatures
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Bane of the Living
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Grave Titan
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Duplicant
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Necropotence
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Infernal Darkness
Instants
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Shred Memory
1 Imp's Mischief
1 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Vampiric Tutor
Planeswalkers
1 Sorin Markov
1 Liliana Vess
Colorless
1 All is Dust
Reasons behind Cards
Lands
Ancient Tomb - This land Ramps you and against other fast decks the speed is really important. The two life loss is irrelevant in EDH imo. Plus you'll be packing Exanguinate, Consume Spirit, and Tendrils of Corruption to build your life back up later. The land will put you ahead and thats where you want to be.
Deserted Temple - I've never really gotten both this and the Coffers in play. I'm actually contemplating cutting it. Its been lackluster.
Thawing Glaciers - Albeit a bit slow it plays into the Ob Nixilis strategy giving you a constant stream of Landfall. More importantly it searches out your basic lands to benefit Gauntlet and Lens.
Strip Mine - Takes care of problematic Lands. You can also be a dick and lock someone out with Crucible.
Wasteland - Takes care of problematic Lands.
Maze of Ith - Stops fatties from wrecking your face. If you don't like the fact that it doesn't add mana and it costs you a land drop you can consider not playing it. its not incredibly necessary.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Amazing. Turns all your nonbasic lands including the aforementioned Maze into swamps and powers Coffers. Nothing is better than tapping your fetches and stuff like dark depths for black mana lol.
Vesuva - Utilized to copy tech lands you or you opponents control. A card I'm on the fence about. I've definitively found myself copying a basic swamp with it before for no value. <__<
Cabal Coffers - Does this need any mentioning? It lets you add big mana for your fireball spells and helps play your flashier spells.
Dark Depths - Combos with Vampire Hexmage. Its tutorable with Expedition Map and if you see your opponent is vulnerable to a 20/20 flying indestructible then go for it.
Fetches including the Panoramas - You need Landfalls for Mr. Ob Nixilis. Not to mention they give you shuffle effects which may not seem like much but if you have Sensei's Top and see you don't have any answers you can crack a Fetch and Top again.
Snow-Covered Swamp - You need lands to play stuff. heh. The snow-covered are simply to give you an advantage with the Extraplanar Lens instead of giving your opponents the nice boost.
Artifacts
Lightning Greaves - Primarily for Ob Nixilis, however, it works just as well with one of your big guys like Grave Titan. The shroud is pretty big. I've found myself tutoring for it a few times.
Whispersilk Cloak - See explanation for Greaves. This one is more important sometimes with the unblockable aspect. You can basically end one person in one to two swings.
Rings of Brighthearth - This card is primarily to gain you value with things like fetchlands, but it works with various things. It seems like a win more card sometimes so I'm still iffy on this card. However, I did drop two people to ten with Sorin Markov by copying his ability. Followed by an Exanguinate.
Darksteel Ingot - Mana Rock. Helps you ramp. Its indestructible which is really nice. Don't undervalue this card.
Mana Crypt - Mana Rock. Helps you ramp. The life loss is irrelvant when you're getting explosive plays. Not to mention you're playing spells like Exanguinate, Consume Spirit, Tendrils of Corruption, and Corrupt.
Sol Ring - Mana Rock. Helps Ramp. Pretty self explanatory when its in almost every EDH deck.
Gilded Lotus - Part of the Mana Rock package.
Thran Dynamo - Part of the Mana Rock package.
Gauntlet of Power - Helps get you big mana really fast. Powers your Drain spells and lets you play your flashier spells.
Extraplanar Lens - Look at Gauntlet explanation. Were able to primarily provide big mana for ourselves with the snow-covered lands.
Mana Vault - Part of the Mana Rock package.
Mind Stone - Nice early mana rock. It also helps draw the card you need after you've used a vampiric tutor and/or used the tutoring ability of Liliana Vess.
Grim Monolith - Part of the Mana rock package.
Expedition map - Tutors for your Cabal Coffers or your Urborg. Also if you feel your opponent is vulnerable to a 20/20 flying indestructible and you have the Vampire Hexmage then you can tutor for the Dark Depths. Also gets tech lands like Maze of Ith and Strip Mine if you have the crucible online.
Pithing Needle - Its utility. Use it to shut down anything remotely aggravating. There are countless edh staples this thing shuts down.
Crucible of Worlds - Used for value with all the fetchlands. And of course you can always strip lock someone out of the game. The latter is not as effective in a multiplayer. Still this card is amazing and most of the time it wont stay in play for more than two turns.
Nevinryrral's Disk - One of black's few ways of getting rid of pesky artifacts and enchantments. Imo its a "must" in any mono black deck.
Oblivion Stone - Look at the Nevinryrral's Disk explanation.
Sensei's Divining Top - Lets you draw the card you tutored for with Vampiric Tutor and Liliana Vess. It fixes your draw and its just invaluable when you're playing with multiple fetchlands.
Helm of Obedience - Its part of the two card combo with Leyline of the Void. You mill their entire libraby and it gets around things like the Eldrazi Titans because the cards are exiled as opposed to them going to the graveyard.
NOTE: All the artifact mana also make it so that you're not completely blown out after someone decides to blow up all lands. Not to mention being turns ahead of your opponents is usually a good thing.
Sorceries
Decree of Pain - Board sweeper with the added benefit of card advantage. If you're getting swarmed you can cycle it for maximum value. Plus its cycle makes it that much more difficult to counter.
Damnation - Effective board sweeper. This might as well be as timeless as Wrath of God. Imo its an auto include to any black deck.
Barter in Blood - Perhaps this is a preference card. Its always done great for me. In EDH it can work just as good as damnation. Unless they're ramping out tokens they're bound to lose something significant.
Mutilate - Board sweeper. The fact that it gives -1/-1 is great against creatures with the ability to regenerate.
Night's Whisper - Card draw is really important and I tried fitting as many optimal choices as I could. This one is cheap and effective.
Sign in Blood - Your 2nd Night's Whisper.
Ancient Craving - Blue gets a lot of card advantage and mono black needs to keep up.This helps to refill your hand and keep you from running out of gas.
Ambition's Cost - Reprint from P3k. Functional reprint of Ancient Craving.
Profane Command - So many uses. Use it to combo with Xiahou-Dun, Give Ob Nixilis fear ftw, recur utility creatures, or drain an opponent ftw. Very versatile. Don't leave home without it.
Exsanguinate - Great finisher. It also keeps you alive after using multiple card drawing spells like the aforementioned night's whisper, ambition's cost, etc.. not to mention cards like phyrexian arena and Necropotence.
Consume Spirit - Great Finisher. It follows the same line as Exsanguinate.
Corrupt - Card on the chopping block. Supposed to function in a similar fashion as the previous two cards. Its been good some games and underwhelming in others.
[card]Mind Twist[/car] - I know its a lot less effective in a multiplayer environment, but when someone has the win in their hand and is about to go off next turn you're going to be glad you have this card at your disposal. You can put someone out of the game with this card. Plus the fact that they have to discard at random is nothing to scuff at. It can ruin your opponent's plans really quick.
Yawgmoth's Will - Gives you the ability to play your spells twice. It lets you recur things black wouldn't originally be able to get back like enchantments as well as artifacts. If you play this card you're probably going for the win or getting massive advantage. Its too good not to be played.
Demonic Tutor - I heard tutors are good.
Diabolic Tutor - Tutors are pretty good.
I'll go ahead and finish the Reasoning behind Card choices later when I have more time. Thanks for looking.
Change Log
3/19/2011
- 1 Deserted Temple
+ 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Thanks to DarkKnightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this awesome signature!
I've updated the reasons section for Artifacts. I'll update the rest when I have more time.
Thank you guys for leaving any comments. And if you've played this List tell me how it does for you. I'd like to hear about it.
Sometimes it feels silly giving explanations to staples. I have hard time believing players don't know what they do. ;pp
As a suggestion, I would HIGHLY recommend putting Deserted Temple back in, unless you took it out simply because you didn't want to have the chance for infinite mana...the rings/coffers/temple combo is always a nice little combo to ease onto the field and then surprise everyone with an exsanguinate for a billion.
GW BenedictioWG
Problem with Cauldron is it makes people rage pretty hard.
MTGS egos at their finest.
Thoughts on proxies:
O-Naginata is also good. Trample and multiples of 3 = victory.
I really like Essence Harvest and Rite of Consumption. I've won more than a couple of games of the back of those.
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
Follow me on Twitter: @generalspeak
amazingly epic sig courtesy of DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Planes.