This god is being underestimated so much.... There are so many reasons to love her.
1) Get rid of some annoying creatures : Get rid of Chandra's Phoenix in graveyard and counter the ability of Scavenging Ooze before Ooze uses its activated ability so that Ooze could not grow and give your opponent's life. These two creatures are very annoying to go against if you have played Dredge before.
2) Mana sink : Super good against control. Your ability is at instant speed. You can decide whether to abrupt decay their detention sphere or get a little snake to attack them next turn.
3) Easy to transform : You just need only Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and
Deathrite Shaman to transform her. 5/5 for 3 CMC. Does that sound similar with the other most expensive god (Thassa) ?
4) Good with combos : So far there are only 2 creatures that could generate enchantments almost infinitely (in the right deck) : ... (see all)
Posted By:
Ike38
(5/5/2014 7:42:02 PM)
So basically it's a 5/5 indestructible legendary if your devotion to black or green is 7.
I mean if you are desperate enough you might use the secondary ability, but then you would have to back up a play intended to deny your opponent a creature that was most likely going to be a plus for them anyways by either making your own dude or killing theirs somehow. Why couldn't it have done a more sickness-and-death sort of thing?
Posted By:
Drewskithelegend
(5/7/2014 5:36:15 PM)
She's not BAD, let's get that out of the way. It's more that she's just boring and disappointing. We get it wizards, snakes are poisonous! Poison god likes snakes, cool...Doesn't mean that can be THE ONLY THING TO FOCUS ON with her. Honestly, her body, her disciples, and her ability all have to do with snakes, so it feels like a complete lack of effort and/or creativity went into her design. They could have done something with -1/-1 counters, deathtouch, tapdown abilities, etc.
It's also worth noting that Pharinka is the only god in the pantheon that does nothing unless you pay into it. Every other god does something passively. Boring snake issue aside, that's annoying. At the very least I'd have liked to see something like "Whenever another creature enters a graveyard from anywhere, exile it. That creature's owner puts a 1/1 black and green Snake enchantment creature token with deathtouch into play under their control"
Anyway, that's my two cents. Boring, lacking in flavor... (see all)
Posted By:
surewhynot
(5/10/2014 11:54:03 PM)
Pharika is a champ. She stuffs up the board like you wouldn't believe. I played against her in prerelease and the only thing that could turn it around for me was dropping a Doomwake Giant. Really, really cool, also cool snake lady whom cool.
Posted By:
steev
(5/12/2014 3:43:30 PM)
When you combine Pharika with Illness in the Ranks, her activated ability basically reads, "Exile target creature from a graveyard.", or (for EDH players), "Exile target creature from Reanimator player's graveyard."
Simply delicious. 4/5
Posted By:
Batteryman
(5/14/2014 10:33:07 PM)
"Creatures you control have b/g regenerate." That simple Wizards damn.
Posted By:
P1aneswalker
(5/21/2014 8:27:09 AM)
Compare to Necrogenesis.
One's not really better than the other, but if all you want is the effect, and you don't care about having a 5/5 indestructible for three mana, you DO have a more splash-able alternative. Oh, and necrogenesis gives YOU the token from an opponents graveyard.
Posted By:
TopRomen
(5/25/2014 10:22:33 PM)
@Drewskithelegend
Really? Pharika's ability is actually quite useful. Once you get a few creatures in your graveyard, the opponent isn't going to want to attack with any significant creature because you can just block with a 1/1 deathtoucher and kill it. One thing you could do with Pharika is use her with creatures that have flash, such as Boon Satyr. During your opponent's turn, if they attack, you get out a deathtouch snake, and if they don't, you cast a flash creature. Don't get so obsessed with your idea that Pharika's ability is never useful simply because there are some times when it isn't. Keep in mind that you will have creatures in your graveyard more often if you build your deck right. Think. Pharika is much, much more than just a possible 5/5 indestructible body.
@MarlKarx
Oh, so this card is bad because it dies to removal? While I'm not saying that you are unskilled, it's hard for me to respect your skill when you make arguments like that. Yes, Dea... (see all)
Posted By:
OlvynChuru
(5/27/2014 4:00:55 PM)
Rated too low from noobs who can't see past standard play.
She says "A graveyard" for multi player games like commander. (And she makes a very good one at only 3 mana) plus you can help your partner out in a 2HG game! 4/5 minimum.
Posted By:
RetroGamer3
(6/1/2014 11:30:43 AM)
People seem to not notice that if she gave you the snakes from your opponents graveyard that she would make it pointless for your opponents to make creatures, cause you would kill it and make a death touched, ready to kill again and make another.
@Marlkarx
So deicide works well against gods!? Ignoring that green canngive hexproof, two of those cost a bunch of mana and require it to be a creature, while this costs 3 and can do quite a bit of work before then, and if its a creature before hose get cast you can do quite a bit of work with a 5/5 indestructible. Two enchantment spells? I sure wish there was a color that had a way to deal those. A creature? If only there was some color that specializes in creature removal. And counter spells? Ignoring the fact that wizards is needing them a bit, that argument is beyond stupid because you might as well only run blue or "can't be countered" spells. Unless you were pointing out that all those spells kill your opponents snakes, then realize th... (see all)
Posted By:
cotf1692
(6/3/2014 6:01:32 AM)