Pharika, God of Snakes on a Plane

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Enchantment

Venomicon

Instant (13)

• 1x Altar's Reap
• 1x Back to Nature
• 1x Cobra Trap
• 1x Gaze of the Gorgon
• 1x Murder
• 1x Needlebite Trap
• 1x Nemesis Trap
• 1x Pharika's Cure
• 1x Ravenous Trap
• 1x Slingbow Trap
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Summoning Trap
• 1x To the Slaughter

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Creeping Corrosion
• 1x Deadly Allure
• 1x Extinguish All Hope
• 1x Gaze of Granite
• 1x Nature's Spiral
• 1x Treasured Find

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Artificer's Hex
• 1x Aspect of Gorgon
• 1x Ground Seal
• 1x Hum of the Radix
• 1x Illness in the Ranks
• 1x Molting Snakeskin
• 1x Relic Bane
• 1x Relic Putrescence
• 1x Seal of Doom
• 1x Seal of Primordium
• 1x Viper's Kiss

Artifact (4)

• 1x Gorgon Flail
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Creature (30)

• 1x Ambush Viper
• 1x Anaconda
• 1x Archetype of Finality
• 1x Blight Mamba
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Crypt Cobra
• 1x Death-Hood Cobra
• 1x Erebos's Emissary
• 1x Glass Asp
• 1x Krosan Constrictor
• 1x Marsh Boa
• 1x Mire Boa
• 1x Mold Adder
• 1x Nessian Asp
• 1x Ohran Viper
• 1x Pharika's Chosen
• 1x Pharika's Mender
• 1x Python
• 1x Reaper of the Wilds
• 1x River Boa
• 1x Rotting Fensnake
• 1x Sabertooth Cobra
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Tangle Asp
• 1x Ukud Cobra
• 1x Vector Asp
• 1x Wall of Vipers
• 1x Wasteland Viper
• 1x Zombie Boa

Land (35)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Blighted Fen
• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Encroaching Wastes
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 12x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Golgari Guildgate
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 12x Swamp
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Commander (1)

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Graveyard recursion is quite popular (Meren of Clan Nel Toth is the 2nd most favorite Commander after all), so I wanted to have something to rain on their parade, something which is easy to use and sticks around. My love for Snakes (My favorite Animals by far) just played into the decision to choose Pharika, God of Affliction.

Pharika costs 3 Mana () and is indestructible, which makes her and the other Gods more resilient than other Commanders. The fact that her effect is not game breaking, makes her a very low profile target in addition to her indestructibility. For 2 Mana () she removes a creature from a graveyard and gives a 1/1 Deathtouch Token in exchange. Thats all Folks.

You can use this whenever someone targets a creature in any Graveyard to bring it back, be it with Meren, Chainer, Dementia Master , or any other popular recursion spell, and deny them said creature. Giving them a 1/1 Body with Deathtouch is not the perfect trade, but still better than a Fleshbag Marauder every turn in the case of Meren, or something big and scary. You can use Pharika proactively of course instead of as reaction to a recursion spell, but be sure that they are tapped out, otherwise they could just react with their spell to Pharika and bring it back before her effect resolves.

Because I dont always like them to get a Token out of Pharika, I play Illness in the Ranks. It does not only directly kill the Deathtouch Tokens, it even works great against Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Thopter Spy Network and other Cards that throw out 1/1 Tokens like they were candy.

Pharika has the limit that she can only remove Creatures and nothing else. Because of that I play Ground Seal as well. Yes it shuts down Pharika but that is no Problem because I dont need her effect as long as the seal is active. For a little bit of Artifact and Enchanment hate, I have Hum of the Radix, Back to Nature and Creeping Corrosion. The Main Theme of the Deck is Snakes, the Snake Cards are not there because they have perfect synergy with Pharika but because they fit the overall theme. I also have a bunch of Traps in the Deck, because Cobra Trap felt so lonely without its friends.

I played the Deck pretty much the whole weekend in MTGO and it worked fine for its price.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 11 - 0 Rares 36 - 0 Uncommons 28 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.02
Tokens	Copy Clone, Enchantment Snake 1/1 BG, Snake 1/1 G