Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin

Legendary Creature — Demon

Flying, trample

Whenever one or more opponents each lose exactly 1 life, put a +1/+1 counter on Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin. Exile the top card of your library. Until your next end step, you may play that card.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (10)

Rhadamanthus on Would Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin …

1 month ago

This took some time to be confident in the answer and I went back and forth a few times. The way I read the rules about it, this won't work. This comes from the detailed rule for paying life as a cost and the detailed rule for how multiple simultaneous actions are performed during the resolution of a spell or ability:

118.3b Paying life is done by subtracting the indicated amount of life from a player’s life total. (Players can always pay 0 life.)

608.2f Some spells and abilities include actions taken on multiple players and/or objects. In most cases, each such action is processed simultaneously. If the action can’t be processed simultaneously, it’s instead processed considering each affected player or object individually. APNAP order is used to make the primary determination of the order of those actions. Secondarily, if the action is to be taken on both a player and an object they control or on multiple objects controlled by the same player, the player who controls the resolving spell or ability chooses the relative order of those actions.

Because the actions all get executed at the same time, the player will lose the life from Killing Wave all in one go, meaning Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin will only trigger if an opponent pays just 1 life total this way.

This might be the least confident I've been in an answer to a rules question in a long time but no one else seems to want to touch it and it's the best I was able to come up with.

Rhadamanthus on Would Wilt stop a combo …

1 month ago

To be clear about how this works: Just casting All Will Be One by itself won't start the combo. When you cast it, Firebrand Archer triggers, then when the Archer's trigger resolves, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin will trigger, but when Ob Nixilis' trigger resolves AWBO is still a spell on the stack. It's not on the battlefield yet and can't trigger yet from your opponent losing life. You need to cast another noncreature spell once AWBO has actually resolved and is on the battlefield in order to get things rolling.

Rhadamanthus on If a player attacks me …

2 months ago

If it wasn't clear from the above: this works and the other person was wrong about the Hellrider interaction. The game can only move to the next step or phase after both players pass priority over an empty stack. That means any triggered abilities that trigger during a given step have to be dealt with and fully resolved before the game moves forward. In both the Hissing Miasma and Hellrider examples, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin will get the +1/+1 counters during the Declare Attackers step of combat. There's nothing in the ability or the rules of the game that tells you to wait and deal with the trigger later.

Caerwyn on If a player attacks me …

2 months ago

Situation 1 - Using Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and Hissing Miasma together:

The combat phase is separated into different steps. Here, the relevant step is the Declare Attackers step. During the Declare Attackers Step, first attackers are declared through the processes set forth in the rules. As part of declaring attackers, "Any abilities that trigger on attackers being declared trigger." (Rule 508.1m).

Once the attackers are declared, the active player gains "priority"--this is when spells can be cast and abilities resolve (See Rule 508.2).

When the active player gets priority per Rule 508.2, the triggers which occurred pursuant to Rule 508.1m get put on the stack. At this point, we are still in the Declare Attackers Step.

The Hissing Miasma triggered ability will go on the stack--one trigger will be placed on the stack for each attacking creature. When each triggered ability resolves, it will cause the attacking player to lose one life.

Upon that player losing one life, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin will trigger and his ability goes on the stack. When that ability resolves, it will give him the +1/+1 counter. We are still in the priority stage of the Declare Attackers Step for this entire process.

Only after every player has passed priority and nothing is on the stack will we advance to the next step--the Declare Blockers Step. It is during that step, after all the Hissing Miasma and Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin triggers have finished resolving that you declare your blockers.

Situation 2: Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and Hellrider

Your buddy was wrong. As with above, all the triggers will occur during the Declare Attackers Step and will resolve during the priority component of the Declare Attackers Step. Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin's triggers will resolve before you move on to the Declare Blockers Step and get to choose blockers.

MartinEMcArthur on If a player attacks me …

2 months ago

Basically I’m wondering if I’ll have a stronger Ob to block with when I’m getting swung at in this scenario. Last night I was playing and I was in a similar situation when I had Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and Hellrider out at the same time. In that scenario I attacked with three creatures triggering both Hellrider and Ob three times. When I was putting counters on Ob my buddy told me he doesn’t get those counters until after the combat phase. I didn’t argue but I wasn’t sure if that was really how it worked. In both of these scenarios, wouldn’t he get his counters before the blockers are declared? Thanks for clarifying.

Rhadamanthus on Would Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin …

2 months ago

Yes, this will work, you just have to be specific about what order the triggers are being put onto the stack.

When multiple triggered abilities (start with "when/whenever/at") are trying to go onto the stack at the same time, first the active player (the player whose turn it is) puts their triggers onto the stack in the order of their choice, then the next player in turn order puts their triggers onto the stack on top of those, and so on around the table. In this example you can order your triggers such that the triggered ability granted by Feign Death is on top of the stack and resolves first, so Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin will be back on the battlefield when The Meathook Massacre's triggers start resolving.

This answer and explanation assume you control both Ob Nixilis and the Massacre. If you're in a game with more than 2 players and different players control Ob Nixilis and Massacre then the exact result will depend on whose turn it is and who goes after who in turn order. You can use the procedure explained above for how to put triggers on the stack to figure out what happens.

Neotrup on Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and …

3 months ago

As a minor point, Foul-Tongue Shriek causes a single instance of life loss, but does not deal damage at all. As Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin triggers off loss of life it's not relevant here, but could be relevant with things like Pain Magnification.

wallisface on Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and …

3 months ago

It’s one instance of combined damage. The ability of Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin would only trigger if you were attacking with exactly one creature when casting Foul-Tongue Shriek