Welcome back to the wonderful world of Commander multiplayer, as told by SUNCOM, the PRE I run every Sunday at 16:00 GMT (more info about it here). You can read about the Origin of It All in the first article of this series.
It's Sphinx Week at PureMTGO! Did you read some of those cool articles that are going to keep showing up all week long? Like, say, this one by RexDart about the History of the Sphinx in Competitive Magic? No? Do it now! No, wait, do it right after you read mine!
And while we're waiting for the illustrious Leviathan (the PureMTGO writer, not the mythological beast) to release the latest and Sphinx-flavored Conqueror & Commander later this week, what can we say about the Sphinges in Commander? Well, the legendary ones are only four. These four:
From left to right: class of 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2013. Yeah, Sphinges are a recent thing in MTG.
Now, the first Isperia from Dissension was a bizarre, overcomplicated thing that has you try to guess what's in the hand of a player that she connected with, and if you do, you go search a flyer in your deck. Like, why even. And her stats are strangely out of balance, too, with large toughness and poor power on a creature you want to employ aggressively every turn. The revised Isperia from Return to Ravnica definitely took a more straightforward approach, and it's a nice Azorius commander with a built-in draw engine that actively dissuades the opponents from attacking you, something that's bound to prove even more relevant in multiplayer. Weirdly enough, it has the opposite issue of the previous incarnation, in that its toughness isn't that great for a 6-mana creature. Still, it's nicely playable. As is the more recent addition to the Legendary Sphinx Club, once again Azorius-colored: Medomai from Theros. I have yet to see this one played as a commander, and I suspect that it gets hated a lot, but also that it turns out to be less effective than what one might think. The best Commander Sphinx, then, is Shards of Alara's Sharuum, that interacts not just with the other artifact Sphinges from the same block, but also with any other artifact in your deck (notorious is her interaction with Mindslaver). As such, it's a creature you might even want to include in any deck with a strong artifact theme.
But what about the nonlegendary Sphinges? Well, a few of them are very welcome in any deck that can accommodate them, as one of the characteristics of Modern-era Sphinges is to be high-profile blue flyers in the guise of Angels, Demons and Dragons, but with a recurring card-drawing theme that makes the best of them even more alluring, especially in a 100cs format. So, when meddling in all things blue or blue-adjacent, you might want to keep in mind these beauties, just to name a few:
On the left, card-providers extraordinaires. On the right, nearly unstoppable beaters.
One Sphinx that you see less frequently than these four, but it's equally important, being essentially a tutor (and, as we know, tutors are the backbone of Commander) is this one:
At the very least, it'll fetch your Solemn Simulacrum or your Duplicant!
While in my humble opinion, this one (and anything else sharing the same issue) should be just banned in Commander.
That wording is just wrong for 40-life formats. Compare it with more recent wordings like the ones for Chalice of Life or Path of Bravery.
But wait, aren't we forgetting a very important Sphinx here? Oh no, I didn't forget it. It's just that Consecrated Sphinx isn't just something you might want to consider when running blue. It's something you FREAKING HAVE TO PUT IN YOUR DECK when running blue. Even more than Island!
Seriously, if you don't play this in Commander, you're doing it wrong.
TODAY'S COMMANDERS (click to go directly to the decklists): Chromium, Palladia-Mors, Saffi Eriksdotter, Sliver Queen, Wydwen, the Biting Gale, Thada Adel, Acquisitor.
SUNCOM 49
The war of the Elder Dragons rages on! Remember the active challenge? Play with all the five Elder Dragon as a Commander and keep each of them on the battlefield for at least one full turn to win a VERY big Jackpot? (12 tix and counting). We currently have three players with two Dragons cleared each: Edison_88luckyplayer with Nicol Bolas and Palladia-Mors, Gordani with the same guys, and raf.azevedo with Nicol Bolas and Chromium. Wanna know what a Chromium deck even looks like? It's some Esper monstrosity of this sort:
Another player constantly trying to have those clunky Dragons stick around is our resident Scottish jokester SekKuar Deathkeeper, which in SUNCOM 49 tried his Palladia-Mors deck yet again. Those upkeep costs seem unattainable when everyone else keeps sweeping the board or bouncing everything back in hand or destroying all lands!
Wheel of Fortune and Winds of Change: both great with Scroll Rack. But not enough to squelch Palladia's fury. Not to mention, her suckitude.
SUNCOM 50
The very important milestone of our 50th event (where did the time go?) was properly celebrated with the arrival of a whole new batch of players! Hurrah! Promotion on MTG Salvation paid off!
I want to feature all of the new guys, starting with one who's actually a very old guy. Or one could even say, an ancestral guy: none other than Steve81, the often-mentioned host of the previous incarnation of this very Sunday tournament (and, but entirely coincidentally, my fellow citizen). He came with a classic build that we didn't see that much in SUNCOM so far (anomalies of restricted metas, I suppose): the very selfless Saffi Eriksdotter.
And what do you know, Steve actually won the event! He wasn't one of the three best players of the old SEDH event for nothing. And now he's back! So don't trust him.
But similarly awesome proved to be the other new players, too. In the final table (along with most-likely-to-be-on-the-third-Table-of-Champions Zarcron, who was playing Adun Oakenshield) we had both SilencerPL, with this Sliver Queen build (she's very popular lately as a 5-color good-stuff general)...
...and elderurza85, with a cool commander that you don't see often, Wydwen, the Biting Gale from Lorwyn (remember her? I didn't).
Admittedly, this build doesn't exploit Wydwen much. Not that she's particularly exploitable, unless you have a lot of effects triggered by a creature entering the battlefield. But she's cool because you can have her dribble removal, and then recast her for the same original cost over and over again, which means she can stop a non-trampling attacker indefinitely, letting only 1 damage through. Yeah, she's essentially... a 6-mana Forcefield.
TOC 2
Event 50 was also the time for the second Table of Champions (TOC), the fight for supremacy (and tix, and seed privileges) that happens every 25 events (next one is already scheduled for May 19, 2014. We think ahead!). The qualified players were _BIG_BROTHERS_ (who seems to be away from MTGO these days, so I requalified him for TOC 3, in the hope that he might come back next year), raf.azevedo (with this control deck helmed by Grand Arbiter Augustin IV), SekKkuar Deathkeeper (with his Intet, the Dreamer build), and justcanceled, bringing back for a day the thrill of the "almost infinite" turns dominance, thanks to the mischievous Thada Adel, Acquisitor.
And indeed justcanceled did it! Congratulations to our new reigning Champion of Champions and his little, kleptomaniac Merfolk!
WHAT ABOUT SOME ACTION NOW?
A lot of exciting, convulsive, live-recorded action in the form of... the final table of SUNCOM 50, won by Steve81 with Saffi:
And the lightning fast victory by justcanceled in the Second Table of Champions:
Enjoy! And sorry if I'm not always able to follow the action with the mouse, or avoid people talking to me while I'm recording.
And that's it. See you in the SUNCOM room next Sunday at 16:00 GMT (we moved the start one hour down!), and with the Chronicles here on PureMTGO in two weeks! Commander ho!
