The upcoming Multiverse Reforged Commander deck is packed with alternate universe versions of beloved characters and Commander staple cards, and one of the most influential is the mirror to the ubiquitous Ur-Dragon: the new sphinx commander the Ur Sphinx. That was responsible for a truly mind-boggling price spike for two Sphinx cards last week, and now we’ve spotted two more MTG cards on the climb, with both Raffine, Scheming Seer and Aor, the Lawbringer leaping up by 133%.
If you’re not familiar with the Ur-Sphinx yet, it’s a chunky 10/10 flyer with an almighty cost of six generic, one white, one blue, and one black mana. It has the potent Eminence aura, which discounts other Sphinx spells you cast by one mana as long as the Ur-Sphinx is in the command zone or on the battlefield. If you somehow get it into play, whenever one or more of your Sphinxes attack, each player mills that many cards and you get to cast one card that each player just milled.
This commander demands Sphinxes, good ones, and lots of them, to populate the 99, and there’s a real shortage at lower mana costs. Raffine, Scheming Seer is a strong option, and it’s risen from $2.50 on Monday 14 September to $7.0 on Monday 28, according to the market price tracker on MTG Goldfish.
Raffine costs one of each of the Esper mana, so if he’s in your opening hand expect to have him in flight by turn three. Thanks to Ward 1 and unassuming 1 / 4 stats he’s unlikely to be a target for single-target removal.
Raffine has a triggered ability that means whenever you attack, one attacking creature connives x, where x is the number of attacking creatures. Connive was a set mechanic from Streets of New Capenna which allows you to draw and then discard x cards, putting a +1/+1 counter on the conniving creature for each nonland you discard.
This allows Raffine to be a grow threat on his own, or to enable another one of your creatures if the board state isn’t favorable. He provides always useful card selection, and if there’s a massive Sphinx in your hand that you can’t afford to cast, Raffine can pitch it into your graveyard so you can reanimate it later.
Azor, the Lawbringer is the cheaper of the two cards – having gone from $1.70 on the 14th to $4.00 on the 28th – but in game terms he’s more of a heavyweight. He weighs in at two white, two blue, and two generic mana for a 6/6 flyer. He’s got a strange form of protection and disruption: when he enters the battlefield, each opponent can’t cast instants or sorceries during their next turn. And he has an excellent mana sink ability – whenever he attacks, you can pay two blue, one white, and x mana, to gain x life and draw x cards.
If you know that one of your opponents is on a sorcery speed combo, he’ll give you one turn of reprieve (and more if you’ve brought some flicker effects). Otherwise there’s nothing clever to say about this guy – he’s a big Sphinx in the right colors who mucks your opponents for a turn and gives you something to do with excess mana. Who doesn’t want to turn mana into life and cards?
Do you have a favorite Sphinx for commander? Or a janky little Sphinx that you plan to sleeve up under the Ur-Sphinx’s command? Or is there another card from the main Reality Fracture MTG set that you think is the real under-looked gem? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
