Pharika, why does it always have to be snakes?

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Constellation Control Enchantment

Wan-Shi-Tong

Lands (36)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Demolition Field
• 8x Forest
• 1x Foul Orchard
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Jungle Hollow
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Pendelhaven
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip
• 1x Hagra Mauling  ^Flip

Ping Damage (6)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Bastion of Remembrance
• 1x Grim Guardian
• 1x Poison-Tip Archer
• 1x Massacre Wurm

Tokens (4)

• 1x Nurgle's Rot
• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Arasta of the Endless Web
• 1x Infernal Genesis

Protection (1)

• 1x Elephant Grass

Card advantage (16)

• 1x Dig Up
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Elvish Archivist
• 1x Evolutionary Leap
• 1x Nessian Wanderer
• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Enchantress's Presence
• 1x Holistic Wisdom
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Setessan Champion
• 1x Verduran Enchantress
• 1x Deathreap Ritual
• 1x Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1x Path of Discovery
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Moldervine Reclamation

Removal (16)

• 1x Fatal Push
• 1x Golgari Charm
• 1x Kenrith's Transformation
• 1x Seal of Primordium
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Agent of Erebos
• 1x Binding the Old Gods
• 1x Pestilence
• 1x Doomwake Giant
• 1x Massacre Girl
• 1x Casualties of War
• 1x Deadly Tempest
• 1x Extinguish All Hope
• 1x Thoughtrender Lamia
• 1x Decree of Pain

Commander (1)

Ramp (16)

• 1x Exploration
• 1x Font of Fertility
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wild Growth
• 1x Composer of Spring
• 1x Fertile Ground
• 1x Herald of the Pantheon
• 1x Insidious Roots
• 1x Sanctum Weaver
• 1x Shigeki, Jukai Visionary
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1x Case of the Locked Hothouse
• 1x Dawn's Reflection
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Cadaverous Bloom

Enchantment support (2)

• 1x Hidden Gibbons
• 1x Destiny Spinner

Finisher (2)

• 1x Ancestral Mask
• 1x Nylea's Colossus

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Maybeboard

Other (2)

• 1x Commune with the Gods
• 1x Omen of the Hunt

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For me personally Pharika, God of Affliction has to be one of the most interesting commanders to play. She comes with such a unique politcal ability!

Pharikas Ability

{B}{G}:Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Its owner creates a 1/1 black and green Snake enchantment creature token with deathtouch.

You are propably wondering how this is any good. You are basically giving your opponent free ressources! Well, you can use her ability defensively by generating a deathtouch blocker when attacked, but you can do so for your opponents as well, you can even make trades with other players. One more basic approach when using her ability is just graveyard hate, which is nice to have in the command zone. Last but not least you can trigger constellation effects like Thoughtrender Lamia with those little snakes.

Deck Strategies

The Deck is a control heavy enchantress build. On the one hand we generate value by playing enchantments through Sanctum Weaver, Enchantress's Presence and similar cards. On the other hand we try to control the board with a lot of removal spells like Pernicious Deed and Attrition. We then try to grind our opponents with Massacre Wurm and friends. Another explosive way to win is by triggering Nylea's Colossus multiple times with our commander's ability after a creature did not get blocked or equiping Pharika, God of Affliction with Ancestral Mask for commander damage (keep in mind that Ancestral Mask counts all enchantments on the battlefield)

Synergies

Following are cards that synergies well with our commander

• Massacre Wurm: this card is great it punishes our opponents for playing small crestures and if they don't play those by there own, we just donate them a few snakes

• Blood Artist,Poison-Tip Archer: both trigger on our opponents creatures death

• Skullclamp: we make 1/1s, no more explanation needed

• Living Death: slowly exile all the good creatures in our opponents graveyards and this becomes a one-sided boardwipe and one-sided mass recursion

• Path of Discovery: triggers on each creature, which includes tokens, that is why it can trigger quite often

• Portcullis: is a nasty card that won't make you a lot of friends, because it doesn't allow certain decks to play

There are a few more synergies, that interact with eachother, but i just wanted to give a little overview. Just ask in the Comments why specific cards are in the Deck and i will let you know!

considered changes

I feel confident playing the deck as it is. With new cards coming out almost every week some changes might be made in the future.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.24
Tokens	1/1 B Creature Minion, Bat 1/1 B, Enchantment Snake 1/1 BG, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Plaguebearer of Nurgle 1/3 B, Plant 0/1 G, Spider 1/2 G