This sly Sphinx might actually be a good card, but I have a couple of reservations. First, the body is great for three mana! 4 toughness is great, since it dodges most burn spells. Likewise, the new Connive ability can make any one of your creatures really big really fast. The Ward ability can help stop the opponent from blowing this card up. On paper, there's quite a bit to like.
The big problem, of course, is that this card is in the worst colors for its ability. Esper doesn't really like going wide with Creatures. In most Cubes, this means this card is going to be the only creature conniving in most games. Likewise, the ward cost helps to stop removal, but it doesn't fully protect this card from death. It could be ok as a reanimator enabler, but being 3 colors just makes this card difficult to make work most of the time.
I think this card might have a home in Constructed, as this card along with the new Obscura Charm seems potentially powerful in the right shell. If that "right shell" ends up being compatible with Cube design, I could see it having a home, but I don't know what that deck would look like right now. But if the deck for this does exist, it's possible this could be an Esper Siege Rhino.
I think this card would be excellent if it cost 2W, but for WUB, it's a hard pass.
It's a card that wants to be cast on curve in an agressive deck. Both are handicapped significantly by it's hard to cast, non-agressive colors mana.
Raffine, Scheming Seer is powerful as an individual card, but unless your WUB theme is reanimator, tempo, tokens, or draw/discard matters it's an odd fit for cube. In my cube WUB is largely about blink themes (often UW Soulherder decks splashing for variousChupacabras) and I strive to eventually include one card from each shard and wedge, so I'm hoping for a strong Esper card from this set with a good ETB trigger. Obscura Interceptor is in more in the thematic Vensery ballpark than Raffine, but that's not a power level home run either.
I like the Edric quality to this card: higher floor, but lower ceiling. What's nice is that this has a nice defensive body by itself and can grow from there. I can see possibly see myself playing this in my alternative cube, but as a 3-color card, this doesn't get there for me in my normal cube since it's not too pushed and it doesn't help really help anchor down an archetype like Leovold does. I feel like Kaito Shizuki does a lot of what this wants to do while being one less color.
This sly Sphinx might actually be a good card, but I have a couple of reservations. First, the body is great for three mana! 4 toughness is great, since it dodges most burn spells. Likewise, the new Connive ability can make any one of your creatures really big really fast. The Ward ability can help stop the opponent from blowing this card up. On paper, there's quite a bit to like.
The big problem, of course, is that this card is in the worst colors for its ability. Esper doesn't really like going wide with Creatures. In most Cubes, this means this card is going to be the only creature conniving in most games. Likewise, the ward cost helps to stop removal, but it doesn't fully protect this card from death. It could be ok as a reanimator enabler, but being 3 colors just makes this card difficult to make work most of the time.
I think this card might have a home in Constructed, as this card along with the new Obscura Charm seems potentially powerful in the right shell. If that "right shell" ends up being compatible with Cube design, I could see it having a home, but I don't know what that deck would look like right now. But if the deck for this does exist, it's possible this could be an Esper Siege Rhino.
Highball MTGS Cube Thread
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It's a card that wants to be cast on curve in an agressive deck. Both are handicapped significantly by it's hard to cast, non-agressive colors mana.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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