- Commander Nexus
- Commanders
- Phenax, God of Deception
Command zone
Phenax, God of Deception
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God
Phenax wants a deck that wins by emptying its opponents' decks. It also works in a deck built around Gods / Devotion.
- Mana cost
- Blue, Black ()
- Power / toughness4 / 7
- RarityMythic
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to blue and black is less than seven, Phenax isn't a creature.
Creatures you control have "
: Target player mills X cards, where X is this creature's toughness."
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Cards That Fit Phenax, God of Deception
Picked for what they do in Phenax's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Phenax'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
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Rulings for Phenax, God of Deception
explain how Phenax 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
Hybrid mana symbols, monocolored hybrid mana symbols, and Phyrexian mana symbols do count toward your devotion to their color(s).
If an activated ability or triggered ability has an effect that depends on your devotion to a color, you count the number of mana symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents you control as the ability resolves. The permanent with that ability will be counted if it's still on the battlefield at that time.
Mana symbols in the text boxes of permanents you control don't count toward your devotion to any color.
Numeric mana symbols ({0}, {1}, and so on) in mana costs of permanents you control don't count toward your devotion to any color.
If Phenax is a creature, it will grant itself the activated ability.
If you activate the ability Phenax grants to creatures you control, the toughness of the creature is calculated as the ability resolves. If the creature is no longer on the battlefield at that time, use its toughness when it was last on the battlefield.
If you tap Phenax to activate the ability it grants itself, and Phenax is no longer a creature but still on the battlefield as that ability resolves, no cards will be put into the target player's graveyard. Similarly, if Phenax isn't on the battlefield as the ability resolves and wasn't a creature when it left the battlefield, no cards will be put into the graveyard.
As a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color will determine whether any replacement effects that affect creatures entering the battlefield apply to that God. Because replacement effects are considered before the God is on the battlefield, the mana symbols in its mana cost won't be counted when determining this.
Counters put on a God remain on it while it's not a creature, even if they have no effect.
If a God is attacking or blocking and it stops being a creature, it will be removed from combat. It won't rejoin combat if it resumes being a creature later during that combat.
If a God stops being a creature, it loses the type creature and the creature type God. It continues to be a legendary enchantment.
If an effect causes a God to lose all abilities, its ability that causes it to stop being a creature still applies if appropriate.
The abilities of Gods function as long as they're on the battlefield, regardless of whether they're creatures.
The type-changing ability that can make a God not be a creature functions only on the battlefield. It's always a creature card in other zones, regardless of your devotion to its color. It's always a creature spell while it's on the stack.
When a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color (including the mana symbols in the mana cost of the God itself) will determine if a creature entered the battlefield or not for abilities that trigger whenever a creature enters the battlefield.
Your devotion to two colors is the number of mana symbols among mana costs of permanents you control that are the first color, the second, or both. If an effect counts your devotion to two colors, a hybrid symbol that is both of those colors is counted just once.
16 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗
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