Extreme budget Sphinx Tribal for Standard that aims high to win in the air using big expensive Sphinx that nobody plays with.
Lots of draw from cheap cycling and draw into discard to take advantage of Drake Haven. Catalog and Tragic Lesson are awesome engines for this. Curator of Mysteries approves since you get to Scry every time you Cycle or Discard.
Guardian of Tazeem is a nicely costed flyer with a super sweet Landfall effect that locks down enemy creatures. It's too bad I can't do it more than once a turn, but it works really well with Tragic Lesson which can ensure another land drop.
Censor and Countervailing Winds make up the disruption kit. It's not a lot, but with all the draw and Scry going on you shouldn't have any problems finding them. More counters in the sideboard are available if needed.
Sphinx of Magosi seems like a crap rare that shouldn't see play, but on turn 7 you get to draw two extra cards and attack with an 8/8 in the air. That doesn't suck.
Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign makes the rest of your otherwise expensive Sphinx ridiculously affordable. It also gives you some serious card advantage. With Sarcophagus you can cycle a Curator for one to draw a card and then play it for just 2 mana from the graveyard. That's 3 mana for a 4/4 flyer that replaces itself in your hand with a card draw plus 1-3 more cards from the top of your library depending on how your opponent splits. Awesome.
Riddleform is a sweet 3/3 Flyer for 2 that has the unique status of being an Enchantment most of the time. This if course makes it pretty hard to deal with. It's great offense when drawing cards or great defense when countering spells.
Imaginary Threats is a unique closer by forcing all of your opponent's creatures to attack into your hopefully larger Sphinx and Drakes and then you get essentially two combat phases to close out the game in the air. Hopefully it'll only take one but it's sweet that everything stays tapped.
Glyph Keeper and Sphinx of the Final Word are heavy hitters that should prove difficult to get rid of. Since Glyph Keeper has Embalm you can be ok discarding him for lack of a better option. Neat. This is the Sphinx version of Reality Smasher that can be played for as little as three mana, it just unfortunately doesn't have haste. Embalm makes it particularly persistent, I really like this card.
Abandoned Sarcophagus let's you play those cards that you've either cycled or cast for a second time. I have a feeling this is best played in the mid game just in case so that cards don't get exiled on accident but I haven't played around with it to really know the best strategy. I guess it depends on whether you plan to cycle everything first and then play them from the graveyard as if they are in your hand or you can cast them for their effect and then play the sarcophagus later to play things a second time. Either options seems solid.
After playing with it for a little bit on MTGO I found you can play this pretty much whenever you don't have another play. Early on its fine and can activate a turn 3 Riddleform and then turn 4 you can start cycling things if you want, or play Drake Haven, attack again, and then really start cycling up some Drakes and Card Draw on turn 5. It's incredibly effective.
Baral, Chief of Compliance is not a Sphinx. However, he fits the deck like a slipper and even more so after sideboarding in more counter spells with him. I did take him out for budget constraints on MTGO, but I do have a pair of them in paper that I might try out.
Compelling Argument may look like a mill strategy mixed in, but it's cheap cycling make it useful for the cause and if you think about it you are basically countering the next five cards for two mana. It's really only bad against decks that want their stuff in the yard in which case you can just cycle it.
Failed Inspection fits the theme as a hard counter that also draws and discards to enable your other stuff.
Overwhelming Denial is great in a counter mirror and is probably my favorite underrated counter spell in Standard. That Surge cost for 2 as protection is just super sweet.
So, will Sphinx Tribal tear into FNM and take home the gold? Probably not, but it should put several decks through their paces and upset some records. Budget brews and unused cards are a funny thing to play against. It makes it very hard to tell what you are up to :)
