As soon as The Ur-Sphinx was revealed as part of the Multiverse Reforged precon, its popularity felt inevitable. Not only does this legend have an Eminence ability, but it’s mostly in all the right colors for a Sphinx Typal deck. Previously, this archetype was limited to mono-blue for synergy, or sacrificed that for additional colors.
Now, The Ur-Sphinx is the clear best-in-slot option for the Sphinx Typal archetype, and it’s not even close. Due to this, we’ve seen a steep rise in demand and prices for tons of MTG Sphinx cards recently. Curiously, this demand increase isn’t just contained to the good cards, either, as some real stinkers are also spiking in price.
MTG Sphinx Sovereign
Originally released 18 years ago as part of Shards of Alara, Sphinx Sovereign is not a good MTG card. While you can technically tutor it up with
Sphinx’s Herald
Sphinx’s Herald
{2}{U}, {T}, Sacrifice a white creature, a blue creature, and a black creature: Search your library for a card named Sphinx Sovereign, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
, there’s little reason to actually do that. Sure, it does let you get around this Sphinx’s monstrous casting cost, but sacrificing three creatures and paying three is nuts.
Should you go down the route of hard-casting Sphinx Sovereign, you barely get anything for your money. These days, at least, a 6/6 with Flying for eight just isn’t good, and the life gain/loss is negligible. Technically, since the life loss hits each opponent, it’s not awful in Commander, but that’s a stretch, honestly.
With this strength, or rather lack thereof, in mind, it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that Sphinx Sovereign sees basically no play. According to EDHREC, this Sphinx used to see play in around 1,250 Commander decks. Following the release of Reality Fracture and the new precon, however, the play rate has almost doubled.
Naturally, this bump in play rate is thanks to The Ur-Sphinx, which does make Sphinx Sovereign slightly less terrible. Obviously, this card is a Sphinx, which allows The Ur-Sphinx to Mill everyone more, but it also gets slightly cheaper. At seven mana, however, this classic MTG Sphinx still really isn’t that great, making its 17% inclusion rate somewhat surprising.
Even though it’s not the best Sphinx, clearly, MTG players have been brewing with it. This, in turn, has led to a surprising demand spike on the secondary market, which has pushed the card’s price up to an insane degree. While it’s unclear how long this will last, for now, Sphinx Sovereign is remarkably expensive for what it is!
A Surprising Spike
Thanks to its near-complete lack of demand in the past, Sphinx Sovereign used to be a very affordable MTG card. Near-mint copies would routinely go for around $1.30 when they sold, and lightly played examples were under $1. Just before the Multiverse Reforged precon was revealed, you could have picked up a decent copy for just $0.93, but those days are now long gone.
Following the precon’s reveal, 135 lightly played copies of Sphinx Sovereign have been sold on TCGplayer. Notably, in that time, only 39 near-mint copies sold, as there’s a clear supply problem for this nearly decades-old card. For better or worse, this has driven prices skyward as supply couldn’t keep up with demand.
Currently, if you’re after a lightly played copy of Sphinx Sovereign, it’ll set you back a whopping $11.05. While this is a staggering 1088% price spike, there are some slight savings to be had if you’re fast. Currently, there are a couple of near-mint copies for $10.83, for instance, or heavily played examples for $8.61.
Baffling Prices But Barely Playable
While you can buy a copy of Sphinx Sovereign right now for your The Ur-Sphinx deck, we can’t recommend you do. Realistically, this MTG card is just not good, and at this price point, you’re not getting enough for your money. Admittedly, this isn’t a problem that’s just contained to Sphinx Sovereign; however, as we’ve seen plenty of price spikes across the board.
Should you really want to play this deck for yourself but want to do so on a budget, you’ll likely have to wait. While
The Ur-Dragon
The Ur-Dragon
Eminence — As long as The Ur-Dragon is in the command zone or on the battlefield, other Dragon spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Flying
Whenever one or more Dragons you control attack, draw that many cards, then you may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield.
might be one of the most popular Commanders around, it’s well supported and seriously powerful. Currently, the same can’t exactly be said for The Ur-Sphinx, so the current hype does feel somewhat temporary.
Hopefully, for the wallets of curious players, the plethora of Sphinx-based price spikes we’ve seen will start to fall sooner rather than later. With the MTG Star Trek precons being revealed this week, Commander players will soon have new toys to build around. On top of this, Mystery Booster: Commander Edition has now been released to the wild, so that can drive demand too.
Ultimately, while we do expect Sphinx Sovereign to fall off sooner rather than later, nothing in MTG is guaranteed. Until this card gets reprinted, supply is bound to be a continued problem, so we can only really wait and see what happens.
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