Sphinx Tribal by skylockvixen

Format: Commander

Commander: The Ur-Sphinx

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 57

Deck overview

This deck is an Esper Sphinx tribal midrange strategy commanded by The Ur-Sphinx. It uses early artifact acceleration, tribal cost reducers, and the commander's Eminence ability to deploy high-cost, high-impact Sphinx creatures well ahead of curve. The deck's primary card engine is Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign, which turns every subsequent Sphinx into a powerful card selection trigger that rapidly fills the hand and graveyard. With backup draw engines like The One Ring and Consecrated Sphinx, the deck maintains a significant card advantage over opponents. It controls the game using an elite suite of low-mana counterspells and targeted exile effects while breaking board stalls through asymmetric board wipes like Raise the Palisade and Kindred Dominance. Life totals are rapidly pressured using Magister Sphinx and evasive aerial combat damage, backed by cheap reanimation to recover immediately from board wipes.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Adarkar Wastes
  • 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
  • 1 Anguished Unmaking
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Denial
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Azor, the Lawbringer
  • 1 Bruvac the Grandiloquent
  • 1 Cavern of Souls
  • 1 Caves of Koilos
  • 1 Changeling Outcast
  • 1 Chrome Mox
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Consecrated Sphinx
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Curator of Destinies
  • 1 Cyclonic Rift
  • 1 Defiler of Dreams
  • 1 Demonic Tutor
  • 1 Denzilore Fatehold
  • 1 Deserted Beach
  • 1 Dovin's Veto
  • 1 Dream Eater
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Enigma Sphinx
  • 1 Enlightened Tutor
  • 1 Esper Sentinel
  • 1 Fabled Passage
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Fierce Guardianship
  • 1 Flooded Strand
  • 1 Force of Will
  • 1 Glacial Fortress
  • 1 Godless Shrine
  • 1 Hallowed Fountain
  • 1 Herald's Horn
  • 3 Island
  • 1 Isolated Chapel
  • 1 Kindred Discovery
  • 1 Kindred Dominance
  • 1 Lightning Greaves
  • 1 Magister Sphinx
  • 1 Mana Drain
  • 1 Mana Vault
  • 1 Marsh Flats
  • 1 Medomai the Ageless
  • 1 Morphic Pool
  • 1 Mystic Remora
  • 1 Otawara, Soaring City
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Path to Exile
  • 2 Plains
  • 1 Polluted Delta
  • 1 Raffine's Tower
  • 1 Raffine, Scheming Seer
  • 1 Raise the Palisade
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Rhystic Study
  • 1 Roaming Throne
  • 1 Sapphire Medallion
  • 1 Scrubland
  • 1 Sea of Clouds
  • 1 Shattered Sanctum
  • 1 Shipwreck Marsh
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Sphinx of False Conclusions
  • 1 Sphinx of Foresight
  • 1 Sphinx of the Final Word
  • 1 Sphinx of the Second Sun
  • 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
  • 1 Sphinx's Revelation
  • 2 Swamp
  • 1 Swan Song
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Talisman of Dominance
  • 1 Talisman of Hierarchy
  • 1 Talisman of Progress
  • 1 Teferi's Protection
  • 1 The One Ring
  • 1 The Ur-Sphinx
  • 1 Three Tree City
  • 1 Tivit, Seller of Secrets
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Tundra
  • 1 Uldaros Theorix
  • 1 Underground River
  • 1 Underground Sea
  • 1 Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Urza's Incubator
  • 1 Vampiric Tutor
  • 1 Vault of Champions
  • 1 Void Rend
  • 1 Watery Grave
  • 1 Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign