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EDH - Unesh's Sphinx Engine

Commander / EDH Mono-Blue

Caeruleus

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Creature (26)

Enchantment (3)

Sorcery (2)

Instant (18)

Land (33)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign

Artifact (17)

Introduction

This is blue control deck in which the card advantage engines are also relatively largely fliers which are independently able to close out the game. The deck is built with a significant amount of redundancy given that its main form of card advantage is ‘four card fact or fictions’ off the ETB triggers of Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign. A note on these piles, right at the beginning – it is important to treat the piles as Impulses which sometimes provide you with an extra bonus card. Assume in most piles you will get 1 card you want.

The deck’s plan has 3 main phases: (1) Ramp; (2) Control; (3) Engine

Phase #1 – Ramp

Rocks This deck is built in order play its Commander by turn 4 at the latest. Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign’s casting cost is , and so the aim is to ramp two turns ahead. In order to economise the mana rocks being played, each of those rocks should add on its own. This suite includes:

In the case of the last two, they require you to optimise their use on turn 4 (either through ‘tap and sacficice’ off the Eye of Ramos, or ‘use the charge and tap’ for the Coalition Relic. Also cute is that assuming you drew 4 Islands, which is unlikely, but not impossible, you should also be unafraid of casting High Tide in order to get to the critical 6 mana on turn 4.

The deck also features a couple of other mana rocks or pseudo mana rocks worth mentioning here – Thought Vessel is primarily in the deck for its ‘no maximum hand size’ clause, but also helpfully ramps; Rounding out the mana rocks are the heavy hitters in Nyx Lotus. Whilst the Nyx Lotus does not curve perfectly into the early game plan, they provide good pieces into the mid-game when mana is less tight, and help to provide better enablers for the Mind Over Matter (discussed below in Phase #3 – Engine)

Interaction Much of this deck’s control package costs very little mana, often instead costing cards form your hand. Since the deck needs to survive to begin prosecution of its mid-game plan, there are some games where you will have to aggressive stymie opposing mana rocks. Given the deck’s ability to generate card advantage in the mid game, you should not be afraid to use counters aggressively to keep yourself ahead. Most commonly, this deck can make the turn 1-2 play of using Commandeer on an opponent’s Sol Ring.

Phase #2– Control On turn 4 (or sooner) you should cast your commander Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign, and flip a four card pile. If necessary you burn a counterspell in the ensuing turn to keep the commander alive. Once you uptap, the real fun begins. In the mid-game, the deck functionally has 4 kinds of cards:

You should keep playing cards which functionally Fact or Fiction, while ensuring that you either have mana for interaction or protecting Unesh, or free counterspells to stay relevant. During this phase of the game, you are likely to be playing 1-2 sphinxes per turn, at roughly 3 -4 mana per sphinx. The cost of many of your sphinxes will drop from 4 or 5 mana to 2-3.

As the game progresses, you will likely pick up some mana along the way that people will stick in the piles. At this stage, you may see some engine pieces. They will often attract a 3-1 split off the Unesh triggers, given the manner in which they can close out games. However, as the deck does not have a combo finish, engine pieces should not be selected until you have stabilised sufficiently to be able to commence the engine with minimal interference. At this stage, it is worth mentioning the role of Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. In addition to being a laser for permanents and a perfectly respectable finisher, what makes Ulamog so good in here, is the fact that it will shuffle your graveyard into your library. It will do this when it is in a fact or fiction pile you do not select, and is resultantly sent to the graveyard. This means that you can safely select other cards, while binning Ulamog and shuffling your unselected cards back in. This means that passing up cards in this deck is not a ‘for once and for all’ choice. This means that selections should be situational. Furthermore, the key suite of counters and bounce spells are able to do a lot of heavy lifting as they will often be shuffled back in, and reappear on piles later.

Phase #3– Closing Out the Game As you will have seen, there are no combo wins in this deck. This is because your card advantage engines are also attached to 4+ power bodies in the air, meaning that you will quickly be able to swing for 12-24 damage a turn. The plan is essentially to keep your opponents on a clock by applying pressure with threats. Eventually you will flip into Mind Over Matter, which is the real heart of deck. Once resolved, it can be used to untap mana rocks, 'devotion rocks' (card:Nykothos, Shrine to Nyx and Nyx Lotus, and even Islands in pinch. This should allow you to chain sphinxes nearly endlessly. The last key trick is Savor the Moment. This card functionally reads 'your creatures gain haste, draw a card'. After you resolve Savor, you move to your next turn and attack for the win. Critically,Savor the Moment was included over other extra turn effects because it is generally seen as innocuous because it doesn't allow you to untap your lands. This means that when it is flipped in a 'Fact or Fiction' pile, your opponent is more likely to give it to you as a card alongside others, rather than the single card in a 3-1 split.

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