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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Cerulean Sphinx
Image from Wizards.com

 Cerulean Sphinx
- Born of the Gods

Reviewed March 17, 2014

Constructed: 2.38
Casual: 3.00
Limited: 4.17
Multiplayer: 3.08

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

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Cerulean Sphinx

This was a pretty popular card when it first came out. Reasonably costed for its size, big enough to end the game in short order and flying to help it get through, and it has a sort of "panic button" ability that lets it hide itself back in your library. I have to wonder, though, is getting itself shuffled back into your library that much better than having it die? Which is harder to get a creature back from: the library or the graveyard? There's plenty of ways to get a dead creature back if you're in black, or even green or white, and black combos quite nicely with blue-- especially in the first Ravnica block where this was printed. The library? Well, you could transmute a Netherborn Phalanx into it, or you could run lots of blue draw and hope for the best.

Honestly, the shuffle effect is a nice add-on in case of "fate worse than death" cards like Enslave, Hideous End, or the like, where you can at least dodge the secondary effect even if you can't save the creature. But those aren't all that common, and so this card isn't that much better than any random big blue finisher.

Constructed- 2.5
Casual- 3.5
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 3.75


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Cerulean Sphinx
This week, we're looking at the history of Sphinxes. Fortunately, each one manages to do something slightly different, so it shouldn't turn into a race to see if we run out of synonyms for large flying creatures before Friday. Consider Cerulean Sphinx's curious ability, for example. It's far from a traditional protection ability like shroud or whatever you call Elderwood Scion's cost-affecting clause, but the fact that the Sphinx can hide from the Wrath of God effects that control decks like to run can sometimes be relevant. Yes, it's easy to fear the possibility that you'll never see it again, but you're in blue, right? I'm sure you can find a way to draw lots of cards. (And don't forget, Teferi's Puzzle Box and Turbo-Fog decks might need a plan B sometimes.)
 
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Cerulean Sphinx which is a six mana Blue 5/5 with Flying and for one Blue the owner can shuffle it back into their library.  A six mana 5/5 with evasion is not terrible, but currently much better options exist for Blue and nearly every other sphinx is more playable.  The effect can allow it to somewhat dodge removal or other negative effects, though it is still out of play and not even in the hand or graveyard where it could potentially be of use.  There's some minimal benefit against milling and as a tutor target, yet overall this is just not appealing enough to see any serious play in any Constructed format when other choices offer more immediately beneficial effects.
 
In Limited this is dramatically better as it is likely to be one of the top creatures in your pool and the effect can put it back into your deck if a response is needed.  With the smaller library the odds of getting it again after using the effect is fairly high and an additional chance to play a 5/5 with evasion is not to be overlooked.  With no real drawback and a sort of protection it is an easy first pick in Booster and solid reason to consider running Blue in Sealed.
 
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 2.5


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