Wrong colors. Wrong ability. Wrong rarity. Yet it's the foil card of the green/blue structure deck.
Synergy with Archon of Redemption? Hell, that was a shot in the dark if ever there was one.
Since when is blue an aggro color? Uhh, never. Flying is a blue ability, but we have our above-the-cost flying guy. He's $20-30, while this will probably be $0.50.
Green-blue can ramp into the mana and spell you trouble...until you Terminate it. :|
It might beat up Sphinx of Jwar Isle, but Jar Jar Sphinx at least has utility. This thing has...a big body. Ooh. REAL special.
Elysiume
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(7 votes)
It's fair for it's cost, but incredibly boring. An 8/7 beater for 7? With nothing but flying? In blue? It doesn't seem to say Sphinx to me. It's a very bland card. I agree that it should not have been the foil in the UG deck, or a foil in any precon. It just is not very interesting and says nothing about Zendikar other than it has Sphinxes.
Johnald
★☆☆☆☆ (1.9/5.0)(4 votes)
A bit too under-costed to me. Blue doesn't get big creatures like that for that kind of cost.
Khias
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(3 votes)
If you don't mind cutting his wings off he could be decent with Magebane Armor on.
TheTraitorKing
★★☆☆☆ (2.7/5.0)(7 votes)
I don't think people realize how good this card actually is. Something this powerful in blue has got to be a sign of good things to come.
BelloAbril
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(5 votes)
Pure crap, even in limited it is, with the flood of cheap flying creatures.
I understand that every single rare can't be a tournament playable card, but this is so bad that even at uncommon wouldn't be played at kitchen tables.
A3Kitsune
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
8 power for 7 mana is good without anything else. Adding flying... a great finisher for blue.
Lestat13
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(7 votes)
Best rare ever, it's hard to even insult him because of how little there is to insult.
Eved
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(8 votes)
So you guys don't like that he is bland, so what? 7cmc for an 8/7 without drawbacks is almost unheard of for anything other then then green or multi. And since flying is supposed to belong to blue and not white, doesn't it make sense that blue should get a flier that kicks the crap out of Akroma, Angel of Wrath? (Granted I still prefer my Akroma's to this do to the amazing first strike, vigilance, flying combo.)
This is a great card for blue to have, no matter how boring you think it is.
Behalter
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(9 votes)
You may say its boring, but look at air elemental, same thing, just not as strong. Blue is the only colour thats supposed to be able to compete with green for massive things of awesomeness (Tidal Kraken, Leviathan, This guy) The blue creature may not be as big, but they have evasion most of the time (flying unblockable etc) This is a freaking awesome card for 7 mana, and it brings back some old school blue beatdown. 5/5
EDIT:
Also if your worried about the casting cost, brainstorm or ponder so hes on top of your library, and use djinn of wishes, that card was put there for a reason, an 8/7 with no drawback for 4 mana? I'll take that any day.
FugimSky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
o hai thar vizzerdrix 2.0!
Coactus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Pulled this out of one of my Pre-Release boosters, while a friend (whom i bought in on a loan) pulled Jace. Therefore, I hate this card for that, and it also being generally unplayable. For 7 Mana i'd much rather have a Kalonian Behemoth.
Blue doesn't need great big creatures. No color simply needs great big creatures. Blue needs creatures that are playable in decks with blue. This is not. Also, based on the curve they used for Kalonian Behemoth, i'd prefer if this was 7/7 Flying Shroud. THAT would make it a new blue finisher.
Gear61
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Big and dumb.
Bigg_ol_FATTKIDD
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
I have no idea what everyone is talking about. At the prerelease this weekend this was what gave me all my losses. It might be vanilla but it beats down hard, and sometimes thats all you need to win.
Zulp
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(10 votes)
I don't care that he's French vanilla. I love muscle in blue. He makes Mahamoti Djinn obsolete (if he wasn't already that way) and I'm sure he will be a fine finisher for control decks. The Timmy in me just won't let me not be a fan of this card; creatures like this are made for players like me.
HairlessThoctar
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(11 votes)
At first I thought this was terrible.
A vanilla flyer? Seriously? Look at the BS white and black can get away with.
But then I stopped and thought about it. There's nothing actually wrong with this guy. His cost/size ratio is above the curve, he's enormous, he flies, he looks cool as all getout.
He to me speaks volumes about how far we've come since yesteryear, and the fact that this card can be considered bad scares me.
Excellent cost for what it does. 8/7 with flying? For seven? It's a great closer for any blue control deck.
True_Smog
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
At least he's got better artwork than Sphinx of Jwar Isle...
TheKyleman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Dudes it looks *** awesome and its a 8/7 flying for 7 mana =)
kittyspit
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
yeah, but i think i'll insult you Lestat13 for being such a moron. let me put it to you plain and simple - unplayable with blue. and it's a target without shroud. give me a sphinx of jwar isle anyday over this piece of crap.
lukemol
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Play it in a deck with Djinn of Wishes and he can be an 8/7 with flying for 4 mana. ;)
mutantman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What can I say? This card is obviously not aimed at me. It's unplayable pretty much everywhere except maybe limited, where the seven mana is still pretty restrictive. Meh.
Although according to Mike Turian, its playtest name in design was "Big Bird," which definitely scores it a few points.
Kweane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think he's a good toolbox card for blue, actually. Sometimes, you can stuff all the tricks and sleights you want up your sleeves, and do just fine, but there are times when nothing quite does it like a big stick with big muscle. Teddy Roosevelt got the point. Maybe blue should. No, I'd never run a playset of these, but... he's another trick in the toolbox.
Laguz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Not a bad card, but incredibly boring. Rares should never be this vanilla. If this were uncommon, people would still be like 'yawn'.
WER386
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
I usually tell the bad things of a card instead of the good ones coz everyone else tells them; but here it seems the opposite, so I'll be rational: low mana cast for what it does, not for what you'd pick to put into a deck; unstoppable in limited or draft. Since when did "doesn't have shroud" been a bad thing? cough*Sphinx-of-jwar-isle-maybe-?*cough*learn-to-play-without-shroud-!*cough. As last line I'll add: 1-if you're playing blue you are able to protect this sphinx. 2- 7 mana is not technically "aggro thing", unless your playing some kind of weird overwhelming-unplayable cards deck?, and BTW this is BLUE so don't associate it with aggro, completely different things. And 3- the only way to get a creature in the table you know is casting it from your hand?.
Ventrisor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I never got to play this in a game. Its boring, and too expensive. My friend played one of these and i took it out instantly with a doom blade. Least they can do is to add shroud to spice it up a little bit.
Ezenthar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card really doesn't have any drawbacks, does it? That said, I can't see it being particularly useful, either....
If I want a Sphinx that is a monster in combat I'll gladly stick with Sphinx of the Steel Wind, though they don't go together in the same kind of deck anyway haha
Denizs
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
in step seven a 8/7 creature with flying? not so good
Cheza
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Next Step after Mahamoti Djinn. Better than typical green fatties like Duskdale Wurm.
Donovan_Fabian
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'd rather have a sphinx ambassador or sphinx of jwar isle for the shroud.. but.. its still a huge flying creature and its hard to say thats bad. If you ever hit once with that much power you take off almost half their life points, which is pretty insane. On the downside it has no protection from removal and its not like your reserving mana for counter spells for this guy after the expensive mana cost, he's also not the only giant flyer in blue at the moment. With enough mana you could slap a clout of the dominus on him for a 9/8 flying shroud.. or with privileged position played in white with a blue/white deck, and thats nothing to sneeze at. Biggest problem I can see is blue's complete lack of anyway to trick out big creatures, you could potentially I suppose splash green and then accel or use elvish piper. Love greg staples art on this guy too, they should put it up as a wallpaper on the magic site.
Be nice to see sphinx get some "tribal"esque kind of abilities like dragons have, such as we see with karthus and crucible of fire. Be great to see a card that is like.. Sphinx cub, 2 mana, 2/1 flying, with an ability like lifelink or can see target players hand when it does combat damage. Hopefully goliath sphinx is heading in this direction.
p.s. don't bother trying to get this out with djinn of wishes.. that's like saying you need a 5 mana creature to potentially play a 7 mana creature, if you hopefully have a magus of the future or other card to make sure your top card is goliath sphinx.. its easier to use mindwrack liege, and then it still wouldn't necessarily be worth it. Blue really doesn't have that many ways to trick out a big creature, which is probably why he is in the blue/green deck, because green can.
demoninabottle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is nigh unplayable in the blue constructed. Frankly, 7 is way too much to pay for something that doesn't dominate late-game. It, like all relatively vanilla creatures, dies to removal, and without any "enter the battlefield" first turn abilities, that's 7 mana down the drain. The 7 mana is going to eat your pool for the turn, so all the sphinx does is wastes a turn. This will only find a home in limited, where removal isn't nearly as prevalent.
A lot of the comments on here sound like they're coming from some pretty spoiled people. This is a great creature with an evasion ability and low CC. Might as well say it's "Strictly worse than Mox".
SleetFox
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This is nice to have in blue. It's appropriate flavor-wise, but it's not something the color usually gets. It's still not the best creature in the world, but it's playable and appropriate for a rare. I'd still prefer Sphinx of Jwar Isle or even Sphinx Ambassador, but this isn't bad.
My complaint with it, however, is that it's a sphinx. I'll accept Serra Sphinx being simple since that was a timeshifted version and sphinxes are as close to angels as blue gets, but an 8/7 with flying and nothing else shouldn't be a sphinx. Sphinxes are supposed to be crafty, not only bulky.
robinhood15
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Quick comparison: Nightmare, for 6 mana, is a 6/6 black flier when played in a black mono deck on it's first turn out. Baneslayer, for 5 mana, is a 5/5 flier that has abilities that, however cool, won't help you deal more damage to your opponent. Goliath, for 7 mana, is a 8/7 flier. All these fliers have a base and toughness that's equal to their mana cost, plus a little bonus thrown in. For Nightmare, he can get bigger. For Baneslayer, she gets lifelink, etc. For Goliath, his power is boosted by +1. All in all, these are all fantastic fliers, and Goliath shouldn't be considered far behind.
InsideousRakael
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Firstly, I love the idea of the Sphinx being blue's power creature. It has a lot more flavor to it than Djinn or whatever may have preceded them. Second, I love the look on my buddy's face when I plop this down in front of all his Dragons who are finding it a little harder to be so imposing.
I know that the lack of some crazy ability deters from the "sphinx" aspect of the creature but sometimes being huge prompts self-imposed riddles like "How am I getting around this guy since I didn't expect for this level of opposition?"
Plus, his flavor text puts the lack of an ability into perspective. All-in-all I think it's a nice workhorse. Inspired by...well, mostly the luck of getting a few in boosters and in trade, I have created a sphinx deck. Probably not a solid idea until they give the sphinx the support cards dragon's have, but a fun time in casual multi-player. Especially when you get a few jaws on the table when you kick your Rite of Replication with Goliath as the target.
Sironos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It is an effective card, I'll grant you that, but in my poinion rares shouln't be vanilla like this, especially not when they're this powerful, it should have some drawback or something, this onejust seems odd in my eyes, but to be honest, If i pull one out of a booster, I'll include it in my blue deck anyway.
I think one of the strange things about it is that it is only raw power, and blue is the colour of misdirection, illusions, trickery, mental manipulation and so on, where this is just muscle with wings.
I know air elemental is too, but air elemental is not a rare, so I understand air elemental better than this one.
Now I have one, pulled it out of a booster, cannot wait to see my opponent's face when I play an 8/7 with flying. Still I think it should have had some sphinx like ability, but apart from that, it is great muscle for blue.
IshubarashI
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Meh, I give it a 2.5/5. It's not a bad card, just not a particularly good card. To be honest, this seems more like an uncommon to me, certainly not a rare. But oh well, I'll still find a place for the one I pulled out of a booster.
Gezus82
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I actually find this thing very powerful and use one in a rez deck, its sheer size plus evasion can put some serious pressure on the opponent and can be better than akroma against decks with light removal or just a small amount of burn
SoulShatterer
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
He can be a beastly bit of muscle late game with a blue control. Matches that have a lot of life-gain and control tend to go on long enough to make this creature perfectly viable. True, it doesn't fit the control theme as well as some of the other Spynxes, but sometimes you just need muscle, and this brings quite a bit of it. A friend of mine threw a lot of muscle into his deck after a string of long matches in which he played his deck flawlessly, but still lost. Looking through, he realized the Djiin of Wishes was one of the only cards in the deck that lent any reasonable amount of damage.
Tossed in this with a few other Sphinxes and a handful of drakes, and suddenly the damageless control deck was second only in output to my Burn/Mana Sat, only with more defensive options.
Anggul
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
7 mana for 8/7 with flying? This is beautiful in it's ability to walk out and lay the purest form of beatdown on the enemy for a cost which is extremely low for it's strength.
Keiya
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Why is this card rated lower than Mahamoti Djinn? It's a huge improvement over said card but only costs one more. This creature may be "vanilla", but it's definitely one of the better ones out there.
Nagoragama
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Take Mahamoti Djinn, once considered THE blue creature, increase its casting cost by ONE, its power by THREE, and it's toughness by one, and its still considered bad in today's environment.
How far we've come, folks.
Still, I'd like to see him show up in a core set at some point, if for the art alone.
Sir_Kaeru
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Whenever my friend pulls this guy out when I'm running one of my mono-green decks, I always know that I just lost
bagilis
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I thought this card was crap. Now with Scars out, it's surprisingly a cherry on the cake for my casual game, I used it and with the Myrs it became much easier to play. Equipped with a Sword of Vengeance, it made my day!
An 8/7 flyer for 5{U}{U}? In BLUE? Damn this is good. Better than most Leviathans anyway.
JWalks82
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He knows more then you. And he knows it.
mikluemp
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Decent I'll agree, but I prefer Stormtide Leviathan for my blue evasive fatty. Dumb fatty feels rather flavorfully antithetical to blue to me, though mechanically it isn't.
Tezz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(6 votes)
This is not rare. This is common. Not saying it's a bad card but rares (especially blue's) should be a little more interesting. Like this it's not even an uncommon. This has nothing to do with power creep, but with the disposition that rarity indicates how much a card does for its cost. This is a Johnny/Melvin speaking, so it might just be my disinterest for Timmy and Spike cards, but I still would like to hear how you guys think about this.
Superllama12
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I like it, a great win condition/finisher in a blue control deck-just stall until you get him out
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Lord of the Pit is displeased with you and your decent art, Sphinx. PREPARE FOR ULTIMATE COMBAT.
...3.5/5
blindthrall
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
He's only a target the turn after he's summoned. After that a decent blue player will somehow counter removal, what with 7 mana lying around. Blue does the unexpected, and this thing is certainly unexpected.
The last couple sets have brought forth a dilemma though, the introduction of the "Sphinx," or short for efficient beatdown sticks. This raises a problem though -- every color outside of blue (even green now - Beast Within), runs heavy creature disruption.
How do decks outside of blue deal with having their creatures destroyed the moment they land? Hoarding or CiP/EtB. It's impossible to destroy a bunch of goblins or white weenies with single target spells, and the Titan's leave behind their EtB result.
Blue's creatures, the better ones, are all around 4-8 mana. Considering you have to leave at least 1-2 mana open to counter, that means you won't be getting creatures out very fast. So you will neither be able to stay on curve, or drop down enough creature to stave off the inevitable stockpile of removals. Yes, blue has counters, but if you believe you'll have enough counters to both stave off removal AND counter their threats, then you aren't very experienced.
In short, however efficient, these creatures are too little, too late. When the norm is landing Primeval Titan on turn 3, countering, and then Summoning Trap into Avenger of Zendikar, you can begin to question the usefulness of a 8/7 flyer on turn 7.
"Meh, I give it a 2.5/5. It's not a bad card, just not a particularly good card. To be honest, this seems more like an uncommon to me, certainly not a rare. But oh well, I'll still find a place for the one I pulled out of a booster." --IshubarashI
I love it. Someone who sounds awfully certain about putting a card into a deck, even though the card is only "a 2.5/5". Great stuff.
To Tezz: If rarity were determined by "how much a card does for its cost", Skyshroud Elf, Doom Blade, Pyroclasm, and Counterspell would all be rare cards. Those cards can affect quite a number of things. I'm not even thinking hard - there are bound to be many more cards with wide-ranging effects that are not rares - or uncommons, either.
In my opinion, Basic Land cards are among the most powerful in the game, because most decks (of most players) depend on Basic Land cards in order to do ANYTHING. They have a pretty wide range of abilities, when you think about it. Look at all the different cards that can be cast using a Plains, or a few Plains - or some Plains and some other Basic Land cards: pretty influential cards, but certainly common; and rightly so.
Lavrant
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Whenever I see a giant blue dude like this, I still can't help thinking I ought to be sacrificing Islands or something.
NeoKoda
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Gotta love that the Sphinx lives on a mountain.
phabio357
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Ring of Evos Isle works well with this to give him hexproof and make him even bigger since you should have the extra mana for the ring by now. Overall I love this card. It's efficient and has a powerful feel, especially for blue. 4/5
TheAmberSpyglass
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
8/7 for blue?
What else did I miss in Worldwake?!
Arachnos
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
SPHINX SMASH!
TezzieAgentOfWoona
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
3/5
Why? It's a nice tanky creature with good evasion and no real downside, something that Blue definitely needs. The only problem I have with it is that it isn't... how shall I put this...
Sphinx-y enough.
The creature type is really the ONLY problem I have with this card, and that's because I'm a Vorthos, through and through.
Maybe I'm not thinking about this enough, though. Maybe this guy's riddle is "How much face can a single blue creature beat?"
This guy is a terrific late game creature to add if your on a budget. He can dominate the sky and win the game on his own if they don't have an answer.
Earthdawn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@TezzieAgentOfWoona: What is 8/7 and blue all over?
jnmwhg
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
While this card is certainly undercosted, I'm not a fan of it simply because it reflects a conflict of design, flavor, and the color wheel. It's obvious that they wanted to make a huge blue flier, which is fine. However, an 8/7 for 7 in blue isn't on-curve at all for the color, and the vast majority of Sphinxes have some sort of additional interesting effect besides keywords, reflecting their intelligence and trickery (the only other exceptions are Serra Sphinx, which was from a set designed to break rules, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind, which works because of the Akroma effect). It's the spitting image of a Griffin, too. The fact that they then had to make a French vanilla card rare is just a testament to how odd it is, and while it's fine to bend the rules every once in a while, the fact that it appears in a set with other blatant design screw-ups like Jace TMS is further evidence that people were sleeping on the job.
RiftenBlack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
A 7 mana spell should do more than this, especially in blue. I'll pass.
I don't care if blue doesn't typically get fatty creatures, which is why it's rare. I would feel miserable if I pulled this, since I know I'll never play it.
And seriously, to the person who said he'd cheat it into play for 4 mana, I'm sure you'd have better targets than this card. If you're going to cheat something into play, it's a crime not to consider Griselbrand first, which blows that crap out of this card.
BorosGreengrocer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Love the art, the flavour text and the card overall. One of my favourite cards.
To people who say it isn't sphinx-like enough, he DOES have all kinds of phenomenal abilities, he just doesn't see why he should tell you about them. What's more sphinx-like than that?
bohplayer
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
The riddle it asks is "do you even lift?"
OlvynChuru
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Has anyone else noticed that the mountain that the sphinx stands on looks a lot like the island in Unglued?
Comments (74)
Synergy with Archon of Redemption? Hell, that was a shot in the dark if ever there was one.
Since when is blue an aggro color? Uhh, never. Flying is a blue ability, but we have our above-the-cost flying guy. He's $20-30, while this will probably be $0.50.
Green-blue can ramp into the mana and spell you trouble...until you Terminate it. :|
It might beat up Sphinx of Jwar Isle, but Jar Jar Sphinx at least has utility. This thing has...a big body. Ooh. REAL special.
I understand that every single rare can't be a tournament playable card, but this is so bad that even at uncommon wouldn't be played at kitchen tables.
This is a great card for blue to have, no matter how boring you think it is.
EDIT:
Also if your worried about the casting cost, brainstorm or ponder so hes on top of your library, and use djinn of wishes, that card was put there for a reason, an 8/7 with no drawback for 4 mana? I'll take that any day.
Blue doesn't need great big creatures. No color simply needs great big creatures. Blue needs creatures that are playable in decks with blue. This is not. Also, based on the curve they used for Kalonian Behemoth, i'd prefer if this was 7/7 Flying Shroud. THAT would make it a new blue finisher.
A vanilla flyer?
Seriously?
Look at the BS white and black can get away with.
But then I stopped and thought about it.
There's nothing actually wrong with this guy.
His cost/size ratio is above the curve, he's enormous, he flies, he looks cool as all getout.
He to me speaks volumes about how far we've come since yesteryear, and the fact that this card can be considered bad scares me.
Mahamoti Djinn
How much better is Goliath than good old Mahamoti?
Plenty.
Although according to Mike Turian, its playtest name in design was "Big Bird," which definitely scores it a few points.
Since when did "doesn't have shroud" been a bad thing? cough*Sphinx-of-jwar-isle-maybe-?*cough*learn-to-play-without-shroud-!*cough.
As last line I'll add: 1-if you're playing blue you are able to protect this sphinx. 2- 7 mana is not technically "aggro thing", unless your playing some kind of weird overwhelming-unplayable cards deck?, and BTW this is BLUE so don't associate it with aggro, completely different things. And 3- the only way to get a creature in the table you know is casting it from your hand?.
If I want a Sphinx that is a monster in combat I'll gladly stick with Sphinx of the Steel Wind, though they don't go together in the same kind of deck anyway haha
Be nice to see sphinx get some "tribal"esque kind of abilities like dragons have, such as we see with karthus and crucible of fire. Be great to see a card that is like.. Sphinx cub, 2 mana, 2/1 flying, with an ability like lifelink or can see target players hand when it does combat damage. Hopefully goliath sphinx is heading in this direction.
p.s. don't bother trying to get this out with djinn of wishes.. that's like saying you need a 5 mana creature to potentially play a 7 mana creature, if you hopefully have a magus of the future or other card to make sure your top card is goliath sphinx.. its easier to use mindwrack liege, and then it still wouldn't necessarily be worth it. Blue really doesn't have that many ways to trick out a big creature, which is probably why he is in the blue/green deck, because green can.
"enter the battlefield" first turn abilities, that's 7 mana down the drain. The 7 mana is going to eat your pool for the turn, so all the sphinx does is wastes a turn. This will only find a home in limited, where removal isn't nearly as prevalent.
My complaint with it, however, is that it's a sphinx. I'll accept Serra Sphinx being simple since that was a timeshifted version and sphinxes are as close to angels as blue gets, but an 8/7 with flying and nothing else shouldn't be a sphinx. Sphinxes are supposed to be crafty, not only bulky.
Second, I love the look on my buddy's face when I plop this down in front of all his Dragons who are finding it a little harder to be so imposing.
I know that the lack of some crazy ability deters from the "sphinx" aspect of the creature but sometimes being huge prompts self-imposed riddles like "How am I getting around this guy since I didn't expect for this level of opposition?"
Plus, his flavor text puts the lack of an ability into perspective. All-in-all I think it's a nice workhorse. Inspired by...well, mostly the luck of getting a few in boosters and in trade, I have created a sphinx deck. Probably not a solid idea until they give the sphinx the support cards dragon's have, but a fun time in casual multi-player. Especially when you get a few jaws on the table when you kick your Rite of Replication with Goliath as the target.
I think one of the strange things about it is that it is only raw power, and blue is the colour of misdirection, illusions, trickery, mental manipulation and so on, where this is just muscle with wings.
I know air elemental is too, but air elemental is not a rare, so I understand air elemental better than this one.
Now I have one, pulled it out of a booster, cannot wait to see my opponent's face when I play an 8/7 with flying. Still I think it should have had some sphinx like ability, but apart from that, it is great muscle for blue.
Tossed in this with a few other Sphinxes and a handful of drakes, and suddenly the damageless control deck was second only in output to my Burn/Mana Sat, only with more defensive options.
How far we've come, folks.
Still, I'd like to see him show up in a core set at some point, if for the art alone.
Equipped with a Sword of Vengeance, it made my day!
...3.5/5
Blue: A color that thrives on interrupts
The last couple sets have brought forth a dilemma though, the introduction of the "Sphinx," or short for efficient beatdown sticks. This raises a problem though -- every color outside of blue (even green now - Beast Within), runs heavy creature disruption.
How do decks outside of blue deal with having their creatures destroyed the moment they land? Hoarding or CiP/EtB. It's impossible to destroy a bunch of goblins or white weenies with single target spells, and the Titan's leave behind their EtB result.
Blue's creatures, the better ones, are all around 4-8 mana. Considering you have to leave at least 1-2 mana open to counter, that means you won't be getting creatures out very fast. So you will neither be able to stay on curve, or drop down enough creature to stave off the inevitable stockpile of removals. Yes, blue has counters, but if you believe you'll have enough counters to both stave off removal AND counter their threats, then you aren't very experienced.
In short, however efficient, these creatures are too little, too late. When the norm is landing Primeval Titan on turn 3, countering, and then Summoning Trap into Avenger of Zendikar, you can begin to question the usefulness of a 8/7 flyer on turn 7.
Without question, blue's best beastick is Sphinx of Jwar Isle
I love it. Someone who sounds awfully certain about putting a card into a deck, even though the card is only "a 2.5/5". Great stuff.
To Tezz: If rarity were determined by "how much a card does for its cost", Skyshroud Elf, Doom Blade, Pyroclasm, and Counterspell would all be rare cards. Those cards can affect quite a number of things. I'm not even thinking hard - there are bound to be many more cards with wide-ranging effects that are not rares - or uncommons, either.
In my opinion, Basic Land cards are among the most powerful in the game, because most decks (of most players) depend on Basic Land cards in order to do ANYTHING. They have a pretty wide range of abilities, when you think about it. Look at all the different cards that can be cast using a Plains, or a few Plains - or some Plains and some other Basic Land cards: pretty influential cards, but certainly common; and rightly so.
What else did I miss in Worldwake?!
Why? It's a nice tanky creature with good evasion and no real downside, something that Blue definitely needs. The only problem I have with it is that it isn't... how shall I put this...
Sphinx-y enough.
The creature type is really the ONLY problem I have with this card, and that's because I'm a Vorthos, through and through.
Maybe I'm not thinking about this enough, though. Maybe this guy's riddle is "How much face can a single blue creature beat?"
I don't care if blue doesn't typically get fatty creatures, which is why it's rare. I would feel miserable if I pulled this, since I know I'll never play it.
And seriously, to the person who said he'd cheat it into play for 4 mana, I'm sure you'd have better targets than this card. If you're going to cheat something into play, it's a crime not to consider Griselbrand first, which blows that crap out of this card.
To people who say it isn't sphinx-like enough, he DOES have all kinds of phenomenal abilities, he just doesn't see why he should tell you about them. What's more sphinx-like than that?