Odds & Ends: Reign of Sphinx by asamuell

Format: Commander

Commander: Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 44

Deck overview

This deck is an Esper control and cost-cheating strategy built around Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign. The primary game plan focuses on manipulating the top card of the library using efficient cantrips, scry tools, and artifacts like Sensei's Divining Top and Scroll Rack. Once Yennett is deployed on Turn 4, she attacks on Turn 5 to cast massive, odd-mana-value spells for free. These payoffs include game-warping stax pieces like Void Winnower, asymmetric praetors like Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant and Toxrill, the Corrosive, and table-flipping sorceries like Breach the Multiverse and In Garruk's Wake. A robust suite of low-cost reactive removal defends the board in the early turns, while Yennett quickly snowballs overwhelming card and mana advantages into a decisive combat finish by Turn 7.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Adarkar Wastes
  • 1 Aerial Extortionist
  • 1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter
  • 1 Angel of the Ruins
  • 1 Approach of the Second Sun
  • 1 Aqueous Form
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Azorius Signet
  • 1 Baleful Strix
  • 1 Blatant Thievery
  • 1 Brainstorm
  • 1 Brainsurge
  • 1 Breach the Multiverse
  • 1 Claim Jumper
  • 1 Command Beacon
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Contaminated Landscape
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Darksteel Angel
  • 1 Diabolic Vision
  • 1 Dimir Signet
  • 1 Doom Whisperer
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Enigma Sphinx
  • 1 Esper Sentinel
  • 1 Evolving Wilds
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Fabled Passage
  • 1 Fetid Heath
  • 1 Flawless Maneuver
  • 1 Generous Gift
  • 1 Glacial Fortress
  • 1 Halimar Depths
  • 1 Hidetsugu and Kairi
  • 1 Imprisoned in the Moon
  • 1 In Garruk's Wake
  • 4 Island
  • 1 Isolated Chapel
  • 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
  • 1 Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant
  • 1 Loran of the Third Path
  • 1 Magister Sphinx
  • 1 Misleading Signpost
  • 1 Mystic Forge
  • 1 Mystic Gate
  • 1 Mystical Tutor
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Path to Exile
  • 4 Plains
  • 1 Ponder
  • 1 Prairie Stream
  • 1 Preordain
  • 1 Raffine's Tower
  • 1 Rapid Hybridization
  • 1 Reconnaissance
  • 1 Reflecting Pool
  • 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
  • 1 Scroll Rack
  • 1 Sensei's Divining Top
  • 1 Sepulchral Primordial
  • 1 Serra's Emissary
  • 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
  • 1 Shineshadow Snarl
  • 1 Shipwreck Marsh
  • 1 Silent Clearing
  • 1 Smuggler's Share
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Soothsaying
  • 1 Sunfall
  • 1 Sunken Hollow
  • 1 Sunken Ruins
  • 4 Swamp
  • 1 Swift Reconfiguration
  • 1 Swiftfoot Boots
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Talisman of Dominance
  • 1 Talisman of Progress
  • 1 Temple of Enlightenment
  • 1 Temple of Silence
  • 1 The Ur-Sphinx
  • 1 Toxrill, the Corrosive
  • 1 Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
  • 1 Vega, the Watcher
  • 1 Vesuvan Drifter
  • 1 Virtue of Persistence // Locthwain Scorn
  • 1 Void Rend
  • 1 Void Winnower
  • 1 Watery Grave
  • 1 Weathered Wayfarer
  • 1 Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign