"Brewer’s Madness: At Last, The Ur-Sphinx Has Arrived."

 "Brewer’s Madness: At Last, The Ur-Sphinx Has Arrived."

By:

Virgilio F. De Leon Jr., MD

Every once in a while, I am afflicted with a condition I like to call Brewer’s Madness.

It is an all-consuming desire to build decks—Commander decks, specifically. And not just decks that are proven to work. No, I have a particular talent for trying to make decks work even when the tribe or strategy has absolutely no business being supported.

My last bout of Brewer’s Madness had me brewing decks for Spiders and Turtles.

Oh, and a third tribe:

Sphinxes.

Now that there is an abundance of Spider and Turtle commanders, I have been able to look at the situation with a slightly more sober mind and wonder:

When are the Sphinxes finally going to get their turn?

And then The Ur-Sphinx was spoiled as part of the Reality Fracture preconstructed Commander deck.

I finally got to say:

“Ah. There you are. At last.”

Aside from Sharuum the Hegemon, I really couldn't remember a Sphinx lord that I would consider a great commander to lead the tribe. I had previously settled for Unesh from Amonkhet to lead the way.

But now?

With five new Sphinxes from Reality Fracture, plus this new Sphinx Avatar, Unesh can finally take his rightful place in the 99.

Enter the Ur-Sphinx

The Ur-Sphinx gathers its brethren in only Esper colors, giving us access to white, blue, and black.

It is a nine-mana, flying 10/10 with the much-celebrated Eminence mechanic, allowing you to cast your larger Sphinxes for a colorless mana discount.

And finally, we have what I would call a proper Sphinx Matters Commander deck.

The Ur-Sphinx rewards you for attacking with Sphinxes. For each Sphinx that attacks, each player mills that many cards.

And then comes the really fun part:

For each player, you may cast a card that player milled this way for free.

Yes.

For free.

Now let's talk about that kind of value.

The more Sphinxes you attack with, the more cards everyone mills, and the larger your potential pool of free spells becomes.

Most permanents and spells can be cast this way without paying their mana costs. Lands are the obvious exception, which is one of the areas where the Ur-Sphinx is more limited than its draconic counterpart, the Ur-Dragon.

The Ur-Dragon can simply drop permanents onto the battlefield through its ability.

The Ur-Sphinx, on the other hand, needs to dig through the cards that were milled and find something worth stealing.

But that is still an absurd amount of potential value.

Let's say you attack with three Sphinxes.

Each player mills three cards.

With four players at the table, that's 12 cards milled across the entire pod.

Then you get to choose a card from each player's milled cards and cast those four cards for free.

That's four free spells from a pool of 12 cards.

And suddenly, my little Sphinx deck doesn't look so little anymore.

The Dragon Problem

I have to admit, though, that the Ur-Sphinx feels a little more limited than its dragon counterpart.

The Ur-Dragon doesn't particularly care what it puts onto the battlefield. If you can get a permanent into play, great.

The Ur-Sphinx needs something useful to be milled.

That introduces a little more uncertainty.

But honestly?

I'm okay with that.

Because watching three or four giant Sphinxes attack while simultaneously turning everyone's libraries into a buffet of potentially free spells sounds like exactly the kind of nonsense that makes Commander fun.

I still love my Dragons.

The Ur-Dragon has already earned its place in my heart—and probably several thousand dollars worth of cardboard in my collection.

But I might seriously consider building this Esper Sphinx Avatar in the future.

After all, I already have most of the cards that would fit right into it.

And that is usually how Brewer's Madness begins.

You tell yourself:

“I already have most of the cards.”

Then you buy the cards you're missing.

Then you realize you need a few upgrades.

Then you need a few more Sphinxes.

Then suddenly you have a deck.

And somehow, against all reason, you are already thinking about the next one.

Brewer's Madness strikes again.

At last, though, the Sphinxes have given me a reason to embrace it.