Maybe I'm missing something that will become apparent in some deck when I see this in play against me, but for now, I'm thinking this is by far the worst of the gods. 3 CMC is interesting though... I feel like I may be underestimating how awesome a 3 CMC god can be, even if it doesn't have a great ability. I do feel like this ability has an inverse-synergy (dissonance?) with the fact that she's a god... Dredging your yard for tokens doesn't help build devotion. I don't get it...
In a competitive format, it seems unlikely this will be played, However that doesn't mean I won't have fun playing her.
In standard
me: behold the fearsome Polukranos reincarnated *places 1/1 snake token on table* Tremble at his might!
opponent: so?
me: it has deathtouch
opponent OH GAWD NO, KILL IT NOW, PLEASE SOMEONE! *precinct captain steps on snake*
me: damn.
In EDH
me: *points at each player* you get a snake!
My biggest fear of Pharika is that you can give your opponents 1/1 deathtouch chump blockers. If not used properly, I can see why people would say she sucks.
Lots of tear shedding in this thread I see. Great, that will just lower the price of this one to reasonable levels. I think Pharika is sneaky good as a GB aggro enabler (NOT dredge) and I'm interested to see the interactions in EDH. Very cool card IMO, you just need to think outside the box a bit.
Heh. While I don't play competitively, there are a couple of funny points about Pharika, besides her obvious political uses in multiplayer. (Yes, the following is casual-only.)
1) She allows for Scavenge and Bestow strategies without needing a creature in play to scavenge/bestow onto. You use her ability to get a creature you can then Scavange onto. Varolz is better, no doubt, but there's something to be said for redundancy.
2) She loves to fight. IIRC, one of the first JOU cards spoiled was a Strive card that allowed X creatures you control to fight other creatures.
3) The tokens don't die to Extinguish All Hope, and trigger Constellation (as others have noted).
Heh. While I don't play competitively, there are a couple of funny points about Pharika, besides her obvious political uses in multiplayer. (Yes, the following is casual-only.)
1) She allows for Scavenge and Bestow strategies without needing a creature in play to scavenge/bestow onto. You use her ability to get a creature you can then Scavange onto. Varolz is better, no doubt, but there's something to be said for redundancy.
2) She loves to fight. IIRC, one of the first JOU cards spoiled was a Strive card that allowed X creatures you control to fight other creatures.
3) The tokens don't die to Extinguish All Hope, and trigger Constellation (as others have noted).
1) So I have to remove a creature from my graveyard to get a 1/1 token. Then I have to remove a creature with scavenge from my grave to make said token stronger. Then when they kill the token with a D-Sphere, Hero's Downfall, or bile blight in response to scavenge, I'm out two creature plus all the mana to make this happen.
2) Don't all the kill spells black have do a better job at killing creatures more efficiently?
3) They die to everything else being 1/1 creatures, betsow creatures trigger constellation for better value, and god forbid they kill your constellation creature in response or you have to remove a creature from your opponent's yard to prevent something when they have a Constellation creature. Now they get extra value.
Card is bad dude. Everything it can possibly do or combo with, other cards do it better and more efficiently. I'm just hoping MaRo do an article on her so we can find out how she came to be this bad.
Not a very good card especially for standard. She's a GOD, yet some of the best defenses are that she's a situational 5/5 for 3 that can't be killed. Just like the much better Thassa. Sure, very, very rarely you may be able to activate her on turn 3 with the right deck. Some green devotion decks can access a sylvan primordial on turn 3. Jund can get a lucky stormbreath on turn 3. Blah, blah, blah. This is a god and that's one of her best points? Athreos kills her as do most of the others. Isn't she supposed to be compared to the other gods? Well, she's one of the weak ones.
There is a synergy with constellation. I don't think it will put a enchantment deck on top though. While she may be meant to replace ooze, DRS, etc in the long run, right now, she is a weaker card. In an aggro deck, she brings value but 1/1s are a poor attacking group. This gives control even more time to find answers. especially since Jace blanks her badly. In dredge, she eats your fuel. In control...what does she really do? Sure, she may find a place and I've seen much worse cards over the years. As a GOD though....she is pretty weak.
All of the mono colored Gods have found some uses in their mono colored decks. Even Helios a little. Several of the minor gods have seen some play and she will be lucky to get in that group. Maybe 1-2 in a future deck months and months from now. Sounds bad for a god.
I love how a lot of people assume that because she's GB she had to made perfectly to slot into the new GB dredge deck. That isn't the case! Not every single card made has to fit perfectly into what's currently the "deck to beat". The GB dredge deck wasn't even a thing until someone took the time to look over the cards available and make a deck using them. Just because the dredge deck a GB deck does not make it the only GB deck. Just because some of you can only view cards by how it slots into existing decks doesn't mean others can't envision a new deck that makes use of Pharika. And that deck doesn't even have to be a tournament winning deck. Some of us are just happy to have a good, fun FNM deck. What I'm trying to say is have a bit of an open mind and imagination. Sure, Pharika isn't good in GB dredge, but that doesn't mean she's worthless. Use some creativity! Make a new deck! Think up something fun that can use her! Not every card made has to fit in winning decks of the various formats! Learn to lighten up and have some fun.
I wish players would come up with unique names for archetypes instead of stretching names of older more prominent archetypes to cover builds that only very vaguely resemble their namesake. What people are referring to as Dredge isn't even Dredge.
Heh. While I don't play competitively, there are a couple of funny points about Pharika, besides her obvious political uses in multiplayer. (Yes, the following is casual-only.)
1) She allows for Scavenge and Bestow strategies without needing a creature in play to scavenge/bestow onto. You use her ability to get a creature you can then Scavange onto. Varolz is better, no doubt, but there's something to be said for redundancy.
2) She loves to fight. IIRC, one of the first JOU cards spoiled was a Strive card that allowed X creatures you control to fight other creatures.
3) The tokens don't die to Extinguish All Hope, and trigger Constellation (as others have noted).
Did you read the guy you quoted? he was talkign about fun, and I agree pharika is good at providing fun.
1) So I have to remove a creature from my graveyard to get a 1/1 token. Then I have to remove a creature with scavenge from my grave to make said token stronger. Then when they kill the token with a D-Sphere, Hero's Downfall, or bile blight in response to scavenge, I'm out two creature plus all the mana to make this happen.
2) Don't all the kill spells black have do a better job at killing creatures more efficiently?
3) They die to everything else being 1/1 creatures, betsow creatures trigger constellation for better value, and god forbid they kill your constellation creature in response or you have to remove a creature from your opponent's yard to prevent something when they have a Constellation creature. Now they get extra value.
Card is bad dude. Everything it can possibly do or combo with, other cards do it better and more efficiently. I'm just hoping MaRo do an article on her so we can find out how she came to be this bad.
Why does noone talk about the fact the snake is an enchantment , and that there is a new ability in this set called Constellation that could benefit from that?
Absolutely how Wizards envision her to be used. I think they dread any sort of Dredge shenanigans, so they want to steer B/G away from Golgari. Yes, you can build a Constellation deck around her — Pharika on turn 3, Eidolon of Blossoms on turn 4, then lots of card draw every time you activate her ability… but she’s a nonbo with current Standard Dredge decks.
Goddess, I am disappoint. And converting to the worship of Athreos instead!
This card is a classic example of people hating strictly positive abilities simply because you can do something that hurts yourself. Exiling from your opponent's grave is a niche ability (nerfs persist/undying/reanimation, plays politics in multiplayer), but it's strictly better than just exiling from your own graveyard like Bearscape does. And you wonder why Wizards doesn't like printing drawback cards...
She's still not very good for constructed in a format with Scavenging Ooze, but she creates cheap enchantment creature tokens in the color combo most primed to abuse them with constellation, is 3CMC, and turns on relatively easy in her color combo. She looks most likely to see play in the Jund Monsters mirror post-rotation or constellation decks.
I have the feeling this is one of those cards that started out a lot stronger and got watered down so it wouldn't be broken. At instant speed its great for blocking and destroying attackers. If you could make an army with their graveyard than you would always have more blockers. The god I was most excited about is the biggest disappointment.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
first turn
Nick: I lay a swamp, tap, dark ritual...
Me: If you cast a hypnotic specter I'll punch you in the face
Nick:...ahh I take 3 points of mana burn
The reason I play black according to CrovaxtheCursed:
I think people are vastly underrating how intimidating just leaving open GB will be if your opponent is attacking on the ground.
Unless the opponent has Thassa with a crap ton of mana or pure fliers GB make a deathtouch blocker that wrecks your best creature is scary. Anti-synergy with dredge is irrelevant when you get to 0 for 1 their best creature. Especially since Dredge can usually reach a point where they have more than enough creatures, like when I have more than 7 or so in my yard I'm less worried about getting more in the yard.
This card will annoy decks like RG monsters due to their only flyer being Stormbreath. I assume this ability was changed because if you could do it with their graveyard the snake you make kills their creature which gives you another snake. So it basically makes attacking on the ground seem 100% futile because you are draining their graveyard of things that you killed with their graveyard. Anytime you kill something with this ability it could be considered in some cases a 0 for 1, especially if you could care less about the graveyard.
I think everyone can see her implications in a constellation deck and the ability to be turned on which is the theme for all of them. She just doesn't do a lot which has to disappoint many people. Sure, not every card can be good but you would hope for a bit more out of a god. Plenty of niche cards in the environment. Sad to see a god with such limited function. Hopefully constellation will help make her better.
I assume this ability was changed because if you could do it with their graveyard the snake you make kills their creature which gives you another snake. So it basically makes attacking on the ground seem 100% futile because you are draining their graveyard of things that you killed with their graveyard. Anytime you kill something with this ability it could be considered in some cases a 0 for 1, especially if you could care less about the graveyard.
This. Decks without evasion (especially green decks) could absolutely never beat this card if it gave you tokens from both graveyards.
Why does noone talk about the fact the snake is an enchantment , and that there is a new ability in this set called Constellation that could benefit from that?
It's a bit hard to talk about cards we don't know about yet.
I think people are vastly underrating how intimidating just leaving open GB will be if your opponent is attacking on the ground.
Unless the opponent has Thassa with a crap ton of mana or pure fliers GB make a deathtouch blocker that wrecks your best creature is scary. Anti-synergy with dredge is irrelevant when you get to 0 for 1 their best creature. Especially since Dredge can usually reach a point where they have more than enough creatures, like when I have more than 7 or so in my yard I'm less worried about getting more in the yard.
This card will annoy decks like RG monsters due to their only flyer being Stormbreath. I assume this ability was changed because if you could do it with their graveyard the snake you make kills their creature which gives you another snake. So it basically makes attacking on the ground seem 100% futile because you are draining their graveyard of things that you killed with their graveyard. Anytime you kill something with this ability it could be considered in some cases a 0 for 1, especially if you could care less about the graveyard.
No deck in standard is changing their pants at the thought of a 5 mana Ambush Viper. Pharika doesn't start generating card advantage until you pay 7 mana and two cards in your graveyard. At that point, you're better off using anything else.
Why does noone talk about the fact the snake is an enchantment , and that there is a new ability in this set called Constellation that could benefit from that?
The problem is that her ability requires corpses in graveyards to use and it also exiles said corpses. There's just no way to continuously crank out enough snakes to make the effect worth the effort.
I'm a Pharmacist, so for all of you who are questioning the reason of a supposed "Apothecary" such as Pharika making snakes, you may like this piece of history, I sure do:
A traditional symbol of the Pharmaceutical world is the so called Bowl of Hygieia. It's that classic bowl with a snake twinned around it which you can see in many old (and some new) Pharmacies around the world, especially in Europe. The snake represents power, while the chalice represents the remedy.
It should also be noted that Hygieia was the daughter of Aesculapius, whos staff is the symbol for Medicine too!
In short, Pahrika makes snakes cause Wizards are baddass and faithfully followed the Greek mithology in Theros
PS: oh and plz, no "omg you belong to the ultra evil Big Pharma who wants to kill all of us!!" Haha I get that often
I'm a Pharmacist, so for all of you who are questioning the reason of a supposed "Apothecary" such as Pharika making snakes, you may like this piece of history, I sure do:
A traditional symbol of the Pharmaceutical world is the so called Bowl of Hygieia. It's that classic bowl with a snake twinned around it which you can see in many old (and some new) Pharmacies around the world, especially in Europe. The snake represents power, while the chalice represents the remedy.
It should also be noted that Hygieia was the daughter of Aesculapius, whos staff is the symbol for Medicine too!
In short, Pahrika makes snakes cause Wizards are baddass and faithfully followed the Greek mithology in Theros
PS: oh and plz, no "omg you belong to the ultra evil Big Pharma who wants to kill all of us!!" Haha I get that often
You gotta admit you laugh a bit when at the end of every medicine commercial a guy rambles on for 20 seconds at a fast rate about how the medicine advertised to fix one problem can cause a million other problems. Use this to help you quit smoking. May cause death, blindness, loss of bladder control, headache, the screaming squits, irritation, constipation, dry mouth, uncontrolled hunger, beer googles, painful or swollen breasts, hives, and hallucinations of pink flying hippos with green wings.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
All your base are belong to us!
RIP Batman guy. I hope somebody picks up the slack now that you are gone. Sick children need their Batman.
Why does noone talk about the fact the snake is an enchantment , and that there is a new ability in this set called Constellation that could benefit from that?
The problem is that her ability requires corpses in graveyards to use and it also exiles said corpses. There's just no way to continuously crank out enough snakes to make the effect worth the effort.
I wish players would come up with unique names for archetypes instead of stretching names of older more prominent archetypes to cover builds that only very vaguely resemble their namesake. What people are referring to as Dredge isn't even Dredge.
Amen to that. Whatever graveyard deck is in standard right now is most certainly not dredge and has nothing to do with dredging.
Modern: UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy: UWBMiracles
Edh: UUUThassa Control WWWHokori Stax GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy BBBGriselbrand French List RBGShattergang(Super Villians) RWGHazezon Flicker UBRMarchesa Aggro URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
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In standard
me: behold the fearsome Polukranos reincarnated *places 1/1 snake token on table* Tremble at his might!
opponent: so?
me: it has deathtouch
opponent OH GAWD NO, KILL IT NOW, PLEASE SOMEONE! *precinct captain steps on snake*
me: damn.
In EDH
me: *points at each player* you get a snake!
1) She allows for Scavenge and Bestow strategies without needing a creature in play to scavenge/bestow onto. You use her ability to get a creature you can then Scavange onto. Varolz is better, no doubt, but there's something to be said for redundancy.
2) She loves to fight. IIRC, one of the first JOU cards spoiled was a Strive card that allowed X creatures you control to fight other creatures.
3) The tokens don't die to Extinguish All Hope, and trigger Constellation (as others have noted).
1) So I have to remove a creature from my graveyard to get a 1/1 token. Then I have to remove a creature with scavenge from my grave to make said token stronger. Then when they kill the token with a D-Sphere, Hero's Downfall, or bile blight in response to scavenge, I'm out two creature plus all the mana to make this happen.
2) Don't all the kill spells black have do a better job at killing creatures more efficiently?
3) They die to everything else being 1/1 creatures, betsow creatures trigger constellation for better value, and god forbid they kill your constellation creature in response or you have to remove a creature from your opponent's yard to prevent something when they have a Constellation creature. Now they get extra value.
Card is bad dude. Everything it can possibly do or combo with, other cards do it better and more efficiently. I'm just hoping MaRo do an article on her so we can find out how she came to be this bad.
There is a synergy with constellation. I don't think it will put a enchantment deck on top though. While she may be meant to replace ooze, DRS, etc in the long run, right now, she is a weaker card. In an aggro deck, she brings value but 1/1s are a poor attacking group. This gives control even more time to find answers. especially since Jace blanks her badly. In dredge, she eats your fuel. In control...what does she really do? Sure, she may find a place and I've seen much worse cards over the years. As a GOD though....she is pretty weak.
All of the mono colored Gods have found some uses in their mono colored decks. Even Helios a little. Several of the minor gods have seen some play and she will be lucky to get in that group. Maybe 1-2 in a future deck months and months from now. Sounds bad for a god.
(Also known as Xenphire)
Absolutely how Wizards envision her to be used. I think they dread any sort of Dredge shenanigans, so they want to steer B/G away from Golgari. Yes, you can build a Constellation deck around her — Pharika on turn 3, Eidolon of Blossoms on turn 4, then lots of card draw every time you activate her ability… but she’s a nonbo with current Standard Dredge decks.
Goddess, I am disappoint. And converting to the worship of Athreos instead!
She's still not very good for constructed in a format with Scavenging Ooze, but she creates cheap enchantment creature tokens in the color combo most primed to abuse them with constellation, is 3CMC, and turns on relatively easy in her color combo. She looks most likely to see play in the Jund Monsters mirror post-rotation or constellation decks.
Cubetutor Link
Nick: I lay a swamp, tap, dark ritual...
Me: If you cast a hypnotic specter I'll punch you in the face
Nick:...ahh I take 3 points of mana burn
The reason I play black according to CrovaxtheCursed:
Unless the opponent has Thassa with a crap ton of mana or pure fliers GB make a deathtouch blocker that wrecks your best creature is scary. Anti-synergy with dredge is irrelevant when you get to 0 for 1 their best creature. Especially since Dredge can usually reach a point where they have more than enough creatures, like when I have more than 7 or so in my yard I'm less worried about getting more in the yard.
This card will annoy decks like RG monsters due to their only flyer being Stormbreath. I assume this ability was changed because if you could do it with their graveyard the snake you make kills their creature which gives you another snake. So it basically makes attacking on the ground seem 100% futile because you are draining their graveyard of things that you killed with their graveyard. Anytime you kill something with this ability it could be considered in some cases a 0 for 1, especially if you could care less about the graveyard.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
This. Decks without evasion (especially green decks) could absolutely never beat this card if it gave you tokens from both graveyards.
Cubetutor Link
It's a bit hard to talk about cards we don't know about yet.
No deck in standard is changing their pants at the thought of a 5 mana Ambush Viper. Pharika doesn't start generating card advantage until you pay 7 mana and two cards in your graveyard. At that point, you're better off using anything else.
The problem is that her ability requires corpses in graveyards to use and it also exiles said corpses. There's just no way to continuously crank out enough snakes to make the effect worth the effort.
A traditional symbol of the Pharmaceutical world is the so called Bowl of Hygieia. It's that classic bowl with a snake twinned around it which you can see in many old (and some new) Pharmacies around the world, especially in Europe. The snake represents power, while the chalice represents the remedy.
It should also be noted that Hygieia was the daughter of Aesculapius, whos staff is the symbol for Medicine too!
In short, Pahrika makes snakes cause Wizards are baddass and faithfully followed the Greek mithology in Theros
PS: oh and plz, no "omg you belong to the ultra evil Big Pharma who wants to kill all of us!!" Haha I get that often
You gotta admit you laugh a bit when at the end of every medicine commercial a guy rambles on for 20 seconds at a fast rate about how the medicine advertised to fix one problem can cause a million other problems. Use this to help you quit smoking. May cause death, blindness, loss of bladder control, headache, the screaming squits, irritation, constipation, dry mouth, uncontrolled hunger, beer googles, painful or swollen breasts, hives, and hallucinations of pink flying hippos with green wings.
RIP Batman guy. I hope somebody picks up the slack now that you are gone. Sick children need their Batman.
illusionist's bracers? lol...
Amen to that. Whatever graveyard deck is in standard right now is most certainly not dredge and has nothing to do with dredging.
Draft it Here!
UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy:
UWBMiracles
Edh:
UUUThassa Control
WWWHokori Stax
GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy
BBBGriselbrand French List
RBGShattergang(Super Villians)
RWGHazezon Flicker
UBRMarchesa Aggro
URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)