Vix'ben ability trigger

Very true, I should be looking outside the box.

Question on Vix'ben, does his ability trigger when ever my opponent plays a mugic card? Or just when its the opposing creature in battle casting the mugic?

Vix'ben says opposing creature and does not use the word engaged, it should be any creature the opponent has

Yup, Vix'ben will activate in response to any creature playing mugic. It's actually an amazing denial card which I'm surprised didn't see more use.

I thought there was a catch, so thanks for clarifying! He's probably one of my favorite creatures now.

I'm with you, Blits. As I was opening all my packs I got a couple Vixs and I couldn't understand what the downside was. Most Mugics don't cost more than 2/3 Mugic Counters. That wouldn't be difficult to amass on him. Only thing I can think of is playing a 0 cost or 1 cost Mugic before playing the one you intend to use since it is a non optional effect. Still, forcing the opponent to use 2 Mugics every time they want to cast can be pretty brutal.

Terabyte wrote:I'm with you, Blits. As I was opening all my packs I got a couple Vixs and I couldn't understand what the downside was. Most Mugics don't cost more than 2/3 Mugic Counters. That wouldn't be difficult to amass on him. Only thing I can think of is playing a 0 cost or 1 cost Mugic before playing the one you intend to use since it is a non optional effect. Still, forcing the opponent to use 2 Mugics every time they want to cast can be pretty brutal.

At best he's a full six denial's for one creature slot, and at worst you should still get minimum one denial in. The only problem is that a burn deck would just take him out at the beginning without a second thought.

Could always run a Fluidmorph deck with Inner Floods and a Tartarek Psi. Give him an Azaia Mindprobe to protect him. You'd have to worry about gear destruction, but at that point, they're running out of available options for variety in order to counter him.

Generally, if you play more than one Mugic card at once, he will only block the first.

A good player will work around that card, not just through burn as Blits mentioned.

BlzvSprayTan wrote:Generally, if you play more than one Mugic card at once, he will only block the first.

A good player will work around that card, not just through burn as Blits mentioned.

It's definitely not an end-all day ruiner for the other player, but Vix'Ben will certainly throw a wrench in a couple of opportunities for the other player. If you don't plan your entire game around the Vix'Ben and time your mugic right you'll lose a couple of them.

We should be doing that with any deck regardless though. Everything is always balanced~

BlzvSprayTan wrote:Generally, if you play more than one Mugic card at once, he will only block the first.

A good player will work around that card, not just through burn as Blits mentioned.

I think it's safe to say that it would be impossible to block a second Mugic with his ability. After the first, he has no Mugic counters and can't negate anything further. You can't add MC in any way that would block the second because of the burst.

That's when you throw down your 'Denial Refrain of the Deep'. He's definitely a good obstacle to have.

Honestly I think that if the game was still around, the meta game in Crellan would not be focused around Mugic. It would be more about winning combat without it. That is why I generally think that Vix'ben is somewhat weak.

Imagine a tower of blocks. If you take out the lowest block from the tower, the rest of it will fall.

You win more games by taking the bottom block out of your opponents deck than having a stronger deck than your opponent. Mugic, in the last meta, was the building blocks of Masters. You take it out, and boom. Decks would eventually have to go around that.

I agree that people relied too heavily on Mugic, but I think Vix could have been a better alternative to carrying an extra 2 Counter Mugics and instead use the extra cards to provide a buff here or there.

Also, if we lost Mugic playing, a lot of players would have shifted to M'arrillians with Chieftans who could discard to get an edge instead of just casting. There's a lot of diversity in the game so I wonder how much of a shift would actually be seen since each combo has multiple counters.

Terabyte wrote:I think Vix could have been a better alternative to carrying an extra 2 Counter Mugics and instead use the extra cards to provide a buff here or there.

The difference is, Denial Mugic you have control over. With Vix'ben, the opponent can use cards he/she doesn't need in order to trigger his ability, and then play the card that really matters.

Is Vix'ben worthless? No. Is he reliable? Not really. That is why I don't recommend trying to use him competitively.