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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Vexing Sphinx
Cold Snap


Reviewed July 26, 2006

Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 2.87
Limited: 3.4

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


DeQuan
Watson

* Game Store Owner

Vexing Sphinx

This card is interesting. It might fit right in to the U/W flying creature decks. It's cheap. It's fairly large. It also gives you a solid bonus when it dies. It's almost a way to cycle through a few different cards. I'd imagine this card is solid for limited play as well. I don't think this is one that casual players are going to want. Most casual players will hate the idea of discarding to a card that they control.

Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 2.5
 

Jordan Kronick

Vexing Sphinx

I didn't really know what to think about the Sphinx when I first saw it. It's got a short life span no matter how you look at it. But it can potentially replace everything you lost to it if you play it right. And you even get some damage out of it in the time in between. Having gotten a chance to use it in draft a few times, I'm of the opinion that this is a pretty handy card. There may even be constructed applications for it where the discard can be turned into a benefit.

Constructed Rating - 2.5
Casual Rating - 3.0
Limited Rating - 3.1
 

The Antman

Vexing Sphinx- Rare- Coldsnap

Today we have a interesting card, Vexing Sphinx. I keep having a hard time deciding if this card is good or not. It is a efficient card that is a cheep flyer with a moderatly payable upkeep cost (in the early game). The problem with the sphinx is that for you break even you can only attack with it once (play it, add a counter, attack, add a counter, sac, draw 2). which in the end he ends up being a blue burn spell. In the right deck though this guy can be a absolute power house

ratings:
constructed- 3/5 I can see some blue deck using his weakness as an advantage
limited- 4/5 a cheep flyer that draws you cards, very good
casual- 4/5 a very fun card that can have many fun combos
 

Aburame Shino

Vexing Sphinx

This card is huge for its casting cost. A 4/4 for 3 is automatically good. Add on that the card can fly as well and you've got yourself a nice and powerful fatty. However, I believe the Cumulative Upkeep is what makes this card unable to make the cut for constructed formats. Generally blue is a color that doesn't want to pitch the cards in its hand. If this does make the cut for Standard, it will be because you can get two attacks out of Vexing Sphinx without having to worry about losing too much advantage, then when it gets 3 counters and you've discarded 3 cards you can let it die to the cumulative upkeep and draw 3 cards. That way, in the long run, you don't lose more cards than you got rid of.

Constructed: 2 - It's good, but I don't think it'll make the cut.
Casual: 3 - There's a lot of fun stuff you can do to abuse the cumulative upkeep.
Limited: 4 - It's a big fat flying fattie for a really cheap card.
 
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