“It’s really not my fault”
Art:Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin
by Zezhou Chen
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is a sweet commander who just recently broke onto the CEDH scene, while we dont play blue we are by no means a strong combo deck with a ton of ways to win! We are able to use some of the best cards and combos in the format and back that up with a long-game plan of swinging with Ob Nixilis and getting those commander damage kills, while this doesn’t always happen it can be a great option to have! If you are a looking for a Rakdos deck that has all of the non-blue CEDH combos you love and know, this is the deck for you! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Why Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin?
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is a key card in our deck that is not only part of many combos themselves but is a great card for any deck that chooses to attack and is also a strong piece of card advantage. Ob Nixilis is a little expensive but we have a bunch of artifact ramp to get us there! Ob Nixilis is a super fun and super strong commander for our deck!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! As well as highlighting some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
Dauthi Voidwalker
is a perfect card to deal with all of our opponents key or combo creatures since we can take control of them and they get exiled! Firebrand Archer
and Kessig Flamebreather
are both really good ways to get a bunch of triggers on Ob Nixilis! While Kessig and Firebrand are both good the absolute best is Orcish Bowmasters
which is good pretty much everywhere in CEDH but is absolutely broken in this deck! Simian Spirit Guide
is a great way to get extra mana and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
is a great way to get some card advantage going! Dockside Extortionist
is a CEDH legend and a mana machine!
Instants:
We have some fast mana in our instant package with cards like Culling the Weak
, Dark Ritual
, Pyretic Ritual
and Cabal Ritual
which are all great cheap ways to get some more mana and keep casting! Pyroblast
and Red Elemental Blast
are our only counters in the deck and I typically hold them until someone is going for a win! Deadly Rollick
and Deflecting Swat
which are often free and because of the lack of blue these are really strong utility cards to have as well, how can you say no to free cards!
Sorceries:
In case we encounter any creature based deck or just want to cheaply kill some commanders we have Toxic Deluge
which in testing was a card that I found was really strong! Imperial Seal
and Demonic Tutor
are both extremely powerful cards that allow us to assemble combos and grab the perfect cards! Reanimate
and Yawgmoth's Will
are both really strong ways to get key cards back from our graveyard! Grapeshot
is a really powerful card for us to trigger Ob Nixilis!
Artifacts:
Our artifact package combines a bunch of mana rocks with some clever ways to fight back against faster decks! Some of my favorite mana rocks are all legendary cards like Sol Ring
, Mana Crypt
, Mox Diamond
and Grim Monolith
! All of these are great ways to get extra mana and all of them are cheap to cast as well! Defense Grid
is one of my favorite cards in the deck since it is a really strong way to “shutdown” faster decks or really any decks that want to mess around at instant speed! Wishclaw Talisman
is a cheap and good way to tutor for that final combo piece! The One Ring
is pretty self-explanatory this card is an absolute bomb!
Enchantments:
Scald
is a really cool card that we can use to fight back against our opponents who are playing blue and trigger Ob Nixilis an absolute ton! All Will Be One
and Underworld Breach
are pretty much nothing more than strong combo pieces in our deck that do not come down until we are about to win! Necropotence
is a really strong way to get too our combo pieces!
Land Base:
We have a pretty low overall cost for most of the cards in our deck so we can comfortably run 26 lands! Combining low overall costs with a bunch of artifact ramp and we can easily roll with this land base! We of course have to play Ancient Tomb
as well as strong dual lands like Blood Crypt
, Badlands
and Luxury Suite
! There is not too much to say here as our land base is pretty much what you would expect!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Long game wins with Ob-Nixilis Swings
- A ton of game-ending combos
- A lot of mana ramp
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- No blue means we can be naturally weaker
- Not as explosive or quick as some decks in the format
- Weak to graveyard hate
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Below are all of the combos in the deck explained, even though we primarily win through our combos we can also go on the old-fashioned beatdown plan which is headlined by Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin.
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin + All Will Be One
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield. You have a way to cause an opponent to lose exactly 1 life.
Steps:
- Cause an opponent to lose 1 life.
- Ob Nixilis triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on itself and exiling the top card of your library.
- All Will Be One triggers, dealing 1 damage to an opponent.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite damage. Infinite +1/+1 counters on Ob Nixilis. Exile your library.
Requires:
Both cards in hand. At least one creature on the battlefield. 2RRR available.
Steps:
- Cast Twinflame by paying 1R.
- Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR.
- Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Twinflame.
- Resolve the Twinflame copy, creating a token copy of Dualcaster Mage.
- Repeat from step 3.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite magecraft triggers.
Prosper, Tome-Bound
+ Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty
+ Sensei's Divining Top
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield. Birgi on the battlefield as Harnfel, Horn of Bounty. 1 available.
Steps:
- Activate Sensei’s Divining Top’s second ability by tapping it, causing you to draw a card and put Sensei’s Divining Top on top of your library.
- Activate Harnfel by discarding a card, exiling the top two cards of your library and allowing you to cast them this turn.
- Cast Sensei’s Divining Top from exile by paying 1.
- Prosper’s second ability triggers, creating a Treasure token.
- Activate the Treasure token by tapping and sacrificing it, adding 1.
- Repeat.
Results:
Near-infinite storm count. Near-infinite looting. Near-infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite self-discard triggers.
Prosper, Tome-Bound + Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty + Sensei's Divining Top + Reckless Fireweaver
Requires:
Sensei’s Divining Top in hand. All other permanents on the battlefield. 2 available.
Steps:
- Cast Sensei’s Divining Top by paying 1.
- When Sensei’s Divining Top enters the battlefield, Reckless Fireweaver triggers.
- Holding priority, activate Sensei’s Divining Top’s second ability by tapping it, causing you to draw a card and put Sensei’s Divining Top on top of your library.
- Resolve the Reckless Fireweaver trigger, dealing 1 damage to each opponent.
- Ob Nixilis triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on it, and exiling Sensei’s Divining Top from the top of your library with the ability to cast it from exile until your end step.
- Cast Sensei’s Divining Top from exile by paying 1.
- Prosper triggers, creating a Treasure token.
- Activate the Treasure by tapping and sacrificing it, adding 1.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite damage. Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on Ob Nixilis. Near-infinite storm count.
Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune
+ Jeska's Will
Requires:
Underworld Breach on the battlefield. All other cards in your graveyard. You have at least six additional cards in your graveyard, plus an additional six cards between your hand and/or graveyard. An opponent has at least six cards in hand. 2R available.
Steps:
- Cast Jeska’s Will from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling three other cards from your graveyard, adding at least six R.
- Cast Wheel of Fortune from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling three other cards from your graveyard, causing each player to discard their hand and draw seven cards.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite looting for all players. Infinite draw triggers for all players. Near-infinite storm count. Near-infinite magecraft triggers.
Requires:
All cards in hand. 3BRR available. There is at least one creature on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Cast Saw in Half by paying 2B, targeting any creature.
- Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR.
- Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Saw in Half targeting Dualcaster Mage.
- Resolve the copy of Saw in Half, destroying Dualcaster Mage and creating two token copies of it with base power equal to half the destroyed creature’s power and base toughness equal to half the destroyed creature’s toughness, rounding up each time.
- Both Dualcaster Mage tokens enter the battlefield, triggering themselves.
- Resolve the first Dualcaster Mage trigger, copying Saw in Half targeting a Dualcaster Mage token.
- Repeat from step 4.
- Once you have a large amount of Dualcaster Mage triggers on the stack, you may resolve those triggers, copying Saw in Half targeting any creature you control to create infinite token copies of the creature(s).
- You may also resolve the Dualcaster Mage triggers, copying any other instant and/or sorcery spells on the stack.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite magecraft triggers. Infinite copies of any instant and/or sorcery spells on the stack.
Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune + Lion's Eye Diamond
Requires:
Wheel of Fortune in your graveyard. All permanents on the battlefield. You have at least six other cards in hand and/or graveyard.
Steps:
- Activate Lion’s Eye Diamond by discarding your hand and sacrificing it, adding RRR.
- Cast Wheel of Fortune from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling 3 cards from your graveyard.
- Resolve Wheel of Fortune, causing each player to discard their hand and draw seven cards.
- Cast Lion’s Eye Diamond from your graveyard for its escape cost by exiling 3 cards from your graveyard.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite looting. Infinite draw triggers. Infinite looting for opponents. Near-infinite storm count.
Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty + Underworld Breach + Burning Inquiry
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield. Burning Inquiry in hand. R available.
Steps:
- Cast Burning Inquiry by paying R.
- Birgi triggers, adding R.
- Resolve Burning Inquiry, causing each player to draw three cards and discard three cards at random.
- Cast Burning Inquiry from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying R and exiling 3 cards from your graveyard.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Near-infinite self-discard triggers. Near-infinite storm count. Infinite self-mill. Near-infinite mill. Infinite draw triggers for all players.
Conclusion:
Ob Nixilis is an amazing commander who since breaking out onto the CEDH scene has done well for himself! While playing not playing blue does make some matchups worse for us we can adapt to wins in the early game and in the late game! Thanks for reading to the end and thanks for all of your support!