Pointed Discussion

Not that playable, but interesting play of words.
But how can a Phantasmagorian not be an Illusion?...

Actually, its a real word. Which is its only saving grace.

When you play Phantasmagorian, if any player can say it 3 times fast, counter Phantasmagorian

PHANTASMAGORIA(N)! The Puzzle Of Flesh!

For 7 mana in black, there are much better creatures to cast. If you forget its first ability, it is just a big dumb beatstick that can come back from the dead, no one is ever going to pay the discard to counter it.

this creature is'nt meaned to be cast, the second ability can be quite usefull in a dredge deck to get your dredger in the grave

Not that good, but awesome art.

Pretty typical for a horror.

Awsome name, but useless card

Madness and Hellbent welcome thee.

You can discard a couple of Entropic Eidolon (if you play with some multicolored spells in your deck - if not, Squee, Goblin Nabob) and a Call to the Netherworld or, with some other mana at your disposition, a Big Game Hunter or a Nightshade Assassin, to intent a funny-Johnny strategy, with the idea of playing many madness tricks at the same time...

In this way, it's a fresh meat for the discard activation of Lore Broker, Magus of the Bazaar, Undertaker, Delirium Skeins, Avatar of Discord, Demonic Collusion (or many other cards) early in the game... or the cards he discards a fresh meat for the delve activation of Tombstalker. Also, you can discard it early with the intention of discarding some terrific cards and reanimate them with Vigor Mortis, Zombify and Dread Return, or, why not, the tricky Bloodbond March.

Finaly, you can activate his "discard three card" ability to reach the hellbant activation of some of your permanent in play if you can find a way to discard it when his ability resolves. You can try to gain some life by discarding a couple of Golgari Brownscale, or you can make some surprise during combat by discarding card such a Valor. It's also a friend of Haakon, Stromgald Scourge (and his minions) and Tarmogoyf!

All of this, in a standard way (Ravnica/Time Spiral)! In the duo Time Spiral/Lorwyn, a simple idea is to discard Dread or his family, with no real drawback... So, a great black card, nearly 3,5/5 for me because you can play his ability as an instant, and from the graveyard! A veritable Horror, in many time a center piece of a strategy, and only vulnerable by cremation effect if you have less than three card in your hand and can't save it. Certainly not a "useless card"!! (sorry for my poor english!)

Neat Johnny card.

If i want a 6/6 i'll take Nightmare over this any day of the week.

I heard that, Curtis.


I think this was one of my first great nemeses in Magic. My friend and I had bought two of the Planar Chaos precons, and we were dueling. We both thought that if a creature died and was brought back in the same turn, it could attack again. This ugly mofo was a champ in the late game under those rules. Ahhh, good times.

its actually a really good discard outlet in dredge decks

very good card in dredge

PURE MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phantasmagorian of Flower View.

I love how so few people understand how good this card is in certain situations. Yes, if for some reason you are playing this in some regular deck and are hardcasting it, it's awful. Even in regular dredge decks, it's usually outclassed by cards like Putrid Imp and Tireless Tribe as a discard engine. However, this is a key card in manaless dredge decks as a discard engine. People have used 4 copies of this card in decks that have won major legacy tournaments. However, I'm kinda glad this card is so misunderstood, as it keeps the price extremely low.

The way I see it, cards should be rated based on the situations in which they are actually useful. Phantasmagorian is horrible in most decks, but in its one niche, it is a wonderful card that powers an extremely potent deck. And it has a cool name too.

4.5/5

Yeah, for the longest time, I didn't think that you could do manaless dredge in Legacy. I was wrong. Very very wrong. So is this card.

I feel like trying to put this into a dredgey deck. We'll see..

May be neat with spellshapers + madness?

Basically what --Nate-- said.

The fact that there are so many comments about how bad this card is tells us more about the Gatherer userbase than the card. Phantasmagorian is just a card people misunderstand. A poor misunderstood card with an awesome name. That has won tournaments as a key cog in an almost annoyingly effective deck.

In a Shamalan-esque twist, if you think this card is bad, it is in actuality you who is bad.

This is a skill-tester for sure. It's no coincidence that the second ability does not require mana, and can be done at instant speed. This has a ton of applications in dredge and reanimator decks, and can also be used to up the Mortal Combat count. Furthermore, there are also times when you will desperately need the body, so you can even hardcast it. By the time you reach 7 mana, players may already have emptied their hands by that point.

Also, don't forget its uses in conjunction with stuff like Cursed Scroll or Magus of the Scroll (you can easily have it be the only card in your hand), or Wild Evocation (drop him for free). I'm sure there's also a ton more that I haven't even mentioned.

I've had have a foil Phantasmagorian for 6 years and I had no idea what it was actually supposed to look like until about 6 months ago. Very shiny card, not too many uses though.

"Boy Morty, I really Cronenberg-ed the world up, didn't I?"

I understand he has his place, but I personally think cards need to be rated based on their overall usefulness. Just because he is useful is one particular strategy doesn't make this an excellent card, especially since he can be easily cut from a deck to fit something else in.

@Enelysios

"if you think this card is bad, it is in actuality you who is bad."

Not necessarily. Some people just aren't familiar with all the competitive decks out there. It doesn't mean that they are bad at the game.

@shotoku64
Many Magic cards aren't supposed to be good on their own. The point of those cards is for players to build around them. Magic is made interesting by all the cards that aren't just "good overall," so I think that people should rate cards based on how useful they are in their niche.