The Ur-Sphinx Bracket 3 Commander Deck Guide

The Ur-Sphinx | Illustration by Alexandre Honoré

If you asked me to speculate on possible commander designs from Reality Fracture, I never would have guessed The Ur-Dragon but for sphinxes, even with 50 years. I guess that means I wouldn’t get past the riddles, either.

The Ur-Sphinx is one of the most popular FRA/FRC commanders on EDHREC, competing with Jace, Multiverse Architect for the top spot. It’s no surprise: Typal commanders are always popular, and sphinxes have lacked a serious commander. Let’s see what we can do with it.

The Deck

Hour of Need | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

This is a Bracket 3 typal deck centered on sphinxes. It does exactly what it says: It ramps into big flying creatures. The deck has a pretty controlling stance; Esper () is the perfect shard for interaction, so you can handle most threats. It mostly earns its Bracket level through its consistency and high ramp/interaction counts, though there’s also a Game Changer in Consecrated Sphinx.

The Commander: The Ur-Sphinx

The Ur-Sphinx has the same eminence ability as The Ur-Dragon but for sphinxes. While it’s very strong, the archetype could use the support; one way Wizards can improve an under-supported archetype, especially a typal archetype, is with a commander pushed to make up for weaknesses within the archetype. Sphinxes’ big issue is a general lack of support. Eminence makes playing the big creatures easier, and the attack trigger isn’t half bad, either. It’s a great source of card advantage and easy to trigger since most sphinxes fly.

Before The Ur-Sphinx, there wasn’t a good sphinx commander. Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign is basically the only other support card but the mono-blue color identity misses many of the stronger Azorius sphinxes. Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign has the right colors and a semi-useful ability, but it doesn’t reward you for playing sphinxes specifically. If anything, the typal restriction makes the commander markedly worse because you lose out on powerful oddities like Void Winnower. The Ur-Sphinx is the best sphinx commander by such a wide margin that it’s practically the only choice.

Sphinxes

Sphinxes in Magic have a distinct mechanical identity: They’re predominately blue, generally expensive creatures with flying—they’re to blue what dragons are to red and angels to white. Additionally, they often draw cards, either with an enters ability or an activated ability or another trigger. Most of this deck’s card advantage is tied up in its sphinxes, which are also the primary win condition as large flying creatures that pummel life totals.

Raffine, Scheming Seer gets the nod as the deck’s cheapest sphinx. This isn’t Raffine’s best deck because the curve is so high, but the consistent conniving sets you up well, even if it’s just one or two loots a turn.

Defiler of Dreams walks the line between ramp and draw engine. Every sphinx in the deck is at least blue, so this makes them cantrip and shaves a second mana off their cost.

Atemsis, All-Seeing has a strong activated ability in case you flood out and sneaks an alternative win condition into the deck. The curve is diverse enough for it to be possible, but a lack of tutors and card selection means you can’t count on Atemsis to provide consistent wins. You’ll just get a cool story every now and then.

Sphinx of Uthuun and Curator of Destinies both have enters abilities that simulate Fact or Fiction.

Your commander’s eminence ability reduces the warp cost of Quantum Riddler, making it a 1-mana cantrip. That leads to some great turns; one of the best draws in the deck is turn-2 Arcane Signet + warp the Riddler, then hard cast it when you untap.

Consecrated Sphinx probably isn’t the strongest sphinx now that Riddler’s been printed, but it still slaps in Commander. It’s the deck’s best draw engine by a considerable margin.

Elenda and Azor might be the individually most threatening sphinx. If your opponent doesn’t answer it, you can attack, draw a bunch of cards, and have an instant board presence. It’s great at rebuilding after a board wipe because it represents so many cards in hand and in play.

Sphinx of False Conclusions, Dream Trawler, and Windreader Sphinx turn aggression into card advantage, mirroring The Ur-Sphinx’s attack trigger, though they lack the mana advantage of free spells.

Enigma Thief and Dream Eater are abnormalities among the sphinxes as their abilities are interactive rather than card advantage, but I like interacting with my opponents.

Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign might be the most valuable sphinx between its cost reduction and card advantage. The little support Wizards has given the archetype is quite good.

Magister Sphinx excels at kicking one player from the pod. It’s pretty easy to set up a situation where you cast this with 10+ power in the air to knock out a player, regardless of how much life they started the turn with.

Medomai the Ageless finishes games better than anything else with the extra turn, which is particularly appealing with The Ur-Sphinx because it gets that attack trigger twice.

Protection

This protection section covers two classes of cards: ones that protect your board and ones that protect your life total.

Clever Concealment and Galadriel's Dismissal are top-notch protection spells because phasing is the best form of protection, and they have flexible mana costs.

While the cheap counterspells like Stubborn Denial, Swan Song, and An Offer You Can't Refuse hit many targets, I’m primarily considering them as ways to protect a key card or prevent a board wipe from ruining your day.

As for protecting yourself, Crawlspace and Ghostly Prison limit your opponents’ ability to attack you, and Magus of the Moat kills pretty much all aggression. This is an ideal deck for the Magus as it’s the only creature in the 99 without flying, so it doesn’t impact you at all.

Interaction

Strix Serenade, Swords to Plowshares, Erode, and Path to Exile shut down individual threats, virtually always for less mana than was spent on them.

Soul Shatter and Cloud's Limit Break are personal favorites because they attack all your opponents at once, which is important so that you don’t fall behind in the multiplayer format.

Toxic Deluge is black’s best board wipe because of its cost and utility, but it works particularly well in this deck because your sphinxes are so large; it often sweeps aside small boards while leaving yours minimally impacted.

Austere Command was selected under similar logic: Raffine is the only creature in the deck that costs less than 4 mana, so it’s basically a one-sided board wipe that handles tokens, utility creatures, mana dorks, and anything else an aggro deck throws at you while leaving the skies full of your creatures. Also, it’s nice to have an answer to pillow fort/enchantress players.

Kindred Judgment, Kindred Dominance, and Raise the Palisade are true asymmetrical board wipes. Typal board wipes are particularly nice with niche creatures types like sphinxes. While any deck could have random humans or goblins littering the board, who else runs these guys?

The Mana Base

The mana base is more or less what you’d expect. All the on-color Talismans, Signets, and other 2-mana rocks to consistently ramp towards large targets. The most notable rocks are Firdoch Core and Urza's Incubator. Firdoch is a 2-mana rock because it benefits from eminence’s cost reduction, and it’s nice to have a rock that becomes a sphinx to attack. Urza's Incubator only reduces the cost of sphinxes, but it’s a fantastic ramp piece that stacks well with the commander.

The land base is similarly standard. Some utility lands, most notably the Neon Dynasty channel lands and MDFCs from Modern Horizons 3 so some of the lands are either interaction or card draw, a Cavern of Souls to annoy the other blue players at the table, and fetch lands and the like for mana fixing.

The Strategy

Part of the reason typal decks are so popular among newer players is their simplicity. You ramp and play the card with that special type. That’s especially true for a niche creature type like sphinx. You aren’t pulling on esoteric combos based on decades’ worth of support of lords and payoffs like elves or goblins; they’re just big, cool monsters to sling.

Because sphinxes are so expensive, you need ramp. Even with The Ur-Sphinx to reduce costs, lots of cards here cost 4+ mana. Early mana rocks keep the engine chugging.

Also be mindful of when you deploy your board wipes. A pretty common way to play out the early turns is to play some mana rocks, then a sweeper, then deploy your sphinxes while your opponents try to rebuild. Sequence your spells so that as few of your sphinxes die as possible.

Speaking of sphinxes dying, don’t cast The Ur-Sphinx unless you either have a board of sphinxes for an immediate attack trigger or you have protection for it. Ideally, don’t cast it until you have both. Recasting such an expensive commander is hard, and you really don’t want to cast a 9-mana creature and pass without it doing something.

Combos and Interactions

Looping back to the idea of typal decks being straightforward, and this one particularly, the deck doesn’t have many combos. In a way, this feels like classic Commander: Lots of ramp and big creatures to spend it on that wouldn’t be viable in other formats.

Rule 0 Violations Check

This is a very clean Bracket 3 deck, with only one Game Changer and few quick wins. The only time a win isn’t telegraphed is when you play Magister Sphinx and immediately attack a player, but that only affects one player and happens in the late game.

Budget Options

The mana base will always be the place to start to make budget cuts. You don’t need the utility lands or the fetch lands; you can sculpt the mana base to meet your budget. If you do want to invest in the mana, focus on fixing rather than utility. This deck, and your collection more broadly, would benefit more from untapped fixing than Cavern of Souls.

The most expensive sphinxes are Quantum Riddler and Consecrated Sphinx, neither of which are critical. Just replace them with more card draw, whether that’s another sphinx like Azor, the Lawbringer or just a Stock Up.

Medomai the Ageless and Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign are in a similar spot: They’re some of the better sphinxes, but Azor or other sphinxes like Ethersworn Sphinx or Enigma Sphinx can take their place.

Raise the Palisade and the other typal board wipes are pretty expensive since every typal deck wants them, but there are other options, either asymmetrical board wipes like Winds of Abandon or Day of Judgment to keep things super budget. You’ll just need to be extra mindful of sequencing.

Urza's Incubator can be downgraded to any mana rock that’s not trash.

Other Builds

The Ur-Sphinx will never transcend the conceit of sphinx-typal, but it’s worth considering how you could tweak the list to bring it down to Bracket 2. This doesn’t feel like a Bracket 4+ commander; sure, you could chuck in Medomai combos and a bunch of tutors, but you’d be grasping at straws.

The first step to make it Bracket 2 is to trim the removal package. This deck interacts too much for the casual expectations of Bracket 2. Consecrated Sphinx also needs to go as a Game Changer. I could see an argument for cutting Magister Sphinx as a card that wins from nowhere, though I’d keep it (removing one player with no warning is very different from killing the pod).

Fill out those slots with more sphinxes! Plenty of sphinxes were sidelined for interaction and stuff. Sphinx of Enlightenment, Chancellor of the Spires, and Sphinx Ambassador are a few examples of sphinxes I wasn’t interested in running. You could even lean into more typal support like Roaming Throne and Reflections of Littjara.

Commanding Conclusion

Atemsis, All-Seeing | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

It’s always nice to see an under-served creature type get a commander suited to their needs. There will probably never be a sphinx commander as good as The Ur-Sphinx, but that has its own charm: You can build this and get a relatively consistent play experience, only needing moderate tweaks here and there as the next good sphinx or Kindred Judgment comes out.

What do you think of The Ur-Sphinx? Do you want to play it at Bracket 3 or another level? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! For more from us, subscribe to our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!