Pointed Discussion

It's worth is up to how many good cards in their deck there are. And whether or not you have real telepathy to pick an unsuspected one.

While the mana cost is big, I love the Idea behind this card. It is an amazing Blue card, all about deception and mind games.

Q: What happen to the card if not a creature card?????

I think this card has an error in it. I think you're supposed to tutor for a creature card; If, however, there isn't an error, well, then that is shoddy work for not explaining what to do with non-creature cards, and regardless of that, I think it expertly exemplifies the fact that "battlefield" is a waste of letter space as compared to "play" or even the word "field," which would have worked better than "battlefield" such as to reduce confusion for newbies when attacking.

Who in the hell approved this card? Who designed this crap? Seriously, just look at it and try to tell me with a straight face that this is "more intuitive" for a new player.
What happens if I search their deck and pull out a basic land? What happens if I pull out a Lightning Angel and they name Suntail Hawk? This isn't explained on the card, which I assume is because it is so wordy and filled with garbage that there wasn't room to finish the explanation.
If WotC isn't even going to bother writing out fully functioning cards, where do they get off claiming that their "new rules" are going to improve the game? Seriously now, did R&D get replaced by a bunch of school kids who can't develop worth two craps, or did you all just get dumber?
Whoever created this and whoever allowed it to pass should both get fired.
And why in hell is your censor so powerful that I cannot say any words that have a.s.s. in them?

Crenel Sucks I Like This Card Especially The Art

Anyone who doesn't understand this card should question about how good his brain is (or, at least, should read the card)... It's all perfectly understable and well explained on the text!
-If you didn't search for a creature card, you can't put into play.
-If the opponent guesses the card you've picked, you can't put into play.
Which part of "If you searched for a creature card that isn't the named card, you may put it onto the battlefield under your control" you don't understand? It's not that difficult, you have to think only for 13 seconds to realize how it works, but if you don't want to think you shouldn't play Magic...
There isn't written "search that player's library for a creature card" because, if so, someone have to control that you picked up a correct card, so you should reveal it to the opponent that controls that you've picked a correct card...

However, I think this card is very funny. Probably the funniest of the whole M10... The entire riddle stuff is great! It actually seems a sphinx riddle!
5/5

This card is amazing. Yes it is quite expensive, but it easily captures the flavor of blue.

1. It lets you steal something of the opponents and they can't do anything about it.

2. It forces you to make a crafty decision and out smart the opponent.

3. Its complex rules appeal to those of perhaps a bluer nature.

And to think some people thought this card didn't capture the flavor of blue, how absurd.

To ease some confusion, if you can't play the card for any reason, it would probably go back into the player's library, which would then be shuffled.

I think the language could be tighter. It should have said "search that player's library and choose a creature, then that player names a creature. If the creature you choose is not the creature named put it into the battlefield under your control and shuffle the library. Otherwise, just shuffle the library."...oh and "palm his most expensive card." ; ) I think R & D needs less corporates, mathies, and gamers and more english majors.

Nonetheless, this is another cool concept for blue. Definitely more fun than the by-now bland, old mahamoti. Could have had one more toughness to best that white killer-angel. The art is superb. This would make a great general in an all blue highlander deck. I hope I pull one!

I see potential issues with this card. Some players will absolutley no approve of someone else handling their cards.

I was lucky enough to get this card from a booster and therefor i feel obliged to try and make its context clear. this is from the Magic 2010 fact sheet.

* You may search for any card, not just a creature card. Of course, if you choose a noncreature card, you won't be able to put it onto the battlefield no matter what card the player names.

* Once you've chosen a card during your search, you must clearly indicate which card you've chosen (preferably without showing the front of that card to the player!). Then the player names a card.

* After the player names a card, check if the card you chose has that name. If it doesn't, but it's a creature card, you may put it onto the battlefield. If you don't want to put that card onto the battlefield, it's not a creature card, or it does have the name the player said, it simply stays in that player's library without ever being revealed. The player then shuffles his or her library, including that card.

basically what i get is that to fully utilize its ability we must choose a creature card and hopefully be able to put it onto the battlefield.

cheers

this card really isnt that difficult to understand

the ability is pretty awesome. not only does it give u the chance to cast a creature from your opponents deck for free (imagine if they had progenitus in there), you can go through and pick out potential combos he has and can therefore second guess how his strategy would work out (also helps in sideboarding)

though in all honesty, by the time one can cast that out there, you'd have a pretty good idea what his combo includes

Could have its uses, I suppose, but it's really just a Timmy card for casual play. I mean, unless you're going against a green or white deck with a ton of powerful creatures, they're going to name their best, and in a blue, black or red deck that translates to "only card worth picking."

Decent card with a ton of flavor. It's a 5/5 flier which makes it worth playing right off the bat with an ability that sounds like it would be very fun to use at the casual table. However there are much more effecient ways of stealing creatures. Overall just an average rare in my books. 2.5/5.

It's a great card, but later in the game, it's ability becomes less valuable, especially if your using a mill deck. The reason is simple, you opponent has less cards, it becomes easier to guess the selected card. But I can't argue with a 5/5 flier. This card's effectiveness is basically based on how well your opponent knows his/her deck, players using new decks there not familiar with will have a harder time stopping you.

Think of it this way, people who do not understand how this...umm...Sphinx works...*puts some clothes on it* :)
You: "Oh, lemme go through your library for a CREATURE card..."

*shuffle, shuffle, stare...shuffle, shuffle, shuffle...picks a card*

You: "Okay, now you have to guess what kind of CREATURE card it is" (The card is Elvish Piper...Idk...)

Opponent: "Ummmmmmmmm, Progenitus?"

You: "Nope, HA! Now I get to play it under my side" :P

*You stick your tongue out, and watch your opponent burst into tears*

STEALY DECK, FTW!!
HAHA!!

It seems to me there is confusion as to why you don't have to find a creature card when searching. That is because it is possible that your opponent will have no creatures remaining in their library. That would make the search have no legal targets and you wouldn't be able to chose anything which would lead to even more confusion.

I generally think this falls squarely in the bad rare category. You don't permanently exile the card you pick, the creature has a somewhat prohibitive mana cost, and while the idea is good, the finished product leaves much to be desired.

A better card would have been a 1/5 flying for 3UU

When XX deals combat damage to player you make search that player's library for a card and exile it.
Simple, playable, intuitive... While it doesn't kill the opponent... it is still a MASSIVE bomb. High toughness makes it hard to kill as well as an effecient blocker. It's lower cost makes it more playable, and it's ability would make it more impactful on the game than the sphinx that was handed in and approved. Stealing creatues is fun, but there are enough, more playable cards that do that.

The art is strangely erotic, the text is open-ended, and what exactly the card does keeps me guessing.
I think WotC captured the true feel of a sphinx on this card, since I understand none of it.

Using this and Guile in the same deck you quickly realize that people have no idea how to play against their own cards

first, this is far from a perfect blue card, I see that, most people see that, it is not for standard play, or even extended I think

this is a card for multiplayer/singleton/edh, games that are typically slower

the 7 cost is hard, no getting around that, it is a blue creature

that said, this can be a game finisher, how? well here it is....

turn 7: you manage to top deck this and have the mana to play it, so you do, the 5/5 flier hits the board, thud, and your opponent looks confused as he reads it, finally says, "ok?..." and you pass the turn

turn 8: you manage to top deck your twincast, and have 3 ways to finish this game in a turn or so, Tramatize, Mind funeral, and telemin performance. Now it is turn 8 and your opponents deck is mostly gone thanks to some other good mills, but now you have 1 shot to finish it, he is down to about 30 cards out of his starting 100, this shinx is how you decide how to finish.

first you have to swing and get the ability to go off, not that hard. Now you can look through their deck, note the number of lands, if it is more then 8, you are better off not useing mind funeral with twincast, note the creatures left, if you find he has 5 or more, telemin isnt going to cut it, and definatly count how many cards he has left

so now lets see how this resolves...

mind funeral: your opponent had about 10 lands left, too much for your mind funeral to wipe away but, 1/3 land, still leaves 20 non land for it to hit, good odds, you cast mf and twin, 8 lands+ average about 16 nonlands with this ratio, 6 cards left, if he guessed the card you pulled

telemin performance: so out of 30 cards, he has around 4 creatures left, lets say broodmate, mulldrifter, finks, and redcap, now the best one to take would be broodmate, especially if it is turn 8, but if your opponent knows his cards, he will know he has these 4 and knows the 4/4 flier is the best, finks would be a good second choice, but again, he knows his cards, redcap and mulldrifter are the 2 worse targets, as they wont help protect you much, but they are the best ones to take if you plan to telemin twin preformance, so lets take redcap. opponent fails, expecting to see his broodmate in the sphinx's riddle. Now you start your preformance, nabbing 2 more, now with only 3 left, there really a lot of cards that will get milled, unless he top decks 2 of the 3 creatures so 2/3 of 30, 20 cards out the window, and perhaps that broodmate is now yours

tramatize: if plan A and B wont work, plan C, 32ish cards left, tramatize, if you feel lucky, save the twin, and see what you get with tramatize. maybe 9 or more of those 13 lands he had left got hit in the 16 you milled, if so, one funeral will finish off the few lands left. if you dont feel lucky, well, 24 cards is not bad, opponent has 8 left, a very small turn clock as what prevented yo from casting telemin or mind funeral is likely gone

Yes this card is wordy, and far far far from great, but a deck in a slower format can really take advantage of it.

I don't know why so many people complain about high casting costs in blue. The Sphinx Ambassador and the Sphinx of Jwar Isle can be cast on turn four if you cast Polymorph on your Sage Owl.

This, + mask of riddles.

Anyone who complains that they can't understand this card seriously need to stop playing a game that requires as much thinking as Magic, and go play something built for them, such as "Hungry Hungry Hippos" or "Slam your face against a wall"

This card is very blue, its all about mindgames. While some players will think you'll just target their most powerful card, like say a Baneslayer Angel, and they'll guess that card every time you deal damage to him. However, players without such a lethal bomb, or players who figure themselves to be cunning, will realize that you might not go for the obvious pick. Hence, its becomes a mind game, do you target the mything rare, or a simple common to go give you some board advantage.
Also, while this card is expensive, it is only so because it is so powerful. And you will quite often see it get out when combinded with any sort of mana acceleration, either through green (Lanowar Elves/Birds of Paradise/Noble Heirarch, Overgrowth, Harrow, Oracle of Mul Daya, etc.) or through the limited white mana accel. (Path to Exileing your own creatures, as well as some other cards). Also, while a lot of people are talking about this in a mill deck, I find that it fits perfectly into Blue's traditional field, control decks. Lock down the board, bouncing and countering the opponents threats, holding off until turn 7, playing the Sphinx. Turn 8, slap on a Whispersilk Cloak and attack.
While this card isn't 1st grade tournament material, it is a powerful and fun card, and I really enjoy playing it.

damn straight faisjdas!

Haha, think again, Gezus. I take great pride in my ability to tell my opponent how they can best wreck me with a Mindslaver. It's just that much more impressive when you survive that way :) Anyway, it's clearly a Sphinx, you can tell from the ability alone, and I rather like that. Well executed, Wizards! And just think, if your opponent expects you to steal their second best critter...well, you can just go for the best one instead :P There's so much psychology to this card, I love it: 5/5

This creature would be great with Aetherplasm.

I have one of these in my own deck, they go very nicely with Whispersilk Cloak, which makes them completely unblockable so long as the cloak isn't removed by something. Its relativley easy to figure out the text, even though there are questions that can be asked, because it isn't necessarily intuitive right away. One big benefit of this card that most people overlook is if you are not playing against someone you know, you get to search through their library to find the card, thus allowing you to find out what they have. Its basically a guessing game, if they guess wrong (hence the riddle idea) you get to play one of their creatures. All other cards you can choose, but simply do nothing other than making the player reshuffle and get to look at their cards. Granted there are times when something will come up that may complicate this card, but otherwise its relativley straight forward. It's effect is actually more powerful than it looks because its not like mind control, when you get that creature its yours and only killing it somehow is going to change that (not unlike a targeted telemin). Between this and a few other blue cards you could create a mimic deck that takes or copies everything from your opponent.

It would have been better however, if this card read 6 converted mana cost, uu4, flying, when sphinx ambassador does damage to opponent (insert telemin performance text here), and if your opponent guesses the card that comes up wrong you get to put it into play, otherwise it would just mill cards off their library. This would have been simpler, less wordy, and still be mythic rare awesome, while being high in blue flavor.

Other good combinations for this card include avatar of discord, discard it, then use a makeshift mannequin, rise from the grave, or torrent of souls to pull it out of the graveyard. There's always elvish piper, and to help keep it alive either robe of mirrors, privileged position, kira great glass-spinner, or clout of the dominus.

If you can't understand the wording on this card, it doesn't mean you shouldn't play magic; it just means you aren't blue, but rather a green/red caveman like me. :)

(PS: I actually happen to like Hungry Hungry Hippos)

Could you ping yourself to pull fatties out of your deck?

Just pulled this from a booster, finally a sphinx that captures the flavour of riddles, the riddle being "what card did I choose?"

I love playing this card. It might not be super unstoppable but with a little ingenuity, luck, and some mind games you have the potential to turn it into a wonderful finisher. I'm sure their are better cards out there but this thing is incredibly fun to play, and that's what matters most to me. I like the idea and if you're playing an opponent with a decent deck you could potentially use the opponent's creatures to augment your team wonderfully while they are still trying to figure out what rare you're going to target.

This card is absolute hilarity against my friends. It's so fun just grabbing things and making them try to guess what it is~

Expensive? Sure. Fun? Absolutely. 4/5

I think people are missing the point that this is a 5/5 flying creature that makes medium strenth creatures every time it hits, also if your opponents have any creatures with annoying abilities you can throw that in their face too.

What an ugly a** b**ch.

Does it have boobs? No seriously I think I see some boobage here.

I find that calling the second best card in their deck often leads to playing it, as most players think "Oh god he'll play my Progenitus/Emrakul/Whatever" and call it just in case.

It's pretty funny in EDH; you'd expect it to be more fun given the higher variety of creatures in each deck, but everyone just says Emrakul, the Aeons Torn because god knows they don't want to see that on your side of the field.

I am distressed by how much boobery the sphinxes portray.

I guess that's an excuse for them to sit in that pose as opposed to doing, you know, anything else at all.

Incredibly Strong. As long as your opponent has more than 1 fatty in his deck this card is pretty much worth 2 creatures.

Whoa. Everybody Wrote really long comments. I guess I can join in. Jdfjkg, fjfh. OIUO! Otqfd gf y gjbgv. gjh. fskfjgrlrg rgrgbdkg dfwhkrggh flkjlr fkjewtgkhrw fhrkgtehr nd ywehfbv. Buggga buggga bugga boooooooooooooooooooooooooop! Does that make it so you have to click to see more? jdfbkbgfdbn fksdgkjgbhrf fdshkff fkdshf fhewsufhwiroeroq? or dvfdkjhb ghdkgh fhrgfrhgei fgfhergkh! I guess I should say that I like the card. See ya!

Deserves to be almost Legendary.

That look on her face. Scary...
"You're going places, and you're never coming back...
warm places!"

@Hibron, "Could you ping yourself to pull fatties out of your deck?"

No, you can't as the cards states it must deal combat damage. Combat damage can only be dealt by an attacking creature.

There is one way round this... Evil Presents. It's an extremely rare, holiday un-card, but it forces your opponents creature to attack them instead of you! Now, all you have to do is convince someone to play it on your Sphinx ;).

I like it a lot in EDH/ Commander, as it makes it way harder to guess which creature I choose when we're talking about 30 choices on average. Making them shuffle their general into their deck and then searching with the sphinx is a fun ploy. You can practically see the sweat beads forming on their foreheads as they try and guess whether or not I'd be that obvious. Who knows? I just might be. HA

I would lurv to reach into my Eldrazi deck, and when they guess It That Betrays, reveal that it was actually Llanowar Elves, just so you could get it right...also, it is the perfect Sphinx, it completely captures the flavor of them, and looks like really fun to play...who says that WotC doesn't support casual?

A great card if you know your opponent has a bunch of nooby cards coming up... but the problem is that it can sometimes be easy for your opponent to guess what card you chose. Solution: Play with people with the IQ of an eggplant.

'Go fish' XP

This has exactly the right flavor for a Mythic Rare, and will drive your Commander opponents crazy trying to guess which of their 45 creatures you plucked. 5/5.

@Hybron: someone's already answered that, but pinging yourself with the sphinx wouldn't work to get free creatures from your own deck. Only way I can think of doing that would be casting Harm's Way on whatever creature blocked the Sphinx and redirecting the damage to yourself.
Ambassador Sphinx is a really good Mythic - unique, makes you think a lot and is powerful in a very subtle way. I like it. Maybe it's a bit too clunky for normal games, but it could for sure have a place in EDH. Give her trample and double strike for great lulz.

When it connects, Bribery, pretty much.
Sure, they get to pick the one card they don't want to see, but you've got a 5/5 connecting with their face already, so all you need is some value.

Heh, all the Sphinx and their riddles.
WIth this one, you actually get to be the one riddling your opponent.
So great! :D
-
I've had it done to me before...well it wasn't pretty, but it was fun since it's not a typical magic thing...

This card is awesome! ... But it's impossible to play with online (I made a suggestion on some forums, but it's not implemented :\). I would rather play the real game, but I have such a weird schedule that it's also pretty impossible.

Fireshrieker. They get to name 2 cards.

I, just once, want to connect with this, and steal a Conquering Manticore

Look at those perky, big ol' blue sphinx boobs! Wow.

Apparently mythic rares really do make you feel like you're 12 again....

The ability to search for a noncreature card actually saved me once in EDH. I was beating down the last remaining opponent with this guy and for some reason it was unblockable. The problem was, I was at 1 life and only my Arboria was preventing him from killing me with his hordes.

Double Sphinx Ambassador is so brutal...

It works exceptionally well in EDH, since it's a lot harder to think about. No matter how well you built your deck, you can't fathom all of the cards in your deck. If you're playing white, do you just play Wrath of God, or do you also play Austere Command, Day of Judgment and Rout? Are they going to play mind tricks, or go for gold?

That's an easy situation. Imagine when you choose a creature and nothing's on the field. What if you're playing Blightsteel Colossus? Do you think they're going to choose it, or not, because it's an obvious choice?

GAAAH! IT'S A GOD-DAMNED PRINCESS BRIDE POISON SITUATION! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

First card I ever pulled with Sphinx Ambassador was Progenitor Mimic... Copying Sphinx Ambassador...

I've determined that makes a two-part rage-quit engine. Ah, good times... Good times...

Brand, F U, I'm red

Awful versus relentless rats.dec

So does she have giant forearms or is the laying on her weird, massive sphynx breasts? I would not like to see this thing flying through the air at me.