This mummy is one Zombie your opponent may not
want to kill. Once it hits the graveyard, like
any good Zombie, it has a way to rise from the
dead. If it senses you or a planeswalker you
control has been disturbed, its curse will
strike down one of the guilty parties, and it
moves itself to the top of your library, ready
to be redrawn. This card is almost better when
it's in the graveyard, as it can hold off your
opponent's creatures for fear of the mummy's
curse. Just remember, no matter how many
creatures attacked you, it can only kill one of
them, since its trigger only triggers if it's in
a graveyard and it moves itself on top of your
library when it resolves. You could just run it
as your five drop, swing for five a few time,
kill off a few creatures with the deathtouch,
and be content to know that you'll redraw it if
it ever dies, or you could try and exploit it by
putting it straight into your graveyard. It's a
pretty decent card either way!
Vengeful Pharaoh
There was a time when you wouldn't see either a
Pharaoh or the text "destroy target attacking
creature" outside of white. I for one am glad
those days are gone. I know the immediate
question relates to why would you use a creature
to protect yourself or your planeswalkers when
Doom Blade exists, but really - Doom Blade isn't
card advantage, Doom Blade doesn't work more
than once, and Doom Blade doesn't attack. And if
that mysterious image of Liliana that seems to
be associated with Innistrad is a hint of some
kind, black decks may soon have a planeswalker
they want to not only protect but actively
punish any attacks on. I think this is a card
with a lot of potential.
Today's card of the day is Vengeful Pharoah
which is a five mana 5/4 Black zombie with
Deathtouch and whenever it is in your graveyard
and an opponent's creature deals damage to you
or your planeswalker it destroys that creature
and the lich is placed on top of your library.
This is a decent card for Black dedicated decks
as a threat offensively or defensively with
Deathtouch, but works well for any deck that can
send it to the graveyard repeatedly to use the
effect. The effect is mandatory and your
opponent can just trigger it with whatever
creature they have that is expendable, though
decks using this should play methods of working
with that or won't mind drawing it on most
turns.
Overall this can work in zombie decks or Dredge
and similar discard themes which may have it
appear in some combo based builds or just as a
surprise heavy hitter with some kind of support
to compensate for the potential lockdown.
In Limited the concern of drawing this every
turn is mostly removed as a
5/4 with Deathtouch is almost always useful in
the format. The three Black in the casting cost
is a bigger issue, forcing any deck running it
to be predominantly Black to cast this reliably
or have discard effects in a non-Black deck.
That is a fairly small concern as the effects
are able to control the battlefield and actions
of your opponent very well.
Being able to destroy creatures from the
graveyard without paying mana makes this a great
first pick and whenever possible should be
played in a Sealed deck as well if your pool
supports it. Blue can also play this fairly well
with Merfolk Looter being one of the better and
common options to both get this into the
graveyard and keep new cards entering your hand.
Welcome to another card of the day here at
Pojo.com. This time we look at the Vengeful
Pharaoh from M12. Vengeful Pharaoh is a 5/4 with
Deathtouch for two generic and three black mana.
He has a rather nifty ability that says whenever
combat damage is dealt to you or a Planeswalker
you control, if Vengeful Pharaoh is in your
graveyard, destroy target attacking creature,
then put Vengeful Pharaoh on top of your
library.
This guy is just amazing, and combos so well
with other standard cards. Used with zombie
infestation, you can discard two Vengeful
Pharaoh’s, and end up destroying two attacking
creatures. The best part is the ones you would
like to destroy never actually have to hit you!
You can block something large and mean off with
something meaningless, such as a token, and then
pop them away with the token if you let
something smaller hit you. And I mean he is also
a 5/4 with deathtouch for only five mana. No
harm having one of them out to kill something
off, and then a couple turns later kill
something else off, and get him back on top of
your deck to do it again.
Another fun combination is using Vengeful
Pharaoh with Lurking Predators. Since after
combat your opponent will be tempted to play
things in their second main phase, he could drop
back out for free, ready and willing to swing on
your next turn.
A decent card with lots of ways to use it. This
card could definitely see some major play.
