Eminence Is Back in MTG With Reality Fracture's The Ur-Sphinx

Wizards put Eminence on another Commander card, and The Ur-Sphinx looks a whole lot like The Ur-Dragon.

Reality Fracture’s new Sphinx commander gives you a cost reduction before you ever cast it, making every other Sphinx in your deck cheaper while The Ur-Sphinx sits safely in the command zone.

Eminence has always been controversial because there’s very little opponents can do about an ability working from the command zone. The Ur-Sphinx brings that idea back almost exactly the way The Ur-Dragon used it, just for a different tribe.

What Does The Ur-Sphinx Do?

The Ur-Sphinx gives every other Sphinx you cast a one-mana discount from the command zone, so you’re getting value before you ever pay nine mana for your commander.

Once it attacks, the payoff gets much bigger. If three Sphinxes attack in a four-player game, each player mills three cards and you could potentially cast four of those cards for free, one from each player.

That’s what makes The Ur-Sphinx feel much closer to The Ur-Dragon than more recent Eminence cards. Wizards has brought Eminence back before, but this is the old formula again: free value from the command zone with no real setup required.

The Ur-Sphinx Is Basically The Ur-Dragon for Sphinxes

The comparison is hard to miss. Both cost nine mana, both are 10/10 flyers, and both give their tribe a discount from the command zone before rewarding you for attacking.

Gavin Verhey also tied the two together during Wizards’ Reality Fracture Commander Showcase, which fits the set’s larger theme: Hexhaven’s Founder Sphinxes are essentially the Echoverse answer to Strixhaven’s Elder Dragons.

Now Sphinxes have their own version of The Ur-Dragon.

Is Eminence Still Too Good?

Eminence is always strong because the value starts before you ever cast your commander, but The Ur-Sphinx looks more restrained than The Ur-Dragon.

The biggest difference is the tribe. Dragons are deep, five-color and already packed with powerful options. The Ur-Sphinx is limited to Esper, and Sphinxes are generally expensive enough that shaving one mana off them helps without automatically breaking the deck.

The really explosive part also takes work. You still have to resolve a nine-mana commander, keep it alive and attack with Sphinxes before the free spells start coming.

The attack trigger can be answered. The Eminence discount can't.

Unesh Makes This Much More Interesting

The first card I’d reach for is Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign.

Unesh already makes your Sphinx spells cost 2 less. The Ur-Sphinx makes Unesh cheaper to cast, and once both are online, your other Sphinxes can get 3 generic mana worth of cost reduction.

That makes the tribe’s normally clunky six- and seven-mana creatures a lot easier to chain together, especially with Unesh digging through your library whenever another Sphinx enters.

The drawback is color identity. The Ur-Sphinx is Esper, so it can’t use all five of Reality Fracture’s Founder Sphinxes.

That’s a little disappointing, but it may also be exactly what keeps the deck from becoming The Ur-Dragon with a different creature type.

Its Eminence Ability Barely Matters in the Precon

The strange part is that there are no other Sphinx spells in the stock Multiverse Reforged deck, so The Ur-Sphinx’s Eminence ability has nothing to discount.

In the precon, it’s basically another huge Polymorph target for Jace alongside cards like Archon of Cruelty, Serra’s Emissary and Darksteel Angel.

That makes The Ur-Sphinx feel less like a Jace support card and more like a second Commander deck starter hidden inside the precon.

If you actually want to use Eminence, you’re probably pulling it out and building around it.

Is The Ur-Sphinx Good?

Yes. Free mana from the command zone is good, and The Ur-Sphinx gives Sphinx decks exactly the kind of help they need.

I don’t think it’s another Edgar Markov, though. Esper limits the card pool, Sphinxes are still expensive, and the biggest payoff requires you to resolve a nine-mana commander and attack.

For Sphinx players, though, this is a real upgrade.

Start with Unesh in the 99 and build from there.