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As some of you are aware, I like building unusual decks. Commonly one of two things happen when I design a deck: I either look for a way to build a deck in the “wrong” colour(s), or I look for some kind of restriction over and above the typical. Last year, Sheldon Menery wrote about my Dosan list on StarCityGames.com (which you can find here), which was a response to a comment made in the #mtgcommander chat room on the EFnet chat network on how all monogreen decks are essentially the same: ramping into fatties with Kodama’s Reach and their ilk. I thus took it upon myself to design a monogreen control deck, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Today I attack a problem from a different angle.

There are Generals who allow a lot of flexibility in design. By that I mean they don’t lend themselves “obviously” to any one specific deck idea. A good example of this is:

Cromat (from Apocalypse, Rare)
WUBRG
Legendary Creature — Illusion
5/5
WB: Destroy target creature blocking or blocked by Cromat.
UR: Cromat gains flying until end of turn.
BG: Regenerate Cromat.
RW: Cromat gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
GU: Put Cromat on top of its owner’s library.

On the other hand, there are some Generals that are very “build around me”, such as Zur the Enchanter and Jhoira of the Ghitu. These are the Generals where you can assume the concept of the deck just by seeing the General. Kaalia of the Vast is another such creature. The problem is that these Generals rarely get used any other way. As a result I took a look at one popular General and decided to build something very different than how she is normally used. Meet the Commander:

Sharuum the Hegemon (from Shards of Alara, Mythic Rare)
3WUB
Legendary Artifact Creature — Sphinx
5/5
Flying
When Sharuum the Hegemon enters the battlefield, you may return target artifact card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Poor misunderstood Sharuum. All anyone ever wants to use her for is recurring artifacts left, right, and center, usually in order to infinitely combo with something like Sculpting Steel and Disciple of the Vault or something equally annoying. I took a look at what she does, and then I stopped and thought: What else is she? It finally dawned on me that perhaps her creature type might have enough to build around. After a little searching, I found there were a couple other Legendary Sphinxes (Sphinges?), but Sharuum was the only one that let me play *all* the Sphinxes in the game – barring certain Shapeshifting ones of course. As a result I made her into a leader of her people. A race-based deck reminded me of Goblin Bidding from Constructed formats years ago, thus was born:

Sharuum Sphinx Bidding

Sphinxes
1 Argent Sphinx
1 Belltower Sphinx
1 Cerulean Sphinx
1 Chancellor of the Spires
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Conundrum Sphinx
1 Enigma Sphinx
1 Goliath Sphinx
1 Isperia the Inscrutable
1 Isperia, Supreme Judge
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Petra Sphinx
1 Serra Sphinx
1 Sharding Sphinx
1 Sphinx Ambassador
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
1 Sphinx of Magosi
1 Sphinx of the Chimes
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Sphinx Sovereign
1 Sphinx Summoner
1 Vexing Sphinx

Mass Reanimators
1 All Hallow’s Eve
1 Living Death
1 Living End
1 Patriarch’s Bidding
1 Twilight’s Call
1 Grimoire of the Dead

Tutors
1 Diabolic Revelation
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Insidious Dreams
1 Demonic Tutor

Mid-Plus Draw Effects
1 Sphinx’s Revelation
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Read the Runes
1 Careful Consideration
1 Visions of Beyond

Global Answers
1 Austere Command
1 Catastrophe
1 Worldpurge
1 Decree of Pain

Targetted Answers
1 Faith’s Fetters
1 Unmake
1 Ethersworn Adjudicator
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Detention Sphere
1 Pongify

Discard Outlets
1 Compulsion
1 Jace’s Archivist
1 Overtaker

Protection
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Attrition

Mana Artifacts
1 Azorius Keyrune
1 Dimir Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Azorius Signet
1 Khalni Gem
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Chromatic Lantern

Lands
1 Esper Panorama
1 Bant Panorama
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Calciform Pools
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Watery Grave
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Dromar’s Cavern
1 Command Tower
6 Island
4 Plains
2 Swamp

The first thing you’ll notice is that every creature with the type Sphinx up to Return to Ravnica was included. There were 24 Sphinxes other than Sharuum, which seemed to be just enough. It does mean that they all are getting used though, regardless of how ‘good’ they may or may not be. However you do get some interesting combinations, like Petra Sphinx plus Sphinx of Jwar Isle equals “Tap Petra Sphinx: Reveal the top card of your library, then put it into your hand.”

When I designed this deck, I laid out a list of what different categories I wanted in the deck, then how many cards in each category. For example, I wanted a grand total of four “global” effects like Wrath of God. This was partly due to the fact that some of the recursion spells I’d be using – like Living Death – would make people sacrifice their creatures as well. I’m not normally this exact in my numbers but this time I was. This was also when I decided what kind of what card drawing I wanted. “Mid-Plus Draw Effects” meant I wanted to be drawing somewhere around 3 cards from each one.

You’ll also notice Faith’s Fetters make an appearance under Targetted Answers, and this is a nod to the format as a whole. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about EDH, it’s that there are often certain creatures that you would rather shut down rather than remove. Generals for example often fall in this category.

Faith’s Fetters (from Ravnica: City of Guilds, common)
3W
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant permanent
When Faith’s Fetters enters the battlefield, you gain 4 life.
Enchanted permanent’s activated abilities can’t be activated unless they’re mana abilities. If enchanted permanent is a creature, it can’t attack or block.

This card stops a creature from being able to attack – which helps against decks that care about winning with General damage – as well as activated abilities. Think about Niv-Mizzet – either version of him. Stopping the creature from attacking also shuts down creatures like Zur the Enchanter, Rafiq of the Many, and Kaalia of the Vast, whose abilities all trigger when they’re attacking. There’s also a bunch of other cards that you may want to shut down without killing them, and sometimes it’s just a random removal spell.

The “Bidding” part comes from this card:

Patriarch’s Bidding (from Onslaught, Rare)
3BB
Sorcery
Each player chooses a creature type. Each player returns all creature cards of a type chosen this way from his or her graveyard to the battlefield.

At the end of the day, all the deck wants to do is simply keep recurring anything that dies. No matter how many Sphinxes die for the cause, they just KEEP.. COMING.. BACK!!! For around five mana, you just counteracted almost any Wrath effect, with reasonable card drawing to pull into more Sphinxes and mass recursion. The deck doesn’t play any stack tricks though, so you’re at the mercy of anyone playing counterspells of any sort – even Dosan.

For another layout of this deck, you can visit http://deck.tk/7Nfx37zU and for Dosan Monogreen Pseudo-Esper Control go to http://deck.tk/1hW47oW7 instead.