Pharika's Spawn MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Gorgon
Abilities	Escape
Released	2020-01-24
Set symbol
Set name	Theros Beyond Death
Set code	THB
Power	3
Toughness	4
Number	112
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Vincent Proce

Key Takeaways

Pharika’s Spawn can consistently return to the battlefield, offering card advantage and sustained board presence.
Its escape mechanic reinforces graveyard strategies, but requires careful management of resources and hand.
Despite its higher escape cost, it’s a versatile threat that can adapt to various black-based deck strategies.

Text of card

Escape—, Exile three other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.) Pharika's Spawn escapes with two +1/+1 counters on it. When it enters the battlefield this way, each opponent sacrifices a non-Gorgon creature.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Pharika’s Spawn offers a strategic edge by potentially returning to your hand. This occurs when you escape it, and such recurring utility helps maintain card advantage on the battlefield.

Resource Acceleration: This card doesn’t directly provide mana acceleration, yet it complements decks that are built around self-mill or graveyard strategies, enabling you to utilize your graveyard as an extension of your hand more rapidly.

Instant Speed: While Pharika’s Spawn itself does not operate at instant speed, the ability to escape it from the graveyard can be leveraged at a pivotal moment during your main phases, ensuring you’re not left behind while waiting to summon creatures.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Pharika’s Spawn necessitates an extra payment in the form of discarding another card to escape. This can often put you at a card disadvantage, especially if your hand is already depleted or the discarded card is essential to your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: Pharika’s Spawn requires both black and generic mana, which can be restrictive for multicolor decks that may struggle with color fixing or prioritize other color combinations. It can hinder the deck’s agility, making the card less adaptable to a variety of MTG decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The card’s escape cost is comparatively hefty, sitting at six mana including four black. For such an investment in the late game, players might find alternative threats or more impactful plays that better justify the mana expenditure and potential sacrifice of other valuable cards.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Pharika’s Spawn offers a level of adaptability that can enhance a variety of black-based decks. Its ability to escape from the graveyard ensures that it remains a persistent threat over the course of a game.

Combo Potential: This creature can seamlessly integrate into strategies centered around graveyard mechanics, powering up self-mill decks or acting as a recurring source of creature removal with its exile effect.

Meta-Relevance: Given the frequent presence of creature-based strategies in many playing environments, Pharika’s Spawn serves as a solid inclusion, able to deal with opponent’s threats while also providing a capable body on the battlefield.

How to beat

Pharika’s Spawn from the world of Theros presents a unique challenge on the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering. This formidable card, not only offers a respectable creature upon casting but also holds sway over the graveyard with its escape mechanism. When facing against it, the key is to manage the graveyard. Graveyard interaction is crucial – consider utilizing cards that exile cards from the graveyard to mitigate the potential recursion of Pharika’s Spawn. Cards like Scavenging Ooze can be valuable in this regard, providing both a way to remove potential escape fuel and a means to strengthen your board presence.

Moreover, instant-speed removal will serve you well, as the ability to deal with Pharika’s Spawn before its escape trigger goes off can change the tide of the match. Understanding the timing to interrupt your opponent’s strategy is essential. Containment Priest is an example of a card that shines in this scenario, as it can nullify the escape attempt entirely, providing a preemptive shield against recurring threats. Addressing Pharika’s Spawn successfully entails taking control of the graveyard and choosing your moments to strike effectively, enhancing your deck’s resilience against this relentless menace from the underworld of Theros.

Cards like Pharika's Spawn

In the realm of Magic: The Gathering, Pharika’s Spawn elicits a blend of utility and aggression that can shape the battlefield. Its kinship can be observed in cards like Balustrade Spy, which disrupts the opponent’s library while offering a flying threat. Whereas Pharika’s Spawn provides graveyard manipulation by exiling opponent’s cards, achieving a different angle of disrupting your adversary’s game plan.

Looking at Underworld Charger, we find a creature with a similar escape mechanic. Underworld Charger sacrifices flying for haste and possesses a higher power stat, pivotal for aggressive strategies. Both creatures can return from the graveyard, yet they serve disparate strategic purposes within their respective decks. Another comparison is Mire Triton, which also delves into the graveyard theme, milling two cards upon entering the battlefield and providing life gain. This smaller creature doesn’t match Pharika’s Spawn’s power but can be a crucial piece in setting up graveyard synergies early in the game.

Through this lens, Pharika’s Spawn stands out with its potent combination of board presence and graveyard management, making it a multifaceted asset in any MTG strategy that orbits around the dance between life and death.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Pharika's Spawn MTG card by a specific set like Theros Beyond Death, 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 Spawn and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Pharika's Spawn has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Restricted
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Penny	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Pharika's Spawn card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2020-01-24	After an escaped spell resolves, it returns to its owner’s graveyard if it’s not a permanent spell. If it is a permanent spell, it enters the battlefield and will return to its owner’s graveyard if it dies later. Perhaps it will escape again—good underworld security is so hard to come by these days.
2020-01-24	As the triggered ability resolves, first the next opponent in turn order (or, if it’s an opponent’s turn, the opponent whose turn it is) chooses a creature they control, then each other opponent in turn order does the same, knowing the choices made before them. Then all the chosen creatures are sacrificed at the same time.
2020-01-24	Escape’s permission doesn’t change when you may cast the spell from your graveyard.
2020-01-24	If a card has multiple abilities giving you permission to cast it, such as two escape abilities or an escape ability and a flashback ability, you choose which one to apply. The others have no effect.
2020-01-24	If a card with escape is put into your graveyard during your turn, you’ll be able to cast it right away if it’s legal to do so, before an opponent can take any actions.
2020-01-24	If you cast a spell with its escape permission, you can’t choose to apply any other alternative costs or to cast it without paying its mana cost. If it has any additional costs, you must pay those.
2020-01-24	Once you begin casting a spell with escape, it immediately moves to the stack. Players can’t take any other actions until you’re done casting the spell.
2020-01-24	To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you’re paying (such as an escape cost), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The converted mana cost of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was and no matter whether an alternative cost was paid.