"Pharika: God of the Reanimation Haters"

"Let's go Haters"

"Pharika: God of the Reanimation Haters"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

As a big fan of Golgari colors I have spent months guessing what kind of abilities Pharika would have. She is a god of dark gifts and false cures. She would promise one thing and deliver another,much like the Blue/Black god Phenax or so I thought in my mind for months.

Every God that was spoiled out of Journey into Nyx was promising and so I thought I would be getting a god for my colors and something cool too. Well After months of waiting the Golgari Colored god Pharika, God of Affliction makes an appearance. she made me disappointed at first.A god at 3 mana , 1 colorless , black and green seems like a bargain. You just need 5 more devotion to black and green when she comes into play and you have a 5/5 Indestructible god. 

Unlike the other gods that bring in advantages that you could use quite readily , Pharika's ability is spotty at best in standard. For a black and green mana activation cost she lets you exile a creature from a graveyard and then lets the owner of that graveyard put a 1/1 Snake token with death touch into play. The moment I read this I felt like having Pharika is like owning an overpriced Withered Wretch.

"Well  at least a meatier me...a less Withered"

Not only does the Withered Wretch cost less it does a better job in cleaning up graveyards for one colorless mana.It also doesn't give your opponent a 1/1 snake blocker with death touch that could kill your best creatures( unless it happens to be flying or indestructible or unblockable). Besides there is still the Deathrite Shaman and the Scavenging Ooze that are making the rounds.Both more mana efficient and faster at removing threats from the graveyard.

If you are playing EDH and you are playing Pharika's colors chances are that you have Reanimation as part of your strategy. You would have to be in a pretty desperate situation if you would exile a creature in your own graveyard( a potential Reanimation target) to exchange it for a 1/1 snake right? The Golgari have mechanics like Dredge and Scavenge which are all dependent on the creatures that you have in the graveyard so why create a god that would take those creatures in the first place? I seem to be missing something here but Black/Green just got screwed.

In standard , Reanimation is almost non- existent and so far Fated Return and Rescue from the Underworld are not seeing any major action. So I still do not see Pharika making any waves in standard as well. Unless some crazy person suddenly comes up with a competitive Standard Reanimator deck( I might be the guy to do that but it might take me awhile). So the only thing that I could think of is that Pharika is a part of something that will be big in the next block.Magic often does that  ,  to stir up interest in the coming expansion. Still it seems like this card could have been better designed. I declare it as the Emmara Tandris of this expansion. It seems like it is going to help you but it doesn't. Therein lies Pharika's greatest trick. It seems like she wants to help you but she doesn't.

Change Up

Still For 3 mana Pharika poses to be an intriguing commander in EDH.A unique position among the creatures considered to be grave sweepers.

"Grave Sweeper? Try Graverobber ok?"

 Depending on your permanents you could have a 5/5 indestructible commander on your side of the board who can also clean up an opposing necromancers source of offense.A Primordial being exiled is surely worth a 1/1 snake for your enemy. Battle trick wise you could make use of Pharika's ability to kill off your enemies baddest creatures. Simply pay the activation cost and you have a 1/1 snake that could slam into a creature and kill it. Maybe if you have a Grave betrayal into play , you could even convince that creature to come on to your side of the table. I know this article started off with a negative tone but at least there are some things that you could use Pharika for. The other great thing is that she won't cost as much as a Scavenging Ooze or a Deathrite Shaman.