It's been a few years since a 4/4 flyer for five
mana could claim to be a solid offensive force
to be reckoned with. Flying is flying, though,
and the Master should get to trigger his
mini-game often enough that you won't be
disappointed... unless your opponent is good at
guessing. My advice? Against your opponent's MP,
always guess that it IS more than 4, that way
they'll never get the best stuff for free. If
you're the one playing MP, make sure you have
plenty of draw so that you don't run out of
cards in hand. Also, don't choose a card in your
hand-- put your hand face-down on the table,
play a little 3-card Monty with yourself, and
then have your opponent guess if THAT card is <4
or >4. If you're gonna play min-games, have fun
with them!
David Sirlin is a famous expert on the Street
Fighter video game series, and worked on an
updated version of Street Fighter II Turbo, as
well as some board and deck-building games. He's
also the writer of a widely quoted series of
articles about competitive behavior that
popularized the word "scrub" and introduced it
to Magic, to all of our costs. As such, I'm not
sure exactly what to think about seeing his name
on a card.
Seeing as a lot of Sirlin's analysis of
Street Fighter has to do with the art of
predicting an opponent's next move, it's
probably not surprising that this design does
what it does. It's very original and
occasionally potent, but hard for everyone to
get behind: some people will probably be able to
figure out what is likely to be a successful
guess based on the state of the table, and
others will see the guessing as a frustrating
random element, especially in competitive play
(irony!). It's also not necessarily apparent
what the right way to build a deck around it is
- if you include a lot of high-cost cards to try
and cheat them onto the stack, your opponent
will see the pattern after one or two hits.
Still, anything that lets you reduce a card's
mana cost to literally zero is worth
considering.
Today's card of the day is Master of
Predicaments which is a five mana Blue 4/4 with
Flying that has you choose a card in your hand
whenever it deals combat damage to a player then
that player guesses if the converted mana cost
is higher or lower than four and if wrong you
may cast the card without paying the mana cost.
The effect is fantastic both for the potential
to play top end effects for free, but also for
the serious psychological impact on an opponent.
Evasion makes getting the trigger easier, though
adding Aqueous Form or something to give
Hexproof is well worth considering. This is one
of the few cards that is dramatically improved
by having a sidedeck prepared as it makes
guessing even more difficult and stressful. This
will see play across formats and overall is a
fun to use and very dangerous to oppose middle
to late game threat.
In Limited this is a clear first pick in
Booster that will win games with evasive damage
and the guessing effect's card advantage. Two
Blue out of five is manageable for a two color
deck, though is a bit more than a splash can
reasonably maintain. In Sealed having additional
evasive creatures in Blue as thematic support
helps and barring the color being extremely weak
this is a great foundation for half or more of
your deck.
Sometimes it's easy to look at a card with a
lot of rules text and focus completely on that.
First, however, it's important to look at the
basic abilities first. For 5 mana, you get a 4/4
flier. That in itself is not too bad - and is
great in limited - but we haven't seen the likes
of Air Elemental in constructed decks for some
time, so it will need to do more to be a
standout.
So, what does this big block of rules text
break down to? First he has to deal combat
damage. As a 4/4 flier, that is reasonably
likely to happen, though there are a lot of big
flying creatures out there to make it anything
but a given. But if it does hit, not only are
they down 4 life, you get a chance at casting a
card for free. Here's where the mind games that
sphinxes like to play come in.
You could pick a card with a cost 4 or lower.
If they guess right, you probably have the mana
to play that card anyway, so you're taking a
50/50 on saving mana on an effect you are going
to get, regardless. Do you have something else
useful to use the saved mana on? If so, you've
gained a lot of value on this attack.
You could pick a card with a cost greater
than 4. This has a potentially higher value to
you, as you could be holding a card that costs
more than you could be able to pay for, so if
they guess wrong, you get to play a card you
would not have been able to cast if it were not
for the sphinx. This is the best possible
outcome for you. But, if your opponent is
anything like me, they are going to see this
possibility and almost always guess "higher than
4" to prevent you from getting ahead with some
crazy bomb.
This sphinx really does cause some mind games
on both sides of the board. The bottom line,
however, is that you can't reliably predict
what's going to happen when he hits, so you
can't count on getting to cast anything for
free. If he's still good enough in your deck as
a 4/4 flier than doesn't do anything else, play
him. If not, leave him in the trade binder.
