I guess this is as reasonable a place as any to introduce myself here.
Hi, I'm Charlotte Sable, one of the members of the Commander Advisory Group. I used to be on Salvation more actively back in 2007-2010 or so, but not since then. I was invited back and I'm happy to make myself available to listen to the concerns and ideas of the Commander community here and elsewhere. If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask them here or in PMs or new threads or wherever.
Just because the Ambassador isn't a star in an Unesh deck doesn't mean it's not worth playing. The ability to pull answers out of opponents' decks is great and the effect is still unique enough to be worth playing. Other than Unesh, no sphinx really stands out when playing an Unesh deck as they all do their own weird stuff and kind of blur together.
My usual go to in this category of cards is Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. While Alesha definitely points you toward a graveyard/reanimation strategy of some kind, the specific flavor of that strategy is wide wide open. You can build Alesha for value, for power, for theme/tribe (usually Human from what I've seen) or for any other number of possibilities. There are so many options for Alesha that there's no one right way to build or play her.
(For anyone curious, here's my current build of Alesha.)
I don't like the Anvil of Bogardan. You don't need the extra filter and because it's symmetrical for opponents, they get to filter faster and make use of graveyard strategies if they have them. You don't have any graveyard strategies. Using it for the maximum hand size just doesn't seem worth it.
That's fair, but the deck definitely wants a critical mass of no max hand size effects, and I'd rather play Anvil for the upside over something like Spellbook or Library of Leng which has no direct upside beyond the max hand size effect.
This is fair. Seeing as these cards originally found their way into the deck before its storm potential became evident, they've definitely been under consideration for replacement during updates.
I would play a few extra mana cards to help the initial setups. Search for Azcanta will be land ramp with so much discard in the deck, you'll get the threshold every time. Wayfarer's Bauble nice little land ramp for blue.
The problem is what do I replace with these cards? The list is very tight and I don't really feel the need for these effects. I'd much rather add more mana rocks before cards like these. Also, Azcanta can't get me sphinxes and I'm not interested in a 1U island.
I think I'd replace the graveyard Recycling as 99% of games if you're getting so far through your deck, you're winning the game, and Sphinx do actually present a fast clock once you're away, plus you have the storm plan. Honestly they are just dead cards most of your games, except Psychic Spiral as a win condition. Remove Elixir of Immortality, Quest for Ancient Secrets...
All due respect, but you're just wrong here. When the deck is going off, it is very very easy to totally deck out before you're ready for a finisher. The reshuffle effects are a key part of the deck that you can't do without.
Hey all, this is my first time back to Salvation forums in about 8 or 9 years, but I was invited to come back, and so here I am.
Anyway, today I wanted to share one of my favourite EDH decks with y'all since I've never seen anything quite like it out there. Enjoy!
UNESH, CRIOSPHINX SOVEREIGN
Unesh is the key to the whole deck. Without Unesh, this deck doesn’t exist and a Sphinx-tribal deck would be a low-tier casual choice, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Unlike some decks where the commander is there to provide colours or a general theme, this deck needs to cast Unesh and keep him on the battlefield in order to really get the party started. Unesh’s cost reduction and ETB Fact or Fiction trigger for Sphinxes is the engine that lets this deck turn into a glorious stormy snowball.
SPHINXES
If we’re going to take advantage of Unesh’s abilities, we’re going to need some Sphinxes to cast. Sphinxes are, on the whole, an excellent set of creatures. All of the blue ones fly, many of them have cool abilities that make the game interesting, and quite a few of them have built-in resiliency against removal. The one downside to Sphinxes is that they tend to be expensive, with a glut of them at 6 and 7 mana. There also just aren’t that many, with only a few mono-blue Sphinxes not present in this deck. A special shoutout to Jwar Isle Avenger, which only costs U to surge out when you control Unesh.
SPHINXES?
Since we’re a bit short on decent Sphinxes, we need to find some reserves. The great thing about Unesh’s trigger is that it triggers when a Sphinx enters the battlefield, so that allows us to take advantage of one of blue’s strengths and use clones and cloning effects to get even more cheap Sphinxes. (And yes, sometimes there might be a non-sphinx we want to copy. Ick.)
STORM
The whole point of the deck (aside from casting cool sphinxes, anyway) is to storm off with one of these spells. Mind’s Desire usually hits another storm spell along the way, Brain Freeze can mill out an opponent or two, and Temporal Fissure can just bounce all the permanents that aren’t yours. Aetherflux Reservoir doesn't technically have storm, but let's be honest, we all know what it's up to...
Typically, you’ll be casting these spells with storm counts from about 10 to 30+ or more. Of these, only Resevoir is an instant win, but they’re all a lot of fun to go off with.
RAMP / BIG MANA
When a deck’s strategy depends on having a 6-CMC commander in play, you had better believe that the deck is going to be running its fair share of lands and mana rocks. With a decent draw, Unesh can hit the table on turn 3 reliably, and even on turn 2 with some really crazy draws. In general, though, you want to have Unesh in play by turn 4 to really have any advantage. The ramp cards then serve as extra mana and cheap spells to help the deck churn out more Sphinxes and a higher storm count.
Once you have Unesh in play and are getting cards from playing Sphinxes, you want to set yourself up for the late game, and that means you want to really ramp up your mana production with big mana effects. This lets you cast multiple spells each turn and dig closer to your key combo pieces.
COST-REDUCTION
Cost-reducing effects go hand in hand with the ramp to help get Unesh and his cohorts into play as soon as possible. You don’t want or need too much of this sort of effect, though, since it goes to waste beyond a certain point. Ideally, I would like to see one of these cards in hand with one or two pieces of ramp to really set me up well for my first few turns.
MAXIMUM HAND SIZE
When you start to go off with this deck, you get a lot of cards from Unesh’s trigger. A LOT. This makes it imperative to not have to discard any of those cards if possible, so we run enough unlimited hand size effects to ensure that we get one sooner rather than later.
RECYCLING
Unesh’s triggered ability puts just as many cards into your graveyard as it does into your hand. Eventually, your library is going to get a little thin and your graveyard a bit full just from resolving those Fact or Fiction triggers. So we run these cards to allow us to reuse our resources and keep our library full. Why these specific effects? Because they either shuffle themselves back into the deck with the rest of the graveyard (Quest/Elixir), or they can win us the game in the case of Psychic Spiral.
CONTROL
Sometimes our opponents don't want us to have a fun sphinx party and try to stop our fun, so we need to run some acknowledgement of this fact and a few efficient ways to stop their spells or remove problem creatures.
SHENANIGANS
The last set of cards in the deck (other than lands) are the ones that really supplement the engine and let it get quite out of hand. Let’s go card-by-card:
Cloudstone Curio: Allows you to recur your sphinxes while you're going off if you're getting unlucky with your triggers or just to save mana by using cheaper sphinxes instead of more expensive ones.
Crystal Shard: A good safety valve to protect or just allow replaying of Sphinxes or clones.
Mana Severance: When played after a reshuffle effect, this card puts the deck into turbo mode, making sure that there’s nothing but gas left in it.
Mind Over Matter: The perfect compliment to Unesh’s trigger. Usually best used to untap lands like Nykthos for near unstoppability, it can also be used to tap down opponents’ resources to protect your combo.
Omniscience: Easy mode. Once Omniscience hits the battlefield, it’s almost impossible to lose unless an opponent hits it with Krosan Grip.
Panharmonicon: I hear that doubled Unesh triggers are good…
Walk the Aeons: If you're not winning with Aetherflux Reservoir, then you need to be able to attack with your sphinx army for the win. Having an extra turn effect that can be recurred once or twice to help close things out is exactly what's needed without getting too over the top.
So that's a brief look at the deck and where it's at. It's a lot of fun and I've put a fair bit of work into making the deck powerful but also still beatable. I look forward to your comments and questions about it.
Hi, I'm Charlotte Sable, one of the members of the Commander Advisory Group. I used to be on Salvation more actively back in 2007-2010 or so, but not since then. I was invited back and I'm happy to make myself available to listen to the concerns and ideas of the Commander community here and elsewhere. If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask them here or in PMs or new threads or wherever.
Just because the Ambassador isn't a star in an Unesh deck doesn't mean it's not worth playing. The ability to pull answers out of opponents' decks is great and the effect is still unique enough to be worth playing. Other than Unesh, no sphinx really stands out when playing an Unesh deck as they all do their own weird stuff and kind of blur together.
(For anyone curious, here's my current build of Alesha.)
List here. Writeup here.
This is fair. Seeing as these cards originally found their way into the deck before its storm potential became evident, they've definitely been under consideration for replacement during updates.
The problem is what do I replace with these cards? The list is very tight and I don't really feel the need for these effects. I'd much rather add more mana rocks before cards like these. Also, Azcanta can't get me sphinxes and I'm not interested in a 1U island.
All due respect, but you're just wrong here. When the deck is going off, it is very very easy to totally deck out before you're ready for a finisher. The reshuffle effects are a key part of the deck that you can't do without.
The last thing this deck needs is dedicated card draw spells. Unesh and every other sphinx in the deck are our card draw spell.
Anyway, today I wanted to share one of my favourite EDH decks with y'all since I've never seen anything quite like it out there. Enjoy!
1x Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
Sphinxes (21)
1x Argent Sphinx
1x Cloudreader Sphinx
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Conundrum Sphinx
1x Curator of Mysteries
1x Dream Eater
1x Glyph Keeper
1x Guardian of Tazeem
1x Horizon Scholar
1x Jwar Isle Avenger
1x Master of Predicaments
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Riddlemaster Sphinx
1x Rescuer Sphinx
1x Serra Sphinx
1x Sphinx Ambassador
1x Sphinx of Foresight
1x Sphinx of Lost Truths
1x Sphinx of the Final Word
1x Sphinx of Uthuun
1x Vexing Sphinx
Sphinxes? (7)
1x Cackling Counterpart
1x Clever Impersonator
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Rite of Replication
1x Spark Double
1x Vizier of Many Faces
1x Aetherflux Reservoir
1x Brain Freeze
1x Mind's Desire
1x Temporal Fissure
Ramp / Big Mana (11)
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
1x Dreamscape Artist
1x Grim Monolith
1x High Tide
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Caged Sun
1x Gauntlet of Power
1x Turnabout
1x Search for Azcanta
Cost-Reduction (3)
1x Herald's Horn
1x Sapphire Medallion
1x Urza's Incubator
Maximum Hand Size (1)
1x Thought Vessel
Recycling (3)
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Psychic Spiral
1x Quest for Ancient Secrets
Control (8)
1x Arcane Denial
1x Cryptic Command
1x Delay
1x Imprisoned in the Moon
1x Counterspell
1x Mana Drain
1x Reality Shift
1x God-Pharaoh's Statue
1x Cloudstone Curio
1x Crystal Shard
1x Mana Severance
1x Mind Over Matter
1x Omniscience
1x Panharmonicon
1x Walk the Aeons
Land (34)
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Deserted Temple
27x Island
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Saprazzan Skerry
Sphinx Storm??
Yes, allow me to explain...
UNESH, CRIOSPHINX SOVEREIGN
Unesh is the key to the whole deck. Without Unesh, this deck doesn’t exist and a Sphinx-tribal deck would be a low-tier casual choice, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Unlike some decks where the commander is there to provide colours or a general theme, this deck needs to cast Unesh and keep him on the battlefield in order to really get the party started. Unesh’s cost reduction and ETB Fact or Fiction trigger for Sphinxes is the engine that lets this deck turn into a glorious stormy snowball.
SPHINXES
If we’re going to take advantage of Unesh’s abilities, we’re going to need some Sphinxes to cast. Sphinxes are, on the whole, an excellent set of creatures. All of the blue ones fly, many of them have cool abilities that make the game interesting, and quite a few of them have built-in resiliency against removal. The one downside to Sphinxes is that they tend to be expensive, with a glut of them at 6 and 7 mana. There also just aren’t that many, with only a few mono-blue Sphinxes not present in this deck. A special shoutout to Jwar Isle Avenger, which only costs U to surge out when you control Unesh.
SPHINXES?
Since we’re a bit short on decent Sphinxes, we need to find some reserves. The great thing about Unesh’s trigger is that it triggers when a Sphinx enters the battlefield, so that allows us to take advantage of one of blue’s strengths and use clones and cloning effects to get even more cheap Sphinxes. (And yes, sometimes there might be a non-sphinx we want to copy. Ick.)
STORM
The whole point of the deck (aside from casting cool sphinxes, anyway) is to storm off with one of these spells. Mind’s Desire usually hits another storm spell along the way, Brain Freeze can mill out an opponent or two, and Temporal Fissure can just bounce all the permanents that aren’t yours. Aetherflux Reservoir doesn't technically have storm, but let's be honest, we all know what it's up to...
Typically, you’ll be casting these spells with storm counts from about 10 to 30+ or more. Of these, only Resevoir is an instant win, but they’re all a lot of fun to go off with.
RAMP / BIG MANA
When a deck’s strategy depends on having a 6-CMC commander in play, you had better believe that the deck is going to be running its fair share of lands and mana rocks. With a decent draw, Unesh can hit the table on turn 3 reliably, and even on turn 2 with some really crazy draws. In general, though, you want to have Unesh in play by turn 4 to really have any advantage. The ramp cards then serve as extra mana and cheap spells to help the deck churn out more Sphinxes and a higher storm count.
Once you have Unesh in play and are getting cards from playing Sphinxes, you want to set yourself up for the late game, and that means you want to really ramp up your mana production with big mana effects. This lets you cast multiple spells each turn and dig closer to your key combo pieces.
COST-REDUCTION
Cost-reducing effects go hand in hand with the ramp to help get Unesh and his cohorts into play as soon as possible. You don’t want or need too much of this sort of effect, though, since it goes to waste beyond a certain point. Ideally, I would like to see one of these cards in hand with one or two pieces of ramp to really set me up well for my first few turns.
MAXIMUM HAND SIZE
When you start to go off with this deck, you get a lot of cards from Unesh’s trigger. A LOT. This makes it imperative to not have to discard any of those cards if possible, so we run enough unlimited hand size effects to ensure that we get one sooner rather than later.
RECYCLING
Unesh’s triggered ability puts just as many cards into your graveyard as it does into your hand. Eventually, your library is going to get a little thin and your graveyard a bit full just from resolving those Fact or Fiction triggers. So we run these cards to allow us to reuse our resources and keep our library full. Why these specific effects? Because they either shuffle themselves back into the deck with the rest of the graveyard (Quest/Elixir), or they can win us the game in the case of Psychic Spiral.
CONTROL
Sometimes our opponents don't want us to have a fun sphinx party and try to stop our fun, so we need to run some acknowledgement of this fact and a few efficient ways to stop their spells or remove problem creatures.
SHENANIGANS
The last set of cards in the deck (other than lands) are the ones that really supplement the engine and let it get quite out of hand. Let’s go card-by-card:
- Cloudstone Curio: Allows you to recur your sphinxes while you're going off if you're getting unlucky with your triggers or just to save mana by using cheaper sphinxes instead of more expensive ones.
- Crystal Shard: A good safety valve to protect or just allow replaying of Sphinxes or clones.
- Mana Severance: When played after a reshuffle effect, this card puts the deck into turbo mode, making sure that there’s nothing but gas left in it.
- Mind Over Matter: The perfect compliment to Unesh’s trigger. Usually best used to untap lands like Nykthos for near unstoppability, it can also be used to tap down opponents’ resources to protect your combo.
- Omniscience: Easy mode. Once Omniscience hits the battlefield, it’s almost impossible to lose unless an opponent hits it with Krosan Grip.
- Panharmonicon: I hear that doubled Unesh triggers are good…
- Walk the Aeons: If you're not winning with Aetherflux Reservoir, then you need to be able to attack with your sphinx army for the win. Having an extra turn effect that can be recurred once or twice to help close things out is exactly what's needed without getting too over the top.
So that's a brief look at the deck and where it's at. It's a lot of fun and I've put a fair bit of work into making the deck powerful but also still beatable. I look forward to your comments and questions about it.