Riddlemaster Sphinx
Creature — Sphinx
Flying (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach.)
When this creature enters, you may return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Core Set 2019
- Price
- $0.20
- EDHREC rank
- #19894
Riddlemaster Sphinx enters, bounces a creature, and swings in as a 5/5 flying beater that can dodge a blocker every turn you control another Sphinx — that's a lot of board presence for seven mana. The cost is exactly that: seven mana is a real ask, and outside of dedicated Sphinx tribal shells it rarely earns its slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Riddlemaster Sphinx lives almost exclusively in Commander, where seven-mana payoffs are acceptable and tribal synergies have room to breathe. In Sphinx tribal builds — Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign being the obvious home — the bounce trigger and evasion both pull meaningful weight. Competitive non-rotating formats like Legacy and Modern have zero interest in a seven-mana creature with no enters-the-battlefield protection of its own, and Pioneer isn't much different. Oathbreaker could theoretically host it in a blue spellslinger shell, but the mana cost makes it a fringe consideration there too.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.20 bulk tier
At $0.20, Riddlemaster Sphinx is deep bulk — the price of a card that sees narrow play and gets passed over in most blue Commander builds. It's stable at this floor; there's no demand driver that would push it higher unless Sphinx tribal gets a high-profile commander reprint that spikes the archetype's popularity.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.