Magik’s build guide

Role

Iliyana Rasputin seems like a rebellious and spoiled brat that is never satisfied and who will always oppose the authorities. However, that is just a cover-up for her gentle and good soul who seeks shelter in solitude thinking that she is always alone with her fears.

With a lot of patience, trust, and dedication, Hunter will find out her true nature and become someone who will make her reach her full potential. After Wolverine joins the team, she will fully remove the shackles that prevented her from being what is needed from her to be.

Do not be tricked by her nature at the start. Even though you will improve your reputation with her by giving Dark based answers to her questions, which will change as time passes to the point where she will positively react only to Russian poetry and lawfully good reactions. As with every young child, she will grow up during your adventure, becoming mature and aware of what is good and what is wrong. Keep that in mind, to avoid unpleasant surprises in conversation with her.

In combat, Magik is kinda limited even though her stats are significantly higher than the majority of other members of Midnight Suns. Her ability to create Portals would be really useful if her chance of creating them was at least 50%. Unfortunately, the chance is only 10% during most of the game which isn’t helpful at all, on the contrary.

I must say though, that once you unlock Magik’s Legendary Card everything will change because you will be able to cheat the game in a similar way as with Doctor Strange and his ability to restore items.

First thing first. Let’s see what is the best Magik’s Build in my experience.

Best Build

Attack

• Quick Soulslash
• Soul Blast
• Kick
• Trap Door

Skill

• Limbo’s Grasp
• Limbo Portal

Heroic

• Gather
• Darkchylde/Gather (if you didn’t unlock the legendary Card)

Deck Guide

The idea behind Magik’s design is to allow her to position enemies where you want them. If there is a summoned portal on the battlefield, every mob kicked by Magik will be directed through the portal to the position of your initial choice. Portals will be usually directed to other targets or allies, environmental explosions, or Drops.

Unfortunately, Portals will disappear after an enemy is kicked for the first time which makes them almost irrelevant unless you are prepared to bring at least 3 Portal cards in your deck. Even though it is possible to do so, choosing to have 3 or more Portal cards will make you discard Attack or Heroic cards that are needed for Magik’s efficiency – Portal will be useless if you don’t have the option to kick an enemy through it.

Anyway, Magik has a passive ability to create a new Portal every time she kicks someone through the Portal. That would be really amazing passive ability if the chance is not 10% as it is. In other words, during my 2 playthroughs, in all battles using Magik she never created a free Portal 🙁

If I want to be honest, before unlocking Legendary Card, there is no decent justification to use Magik in any mission whatsoever. She needs a lot of Heroism, she doesn’t have important Heroic abilities, she is not good at building Heroism, and she doesn’t have Cards that could deal a lot of damage. In short, she sucks.

However, once you unlock Darkchylde, she will become the best Tank in the whole game. If you want to know what qualifies her to be considered the best tank, well if you find someone who can taunt all enemies to counter all their attacks and fully ignore their damage, please let me know…

Skill Cards

Magik has 2 Skill cards, and both create Portals. Obviously, she will need both cards in her deck at least.

“Limbo Portal” doesn’t generate Heroism, but it is the Free card. When upgraded it will grant additional Move after Redraw.

“Limbo’s Grasp” generates 2 Heroism and increases the damage against all enemies kicked through portals by 150% for the rest of the mission. To create the Portal, “Limbo Grasp” will need an upgrade, so this should be your first priority if you plan to use Magik. Without it is almost useless.

It would be perfect to have 2 copies of the improved “Limbo’s Grasp” on your deck, but it is questionable if it is justified to spend resources on creating Abilities for Magik before she unlocks Legendary Card.

Attack Cards

Magik has 4 different Attack cards and each of them can change the position of the target.

“Quick Slash” doesn’t cause damage and has Quick and Knockback effects. When upgraded it will grant additional Move in that turn.

“Soul Blast” also doesn’t cause damage. It has Forceful Knockback and when upgraded it will grant Counter upon KO.

“Kick” causes probably the highest single damage compared to all other Attack Cards in the game but only if Portal is summoned on the map. If not, it would be a waste to use it.

“Trap Door” also delivers enormously high damage if upgraded and it also moves the target to any location on the map. Keep in mind though that this ability will not kick the target through a portal. Usually, I never really needed this ability, but it is good to know that you can move an enemy wherever you want at any time, so I never discarded it from the deck.

Heroic Cards

There are 4 different Heroic cards at Magik’s disposal, but I am pretty sure that you will never use “Reinforcement” and “Banish”.

“Gather” costs 2 Heroism and moves all targets in the area toward the center causing serious damage. This is the only Card you will always want to use with Magik. If you improve it, the range of abilities will be insane – so, improve it as soon as possible.

“Banish” costs 3 Heroism and replaces the selected enemy with Drop for 1 turn. If the Card is upgraded, you replace allies as well. Even though this spell fully incapacitates any enemy for 1 turn, I never find it justified to do it. It is simply not needed at all + it prolongs the duration of battles.

“Reinforcement” is really expensive and costs 4 Heroism. For 4 Heroism you will summon a random member of Midnight Suns from the Abbey along with 2 of his cards. Without an upgrade, you will have a summon only until the end of the turn. If upgraded, your ally will stay 2 turns.

So, let’s see what the real benefit is of having another random member of the team at the moment when you already spent 1 Card Play and 4 Heroism. I’m really trying but I can’t find any benefit whatsoever, except that a summon can be targeted by enemies if you are lucky to summon Tank with taunt. Spending 4 Heroism for that chance is nothing else but waste, let’s be honest.

“Darkchylde” is a legendary Magik’s card that will be unlocked upon maximizing Friendship with her. This card cost 4 Heroism for a reason – it will Taunt all enemies on the battlefield while granting Immunity to all damage to Magik for 1 turn. If the card is upgraded Magik will get Counter as well for total perfection. Obviously, this Card will be discarded after use but if you equip “Ancestral Guidance” with Hunter, it will allow her to use it whenever it is drawn. In short, this is how you can exploit the game easily. GG.

Synergy

Magik has the best synergy with Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man.

If paired if Scarlet Witch, Magik will allow her to have all enemies in the range of her abilities making things almost effortless.

With Spider-Man in the team, she can create a lot of opportunities by creating additional Moves with her Attack and Skill Cards. That will allow Spider-Man to fully exploit everything on the map and cause enormous damage without any cost at all.

Passive

Improving your Friendship with Magik will bring you a lot of fun. However, the final praise will not be as great:

• Relay I – 10 Chance to generate a Limbo Portal card after an enemy is knocked back through a Portal
• Relay II – 25% Chance to generate a Limbo Portal card after an enemy is knocked back through a Portal

Even on Friendship Level 4, a 25% chance to create a Portal after using a Portal means that you will have to create 4 Portals in order to generate 1 for free… Trust me, it is useless …

Conclusion

Magik is probably the most intriguing character in the game. From total usefulness, she can become a tool that can help you beat any mission on any Difficulty.

Unfortunately, doing that will not be fun, at least it is not fun for me. In my opinion if Devs would increase the chance of her passive to 50%, the narrative would be totally different.