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.
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.
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.
