Flickering Riddles: The Ur-Sphinx Deck Tech

In Jace's attempt to save the Multiverse, he decided Dragons are outdated. How can you compare something so dim like a flying, stompy fiery lizard with smart, cat-bird ethereal beings full of wisdom? Hence, The Ur-Sphinx is Jace's response to its Echoverse counterpart, The Ur-Dragon — and they're going to steal your stuff.

Eminence is back! The passive ability that influences the game from the command zone is here, and like the OG Dragon, The Ur-Sphinx reduces the casting cost of Sphinxes by one. The payoff is that when it's in play, when we attack with other Sphinxes, for each player we mill cards from their library and we can choose and cast one of them for free. This is Etali, Primal Storm on steroids.

Sphinxes cost a lot of mana, so although this is a Kindred list, don't expect them so early in the game. Controlling the board and our opponent's actions is what we will do on the first few turns, preparing the ground for our commander to do their thing. This is a spicy Bracket 3 build pushed to its limits.

As is the case of almost everyone who got their hands on the Multiverse Reforged precon, take that deck apart, and come with me so I can show you how to properly build The Ur-Sphinx and make the most of an underplayed (so far at least) creature type.

Victory Foretold

The core idea of this list is to bring the commander into play as early as possible, so we can cast a bunch of spells for free when attacking with other Sphinxes. There's one large obstacle though: the Ur-Sphinx costs 9 mana, which feels prohibitive in modern EDH’s fast environment, especially when we don't have access to green and ramp spells in general. Our fun only really starts when our opponents are likely ready to move on to their own mid to late game.

The strategy, then, is to try and control the pacing of our opponents’ games, while we set up our own engines. Early boardwipes like Toxic Deluge, combat deterrents like Propaganda, and cost-effective disruption like Unexplained Absence can buy us a couple of turns, giving us time to find cost-reduction pieces like Urza's Incubator, impactful Sphinxes like Consecrated Sphinx, and protection spells like Flawless Maneuver.

Victory will depend on what we steal from our opponents’ libraries, but Sphinxes are powerful flyers, so combat damage is always an option too. Our commander is a 10/10 itself — Lightning Greaves never was more suitable in a deck than this one.

Starting the Riddles: The Setup Turns

Sphinxes are expensive. The average mana cost of one up until Reality Fracture is 5.74 (yes, I did the math), and this means they won't show up in the early game if we're casting them from hand. The Ur-Sphinx's Eminence's effect makes Sphinxes cost one less mana, but this is not enough to speed our gameplan up. On the first few turns, deploying mana rocks (from Arcane Signet to Patchwork Banner) is relevant, but casting more cost-reduction permanents is key — Sapphire Medallion, Heartless Summoning and Urza's Incubator are the signposts. Smothering Tithe is probably the best-justified Game Changer of the deck.

The Soul Stone is a game-warping mana rock, which will serve as a reliable recursion piece on later turns. Black Market Connections helps accelerate our game with cards, Treasures and creature tokens with changeling (an ability that grants every creature type). Casting our own boardwipes at this stage is a good call too — we shouldn't try to catch up to our opponents, but reset the board so everyone is on an even level. I like Damn for its versatility, but Toxic Deluge and Supreme Verdict are great as well.

With cost reducers and mana rocks in place, the Sphinxes should start making an appearance on turns 4-5 — but which ones are the best?

Sphinxes: Revealed

With the release of Reality Fracture, there are a little over 100 Sphinxes and creatures with changeling available to include in this deck. While it seems like a lot, The Ur-Dragon can choose between over 500 creatures in comparison. Due to their high mana cost, only the really impactful Sphinxes should be considered, and by that I mean prioritizing ones with enter the battlefield triggers, followed by combat payoffs.

Azor, the Lawbringer, Enigma Thief and Magister Sphinx can bring some games to a halt, and also contribute in buying us time until the commander hits the battlefield. Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign fills our hand and graveyard whenever another Sphinx enters, and we can take advantage of that by recurring cards with Graveshifter or Scholar of the Lost Trove for example.

On the combat front, the best one by far is Medomai the Ageless, which can give us an extra turn after dealing combat damage. A close runner-up is Atemsis, All-Seeing, a Sphinx that can make a player lose the game on the spot. Some cards combine enter and attack triggers: Tivit, Seller of Secrets will often give us clues, which we can turn into card advantage, and Sphinx of Forgotten Lore can bring back a Void Rend, for example, destroying something annoying for us.

Blink and You (Won't) Miss It

Our best protection spells are flickering tricks. From Malakir Rebirth and Personify, to Eerie Interlude and Morningtide's Light, they have huge potential to turn the board in our favor. While I'd agree their effectiveness is situational and not always optimal, taking the chance can still be rewarding. And to tie things up, Conjurer's Closet can turn an unassuming Archive Arbiter into an actual threat. How about multiple instances of Alhammarret, High Arbiter's triggers, which lock out our opponents of casting their key spells, even if temporarily?

With this entourage of Sphinxes coming on board, some cards are here to increase their impact. Roaming Throne takes the lead by doubling every Sphinx-related trigger: imagine drawing four cards at the beginning of each upkeep with Consecrated Sphinx?

See Everything: Scry and Surveil

Many Sphinxes have ways to control the top of our library, and select what goes to our hand and the graveyard. Look at Sphinx of Foresight and Marauding Sphinx for example. This is why they're buddies with the new Reality Fracture's Azorius sphinx, Denzilore Fatehold, which puts +1/+1 counters on our creatures whenever we scry or surveil. Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong is the other payoff, as we can cast something for free, once each turn — yes, on our opponent's as well.

Scry lands like the temples cycle (Temple of Enlightenment, Temple of Silence) and Surveil lands like Undercity Sewers are perfectly slotted in this deck too. Repeatable ways to scry like Palantír of Orthanc are powerful on their own, much like a surprise Dream Eater. Denzilore Fatehold adds that flavor we love to see in Kindred decks.

The Sphinx Avatar

The board is under control, we have a few Sphinxes on the battlefield and protection spells in hand. All of this leads to the grand moment when our commander comes into play and the attack trigger pays off. As with most theft strategies, we hardly have control over what we'll find, and at a cost of nine mana I hope our opponents won't feel so salty. Whatever we cast, though, we have our own big hits as well; besides a bunch of powerful Sphinxes, I'd love to play a Time Warp or Raise the Palisade for free.

The Oracle was Right

It's hard not to draw comparisons with The Ur-Sphinx's counterpart, The Ur-Dragon, and I think this new commander has an edge over the former: I would actually want to play it, instead of leaving it in the command zone forever. What's the point of all the setup, control, and grinding without a cool payoff?

This is how I would play The Ur-Sphinx, and I hope you've enjoyed it. Join us on the EDHLAB Discord and tell us about your own Sphinx's Approach!

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