Professor Onyx MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: With Professor Onyx, you harness the power to gain significant card advantage through her Magecraft ability. Each time you or your apprentice casts an instant, sorcery, or a spell that isn’t a creature spell, you’re rewarded with a draw, which keeps your hand full and your options open.

Resource Acceleration: Her loyalty abilities offer more than just control; they can accelerate your resources immensely. Professor Onyx’s minus-three ability can filter the top three cards of your library, potentially revealing further spells to cast or lands to ensure your mana base keeps up with your ambitions.

Instant Speed: While Professor Onyx herself might not be cast at instant speed, she significantly rewards playing at instant speed. Since many powerful spells can be cast during your opponent’s turn, her Magecraft ability can surprise foes by drawing you cards when they least expect it, turning their turn into your advantage.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: With Professor Onyx, you may find yourself needing to toss a valuable card from your hand to activate its Magecraft ability. This is especially taxing in game situations where your hand size is already diminished.

Specific Mana Cost: This planeswalker comes with a restrictive casting cost that includes two black mana symbols. This requirement can limit deck-building options and makes it challenging to splash Professor Onyx into non-black centric decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Six mana to cast is quite a commitment on your mana resources. For such an investment, players might expect a more immediate and potentially game-changing impact, whereas there are alternatives that can be played earlier or have a lower overall mana commitment.

Reasons to Include Professor Onyx in Your Collection

Versatility: Professor Onyx is a powerful planeswalker that can slide into various black-centric or multicolor decks. Her abilities lend themselves to both controlling the board and gaining incremental advantage over your opponents.

Combo Potential: With the ability to draw and discard cards, Professor Onyx synergizes well with graveyard strategies or setups that benefit from cycling through a deck. She can serve as a potent piece in combos, particularly involving life-loss mechanisms.

Meta-Relevance: Given how Professor Onyx can disrupt opponents’ hands and provide a steady stream of card advantage, she remains particularly relevant in environments where longer, grindy games are commonplace. Her ultimate can be a game-ender in the right deck, particularly in formats where players carefully manage their life totals.

How to beat

Professor Onyx is a powerful planeswalker card in Magic: The Gathering that players often find challenging to play against. With her ability to provide card advantage while simultaneously whittling down an opponent’s life total, overcoming her presence on the battlefield is crucial. To effectively counter this card, consider using instant-speed removal spells that can target planeswalkers. Direct damage spells are also effective, especially those that can be scaled to ensure enough damage is dealt to eliminate her loyalty counters swiftly.

Strategically, it’s important to prioritize threats effectively. This might mean holding back removal spells specifically for key planeswalkers like Professor Onyx. Another tactic is to apply aggressive pressure early in the game. Fast, creature-based strategies can force the Onyx player to use her defensively, thus limiting her potential impact. In some cases, playing cards that restrict the opponent from casting spells at a certain mana cost or cards that prevent abilities from triggering can neuter powerful planeswalkers, making Professor Onyx far less intimidating.

In summary, while the Professor can dominate games if left unchecked, a combination of precise removal, strategic pressure, and disruptive elements can ensure she doesn’t control the game. Understanding how to manage such threats is essential to mastering Magic: The Gathering gameplay dynamics.

BurnMana Recommendations

Embracing the complexities and subtleties of MTG gameplay enhances the experience substantially, and Professor Onyx stands as a perfect example of this depth. Her capabilities manifest not solely through raw power but strategic finesse, offering rewards for seasoned gameplay. As you evolve your strategy with every draw and spell cast, Professor Onyx could be the pivotal piece that propels your deck to new heights. We encourage you to dive deeper into strategies that maximize her potential, from mastering instant speed spells to effectively managing game tempo. Elevate your deck, refine your approach, and explore the full range of tactics at your disposal with Professor Onyx. For further insights and advanced strategies, join the BurnMana community where every game is a step towards mastery.