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.
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.)
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.
