Ashiok, Nightmare Muse | Illustration by Raymond Swanland
Sonic and Shadow. Batman and Owlman. Pit and… Dark Pit. Throughout their journeys, our favorite protagonists often meet mirrored versions of themselves, characters that share many of their traits, but whose goals are either more selfish, or a twisted interpretation of our hero’s same goals.
And for Jace Beleren… well, I won’t say that Ashiok is the perfect foil. They’ve barely interacted in the story, but they share blue magic, and Ashiok’s dream and nightmare magic is like a reflection of Jace’s mind magic.
Dangit, another Magic topic Jace hijacked, eh? No matter: Ashiok doesn’t mind playing in the shadows, so let’s find out all about their cards and what the character has been up to.
What Are Ashiok Planeswalkers in MTG?
Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator | Illustration by Raymond Swanland
Ashiok planeswalker cards in Magic are permanents that depict the character Ashiok. They mostly have a Dimir () color identity, though one is mono-black. Ashiok planeswalkers tend to have abilities that exile the top cards of your opponents’ libraries, often to steal those cards for your own benefit.
#5. Ashiok, Sculptor of Fears
Theros Beyond Death had two Ashiok planeswalkers between the main set and its Planeswalker Decks. Can you tell which one this is?
Ashiok, Sculptor of Fears sees some Commander play in mill and theft decks, but it’s not the most efficient use of your mana, or your card slots (please don’t go checking what I currently have in my Tasha deck). Six mana, then the uptick gives you a card and mills everyone for two. Unless I already have a mill payoff out to take advantage of that, it’s a yawn.
There might be some cases when you can cast Ashiok, proliferate its loyalty counters, then downtick the same turn it came in, but that’s a lot of hoops when Reanimate just wants and some life. If you get the ultimate at a Bracket 3 or higher table, I want pics or it didn’t happen.
#4. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
As our first Ashiok planeswalker (and the second planeswalker I ever owned), Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver shows its age. Unlike later versions, this Ashiok loses track of previous cards it exiled if it leaves the battlefield because it comes back as a new game object. The ultimate ability also takes forever to reach without proliferation.
#3. Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator
We’ve seen a bunch of payoffs for casting spells from exile over the last few years, but Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator is a payoff for keeping them stashed there. It has a replacement effect that turns the 2 life you pay to a Sign in Blood into two cards in exile, but these aren’t abilities that bring those cards back. No, you need extra help, like Surgical Extraction.
Something interesting from a design and/or story perspective: Without access to blue mana, Ashiok can’t steal from your opponents’ libraries, just feed on them to make your opponent weaker.
#2. Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
In a deck that just wants to munch on your opponents’ libraries, the uptick on Ashiok, Nightmare Muse is really all you need. It supplies you steady nightmare tokens that hurt your opponents whenever they get into combat, and the other abilities are usable; bounce a card, then force your opponent to discard into exile, and the ultimate gives you three cards your opponents have exiled.
That last ability has some neat interactions, and not just by exploiting the player running adventures or impulse draw. Other theft cards like Tasha, the Witch Queen also use exile as a purgatory for the cards you have access to, and this Ashiok can also cast those cards, not just the ones it exiled. It’s also templated so that you still have access to those cards if Ashiok ever leaves the battlefield.
#1. Ashiok, Dream Render
War of the Spark is notorious for flooding us with planeswalkers, with a guaranteed ‘walker in every booster. Ashiok, Dream Render is a bit salty, though, since it shuts off tutors, from Rampant Growth to Vampiric Tutor, and anything else that has you search your library. Decks that rely on that, or combo lines, or heck, just want to ramp or even use catch-up cards have to deal with Ashiok just to keep playing.
Don’t sleep on that “measly” downtick, though. Little bit of mill to start, but the true value comes from exiling each opponent’s graveyard. Between that and preventing your opponents from searching their libraries, this Ashiok is actually a viable tool to slow your opponents down or delay/prevent a combo victory in cEDH.
Ashiok Payoffs
Ashiok's Forerunner and Swimmer in Nightmares are the only cards that interact with Ashiok planeswalkers specifically.
Ashiok planeswalkers tend to have abilities that exile cards from either your or your opponents’ libraries, so anything that cares about having cards in exile might have some synergy. Spell theft commanders like Tasha, the Witch Queen also pair nicely with that element of Ashiok’s abilities.
Some Ashiok planeswalkers exile cards from the top of your opponents’ libraries in large chunks, so they run parallel to what mill decks want to do. Otherwise, look for your typical planeswalker payoffs, like legendary tutors, proliferate abilities, and some of the Ajani planeswalkers.
Who Is Ashiok?
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver | Illustration by Karla Ortiz
Good heckin’ question. We know little about Ashiok’s true origin, their species, their precise goals…. Their ambitions are shrouded, which is probably just how they’d like it.
Ashiok first appears on Theros during the original Theros block, where the relationship between believers and their gods holds a particular fascination for them. Believing in gods gives them their power, but what kind of power manifests on Theros when believers fear their gods? That’s what Ashiok wants to find out.
Ashiok would eventually find Elspeth Tirel in the Underworld and take an interest in the planeswalker’s nightmares. Through these, Ashiok learned of the Phyrexians. During the events of March of the Machine, they traveled to New Phyrexia to experiment with their illusion/nightmare magic on Mirrans and Phyrexians, before attempting to make Elesh Norn believe that the glistening oil hadn’t perfectly compleated a Mirran woman.
We next saw Ashiok on Eldraine, where they took advantage of the sleeping curse and allied themself with Eriette. They planeswalked away as Will Kenrith and Kellan assaulted Castle Ardenvale; Jace then impersonated Ashiok to free Eriette.
Jace later posed as Ashiok once again to recruit a team to break into a vault on Thunder Junction. It’s somewhat fitting; Ashiok was somewhat conceived as a “Dark Jace” figure, so they’re a good disguise for Jace as an “outlaw”.
Another odd connection is that although Ashiok doesn’t appear in the War of the Spark novel, Ashiok, Dream Render depicts the planeswalker… on the Meditation Plane? No idea what that signals, but please, Mr. Wizards of the Coast, don’t let my humble Ashiok article go out of date immediately because of Reality Fracture….
Is Ashiok Alive? Are They Desparked?
As of the events of Wilds of Eldraine, Ashiok is still alive and still has their spark.
What Other Ashiok-Related Cards Are There?
Card Names
Flavor Text
- Aphemia, the Cacophony
- Estrid, the Masked (SLD 1327)
- Mind Rot (M15, ORI, W16)
- Nightmarish End
- Prophetic Prism (WOE)
- Swimmer in Nightmares
- Taken by Nightmares
- Thoughtseize (THS)
- Tormented Thoughts
Art Only
Seize the Secrets depicts Jace in disguise as Ashiok, while Jace Reawakened depicts Jace as he sheds his disguise, both during the events of Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
Wrap Up
Ashiok is among my favorite characters, at least from a design perspective. Mysterious, androgynous, and don’t get me started on how horrifying it is to contemplate how that face… functions… like as a face? If you told me that Ashiok was somehow involved in the final endgame for Jace’s character, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. But I also don’t feel like we’ve spent enough time with Ashiok for that to pay off nicely, at least not yet. So far they’ve spent far more time antagonizing Elspeth….
Which Ashiok cards do you run in your decks? What do you want to see from the next Ashiok card, and in what kind of set would you like to see them return? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord. For more from us, check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.
Until next time… sweet dreams!
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