[Brainstorming] Pharika - the politics of deathtouch

[DirkGently]

After some unsuccessful games with my Shelob, Dread Weaver deck where I took a beating for having minimal board presence, I did some pondering about a card I like a lot - Ophiomancer. Sure, it's a sac fodder machine, but it's also worth noting how absolutely miserable it can be for a midrangy combat deck to interact with. To start with, it's only a 3-drop, so you don't feel amazing burning removal on it. But even if you do, the snake is still hanging around, offering an unpleasant trade. And if you don't kill the ophiomancer, not only are you trading down against the snake, you're not even permanently killing the snake, since it'll come right back. You can't even bait a block with middling creature to clear the way for your bigger boys, because it'll just respawn. Curiously, though, I think its limitation - not making more than one snake - can be a significant advantage politically. If it was just spewing them out left and right, like say Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, it would likely draw removal, a wipe, something, as a problem that must be dealt with before it grows out of control. Whereas little Ophiomancer doesn't grow. And so, he can be safely ignored. A problem for later.

So I want to build a deck that capitalizes on this to the max. I'm open to less straightforward ideas, but in terms of commanders that say "deathtouch" in their text box, here's the ones that stand out:

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons I think is the most obvious one, but I've played against it a lot and in my experience she draws a significant amount of hate. This is probably partly because she's frequently using removal, plus growing very large numbers of deathtouchers that pose both an offensive and defensive threat. So I think for our purposes, she's subpar.

Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant could similarly grow large numbers, though minus requiring removal to do it. However, he's also mono-colored and vulnerable to removal. Though he does have the nice "I am jank" vibe that can deter removal to some extent.

Henrika Domnathi // Henrika, Infernal Seer I've written off in the past, but honestly she's not that bad. She's mostly a 3/4 vampire nighthawk for 4 that draws you a card and has a mediocre buff activated, which will ofc apply to your team if they all have deathtouch. Still monocolored and a lot of the better deathtouchers are green, but worth consideration.

Mari, the Killing Quill has the same problems as Gothmog, though assassin/mercenary tribal is funky in a way that tokens isn't. Rogues is pretty mainstream, though. I do think her payoffs are interesting, but she's maybe kinda aggressive for what we're looking for here. Still, merits consideration.

Sydri, Galvanic Genius is probably way too scary to work for this sort of thing, plus artifact synergy isn't really what I had in mind.

Shelob, Child of Ungoliant is weak to removal, but is generally an improvement on Gothmog and Mari. I do worry about her growing out of control and becoming a problem, though I do like that spiders frequently have reach which overcomes one of the issues with this strategy. Although unfortunately spiders are mostly ass.

Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats is easy mode - all your stuff just has deathtouch, no questions asked. lots of dirty things you can do, like pingers and such, though that would violate the goal of what we're aiming for here, so we'd really have to gimp it. At that point, it seems maybe a bit too open-ended, but I'm open to ideas.

Zask, Skittering Swarmlord the activation is blessing and curse. At least it makes him stronger against well-timed removal. I do think his mechanics are interesting, but on the other hand you've gotta run a bunch of trashy insects.

Queen Marchesa I've played before. She does make tokens but not very quickly and not if you maintain the monarchy. She's a decent card but doesn't feel like much direction to build around for the deck.

Pharika, God of Affliction is my current favorite. What I like about her is that she can make a decent number of deathtouch tokens, but she's using a typically finite resource, so she doesn't threaten to grow completely out of control. She can make them as-needed as well, so no rush to overextend. She doesn't provide a ton of direction to build in, but I think I'd want to have a decent number of creatures, probably around 30. Not so many that it seems endless, but not so few that it's easy to swing past the sneks. Probably not very interested in the enchantment synergy route, but that leaves our wincon pretty open-ended. The likely most effective option would be Triumph of the Hordes or similar, pairs pretty nicely with deathtouch obviously. Other options I think have merit are planeswalkers, using our strong defensive position, and equipment, since we'll have a steady supply of bodies that suck to block. In addition, we'll want some ways to circumvent the easiest ways to overcome our deathtouch wall - ways to grant reach vs flying, Crawlspace etc to prevent very wide attacks, and good old-fashioned removal to deal with unblockables, indestructibles, 60-power-tramplers, etc.

[Dunadain]

I think it's critical that your "hornets" actually have flying, flying is simply too common of an ability to have an army of earth-bound %$#% for defense. Whether that means Wonder and co, Gravity Well and co, Hurricane and co, or simply enough spot removal to handle anything that flies is up to you, but I think you should decide how you want to handle fliers first.


I'm working on an Alela, Cunning Conqueror deck list, and both Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant and Mari, the Killing Quill are my main options for defense at the moment. Obviously doesn't go quite as hard into the "deathtouch tribal" thing you seem to be looking for though.

[Ruiner]

I've run a Pharika, God of Affliction deck for a while now, but it's all in on the enchantress theme (so not what you are looking for). In my experience, it's tough to rely on having creatures in my own graveyard to activate her ability to give myself a snake (it certainly does happen but not in the early turns). Some decks definitely come gunning for me on sight because they are graveyard focused and the grave hate on a tough to remove cheap commander is definitely a thing.

I'd probably be running a lot more creatures than I currently do if I were trying to use her ability on my own graveyard, and I'd probably lean into a self-mill theme. This might even give a zombie tribal sub-theme?

For fliers there is always Katabatic Winds! You could run Hurricane effects though, with the added bonus of potentially being a win condition itself.

For win conditions, I've run some of the various Vraska planeswalkers in my own deck because their ultimates end up being player kill effects. Vorpal Sword could also be nice.

Gift of the Deity on Pharika is an all-star nearly every time I've used it, and it fits your deathtouch tribal theme. I'm not sure how reliably you will be getting the necessary devotion to make her a creature though (enchantress theme makes that much more reliable).

[DirkGently]

@Dunadain Reach would also work, that might be easier. Not a lot of global flying in GB I don't think.

@Ruiner Probably not on gift of the deity. It's not so much that I'm going deathtouch tribal, it's more that I want to extensively use deathtouch defensively to push players towards other targets. Getting gift of the deity on Pharika would probably make me archenemy, which isn't the goal.

To that end, the wincon is a tricky thing. Craterhoof Behemoth etc would be the most effective way to win, just play defense until I suddenly win out of nowhere. But it seems too easy and boring. I like the idea of planeswalker ults, but I'm not sure if they'd be a testament to my deterrent power, or a lure that pushes people to attack me who otherwise wouldn't.

[materpillar]

I had a Pharika, God of Affliction for a bit. You can get really cute with eternal scourge. Entomb it, exile it for a snake and then cast it. Sac it for profit. Rinse and repeat. Mana inefficient but cute.

[DirkGently]

@materpillar I haven't made up my mind about eternal scourge yet. Unlimited snakes may go against the ethos of the deck (and afaik that card is the only way to have endlessly replenishable fodder for her, outside of some crazy loops with Riftsweeper), but it's certainly not overly efficient so it's probably fine?

Halfway through digging through cards, but probably going to put this deck on hold to help Jon out with a deck.

[materpillar]

@materpillar I haven't made up my mind about eternal scourge yet. Unlimited snakes may go against the ethos of the deck (and afaik that card is the only way to have endlessly replenishable fodder for her, outside of some crazy loops with Riftsweeper), but it's certainly not overly efficient so it's probably fine?

Halfway through digging through cards, but probably going to put this deck on hold to help Jon out with a deck.

In my experience it was extremely inefficient and quite weak. Even with a free sac outlet it's 3GB for 1 deathtouch snake. That's a pretty terrible rate. It was cool though so…

Maybe it'd be a problem if people only try to smash in the ground forever without any evasion. But other than that it's kinda like a bad build your own Ophiomancer