A large flying creature that can gain hexproof
at will, for no mana? This will be all but
impossible for opponents to kill (and at five
toughness, they may not be able to kill it
anyway). It also has a repeatable scry effect,
which means once you land it, the game should
start going your way in many more subtle ways.
There is a catch, however-- scrying doesn't
actually draw you cards, and protecting the
Sphinx with hexproof costs you a card. You may
run out of cards.. or you may have if you
weren't running a blue deck, right?
There's another catch, of course-- sloughing off
a kill spell also taps the Sphinx. This means
that the Sphinx can no longer attack (and scry)
and its considerable five toughness is no longer
available to block. An opponent could use this
to keep the Sphinx tapped down (and to keep you
pitching cards) by throwing kill spells at it.
Since you're spending a card (any card) to
protect the Sphinx, throwing kill spells at it
isn't actually card disadvantage. But it is loss
of card quality, as you can pitch the worst card
in your hand while the opponent needs to keep
drawing spell that can kill a 5-toughness
creature.
Everything about this card just screams
"combo!" You can use him to set up reanimation,
or to combine with Shadowmoor's untap symbol,
which I always underused. I just never found the
right space in my decks for it, but I'm rather
tempted to try again now. Looking at his attack
trigger , I'm also tempted to see him as sort of
the "fixed" version of Mirrodin Besieged's
Consecrated Sphinx - both are game-ending
creatures who keep you on top of the situation,
but this Sphinx does so in a way that isn't
likely to break up your Commander group and get
you punched in the face, and further demands
that you actually know what you're doing rather
than just sitting there and handing you game
wins while generating controversy. I like it.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
a powerful sphinx. A powerful flying creature
with the ability to gain hexproof and protect
itself making it basically invulnerable to
removal but at the cost of discarding cards. In
standard I can see this card acting as a nice
beater or finisher in control decks as it
provides a solid defensive body being a 3/5 it
dodges removal and scrys for 3 when it attacks
making it a powerful tool for digging for
relevant cards I think it has enough powerful to
go in control builds but may be overshadowed by
Aetherling as a control finisher. In modern and
eternal formats I don’t think this card does
enough to justify its inclusion in decks but
does provide a nearly unkillable creature that
can act as a discard outlet. In casual and
multiplayer this is a powerful sphinx as it
allows you to filter through your deck and have
solid body for both attacking and blocking and
the hexproof protects it from most interference
making it a powerful choice for blue decks in
multiplayer and casually. In limited this card
is a mostly invincible bomb that allows you to
filter for good cards in your deck and has an
evasive body making it a powerful pick.
Today's card of the day is Prognostic Sphinx
which is a five mana Blue
3/5 with Flying, Scry 3 whenever it attacks, and
you can discard a card to give it Hexproof until
end of turn and tap it. A five mana 3/5 is
a bit below the curve compared to other options,
but Scry 3 is strong and of particular use for a
Blue library manipulation theme. Hexproof
costing a card and tap is useful, yet balanced,
which makes it a one for one trade and
reasonable in practice. Overall this is a
very playable card for Blue, most likely in a
control theme, and with the effects it will see
higher end play as a finisher level threat in
current formats.
In Limited this is a very dangerous bomb that is
evasive, difficult to remove with buyable
Hexproof plus five toughness, and drastically
improves upcoming draws with Scry 3. This
is a clear first pick in Booster and automatic
inclusion in Sealed if Blue has enough weight to
it. The attack power may be slightly low
for the cost, but everything else more than
makes up for that deficiency.
Prognostic Sphinx is a creature that can attack
and predict the future. The ability to Scry 3
when attacking is hard to judge. Let us think
about it for a moment. How many times will you
get to attack in a duel with Prognostic Sphinx?
Does the scrying ability help any other cards in
your deck? Let us take a look at Prognostic
Sphinx’s hexproof ability. Discarding a card is
not that hefty of a price, but the tapping down
of the Sphinx is a negative drawback. I
understand the need to protect a creature and I
like it when that ability is built into said
creature. I have another question. Is this
Sphinx so powerful that it will be targeted as
soon as it hits the board? I don’t think so. To
me, Prognostic Sphinx is a card that resembles
the very artwork on the card. It is puppet-like
and hard to take seriously, yet wise and
promising.
