Reprinted 4x, including dedicated reprint sets like Pioneer Masters, The List.
See other high reprint risk cards →Clicking links to purchase cards directly supports ManaBleed via affiliate commissions at no extra cost to your order pool.
Phenax, God of Deception
30-Day Market Trend
Paste this anywhere to show a live, auto-updating price widget for this card.
Oracle Data
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."
Official Judge Precedents
Numeric mana symbols (
, 
, and so on) in mana costs of permanents you control don't count toward your devotion to any color.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If a God stops being a creature, it loses the type creature and the creature type God. It continues to be a legendary enchantment.
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.
If an effect causes a God to lose all abilities, its ability that causes it to stop being a creature still applies if appropriate.
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.
Counters put on a God remain on it while it's not a creature, even if they have no effect.
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.
The abilities of Gods function as long as they're on the battlefield, regardless of whether they're creatures.
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.
