Aphelia wants a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life. It also suits a deck that makes an army of small creatures and attacks with all of them.
Mana cost
Black, Green ()
Power / toughness1 / 3
RarityMythic
Deathtouch
Whenever Aphelia attacks, you may pay . If you do, create a 1/1 black Snake creature token with deathtouch.
: Until end of turn, whenever one or more Gorgons and/or Snakes you control deal combat damage to a player, that player loses half their life, rounded up.
Picked for what they do in Aphelia's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Aphelia's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Aphelia works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast8 Nov 2024
The triggered ability created by Aphelia's last ability triggers and resolves after combat damage is dealt. For example, if Gorgons and/or Snakes you control deal a total of 3 combat damage to a player with 12 life, combat damage will reduce that player's life total to 9. Then the triggered ability will cause the player to lose 5 life, leaving the player at 4.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryBGPlayers write colors as letters: B for black, G for green.AristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageToken EngineMakes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, OphiomancerOpen the Token Engine pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageLife DrainAn opponent loses life and you gain that life from the same effect. Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat. It lets Aristocrats decks win without ever attacking. Every drain card is also tagged Life Gain; this tag is the part where the life comes out of somebody.Open the Life Drain pageMana SinkGives you somewhere useful to spend spare mana, usually through an ability you can activate again and again. Rogue's Passage, Mind StoneOpen the Mana Sink pageTokensToken decks fill the battlefield with small creatures made by their cards, then attack with all of them or make them all bigger at once. A token is a creature (or other object) that a card creates, not a card from your deck.Open the Tokens pageGorgonsGorgons are mostly black creatures, and many have deathtouch, so any damage they deal to a creature destroys it.Open the Gorgons page
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. If you do, create a 1/1 black Snake creature token with deathtouch.
Open the full glossary
