Here's a little critter I've always liked but have never been able to use effectively:
I don't just want to draw cards with this guy for the sake of drawing cards--I want it to be annoying for the opponent(s)!
We should also think about staying away from too many of the obvious choices.
1. Follow the official GMAD rules.
2. Follow all forum rules.
3. Legacy ban list.
4. Explain your card choices and remember to check that the list in your post is up to date.
5. Semi-budget. Please, no cards above $10.00, and go easy on the expensive lands!
I'm not against dropping the land count if we need to.
Sorry, man. Scroll Rack is a good idea but over budget.
Ooph, good catch, my bad. I'll have to consider something else then.
Voting against 2 soothsaying. This isn't a card we need in multiples, and we have redundant topdeck manipulation already. We'll only need a few.
Voting against 1 Halimar Depth. CiPT, and we have other brainstorm redundancy already. We'll only need a couple. We can use bouncelands and Trade Routes if we really need more of it.
I think I'll make the first assay into a new color, and add 3 Seize the Day. A great extra combat step card, and extra combat steps = extra naming, which = more cards in hand! Carpe Diem! (At 44 cents a pop, I think this time I'm in budget too, :P)
I have a deck like this. We could go green for Mul daya folks that play with the top deck. For now i'll add mindshrieker. He's quite powerful in such a deck allowing you to pump it while filtering the top deck.
Adding four Delver of Secrets. Usable either for fast aggro or to scope the top of our deck for Conundrum Sphinx synergy.
(Question/suggestion: If our opponent has a means of viewing the top card in their own deck, would stacking Coral Fighters' ability with that of Conundrum Sphinx allow us to reshuffle the opponent's deck right before the Sphinx goes off, so the opponent has no opportunity to check the new card put on top by the reshuffle?)
(Question/suggestion: If our opponent has a means of viewing the top card in their own deck, would stacking Coral Fighters' ability with that of Conundrum Sphinx allow us to reshuffle the opponent's deck right before the Sphinx goes off, so the opponent has no opportunity to check the new card put on top by the reshuffle?)
No, for several reasons:
1) Conundrum Sphinx triggers when it is declared as an attacker in the Declare attackers step. Coral Fighters triggers when it is not blocked... in the Declare Blockers step.
2) Even if they were to hypothetically trigger at the same time (if Coral Fighters was an "on attack" trigger), both are triggered abilities, they resolve 1 at a time. After any ability resolves, all players must pass priority again for the next object to resolve. Any ability the opponent has can be used to view their top cards. Any static ability revealing that card, will always be on, and the card will be revealed immediately upon resolution of Coral Fighter's ability.
I have a deck like this. We could go green for Mul daya folks that play with the top deck. For now i'll add mindshrieker. He's quite powerful in such a deck allowing you to pump it while filtering the top deck.
Green can also give us Mirri's Guile and Sylvan Library, two very strong cards. But we need to be careful how much library manipulation we put in, too much and all we'll be getting is more library manipulation...
White gives us other "Name a card" stuff, like Nevermore/Voidstone Gargoyle/Meddling Mage, and we could use the sphinx to see their deck and lock them out of all their spells. Also we get redundancy with the Petra Sphinx. (this could actually be fun, well, for one player). Add Sphinx ambassador to see their deck as well, and lock out answers... hmmm...
Adding four Cabal Therapy - The OP stated wanting to make this deck annoying for the opponent rather than just using the Sphinx as a draw engine, and I feel that Cabal Therapy does that. If the card that the opponent reveals with Conundrum Sphinx looks problematic you can use Cabal Therapy to get rid of it, and then flashback it if necessary later on.
How do you feel about the white strategy I posted above then? Does that qualify as annoying?
I think I'll make the first assay into a new color, and add 3 Seize the Day. A great extra combat step card, and extra combat steps = extra naming, which = more cards in hand! Carpe Diem! (At 44 cents a pop, I think this time I'm in budget too, :P)
Ooooohhhhh, RU!
EDIT: Make that RUB. I'll let you guys figure that one out! I'm assuming three colors won't last.
I like Soothsaying, but we don't need 4, so I'll cast the final vote to reduce it to 2.
Also, Halimar Depths...the whole tapped thing. I also vote to reduce it by one.
I like both the RU and UW options currently. I tend to be more of a red player than white, so I lean more towards that set of chaos, but I think both could be fun. I think the red version would be more fun all around though, the white version would just anger the opponent.
Adding 2 Tunnel Vision - see another player reveal a high costing or legendary card from their deck and ship it to the bottom? Suspect they only have one of it? TUNNEL VISION!
adding 2 Precognition. we'll know what our opponent is drawing, and we can even do something... if we had some cards like Foreshadow or even Predict, to benefit from knowing what's on top.
voting against Seize the Day... splashing red doesn't warrant the uneffectiveness of forcing a secondary attack just to draw a card. Curiosity gets us a draw without splashing red.
SELVAXRI! King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers "Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can." 375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev) Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
Voting against Seize the Day to kill, I don't see red being particularly useful with the Sphinx, we have better options.
Personally I'd like to see green for Oracle of Mul Daya and Bear Umbra, but for now I'll add 4x Rune Snag for some scaling countermagic since we have enough of library manipulation to make sure we see a few.
Good lord at our curve guys. We either need to lower the curve or add a few more lands.
Adding 3 wall of tears as early defense.
Voting against Delver of Secrets (-1)- I seriously don't like this card. It demands a large amount of sorceries / instants and doesn't synergize with the rest of the deck.
Even if the author is silenced, the performance is stopped, the story will not end.
Whether it's a comedy or a tragedy, if there is cheering, the story will continue on.
Just like the many lives.
For the us who are still in it and still in the journey, send warm blessings.
- We will continue to walk down this path until eternity.
Good lord at our curve guys. We either need to lower the curve or add a few more lands.
Adding 3 wall of tears as early defense.
Voting against Delver of Secrets (-1)- I seriously don't like this card. It demands a large amount of sorceries / instants and doesn't synergize with the rest of the deck.
I agree. This is turning into a high casting cost "manipulate the library" kind of deck, but that doesn't matter--we're not really casting anything until late game as it stands. Let's take a step back and see what's going on.
I agree that Delver of Secrets is kind of useless here because the deck is not quite reliant on sorceries / instants. I'll vote to remove it.
What might interact with Sphinx in a stronger capacity? Damage to an opponent when we draw cards? Are there any cards that let us do neat tricks whenever we reveal the top of our library? On two occasions, people mentioned G for Muldaya cards--should we go that route?
Precisely why I never got Conundrum Sphinx to work in the first place!
What might interact with Sphinx in a stronger capacity? Damage to an opponent when we draw cards? Are there any cards that let us do neat tricks whenever we reveal the top of our library? On two occasions, people mentioned G for Muldaya cards--should we go that route?
SELVAXRI! King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers "Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can." 375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev) Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
We are essentially going to be flying midrange so we need to keep the aggro off our backs.
Breath of Darigaaz and Earthquake are the best two options here.
I say Breath of Darigaaz for now since we should have a decent bit of manipulation going on early and we can drop the sphinxs right after.
Also voting our delver- a great card, but we want midrange emphasis if we are going to win with conundrum sphinx.
We are essentially going to be flying midrange so we need to keep the aggro off our backs.
Breath of Darigaaz and Earthquake are the best two options here.
I say Breath of Darigaaz for now since we should have a decent bit of manipulation going on early and we can drop the sphinxs right after.
Also voting our delver- a great card, but we want midrange emphasis if we are going to win with conundrum sphinx.
we just got rid of the odd ball redcard in a deck that's still trying to find it's identity-- [b]and you throw it (red) back into the muddle?![/b]
there are numerous ways to [b]control[/c] aggro, especially if we're running predominate :symu:-- Frozen Æther to slow our opponent down, Soul Barrier to bring pain or expensive critters, Propaganda slow down attacks. Ensnare to completely tap them out...
if we run :symg:, Fog, Constant Mists, Snag to negate combat damage until we find our grove...
SELVAXRI! King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers "Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can." 375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev) Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
I agree. This is turning into a high casting cost "manipulate the library" kind of deck, but that doesn't matter--we're not really casting anything until late game as it stands. Let's take a step back and see what's going on.
What might interact with Sphinx in a stronger capacity? Damage to an opponent when we draw cards? Are there any cards that let us do neat tricks whenever we reveal the top of our library? On two occasions, people mentioned G for Muldaya cards--should we go that route?
Precisely why I never got Conundrum Sphinx to work in the first place!
So, stepping back, lets look at what the Sphinx does, and what each color can do with that.
Sphinx
1) is a cheap effective flyer.
2) Triggers on attacks
3) Gives card advantage, if you know what the top card is.
4) Gives our opponent information. And gets information from them.
I initially added red, so I'll show why I thought it was a good idea:
1) Red is good at low end aggro, and high end aggro, it is in need of mid-range beats, and cheap flyers. Sphinx complements and eliminates this weakness. Red also runs a good slew of removal to clear the path for the Sphinx to be an effective clock.
2) Red is the best color to interact with extra combat steps. (This is the main reason I added red, obviously. If we're using sphinx, my first thought was, How do we use it more. This was the most obvious thing to me.)
3) Red is lacking card advantage, so such a pairing fills a deficiency in red. Red will use the draw to burn the skies and let the sphinx through for more awesome cards.
4) This can be fun with cards like Magus of the scroll, and Liar's pendulum to play a mental magic on the side, with the opponent having only partial information to your hand. They saw you draw a bolt, but then you cast it... do you really have another in your hand? Red's use of other peoples knowledge is in cards like Ignite Memories. You just drew what? Oh really... (This ties in to my How do we use it more thoughts, and name-a-card thoughts. It came after looking through white. See more about that there)
Red would be a more aggressive, removal-control, mind-games deck.
White, I detailed a bit earlier, but I'll go more in depth.
1) White has several early game threats, and cheap flyers to complement the sphinx. White is also the best defensive color to play control with, while using the sphinx as a killcon. White has a decent selection of removal, but nothing on the scale of red/black. White has the next best capabilities to protect the sphinx and keep it on the field though. Apostle's blessing can be used in any color though.
2) White is the color who most interacts within the combat step. From combat tricks, to removing attacking or blocking creatures, to using Reconnaissance for free triggers, as well as that gustcloak guy (YEAH, I WENT THERE). White also opens up that bant exalted enchantment that grants extra combat steps, which is the only card of that type outside of red. White also cares about when combat happens, and may trigger stuff.
3) White can use a good amount of card advantage. Not much else here. White, like red, will probably use the draw to clear a path, in order to open more draws. White is more protective than red.
4) White can use knowledge of not only what the player draws, but what they name, for its wide array of lock down name-a-card options. White also best locks in control with Rule of law types of jank that it gets shifted over from blue. (This ties in to my How do we use it more thoughts. This was the next thing I thought of, building on the name-a-card stuff.)
White would be a more control deck
A lot of people have talked about Muldaya Green:
1) Green has jank for flyers. Sphinx would be filling in a void, no holds barred. Green is the best equipped to turn the Sphinx into a bigger threat. What it loses in removal (though green has plenty of anti-air guns to clear the path), it can make up in brute force.
2) Green can most influence combat through sheer power, Overrun Style. Green is also the next color that actually cares about when things attack, and may trigger off of them.
3) Green is ok on card draw, but doesn't mind extra. Green is the next best (though Black will fight) on library manipulation, and with the mul daya's and Garruk's companion (or w/e), will also claim the second best Future Sight stuff. Green is the color that will best give us the mana to play the extra cards we draw. What good is drawing stuff we can't play?
4) Green don't care what your opponents got. We're gonna punch em.
biased? probably. Green gives us more of what blue has. I think that in a green deck, the Sphinx will become another card in a host of cards. Bad? Heck no, it'll be the most consistent of all of these decks. It'll probably be more of a splurge lots of stuff out deck, from extra sphinx draw, to future playing.
Black is probably my weakest single color. Someone may want to buff me here:
1) Black has flyers of all sorts. It has early aggressive plays, late aggressive plays, control plays. We could easily use Sphinx as a U/B control engine, replacing Shadowmage infiltrator with a faster clock. eh? Black isn't so keen on protection, but like red, and white, can open doors.
2) Black mostly doesn't care about the combat overall. It just does stuff when it wants.
3) Black is ok with other cards. Really, it could do it on its own, but if you're gonna do it, sure, why not. Black's interaction with the top of the deck, is mostly in tutors. Why bother looking at the top card? Black lets you choose whatever you want.
4) Black loves knowing what another player has. It's the best way to know when and what to make them discard!
Black could loan itself best to combo (tutors) or control.
These are my viewpoints. Looks like red is being a bit shot down, but I think U/R fits me best, with U/W being strong, and U/W/g also.
U/B reeks of combo/discard, and neither excite me. U/G I think would be the most consistent, but also the one that swallows our card the most into 'just another piece,' nothing wrong with that, but I like making something special.
I found Red and White to have the most synergy with the chosen card's feel. I found green to have the most redundancy.
I don't just want to draw cards with this guy for the sake of drawing cards--I want it to be annoying for the opponent(s)!
We should also think about staying away from too many of the obvious choices.
1. Follow the official GMAD rules.
2. Follow all forum rules.
3. Legacy ban list.
4. Explain your card choices and remember to check that the list in your post is up to date.
5. Semi-budget. Please, no cards above $10.00, and go easy on the expensive lands!
I'm not against dropping the land count if we need to.
Let's do something wacky! Have fun!
4 Conundrum Sphinx
24 Placeholder
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
4 Conundrum Sphinx
4 Brainstorm
24 Placeholder
Spell it out.
Also, you can use [c]Sphinx of Jwar Isle[/c] to card tag, rather than use the URL.
Adding 2 Scroll Rack, it'll help return fat from our hand to the library for the sphinx, on top of the brainstorms.
Some haste/hexproof/shroud stuff can be used to help our sphinx connect. Like greaves/boots type stuff.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Brainstorm
2 Scroll Rack
24 Placeholder
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
Sorry, man. Scroll Rack is a good idea but over budget.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Soothsaying
4 Brainstorm
24 Placeholder
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Soothsaying
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
4 Halimar Depths
20 Placeholder
Ooph, good catch, my bad. I'll have to consider something else then.
Voting against 2 soothsaying. This isn't a card we need in multiples, and we have redundant topdeck manipulation already. We'll only need a few.
Voting against 1 Halimar Depth. CiPT, and we have other brainstorm redundancy already. We'll only need a couple. We can use bouncelands and Trade Routes if we really need more of it.
I think I'll make the first assay into a new color, and add 3 Seize the Day. A great extra combat step card, and extra combat steps = extra naming, which = more cards in hand! Carpe Diem! (At 44 cents a pop, I think this time I'm in budget too, :P)
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Soothsaying (1 @ -2)
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
3 Seize the Day
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (1 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 mindshrieker
4 Soothsaying (1 vote to remove 2)
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
3 seize the day
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (1 vote to remove one)
20 Placeholder
(Question/suggestion: If our opponent has a means of viewing the top card in their own deck, would stacking Coral Fighters' ability with that of Conundrum Sphinx allow us to reshuffle the opponent's deck right before the Sphinx goes off, so the opponent has no opportunity to check the new card put on top by the reshuffle?)
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Soothsaying (1 @ -2)
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
Sorcery
3 Seize the Day
4 Halimar Depths (1 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
No, for several reasons:
1) Conundrum Sphinx triggers when it is declared as an attacker in the Declare attackers step. Coral Fighters triggers when it is not blocked... in the Declare Blockers step.
2) Even if they were to hypothetically trigger at the same time (if Coral Fighters was an "on attack" trigger), both are triggered abilities, they resolve 1 at a time. After any ability resolves, all players must pass priority again for the next object to resolve. Any ability the opponent has can be used to view their top cards. Any static ability revealing that card, will always be on, and the card will be revealed immediately upon resolution of Coral Fighter's ability.
Green can also give us Mirri's Guile and Sylvan Library, two very strong cards. But we need to be careful how much library manipulation we put in, too much and all we'll be getting is more library manipulation...
White gives us other "Name a card" stuff, like Nevermore/Voidstone Gargoyle/Meddling Mage, and we could use the sphinx to see their deck and lock them out of all their spells. Also we get redundancy with the Petra Sphinx. (this could actually be fun, well, for one player). Add Sphinx ambassador to see their deck as well, and lock out answers... hmmm...
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
How do you feel about the white strategy I posted above then? Does that qualify as annoying?
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Soothsaying (2 @ -2)
2 Future Sight
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
3 Seize the Day (-1)
4 Cabal Therapy
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (1 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Adding two Future Sight. It really just becomes card advantage. A lot of advantage since we have a little library manipulation going.
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane for the awesome Sig.
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Ooooohhhhh, RU!
EDIT: Make that RUB. I'll let you guys figure that one out! I'm assuming three colors won't last.
I like Soothsaying, but we don't need 4, so I'll cast the final vote to reduce it to 2.
Also, Halimar Depths...the whole tapped thing. I also vote to reduce it by one.
Just wondering now, if we keep Future Sight, it makes Sphinx of Jwar Isle sort of vanilla, no?
Oh, and the numbers were WAY off!
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
3 Seize the Day (-1)
4 Cabal Therapy
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Additional thoughts: Counterspells? Protect our creatures?
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
Sadly, Liar's Pendulum probably won't work as well (though it still could).
Mayhaps Sphinx of Uthuun over the Sphinx of Jwar Isle?
I like both the RU and UW options currently. I tend to be more of a red player than white, so I lean more towards that set of chaos, but I think both could be fun. I think the red version would be more fun all around though, the white version would just anger the opponent.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
Sorceries: 9
3 Seize the Day (-1)
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Additional thoughts: Counterspells? Protect our creatures?[/QUOTE]
W Send Forth My Endless Army W
BU Singularity BU
UBR Mishra's Machines UBR
Testing (Legacy):
BGW Sisay's Control BGW
voting against Seize the Day... splashing red doesn't warrant the uneffectiveness of forcing a secondary attack just to draw a card. Curiosity gets us a draw without splashing red.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
2 Precognition
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
3 Seize the Day (-2)
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers
"Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can."
375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev)
Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
2 Precognition
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
3 Seize the Day (-2)
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
Personally I'd like to see green for Oracle of Mul Daya and Bear Umbra, but for now I'll add 4x Rune Snag for some scaling countermagic since we have enough of library manipulation to make sure we see a few.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
2 Precognition
Instants: 4
4 Brainstorm
4 Rune Snag
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
360-cube - Suggestions welcome!
Adding 3 wall of tears as early defense.
Voting against Delver of Secrets (-1)- I seriously don't like this card. It demands a large amount of sorceries / instants and doesn't synergize with the rest of the deck.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets (-1)
3 Wall of Tears
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
2 Precognition
Instants: 8
4 Brainstorm
4 Rune Snag
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Whether it's a comedy or a tragedy, if there is cheering, the story will continue on.
Just like the many lives.
For the us who are still in it and still in the journey, send warm blessings.
- We will continue to walk down this path until eternity.
I agree. This is turning into a high casting cost "manipulate the library" kind of deck, but that doesn't matter--we're not really casting anything until late game as it stands. Let's take a step back and see what's going on.
I agree that Delver of Secrets is kind of useless here because the deck is not quite reliant on sorceries / instants. I'll vote to remove it.
What might interact with Sphinx in a stronger capacity? Damage to an opponent when we draw cards? Are there any cards that let us do neat tricks whenever we reveal the top of our library? On two occasions, people mentioned G for Muldaya cards--should we go that route?
Precisely why I never got Conundrum Sphinx to work in the first place!
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
4 Delver of Secrets (-2)
3 Wall of Tears
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
2 Precognition
Instants: 8
4 Brainstorm
4 Rune Snag
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
if we go :symg:, i'd drop Cabal Therapy because we could have fun with Mirri's Guile, Call the the Wild, Lurking Predators, even Momir Vig, Simic Visionary... but this would push the Sphinx to the background as we're delving deep into library manipulation and cheapcasting Eldrazi titan and Senior Killjoy...
would Booby Trap trigger off the Sphinx's "draw" ability?
King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers
"Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can."
375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev)
Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
No, sphinx put the card in your hand so it's not considered «drawing» it.
Breath of Darigaaz and Earthquake are the best two options here.
I say Breath of Darigaaz for now since we should have a decent bit of manipulation going on early and we can drop the sphinxs right after.
Also voting our delver- a great card, but we want midrange emphasis if we are going to win with conundrum sphinx.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
3 Wall of Tears
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
2 Precognition
Instants: 8
4 Brainstorm
4 Rune Snag
4 Breath of Darigaaz
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
So Pro I have an alpha Volcanic Island
we just got rid of the odd ball redcard in a deck that's still trying to find it's identity-- [b]and you throw it (red) back into the muddle?![/b]
there are numerous ways to [b]control[/c] aggro, especially if we're running predominate :symu:-- Frozen Æther to slow our opponent down, Soul Barrier to bring pain or expensive critters, Propaganda slow down attacks. Ensnare to completely tap them out...
if we run :symg:, Fog, Constant Mists, Snag to negate combat damage until we find our grove...
Throwing red back into the muddle, just for crowd control is a bad idea with no backing. and why is Breath of Darigaaz a better choice over say Pyroclasm or Steam Burst or Slagstorm... ?
King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers
"Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can."
375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev)
Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
This.
I'm trying not to use the "host gets triple votes" rule, but I'm getting close! For now, just one vote against Breath of Darigaaz.
4 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Mindshrieker
3 Wall of Tears
2 Soothsaying
2 Future Sight
2 Precognition
Instants: 8
4 Brainstorm
4 Rune Snag
4 Breath of Darigaaz (-1)
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Tunnel Vision
Land: 24
4 Halimar Depths (2 @ -1)
20 Placeholder
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
So, stepping back, lets look at what the Sphinx does, and what each color can do with that.
Sphinx
1) is a cheap effective flyer.
2) Triggers on attacks
3) Gives card advantage, if you know what the top card is.
4) Gives our opponent information. And gets information from them.
I initially added red, so I'll show why I thought it was a good idea:
2) Red is the best color to interact with extra combat steps. (This is the main reason I added red, obviously. If we're using sphinx, my first thought was, How do we use it more. This was the most obvious thing to me.)
3) Red is lacking card advantage, so such a pairing fills a deficiency in red. Red will use the draw to burn the skies and let the sphinx through for more awesome cards.
4) This can be fun with cards like Magus of the scroll, and Liar's pendulum to play a mental magic on the side, with the opponent having only partial information to your hand. They saw you draw a bolt, but then you cast it... do you really have another in your hand? Red's use of other peoples knowledge is in cards like Ignite Memories. You just drew what? Oh really... (This ties in to my How do we use it more thoughts, and name-a-card thoughts. It came after looking through white. See more about that there)
Red would be a more aggressive, removal-control, mind-games deck.
White, I detailed a bit earlier, but I'll go more in depth.
2) White is the color who most interacts within the combat step. From combat tricks, to removing attacking or blocking creatures, to using Reconnaissance for free triggers, as well as that gustcloak guy (YEAH, I WENT THERE). White also opens up that bant exalted enchantment that grants extra combat steps, which is the only card of that type outside of red. White also cares about when combat happens, and may trigger stuff.
3) White can use a good amount of card advantage. Not much else here. White, like red, will probably use the draw to clear a path, in order to open more draws. White is more protective than red.
4) White can use knowledge of not only what the player draws, but what they name, for its wide array of lock down name-a-card options. White also best locks in control with Rule of law types of jank that it gets shifted over from blue. (This ties in to my How do we use it more thoughts. This was the next thing I thought of, building on the name-a-card stuff.)
White would be a more control deck
A lot of people have talked about Muldaya Green:
1) Green has jank for flyers. Sphinx would be filling in a void, no holds barred. Green is the best equipped to turn the Sphinx into a bigger threat. What it loses in removal (though green has plenty of anti-air guns to clear the path), it can make up in brute force.
2) Green can most influence combat through sheer power, Overrun Style. Green is also the next color that actually cares about when things attack, and may trigger off of them.
3) Green is ok on card draw, but doesn't mind extra. Green is the next best (though Black will fight) on library manipulation, and with the mul daya's and Garruk's companion (or w/e), will also claim the second best Future Sight stuff. Green is the color that will best give us the mana to play the extra cards we draw. What good is drawing stuff we can't play?
4) Green don't care what your opponents got. We're gonna punch em.
biased? probably. Green gives us more of what blue has. I think that in a green deck, the Sphinx will become another card in a host of cards. Bad? Heck no, it'll be the most consistent of all of these decks. It'll probably be more of a splurge lots of stuff out deck, from extra sphinx draw, to future playing.
Black is probably my weakest single color. Someone may want to buff me here:
2) Black mostly doesn't care about the combat overall. It just does stuff when it wants.
3) Black is ok with other cards. Really, it could do it on its own, but if you're gonna do it, sure, why not. Black's interaction with the top of the deck, is mostly in tutors. Why bother looking at the top card? Black lets you choose whatever you want.
4) Black loves knowing what another player has. It's the best way to know when and what to make them discard!
Black could loan itself best to combo (tutors) or control.
These are my viewpoints. Looks like red is being a bit shot down, but I think U/R fits me best, with U/W being strong, and U/W/g also.
U/B reeks of combo/discard, and neither excite me. U/G I think would be the most consistent, but also the one that swallows our card the most into 'just another piece,' nothing wrong with that, but I like making something special.
I found Red and White to have the most synergy with the chosen card's feel. I found green to have the most redundancy.
Thoughts? disagreements?
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