Sphinx of Clear Skies
Creature — Sphinx
Flying, ward 
Domain — Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, reveal the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control. An opponent separates those cards into two piles. Put one pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard. (Piles can be empty.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Dominaria United Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #14400
Sphinx of Clear Skies lands and immediately threatens to generate massive card advantage — every combat damage trigger lets you manifest the top card of your library, and if the manifested card matches the revealed card's type, you get to manifest again, snowballing fast. The cost is a six-mana body that does nothing until it connects, which means it lives or dies on whether you can protect it or push it through. In the right shell, specifically anything built around The Celestial Toymaker, it's a backbreaking value engine; elsewhere, it's slow.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Celestial Toymaker
The Celestial Toymaker's game revolves around manifesting cards and turning face-down permanents into threats, which means Sphinx of Clear Skies isn't just a good card in that deck — it's a recursive engine that keeps the manifest chain rolling every time it deals combat damage.
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 |
Sphinx of Clear Skies is a Commander card through and through — the manifest chain rewards long games with big libraries, and multiplayer tables give you enough turns to set up the evasion or protection it needs to connect. In Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer it's legal but effectively unplayable; six mana for a 5/5 flyer that does nothing until it attacks is nowhere near competitive in those formats. Oathbreaker is theoretically viable if your planeswalker supports a manifest theme, but the card pool there is narrow enough that it rarely comes up. The honest answer is that Sphinx of Clear Skies belongs in Commander, full stop.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Sphinx of Clear Skies isn't available at the moment, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for current market rates before buying. Given its near-exclusive Commander appeal and tight slot in The Celestial Toymaker builds, price will track closely with that commander's overall popularity.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.