Pointed Discussion

some comboabilty potential here for lots of free spells. but not sure if its strong enough for constructed play at its cost.

what are you talking about, master transmuter all the way!!!! that would mean the it would only cost 1 blue, the combo is more than deadly

cool ability, but it would only work in casual or a pretty specialized deck with a combo surrounding it, like master transmuter... good call, brimandvormay!

Master Transmuter all over this. Bring it down get a free spell, attack next turn and do it all over again. SWEET

cascade will not trigger if you use master transmuter's ability to bring this card into play

Your right cascade won't trigger cuz with Meddling Mage even if you named Sphinx of the Steel Wind Transmutter can still get it into play cuz your not playing the spell. With cascade it say's "When YOU PLAY this spell...".

What happens if an opponent "Grabs the Reins" on this creature? Whose library will it go third from the top?

If opponent "Grabs the Reins", plays entwine and sacs this, it will only go to its owners graveyard, but noones library. It says "to YOUR graveyard" which means its controller who is opponent. Your cards never go to any other players library or grave or hand.

Man im talking like i know everything lol

Its decent, but it is just a 5/4 flier for 7... Also all u stupid idiots it DOES NOT WORK with master transmuter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also what happens if you don't have three cards in your library when it dies?

there are better creatures for esper but still later in the game with esperzoa it can be....well u know

I like that it costs 4 colorless, gives a cost potentially as low as 3 mana (with Etherium Sculptor), but the fact that cascade does not trigger when it is brought into play with the Master Transmuter takes away a lot of its usefulness, at the end of the day it's kind of...meh.

That's a really good point, MikalP. It does say "your library"...I guess that means if an opponent gains control of it, it gets put into their library. Peculiar.

Wait! No! It says the ability triggers when it is put into YOUR graveyard. Since you don't own Enigma Sphinx, it goes not to yours, but to its OWNER's graveyard, and the ability won't trigger because they didn't control it when it was in play. So that would actually stop it for good.

Whilst I have only been playing casually myself, I do have one in my artifact deck that I rarely ever lose with. His cost gets drastically reduced if you have multiple Etherium Sculptors out, reaching a minimum of 3 mana to play if you manage to get 4 out (not to mention that on that alone it's possible to play it by turn 4). And of course, even if you get the reduced mana cost cascade is still based off its converted mana cost of 7.

Admittedly, it isn't as useful as a lot of other artifacts in the deck, and it will never be the first one I search for with a Sphinx Summoner, Fabricate or Tezzeret, but it's not entirely bad. Its big cascade lets you put more artifacts into play and increase your utility and power, and it's still a flier which makes it a decent thopter producer if you get a Sharding Sphinx out.

All in all, I'd say the 3.6 rating is about where it's at, but don't underestimate his cascade power when you combine him with those sculptors!

Not sure why it is you can't use master transmuter on it, or at least elvish piper, since you are still playing the spell even if your doing it with help from a creature, but anyways it doesn't really matter. Even with the slightly prohibitive mana cost there isn't anything else about it that makes you want to try to get it out super early, a 5/4 is equivalent to a 3 mana thoctar except that it has flying. The only really interesting thing about this card is the cascade, the only issue being it's not easy to mass a deck of things that it can cascade into, in the sense that it's completely random. Anything under 7 mana is almost everything in the game. It could be completely awesome when that happens, or it could get you a strix, hard to say. The sphinx of the steel wind is probably a better finisher simply for it's consistency.

Also, unless I'm very mistaken, grab the reigns does not put it in the persons graveyard who took control of it with the spell, when it dies it goes back to the original controller and then back into their library. I've never actually played with grab the reigns, but as a patron of mind control I know it works that way with that card.

Can potentially combo with where ancients tread, since when it dies it always comes back into play not long after, and can be used to cascade into removal cards like fiery fall, bituminous blast, and mind control, that you can set to the top of your deck by using cards like sage owl, and magus of the future. The deck has to be set up around it to operate properly however, or half the time you will cascade into something with an x cost, or a 1/1 creature.

This, along with the other cascade cards, is a MAJOR reason that they brought the "cast" terminology back in M10, as well as created the "battlefield." People confuse "play" (the equivalent of cast) with "put into play," which trigger at different times. "Play" denoted an ability that went on the STACK with the spell, like cascade, storm, or replicate. In contrast, "comes into play" will trigger no matter how the card got to the battlefield, be it casting or transmuting or reanimating or search-your-library-and-plop-on-the-battlefield effects.
Also, another reason exile effects are becoming more common. How are you supposed to beat this in draft without a Path to Exile or Celestial Purge?
And hey, why is it an enigma??? That makes so little sense.

It's an enigma because it keeps coming back and you don't know why. Thus, it is an inexplicable occurrence, or an enigma.

The Sphinx's ability triggers when she goes into a graveyard (as far as I can tell, this Sphinx is female). Like all cards, she goes into her owner's graveyard. Then the ability triggers. Since it triggers after the Sphinx goes into the graveyard, who "your" refers to is determined by who's graveyard she's in, which would be her owner's graveyard. Then, she is put into that "your"'s, ie: her owner's, library, third from the top.

Should be Enigmatic Sphinx

I personally like this Sphinx better than some of the other more expensive ones in the Shards block. Its more practical and reliable to me to have a big sphinx that cascades for six,and is really hard to get rid of than the other more flashy abilities.

The art is spectacular. And as for playing him never had a chance i wish i did though because he looked awesome in reborn limited plus that is an extreme cascade. and he's not too phased by terminate either.

This
Enlisted Wurm
Deny Reality
Bloodbraid Elf
plus
Mirror of Fate
Relic of Progenitus

Add in a few ponders and such and you got yourself a really fun casual deck. (Also, the only deck I can get Mirror of Fate to somewhat work in...)

Shouldn't the oracle text use the "dies" template?

I had Salvage Titan in an artifact deck, then I realized that this does a much better job of coming back. Plus as others have mentioned, with Etherium Sculptors, he becomes unfairly playable. Add to that the ability to play artifacts and other nice and nasty cards without paying for them, and it's nigh on perfect.

Only real problem is the random draw, but you don't have to play the card if you don't want to. It would be nice if you play it multiple times, to assist in retrieving something from the bottom of your library that found its way there earlier.

@krikkitwars

Even if cascade doesn't trigger with Master Transmuter, she can still be transmuted back to your hand. That's still synergy.

It's female. And now you can't un-see it

@Selez: The enigma is why it's enigmatic.

Expensive Cascade effects are, paradoxically, the most irregular, since you're bound to end up finding one of your mana dorks (Silver Myr, for example) instead of the game-ending combo piece.

Not exactly a bargain, although if you find your big fatty it's always fun.

While playing booster draft recently, I dropped this creature and cascaded into... Vithian Renegades. The only artifact on the battlefield was the sphinx herself, so I had to destroy her. That's ironic, being killed by your own ability.

The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma.

*spills milk*