God-Pharaoh's Gift MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost7
RarityRare
TypeArtifact

Key Takeaways

  1. It excels in card advantage, repeatedly bringing creatures back to the battlefield and enhancing your board state.
  2. Integrates well with strategies that fill the graveyard, providing a recurring benefit as part of a long-term game plan.
  3. Demands careful deck construction, as the high mana cost requires planning and support through ramp or cost-reduction synergies.

Text of card

At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may exile a creature card from your graveyard. If you do, create a token that's a copy of that card, except it's a 4/4 black Zombie. It gains haste until end of turn.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Activating God-Pharaoh’s Gift at the beginning of combat on your turn can potentially bring back a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield each turn. This effect not only increases your field presence but also replenishes your resources without spending additional cards from hand.

Resource Acceleration: By reanimating a creature card from your graveyard with God-Pharaoh’s Gift, you bypass the mana cost required to play that creature from your hand. This can lead to a substantial increase in the rate at which you can deploy threats and develop your board state.

Instant Speed: While God-Pharaoh’s Gift itself does not operate at instant speed, the creatures it brings back enter the battlefield as 4/4 black Zombies—potentially with haste if the card revived has that ability. This can lead to unexpected shifts in combat dynamics and allow you to capitalize on opportune moments during your combat phase.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: God-Pharaoh’s Gift demands an intricate setup, often necessitating that you have creatures in the graveyard to extract its value. Without a reliable discard mechanism or other ways to stock your graveyard, this card’s potential remains untapped and may slow down your game plan.

Specific Mana Cost: With a colorless mana cost of seven, this artifact doesn’t slot smoothly into every deck archetype. You need a strategy to manage your resources effectively, especially in decks that are not tailored to ramp up or reduce artifact costs.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: In a standard game of MTG, a seven-mana artifact comes into play rather late. There are cards at lower mana costs that can impact the battlefield sooner, making God-Pharaoh’s Gift a less appealing choice for fast-paced or aggressively curved decks.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: God-Pharaoh’s Gift offers players a unique ability to provide late-game value in a variety of decks. By animating creatures from your graveyard each turn, it enables strategies centered around creature-based synergies or recurring value.

Combo Potential: This artifact has immense potential to create explosive turns, particularly in combination with cards that populate the graveyard quickly. Its synergy with self-mill and reanimation strategies means it can turn the tide of a game by repeatedly bringing back powerful creatures with haste.

Meta-Relevance: With a shifting meta that often sees graveyard strategies come into play, God-Pharaoh’s Gift remains a relevant card capable of outmaneuvering opponents. It’s exceptionally useful in matches that draw out or against opponents who lack graveyard interaction, making it a game-changer in certain matchups.


How to beat

God-Pharaoh’s Gift is an influential artifact in MTG, fueling late-game strategies with creature reanimation and an upgrade to a 4/4 black Zombie. This capacity to resurrect creatures from the graveyard each turn can quickly turn the tide of a match. To effectively counter this strategy, graveyard disruption is key. Cards like Tormod’s Crypt, which exile a player’s graveyard, or Scavenging Ooze, which can selectively remove key creatures while also gaining you life, are prime choices for hindering God-Pharaoh’s Gift.

Additionally, enchantment removal spells like Disenchant can directly eliminate this powerful artifact from the battlefield. Playing around God-Pharaoh’s Gift also involves managing your removal spells, saving them for the creatures brought back with its triggered ability. This ensures they don’t easily recur and besiege your defenses. It’s crucial to adapt your strategy, applying pressure early on to prevent the setup of God-Pharaoh’s Gift or swiftly reacting once it’s in play. Employing cards that counteract graveyard-based strategies while maintaining board control will drastically increase your chances of overpowering a deck centered around God-Pharaoh’s Gift.


Cards like God-Pharaoh's Gift

God-Pharaoh’s Gift is a unique artifact in Magic: The Gathering, reminiscent of other cards that reanimate creatures such as the classic Animate Dead. Yet, God-Pharaoh’s Gift provides a recurring effect, breathing life into creatures at each of your combat phases. Animate Dead, while cheaper, only brings back one creature with a downside.

Another counterpart, The Scarab God, boasts similar reanimation abilities, but it gives you the flexibility to target any graveyard, disrupting opponents. Its activation cost and zombie-scrying abilities provide added strategic depth. While The Scarab God is more interactive and versatile, God-Pharaoh’s Gift’s automatic trigger can be more efficient over time.

Out of these options, God-Pharaoh’s Gift stands out for its cyclical nature, offering consistency in reanimating creatures turn after turn. The Scarab God exerts more immediate control and flexibility. Players must weigh the cost against the benefits of a steady return of creatures with God-Pharaoh’s Gift’s ability to fortify their board presence with each combat phase.

Animate Dead - MTG Card versions
The Scarab God - MTG Card versions
Animate Dead - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
The Scarab God - Amonkhet Invocations (MP2)

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase God-Pharaoh's Gift MTG card by a specific set like Hour of Devastation and Hour of Devastation Promos, 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 God-Pharaoh's Gift and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The God-Pharaoh's Gift Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2017-07-14 and 2020-08-13. Illustrated by Titus Lunter.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12017-07-14Hour of DevastationHOU 1612015normalblackTitus Lunter
22017-07-15Hour of Devastation PromosPHOU 161s2015normalblackTitus Lunter
32020-08-13Amonkhet RemasteredAKR 2722015normalblackTitus Lunter

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where God-Pharaoh's Gift has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2017-07-14 If the card copied by the token had any “when
-his permanent] enters the battlefield” abilities, then the token also has those abilities and will trigger them when it’s created. Similarly, any “as
-his permanent] enters the battlefield” or “
-his permanent] enters the battlefield with” abilities that the token has copied will also work.
2017-07-14 The ability of God-Pharaoh’s Gift doesn’t target the creature card you’ll exile. You choose one as the ability resolves. No player may take actions between the time you choose a creature card to exile and the time you create the token.
2017-07-14 The token copies exactly what was printed on the original card and nothing else, except the characteristics it specifically modifies. It doesn’t copy any information about the object the card was before it was put into your graveyard.
2017-07-14 The token is a Zombie instead of its other types (unlike Zombies created by an eternalize ability) and is black instead of its other colors. Its power and toughness are 4/4. These are copiable values of the token that other effects may copy.
2017-07-14 Unlike the tokens created by an eternalize ability, this token has the mana cost and thus converted mana cost of the card it’s copying.

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