Onyx Mage

Creature — Human Wizard

1{B}: Target creature you control gains deathtouch until end of turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (7)

DemonDragonJ on Other 'Philes

2 years ago

The new Triskaidekaphile is a very awesome card, but I do not like how only blue has another alternate win condition, so I have decided to make a new 'phile for each of the other colors. The general rule that I followed was that each creature would have a static ability, an activated ability, and a win condition that would trigger at the beginning of the player’s upkeep that both the activated ability and static ability could facilitate.

Luxophile Show

Luxophile

Casting Cost:

Creature - human cleric

Power/Toughness: 1/3

Lifelink.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have twice as much life or greater than your starting life total, you win the game.

: target creature gets +1/+1 and gains lifelink until end of turn.

The name of this card means "light lover" or "lover of light," and it is a combination of Alabaster Mage and Felidar Sovereign, but the win condition is stricter, since player begin at 40 life by default in EDH. To balance that, it can also increase the power and toughness of creatures, to make it easier to reach the require life total.

Necrophile Show

Necrophile

Casting Cost

Creature - human warlock

Power/Toughness: 2/1

Deathtouch.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are thirty or more creature cards total in all graveyards, you win the game.

: target creature gains deathtouch until end of turn.

The name of this card means "death lover" or "lover of death," and it combines Onyx Mage and Mortal Combat, but I changed the conditions for the triggered ability; I made it count all graveyards and then increased the number of creature cards that were required to win the game. I also gave it a way to put creatures into graveyards, which the original enchantment cannot do.

Here is an alternate version of necrophile that I also made.

Necrophile Show

Necrophile

Casting Cost

Creature - human warlock

Power/Toughness: 2/1

Deathtouch.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are thirty or more creature cards total in all graveyards, you win the game.

, sacrifice a creature: target creature gets -X/-Y until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature's power and Y is the sacrificed creature's toughness.

This is an alternate version of necrophile that functions as a sacrifice outlet, to fulfill its win condition even more easily, but it also breaks from the mold of the other creatures, so I am not certain which version I prefer.

Pyrophile Show

Pyrophile

Casting Cost:

Creature - human shaman

Power/Toughness: 3/1

Haste.

Whenever you win a coin flip, put a +1/+1 counter on pyrophile.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if pyrophile has fifteen or more +1/+1 counters on it, you win the game.

, : flip a coin, if you win the flip, pyrophile deals damage to any target equal to its power; if you lose the flip, pyrophile deals 2 damage to any target and damage to you equal to its power.

The name of this card means "fire lover" or "lover of fire," and it is modeled after Chance Encounter, whose main problem is that it does not provide a method for flipping coins, so I added such an ability to this creature. I also chose to use +1/+1 counters, rather than luck counters, because they have a better synergy with creatures, but I also increased the requires number of counters, because of how easy those counters are to exploit. My original version of the activated ability was ", : flip a coin, if you win the flip, pyrophile deals 3 damage to any target; if you lose the flip, pyrophile deals 2 damage to any target and 1 damage to you," but I changed it to be higher risk, higher reward, which is a central philosophy of red (that it also shares with black). Is 3 power too high for this creature? Should it instead be a 2/1?

Zoophile Show

Zoophile

Casting Cost:

Creature - human druid

Power/Toughness: 2/2

Trample.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control thirty or more creatures, you win the game.

: create a 1/1 green saproling creature token.

The name of this creature means “animal lover” or “lover of animals,” and I am perfectly aware that both this creature and necrophile have highly suggestive names, but I feel that those names are appropriate for these creatures, given their abilities. This creature is a combination of Jade Mage and Epic Struggle, but I made the activated ability more color-intensive and also increased the number of creatures required to win, since it now compensates for the enchantment’s weakness of not being able to generate creatures on its own.

What does everyone else say about these creatures? Do you like them?

Shliken on mono black infinite life combo

6 years ago

If you're going to run Sanguine Bond, you should definitely run Exquisite Blood. These cards enter an infinite loop, so they automatically win you games! Also a couple of other tips for mono black, Cabal Stronghold is a beautiful card here, as well as Dread Shade. I'd recommend cutting the Onyx Mage for something with more punch, like a Gifted Aetherborn or Vampire Nighthawk. If you want your creatures to have deathtouch, put a couple of Archetype of Finalitys in your deck. Also, if you are playing successfully, Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip is going to be a dead card, as you always will be gaining life and thus above ten, so it won't flip. The stronghold should net you plenty of mana, but the tried and true Dark Ritual is a mana pump if you think you need it. Good luck!

DarkLaw on Hour of Devastation Spoilers

6 years ago

Alright. The croco is in a fairly convenient spot, not dying to Fatal Push w/o revolt. Could be a good 3-drop for Zombos? Damn shame its only evasion is Afflict. I don't know why everyone mentions Rhonas, that seems like a horrible idea to me. He gets turned off again almost immediately, and they're on the same spot of the curve...

Of note, it still dies to many removal spells and any kind of above-curve blocker.

Unravelling mummy looks pretty crap for anything but limited. I mean, it's an Onyx Mage that's way more conditional and just a bit more powerful.

Splendor is wonderful. Horribly overcosted, so pretty much restricted to EDH play (Curse of Misfortunes in Modern if you're feeling ballzy). But... Humility! For one player... Nah, there are better things to do with 8 mana. This calls for a pretty specific deck.

Also, that looting 3 drop is really cool. I'd play it in a combo deck in standard. A reanimator deck if I'm feeling adventurous.

Snacrifice on Poor Wauki(<15$)

7 years ago

Thanks Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor!

And yes it is tough, but it's part of the reason I tried to make these decks. I don't want to keep it just under 15$, I want each card to be well, super budget and cheap. I'm very much of the opinion that you can make fun, interesting decks without immediately jumping into the big kid budget pool:P Which generally means foregoing some options that would make more sense. That and forcing yourself outside the Sol Ring/Demonic Tutor in every deck mold is refreshing IMO.

Puppet Strings is in another budget deck I have on here and I somehow completely forgot about it, thank you!

What I went for with this deck was not so much just to punish with minor amounts of damage, but to add things like Fang Skulkin to make the ping damage into -1/-1 counters, or Witch's Mist, Gorgon's Head, Onyx Mage, and other deathtouch/wither/infect givers to give the pingers a way to kill with the lightest amount of damage. The goal is to ping all their creatures down, then whap them to death with Wauki or anything else really until they're dead.

I am a bit light on protection and recurr-and that's mostly just a budget restriction problem(sadly, Mask of Avacyn has been fluctuating, so I haven't been able to keep it in a lot of these decks). I've been toying about adding Endbringer's Revel since it's a cheaper($ wise at least) way to recur, since I can remove enemies so easily I might give it a try.

I like a lot of your suggestions, but almost all of them are too expensive for the deck's budget :(

Remember to upvote if you liked it though!

Pieguy396 on What are the best colors …

7 years ago

Not to rain on your parade, but before you commit to anything, I think you should make a list of possible pingers, as I'm not sure how many there actually are. I think a deck like this would probably be better suited for Modern, where you can run multiple copies of the important effects like Quest for Renewal.

That said, I think the best colors for a pinger deck would probably be Jund (). While you would lose access to Prodigal Sorcerer, Black has deathrouch-givers like Onyx Mage, Deadly Allure, Virulent Swipe, etc. that you can use to give your pingers : Murder.

Cactushorror53 on From the Pinnacle to the Pit

7 years ago

You could add Voracious Hatchling, Archangel of Thune, and True Conviction for added lifelink bonus. Also, you could incorporate some form of Ajani for even more lifelink benefits. If you want more deathtouch in your deck, you could add Onyx Mage, and, if you have a bigger budget, you could add Wurmcoil Engine for both lifelink and deathtouch benefits.

neverdie on

8 years ago

I'd suggest the following replacements:

1. Baleful Force <- Bloodgift Demon
2. Corrosive Mentor <- Unstable Obelisk
3. Liliana's Specter <- Cathodion or Merciless Executioner/Fleshbag Marauder
4. Onyx Mage <- Jet Medallion or Gatekeeper of Malakir
5. Phyrexian Gargantua <- Phyrexian Delver
6. Skeletal Vampire <- Corpse Dance or Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
7. Diabolic Revelation <- Dark Ritual