Pharika Speculation
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on April 13, 2014, 1:39 p.m. by Domonator777
I'm guessing her ability will involve graveyard support due to a fair amount of Thero's block cards related to Golgari using help from the graveyard. So my assumption of her ability would be "Pay (C#+B#), target creature gets -X/-X, where X is the amount of creature cards in your graveyard" or "Pay (C#+G#), target creature gets +X/+X, where X is the amount of creature cards in your graveyard"
Or maybe instead of paying mana you sac a creature.
I'm definitely agreeing with you on your first point having to do with graveyard support, especially with WotC seeming to be pushing golgari dredge recently.
However, I really doubt she will have an activated ability, especially because none of the other dual gods have activated abilities.
April 13, 2014 1:45 p.m.
Some possible abilities include:
"At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put up to sixty-five cards named Griselbrand that you own outside of the game into play under your control. The Legend rule no longer applies to cards named Griselbrand ."
"Pay 2 life: Put target opponent's library on the bottom of your library in any order."
"Discard a card: Target opponent sacrifices eighteen creatures unless he or she sacrifices a card named Charging Badger ."
"Sacrifice all permanents you control: Draw a card."
April 13, 2014 1:49 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #6
Wow -Logician, you have 65 Griselbrand s you're not using?
April 13, 2014 1:53 p.m.
It would be funniest if you had to put exactly 65 grizzies or you couldn't do the ability.
April 13, 2014 2:01 p.m.
"... and all cards named Griselbrand you control have protection from cards named Detention Sphere ."
April 13, 2014 2:01 p.m.
Ikr. I was actually considering that flyguy.
Can you imagine people on forums being like, "Buying 65 griselbrands..."
April 13, 2014 2:02 p.m.
Well... we can buy up on griselbrands and hope and pray until pharika is spoiled...
Speaking of, do you have up to 65 for trade?
April 13, 2014 2:04 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #13
I dunno. From a life and death perspective, I would think that the card would look something like:
Pharika, god of whatever 3GB
Legendary enchantment creature - god
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to green and black is less than seven, Pharika isn't a creature.
Spells or abilities can't cause you to sacrifice permanents.
Sacrifice this card: You win the game.
5/6
April 13, 2014 2:17 p.m.
Lol ThatBlueMage
Looked so serious until the "You win the game" XD
April 13, 2014 2:34 p.m.
I think she might be the god of venom (Pharika's Cure , as well as snippets from other things I have seen. I could have sworn it said she was the god of venom somewhere...)
So what would she be if she was god of venom?
April 13, 2014 2:46 p.m.
Dammit- false alarm. She's "Pharika, god of affliction" link It says so on the booster packs.
April 13, 2014 2:49 p.m.
I believe that Pharika will be 2BG because Kruphix and Keranos are already 3XX. That being said, I think she will be something like this.
Pharika, God of Affliction - 2BG
Legendary Enchantment Creature - God
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to black and green is less than seven, Pharika isn't a creature.
At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top three cards of your library. You may put a creature card from among them into your hand. If you do, target creature you control gains deathtouch until end of turn. Put the rest into your graveyard.
4/5
April 13, 2014 3:01 p.m.
Jacques you're definitely onto something there. Maybe its something like:
"At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top 3 cards of your library. You may reveal a creature from among those and put it into your hand."
Then the rest is what you had.
I dunno, I just think that would make it slightly better, but you're probably deadly close.
April 13, 2014 3:18 p.m.
What would it matter if you reveal just the creature or all three? The rest will be seen as soon as they are sent to the graveyard.
April 13, 2014 3:48 p.m.
Oldmannopants says... #20
How would that fulfill the card text of damaging opponent and rewarding you? I still think it will be counter or life gain/loss related
April 13, 2014 4:03 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #21
I'm thinking:
Pharika... 2BG
Leg. Creature. Ench. - God
Devotion blah less than seven blah
At the beginning of each upkeep choose two creatures you control, regenerate them until the end of turn.
Whenever a spell or ability your opponents control targets Pharika, counter it. All creatures, other than your chosen creatures, get -4/-4 until the end of turn.
6/5
April 13, 2014 4:37 p.m.
Well, Oldmannopants, Pharika giving you a creature from your library, aka "nature" and making a different creature have "poison" from deathtouch fulfills the two colors quite well I think. The first half I don't see being on the card as much as the second half of the ability, but I think it could be a good guess.
April 13, 2014 5:02 p.m.
Please, make her an eight-drop and give her both relevant abilities from Sheoldred.
April 13, 2014 5:35 p.m.
Okay I know I was being sarcastic before, but I'll be serious now.
Pharika is the God of Affliction. Affliction refers to someone receiving a disease and can lead to death. This god will most certainly do something along the lines of afflicting a disease on opponent's creatures or giving your creatures the ability to spread a disease from themselves to the opponent's creatures. It's just a safe bet that there will probably be a direct interaction with your opponent's creatures.
For example, perhaps she gives your creatures the ability to deal damage to other creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters as though your creatures are carrying the afflicting disease and are spreading it to your opponent's creatures. This is actually less likely because it is too similar to the wither mechanic, and it doesn't make much sense how your creatures are immune to the disease that your opponent's creatures aren't immune to. You could argue that maybe Pharika can protect your creatures and grant immunity, but that's still a stretch.
Maybe she in some way causes your opponent to sacrifice creatures. Perhaps:
- "At the beginning of each opponents' upkeeps, if that player controls two or more creatures, he or she sacrifices a creature at random."
Flavorfully, this is showing that creatures can become afflicted with a disease from their own companion, and it can happen without warning. This would be a very powerful ability though, and would warrant a pretty heavy mana cost (at least 5).
Doing something with deathtouch might be on the right track, but a lazy track at that. I would hope they could be a little bit more creative than that, and so far, I feel like this set is making a statement that We're going to deliver. The only lazy thing I've seen in this set so far is Ajani's ultimate, and even with that, I would call that more elegant than lazy.
It doesn't make a lot of sense for her to promote draw power because she is the god of affliction. The name is very relevant! Think about Athreos, God of Passage providing a passage for your creatures to travel from the underworld back to reality. While Athreos is very good, I don't think they could have designed it any other way in a generic sense. It basically had to allow you to get your creatures back from the graveyard because his flavor demanded it to be so.
April 13, 2014 7:02 p.m.
SevenSeasAgo says... #27
I keep imagining something like Attrition . It causes creatures to die and can trigger Reaper of the Wilds . Also, Gorgons seem to have higher toughness than power, so I imagine a 5/7.
April 13, 2014 7:10 p.m.
SwaggyMcSwagglepants says... #28
Just thinking, Iroas, God of Victory 's ability doesn't necessarily make you have an insta-win, or Kruphix, God of Horizons 's ability doesn't revolve around horizons. But you could be getting close.
April 13, 2014 9:09 p.m.
Domonator777 says... #29
Well....I was sorta right about the activated ability....
April 14, 2014 3:56 p.m.
SwaggyMcSwagglepants says... #30
they have Pharika, God of Affliction on mythicspoiler! BG: Exile target creature card from a graveyard: its owner puts a black and green snake creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
raithe000 says... #2
None of the multicolor gods have had activated abilities, (Phenax comes close, though), so I don't think Pharika will break the pattern. A static boost might be possible, or something similar to Deadbridge Chant , but giving out regeneration and deathtouch are also possible from a top-down, poisons and cures perspective.
April 13, 2014 1:42 p.m.