Professor Onyx

Legendary Planeswalker — Liliana

Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.

+1: You lose 1 life. Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

-3: Each opponent sacrifices a creature with the greatest power among creatures that player controls.

-8: Each opponent may discard a card. If they don't they lose 3 life. Repeat this process six more times.

Legality

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

Discussion (42)

Gidgetimer on Kess Combos

2 months ago

Dramatic Scepter combo (Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter ) could be a wincon with the already present Professor Onyx, Guttersnipe, Kessig Flamebreather, Lambholt Raconteur  ^Flip, Ovika, Enigma Goliath, or Fiery Inscription.

Floop-The-Pig on Discard Mono Black

3 months ago

legendofa Thank you for your input, it is very much appreciated. I actually addded Chain of Smog ealier but didnt even think about making it an infinite combo with Professor Onyx. Ill add some of these other ones to the deck too

legendofa on Discard Mono Black

3 months ago

Welcome to the club, Floop-The-Pig!

My first thought here is Chain of Smog. On top of being another discard spell, you can repeatedly target yourself with Professor Onyx out to get a full life drain from all your opponents.

Doom Blade doesn't excite me, unless you know your opponents won't be running black. I've never used Temple of the False God, but it has kind of a reputation as a trap, that looks better than it is. Bojuka Bog is another graveyard exile effect that I recommend.

Also consider adding some more mass removal. Something like Black Sun's Zenith or Toxic Deluge would help clean up all the creatures that get through your discard effects.

TheOfficialCreator on Rakdos I play your deck

4 months ago

Laughing Jasper Flint would excel in your gameplan, and Grim Initiate or Shambling Ghast would be good 1-drops.

Professor Onyx stands out as not being great for the gameplan, I highly recommend Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools. Great sack outlet with great card draw, AND steals your opponent's commanders. In that same vein, Brainstealer Dragon.

Infernalshell on Inflicting Pain and Everlasting Bloodshed

8 months ago

Profet93 these are great suggestions, especially the lockout pieces in black since those are cards I'd never thought of using (or even really heard of before) and that'll protect my board pretty nicely. I also didn't realize there was a baby Cabal Coffers out there so that'll be an immediate include over Mortuary Mire or Grasping Dunes and Thespian's Stage will likely replace the other one since that'll give me access to better ramp.

The wincon(s) at this moment is either through combat damage or through sacrifice synergies with Syr Konrad, the Grim, Vein Ripper, and/or Zulaport Cutthroat and as a last resort Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon will help close out some games too. I toyed with the idea of Chain of Smog + Professor Onyx for an alternate wincon but that felt like it would be too close to cEDH for my pod since we generally don't play combos that are less than 3 cards.

ABunchofPigeons on Dihada Binder of Onyx?

1 year ago

Hey friends and degenerates - Trying to see if the Professor Onyx / Chain of Smog combo fits into a Dihada, Binder of Wills / Underworld Breach deck. Has anyone had experience brewing with this in that line? Thinking it might be good to have with Onakke Oathkeeper in the mix (get that in the grave to use it's ability to reanimate Professor Onyx if need be?)

debuf on infinite rats

1 year ago

also, here are some more cards I found that might be helpful for the deck: Volrath's Laboratory, Vanquisher's Banner, Blood for Bones, Mastermind's Acquisition, Epic Downfall, Professor Onyx, Conspiracy, Doom Blade, Ghastly Demise, Nezumi Graverobber  ^Flip, and Crippling Fear

pyyraus on Magar of the Magic String Cheese

1 year ago

General:

-More mana ramp

-For an instant/sorcery deck, there are too many cards that synergize with creatures

-Getting this deck to a really good point is going to take a lot of testing and thinking to figure out the balance of several details; off the top of my head, effects that make your tokens attack better (deal damage, stay alive, gain double strike, etc.), effects that put such cards into your graveyard, mana ramp to activate Magar's ability consistently, protection for Magar, and actual 'payoff' cards

Cards I would immediately drop:

-Professor Onyx- has decent synergy with her static ability and +1 but apart from that doesn't do much; it's also 6 mana in a list that already needs a lower curve

-Waste Not: an awesome card in general but you play almost no effects that make your opponents discard cards

-Footfall Crater: synergies pretty much only with Anje Falkenrath and just has very bad rates

-Lightning Bolt: iconic Magic card but I am on the side that believes it is straight up not good in Commander

-Temple of the False God: I don't play this card anymore; it's a dead draw until usually turn five or six and at that point, it does so little especially in a deck like this where you don't desperately need a mana source producing two colorless

-Ignite the Future: a decent card in a deck where you cast it from the graveyard but you will rarely do that here; Magar's ability does not make you cast it from your yard and it just does not have a good rate

-Bone Shards: I see why you're playing it here (its extra cost can easily be paid with a face-down instant/sorcery you're done with) but in this deck you do NOT want your face-down instants/sorceries dying because you can repeatedly cast them when they deal damage; there are so many better removal spells in red and black that do not require such an akward cost

Cards that Can be Replaced with Better Ones:

-Chainer, Nightmare Adept: the free, instant-speed discard ability is amazing, don't get me wrong, but the ability its activating does almost nothing for your deck; there are better (sometimes cheaper) free, instant-spped discard abilities like Zombie Infestation or Skirge Familiar

-Dark Ritual: I personally don't like Dark Ritual except in mono-black decks that really need it and here; it's an amazing card turns one through maybe four but after that, it is probably going to be a dead draw; a mana rock would be much better in its place

-Seething Song: same argument as Dark Ritual but this spell is best on a different range of turns

-Blood Money: this is a pretty cool card to get for free from Magar but I am not too sure how much benefit the tapped treasure give you; I am mainly saying this because I would run Blasphemous Act first but this is all pretty subjective

-Tuktuk Rubblefort/Fervor: these are two of your current three cards that give all your creatures haste; I think three may be a bit much and Urabrask the Hidden is definitely the best of them