Pharika's Mender MTG Card

Theros (THS)
2013-09-27 - Number 197

Pharika's Mender - Conspiracy: Take the Crown (CN2)

Conspiracy: Take the Crown (CN2)
2016-08-26 - Number 205

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Gorgon
Power	4
Toughness	3

Key Takeaways

Retrieves creature or enchantment cards, offering strategic flexibility and maintaining momentum.
Demands Golgari mana, potentially limiting its use to specific deck strategies.
Key inclusion for decks utilizing graveyard strategies and requiring flexibility.

Text of card

When Pharika's Mender enters the battlefield, you may return target creature or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.

"The direst venom becomes a panacea under Pharika's guidance. I bring it to the worthy, clinging at the edge of the abyss."

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Pharika’s Mender grants the benefit of retrieving a creature or enchantment from your graveyard when it enters the battlefield. This dual recovery option maximizes the cards at your disposal, greatly increasing your strategic flexibility and maintaining your grip on the game’s momentum.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly a resource acceleration tool, Pharika’s Mender can be pivotal in returning key pieces to your hand that may indirectly lead to accelerated mana resources, such as creatures that tap for mana or enchantments that fetch lands.

Instant Speed: While Pharika’s Mender doesn’t operate at instant speed itself, recovering instant-speed spells or creatures with relevant flash ability from your graveyard can greatly enhance your reactive capabilities, ensuring you’re always prepared for an opponent’s threats.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Pharika’s Mender does not require a discard upon casting, thus there’s no card disadvantage linked to this aspect, enhancing its utility in gameplay when managing resources.

Specific Mana Cost: This card’s casting cost demands both black and green mana, potentially limiting its flexibility in decks that are not geared towards a Golgari (black-green) strategy or a multicolor deck that can accommodate such mana requirements.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of five mana, there are alternative cards that perform similar functions, like returning a creature or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand, at a lower mana cost, allowing for faster plays and better mana curve optimization in a match.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Pharika’s Mender offers a dual utility that can prove invaluable in various scenarios. As a creature, it provides a solid body on the battlefield, and its ability to return a creature or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand ensures it fits well in decks that benefit from recursion and utility.

Combo Potential: With the increasing popularity of graveyard strategies, Pharika’s Mender can become a strategic asset. It can be a lynchpin in combos, specifically in decks that aim to cycle powerful creatures or enchantments for repeated effects or those that capitalize on entering-the-battlefield triggers.

Meta-Relevance: In a game that evolves constantly, having flexible response options is crucial. Pharika’s Mender holds relevance in metas where control and grindy games prevail by offering the option to bring back key pieces, ensuring longevity and sustained pressure throughout the match.

How to Beat Pharika’s Mender

Pharika’s Mender is a notable creature card that brings a twist to gameplay with its graveyard retrieval ability. When this creature enters the battlefield, it enables the player to return another target creature or enchantment card from their graveyard to their hand, thus providing a strategic advantage. To effectively counter this, cards that exile from graveyards, like Tormod’s Crypt or Leyline of the Void, can be pivotal. These cards disrupt the Mender’s ability, nullifying the potential card advantage.

Another strategy involves keeping graveyard interaction to a minimum. Cards that preemptively remove creatures or enchantments before they hit the graveyard, such as Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, can be essential in this matchup. Additionally, countering the spell as it’s cast with counterspells like Negate or Dissolve prevents the recursion ability entirely. As always, knowing when to deal with the Mender — either on the stack or before it can utilize its enter-the-battlefield effect — is the key to undermining its influence.

Formulating a game plan that takes into account your opponent’s ability to recoup resources with Pharika’s Mender will position you to maintain control in the match and mitigate the card’s impact, keeping you one step ahead in the game.

Cards like Pharika's Mender

Pharika’s Mender stands out among the range of graveyard retrieval cards in MTG. It holds its uniqueness by offering not just the return of a creature card but also the option to retrieve an enchantment from the graveyard to your hand. This versatility makes it relatively advantageous when compared to cards like Raise Dead, which only target creature cards.

Grave Digger is another counterpart that targets creature cards exclusively, yet it lacks the enchantment retrieval facet Pharika’s Mender provides. While both cards share the same mana cost and creature stats, the gulf in flexibility puts Pharika’s Mender a notch above in utility. Eternal Witness is a notable mention, offering an even broader retrieval capability by targeting any card type, but it comes at a steeper green mana requirement and a more modest body on the battlefield.

In essence, within the realm of graveyard-centric spells in MTG, Pharika’s Mender doesn’t just reclaim lost creatures or enchantments; it does both with equal ease, providing a compelling choice for decks that capitalize on grave-based strategies and rely on enchantments just as much as creatures.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Pharika's Mender MTG card by a specific set like Theros and Conspiracy: Take the Crown, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Pharika's Mender and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Pharika's Mender Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2013-09-27 and 2016-08-26. Illustrated by Peter Mohrbacher.