Ilyana Rasputin, a.k.a. Magik, is the sword-swinging, portal-slinging badass of the Midnight Suns. She specializes in controlling the battlefield, repositioning enemies with her portals, and dealing big damage to single targets.

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Her bad attitude and standoffish disposition belies a strategic and flexible toolkit that makes her a good pick in any squad composition and strong in any combat scenario. She has a strong suite of cards to choose from, but some of them are definitely better than others. If you want to know how to rule with the Queen of Limbo, here are her cards, ranked.

10 Reinforcement

Magik summons her teammate, the flaming-skulled Ghost Rider

Cost:

4

Effect:

Summon another hero from the Abbey for one turn. Draw two of their cards. Exhaust.

Upgrade:

Summon another hero from the Abbey for two turns. Draw two of their cards. Exhaust.

Not only the worst card in Magik’s kit, Reinforcement is arguably one of the worst in the game, tied with the Hunter Power card Summon Charlie. While it might seem cool to call in a teammate, this card is just too inefficient to make the additional unit all that useful.

Not only is the cost to play high, but you get a random hero AND random cards. Even with the most ideal RNG, you only get your extra unit for two turns at most. You’re better off spending the Heroism– and the card slot– on anything else.

9 Trap Door

Magik takes to the air, leaving a trail of blue light in preparation to summon a portal

Effect:

Move an enemy unit.

Upgrade:

Move an enemy unit. Deals more damage.

Trap Door is fun to play for the animation, and moving an enemy unit can actually be pretty useful. Unfortunately, every other card that moves enemies does Trap Door’s job better.

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Moving is not the same as Knockback, and you don’t get the benefits of damaging an enemy when they hit other enemies, or set off stage hazards, or fly into teammates. While there are situations where you might want enemies in a place where there’ll be nothing in the way to stop their movement, you’re better off just coming up with a plan where you fling the enemy into something instead.

8 Gather

Magik opens up portals (left) and deposits caught enemies (right)

Cost:

2

Effect:

Designate an area. Move every enemy in that area towards its center and damage them.

Upgrade:

Designate an area. Move every enemy in that area towards its center and damage them. Deals more damage.

While Gather should theoretically suffers from similar issues that Trap Door does, it is still the better card, as it hits multiple enemies– adding a bit of AoE to Magik's tool kit.

While it’s a little imprecise, this card not only hits a herd, but clusters enemies together, allowing you to follow-up with an area effect blast from teammates like the Hunter, Ghost Rider, or Spider-Man for maximum carnage. Failing that, you could always just stick them near something explosive and then set off the fireworks.

7 Soul Blast

Magik strikes an enemy with an empowered palm strike, which emits a bright light

Effect:

Forceful Knockback.

Upgrade:

Forceful Knockback. Gain one Counter on KO.

A utilitarian card held back only by its lack of direct damage, Soul Blast can still be surprisingly useful, especially if you keep in mind that all of Magik’s Knockbacks are always routed through an open portal.

Alongside her portals, you can almost guarantee that no place on the map is unavailable for Magik to place an enemy with this card. Best usage of this would be the simplest, just fling a Minion at a boss or elite– or vice-versa– to damage both, eliminate one and get a free Counter in the process.

6 Darkchylde

Magik's

Cost:

4

Effect:

Gain one Invulnerable and Taunt all enemies. Exhaust.

Upgrade:

Gain one Invulnerable and Taunt all enemies. Gain one Counter. Exhaust.

If you consider that Darkchylde is Magik’s Midnight Sun ability, a card that can only be unlocked through befriending her and then passing a test with her, it’s a little underwhelming.

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That being said, it’s actually not too bad. It’s a little expensive, and it’s not always powerful enough to warrant exhausting it after use. Still, it effectively buys you a whole turn as enemies throw themselves fruitlessly at Magik and possibly get thwacked in return in the process. Unfortunately, while the Counter ability is nice, there are more economical ways distract enemies for a turn.

5 Quick Soulslash

Magik slashes with her sword, which emits a bright light

Effect:

Knockback. Quick.

Upgrade:

Knockback. Quick. Gain +1 Moves this turn.

Even more utilitarian than Soul Blast - this card trades in knockback distance for the possibility of being played for free with the Quick tag, provided you can KO something first.

While actually knocking an enemy out is a little difficult, since this card does no direct damage, it’s easy enough to target a minion to fling into something else. Even if you have nothing elaborate planned, you would've at least removed a minion from the board, retained an action, and with the upgraded version, get an additional move.

The additional move is a little more meaningful in Magik’s case, since she can use it to tackle an enemy– likely through a portal– so the amount of possibilities this card opens up is deceptively high, despite its simple abilities.

4 Kick

Magik kicks a possessed Scarlet Witch in the chest

Effect:

Knockback.

Upgrade:

Knockback. Deals more damage.

Simple and straightforward with a lot of ‘tude, much like Magik herself. This card hurts enemies and sends them flying, as Ilyana gives them the boot.

It’s her best Attack card, and you’ll want to keep two copies, as it will likely be your bread and butter when dealing with anything more powerful than a minion. Not only does it deal decent damage, but you can Kick your victim into a variety of things, meaning with a little planning and portalwork, they’re likely to be terribly hurt – if not unconscious.

3 Banish

Magik glows with bright blue light as she summons a portal in the background. A HYDRA unit takes aim

Cost:

3

Effect:

Replace an enemy with a Drop until the next turn.

Upgrade:

Replace an enemy or ally with a Drop until the next turn.

You’d be forgiven if you thought this card was underwhelming, given its high cost and esoteric ability. For 3 Heroism, it looks like you’re just temporarily displacing an enemy and replacing them with a somewhat unreliable stage hazard. At best, you can use it to Banish a Defender, so you can get at what they’re shielding.

However, the upgraded version of Banish truly shines, since you can pull off some absolute cheese with it. There’s a quirk in the game where if you Taunt enemies with a unit and then make that unit untargetable, then the Taunted enemies will simply not act. So if you Banish an ally that has everyone’s attention (ideally after they’ve used all their actions), then you basically have a free turn.

2 Limbo’s Grasp

The Limbo's Grasp card and Magik raising her clawed hand into the air, glowing bright blue

Effect:

Deal +[150 percent Offense] damage to enemies knocked through Portals for the rest of the mission.

Upgrade:

Create a Portal. Deal +[150 percent Offense] damage to enemies knocked through Portals for the rest of the mission.

This is likely one of Magik’s most powerful cards when it comes to sheer damage potential, and in longer-running fights, it allows her to rack up some big numbers. The best part is that not only does it stack, but the card doesn’t exhaust, so you could get by just fine with one copy that you cycle through and reuse.

Of course, if you want to quickly rack up the damage, two copies of this card would be optimal. While it’s not necessary, upgrading this card is a good idea, because more portals are always nice.

1 Limbo Portal

Magik stands before a freshly-opened portal

Effect:

Create a Portal. Free.

Upgrade:

Create a Portal. Free. Upon redraw, gain +1 Moves this turn.

Limbo’s Grasp might be the most powerful card in Magik’s kit, but Limbo’s Portal is downright necessary. As a rule you’ll want to weave new Limbo Portals in between Magik’s attacks as she expends them.

This card allows you to do so for free, basically allowing you to place enemies with impunity. Fortunately, you never really need to upgrade this card, since the extra portal is almost always worth more than the extra move. You’ll want two of these in your deck, of course, since her ability Relay only has a 10 or 25 percent chance of generating a Limbo Portal card, which would be a rookie mistake to rely on.

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