They're Getting Closer by user9172558

Format: Commander

Commander: Geist of Saint Thalia

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 50

Deck overview

This mono-blue combo deck uses Geist of Saint Thalia to discount noncreature spells, accelerating a relentless engine of 38 copies of Sphinx's Approach. The strategy leverages early surveil, looting, and cantrips like Careful Study and Otherworldly Gaze to rapidly load the graveyard with Sphinx's Approach. On Turn 4, casting a discounted Sphinx's Approach triggers its alternate exile ability to tutor Sphinx of the Chimes directly onto the battlefield. Because the deck is packed with identical cards, Sphinx of the Chimes can repeatedly discard pairs of Sphinx's Approach to draw four cards at instant speed, drawing the entire library without passing priority. With access to the entire deck and remaining mana from untapped Islands or High Tide, the deck closes the game immediately on Turn 4 via Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, backed by free counterspells.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Careful Study
• 1 Conspiracy Unraveler
• 1 Contingency Plan
• 1 Curate
• 1 Eye of Jace
• 1 Fierce Guardianship
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 Geist of Saint Thalia
• 1 High Tide
• 30 Island
• 1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Lat-Nam's Legacy
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mana Severance
• 1 Otherworldly Gaze
• 1 Pact of Negation
• 1 Perpetual Timepiece
• 1 Reenact the Crime
• 1 Retraced Image
• 1 Scroll Rack
• 1 Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn
• 1 See Beyond
• 1 Selective Memory
• 1 Sphinx of the Chimes
• 1 Sphinx of the Second Sun
• 38 Sphinx's Approach
• 1 Stream of Thought
• 1 Teferi's Ageless Insight
• 1 Thassa's Oracle
• 1 Tolarian Winds
• 1 Turbulent Dreams
• 1 Unwind