Last week we got our first glimpse of Magic’s 2027 Marvel set, Darkhold Destiny, and it already looks like a banger. Not only will the set have an entirely original story, addressing one of the major criticisms of Universes Beyond, but the new cards we’ve seen from it so far look fantastic.
Magik, Illyana Rasputin, for example, is a powerful new Rakdos MDFC Commander, with a flip side that unlocks some mean combo potential.
Magik, Illyana Rasputin//Darkchild, Demon Unleashed MTG
In its initial form, Magik, Illyana Rasputin isn’t the most impressive MTG Commander. A three-mana 3/3 that impulse draws you a card each turn feels pretty rough, but fortunately there’s a fairly easy path to an upgrade. If you can sacrifice two permanents in a turn, you can flip this over into Darkchild, ahead of its typical five-mana arrival.
To do this, you have several approaches. A classic Aristocrats package is probably the most consistent, leveraging sacrifice outlets like Phyrexian Altar and fodder creatures like Shambling Ghast. Creatures that can sacrifice themselves for value, like Blood Pet, also help flip Magik early.
Another great option is to lean into Treasure synergies since Magik counts any permanents for its flip condition. Cast Strike it Rich on turn one, for instance, then all you need is a Fetchland on turn two to flip Magik. Other Treasure generators and support pieces, like Professional Face-Breaker and The Sackville-Bagginses
The Sackville-BagginsesWhen The Sackville-Bagginses enter, you may sacrifice another creature or artifact. If you do, draw a card and create a Treasure token.
Whenever you sacrifice a token, target opponent loses 1 life., can also enable speedy flips later, which is especially handy when Magik comes back in with Commander tax.
Once Magik becomes Darkchild, things really get going. Impulse drawing multiple cards per turn is a real possibility here, particularly with trigger doublers like Strionic Resonator
Strionic Resonator{2}, {T}: Copy target triggered ability you control. You may choose new targets for the copy. (A triggered ability uses the words "when," "whenever," or "at.") in the mix. This lets you really capitalize on ‘cast from exile’ synergies, with cards like Passionate Archaeologist and Spider-Verse putting a serious shift in. With so many cards going into exile, payoffs like Laelia, the Blade Reforged are great inclusions here, too.
Darkchild also far surpasses Magik by virtue of its protection ability, which costs just four life to activate. This lets you essentially counter most removal and board wipes, keeping your Commander around to fight another day. It also plays very nicely alongside board wipes, letting you pay four before firing off a Blasphemous Act
Blasphemous ActThis spell costs {1} less to cast for each creature on the battlefield.
Blasphemous Act deals 13 damage to each creature..
Costly Combo Lines
Darkchild’s protection ability also notably lacks any ‘once per turn’ clause, so you can pay life in multiples of four to your heart’s content. While this doesn’t sound like an upside, it actually opens up a solid suite of combo lines, which give Magik a serious edge in the command zone.
First and foremost, you can abuse this ability to kill the table outright using Repay in Kind. With something like Platinum Angel, which prevents you from losing in play, you can pay all of your life, then cast Repay to set everyone else to zero as well, thus winning on the spot. Repay in Kind causing an opponent’s life total to drop counts as life loss, so cards like Bloodletter of Aclazotz can also work in place of Platinum Angel.
Notably, Darkhold Destiny is introducing a second copy of this effect in The Darkhold, so there’s some decent redundancy available.
Alternatively, you can bring in Rowan, Scion of War and convert your life into colorless mana, as you would with Channel. Provided you have enough life to start with, this can let you land a lethal Exsanguinate, or perhaps a Torment of Hailfire
Torment of HailfireRepeat the following process X times. Each opponent loses 3 life unless that player sacrifices a nonland permanent of their choice or discards a card.. With untappers like Thousand-Year Elixir in the mix, you can pull off these combos even if you’re struggling for life, too.
Finally, you can use Darkchild’s ability to exile your entire library with Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator. Once that’s done, you can use Doctor Doom, Unrivaled to win on the spot as soon as your library is empty. For a funkier win, bring in Laelia, the Blade Reforged, which scales to nearly 100/100 with this combo, letting you close with any Chandra’s Ignition effect.
Overall, Magik is a very promising new MTG Commander option, with potential both as a fair card in lower brackets and a combo menace in higher ones. If the rest of Darkhold Destiny’s legendary lineup is this good, then April 2027 really can’t come soon enough.
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