The Commander
Flying
Sphinx spells you cast cost 
less to cast.
Whenever Unesh or another Sphinx you control enters, reveal the top four cards of your library. An opponent separates those cards into two piles. Put one pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard.
Guide
Gameplan
Cheat out a wall of evasive Sphinxes that each trigger a Fact or Fiction-style draw, burying opponents in card advantage while flying over for the kill. You ramp into Sphinxes early, drop Unesh to make them cheap, then chain ETB triggers via blink and recursion to refill your hand. Win through the air or with big mono-blue payoffs.
Strengths
- Massive repeatable card advantage from every Sphinx ETB trigger
- Almost entirely flying creatures make for hard-to-block beatdown
- Sphinx cost reduction enables explosive multi-spell turns
- Mono-blue gives access to the best counters, card draw, and protection
Weaknesses
- The pile-split is decided by an opponent, so they often hand you the weaker pile
- Tribe is creature-heavy and folds to board wipes
- No built-in evasion protection or recursion for Unesh himself
- Can be slow and durdly; commits little to the board before Unesh resolves
Key Cards
- Sphinx of the Second Sun — Extra upkeep doubles draw steps and triggers, a huge value engine in the deck.
- Sphinx Ambassador — Big evasive Sphinx that strips a key card and effectively tutors when it connects.
- Conundrum Sphinx — Cheap Sphinx whose draw rewards you for knowing your top card after scry/Brainstorm effects.
- Unstable Obelisk — Mono-blue lacks removal, so colorless answers to problem permanents are essential.
- Cyclonic Rift — The premier mono-blue blowout that resets the board while your fliers survive.
- Panharmonicon — Doubles every Sphinx ETB so each one digs eight cards instead of four.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana and blue rocks (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mind Stone) so you reach Unesh ahead of curve, then lean on blink and Panharmonicon-style doublers to maximize each ETB. Cut weaker vanilla Sphinxes for ones with strong triggers and add efficient counters plus Cyclonic Rift to protect your engine; consider a compact win like Aetherflux Reservoir or Approach of the Second Sun to close before the durdle gets punished.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Commander and Sphinx flying damage over multiple turns
- ▸Overwhelming card advantage that lets you out-resource and grind out the table
- ▸Big mana payoffs like Aetherflux Reservoir or a finisher cast off a huge hand
Archetypes
- Sphinx Tribal — Unesh discounts Sphinx spells and rewards every Sphinx that enters with card advantage.
- Blink — Flicker effects retrigger the Fact-or-Fiction ETB to keep refilling your hand.
- Control — Mono-blue counters and bounce buy time while Sphinxes grind out card advantage.
- Voltron/Evasion Beatdown — A fleet of fliers can simply attack opponents to death over a few turns.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (U), by popularity.
