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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. Exile the top card of your library. Until your next end step, you may play that card.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{2}{B}{R}
Color identity
BR
Rarity
mythic
Set
March of the Machine: The Aftermath
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#4341
Buy on TCGplayer
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin card art
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin turns any single-point damage ping into a free card and a +1/+1 counter, making him an engine that compounds quickly in decks built around incremental life loss. The cost is a four-mana 4/4 that does nothing alone — you need a consistent damage source in play before he earns his slot, but pair him with All Will Be One or slot him under Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls and he becomes one of the most efficient value creatures in black-red.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

33.8% of decks · synergy 0.29

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls draws cards whenever opponents lose life from noncombat sources, and Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin stacks his own draw trigger on top of that — the two commanders effectively double-dip on every ping, burying opponents in card advantage.

02
Raphael, Fiendish Savior

Raphael, Fiendish Savior

24.8% of decks · synergy 0.20

Raphael, Fiendish Savior cares about Demons and tokens, but the real pull here is the life-drain subtheme: every ping that triggers Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin also synergizes with Raphael's passive drain effects, creating a loop where card advantage and life totals erode simultaneously.

03
Prosper, Tome-Bound

Prosper, Tome-Bound

21.1% of decks · synergy 0.16

Prosper, Tome-Bound generates Treasure tokens off impulse draw, and each Treasure dealing one damage on exit is exactly the single-point loss that fuels Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin — in Prosper decks, Ob Nixilis reliably draws an extra card every turn without any additional setup.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

In Commander, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is the most natural fit — multiplayer tables mean three opponents losing life simultaneously, and a single ping can chain into three triggers at once. In Modern and Pioneer, he's legal but competes in a faster environment where a four-mana creature needs to win or stabilize the board immediately, which he doesn't reliably do without a dedicated ping package. Legacy and Vintage have the density of low-cost damage sources to make him absurd, but both formats also have the interaction density to answer a four-mana threat before it draws a single card. Commander is where Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is genuinely threatening rather than merely interesting.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current pricing data for Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin isn't available in this context — check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number. Given his presence as a combo lynchpin in several popular Commander archetypes, expect him to carry a meaningful premium over bulk mythic pricing.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.