Sphinx's Herald MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 1 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Artifact Creature — Vedalken Wizard |
| Released | 2008-10-03 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Shards of Alara |
| Set code | ALA |
| Power | 1 |
| Toughness | 1 |
| Number | 58 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Dan Scott |
Key Takeaways
- The card is a strategic enabler, quickly summoning potent Sphinx creatures to gain game dominance.
- It offers instant-speed flexibility, allowing players to act reactively and catch opponents off-guard.
- Despite its strengths, the card’s requirement and mana cost can challenge efficiency and versatility.
Text of card
, , Sacrifice a white creature, a blue creature, and a black creature: Search your library for a card named Sphinx Sovereign and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.
He calls a riddle through the gaps of cloven clouds, hoping for an answer.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The beauty of Sphinx’s Herald lies in its ability to accelerate your access to powerful Sphinx creatures. By sacrificing it along with other specified cards, you effectively transform these resources into a formidable creature that can often dominate the game with its high impact abilities.
Resource Acceleration: Sphinx’s Herald helps streamline your deck’s efficiency, ensuring that you’re not just waiting to draw into your big threats. This serves as a critical piece to a strategy that wishes to outpace the opponent by getting a high-cost creature onto the battlefield in the earlier stages of the match.
Instant Speed: Although Sphinx’s Herald itself is a creature, the mechanic of sacrificing it to summon a Sphinx can be executed at instant speed. This ability to react to your opponent’s moves can catch them off guard, making Sphinx’s Herald a strategic asset to your game plan, ready to deploy its effect when the moment is just right.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Sphinx’s Herald necessitates that players forfeit another card in their hand, which could potentially set back your game plan, especially if you’re already behind or relying on key cards for your strategy.
Specific Mana Cost: This creature requires a mix of blue and colorless mana, potentially narrowing its inclusion to decks that can reliably generate both types of mana, possibly excluding it from more versatile or multicolored strategies.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While its ability can be advantageous, the combined cost of casting and activating Sphinx’s Herald’s ability can be steep in terms of mana efficiency, potentially consuming resources that could be spent on more immediate board presence or disruption.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Sphinx’s Herald offers flexibility in your deck-building, as it serves as an efficient way to search for the powerful sphinx card, Sphinx Sovereign, making it a valuable piece in sphinx-themed decks or strategies involving high-value creatures.
Combo Potential: With the ability to sacrifice itself along with three other specific mana color creatures, Sphinx’s Herald can be a key component in setting up a game-winning combo, especially in decks that can repeatedly bring creatures back from the graveyard or those that can easily generate token creatures for its activation cost.
Meta-Relevance: Considering the evolving MTG meta, having a card that can quickly tutor and cheat out a powerful creature like Sphinx Sovereign can shift the tides of a match, making it relevant in environments where big creatures and high-impact plays determine the game’s outcome.
How to beat
The challenge when facing Sphinx’s Herald in Magic: The Gathering lies in its key role as an enabler for summoning larger creatures, particularly Sphinxs, thanks to its ability to sacrifice itself and a few other creatures to do so. To effectively counter this play, keeping removal spells handy for both the Herald and any potential Sphinxs is essential. Board wipes can be especially disruptive to your opponent’s strategy since they can remove multiple threats in one fell swoop.
Similarly, cards that limit your opponents’ ability to search their library or cards that restrict casting from anywhere other than their hand can be crucial. By incorporating strategies that offer graveyard disruption or exile, you can prevent the recurring use of the Herald and the creatures associated with it. Moreover, countering the Herald or the triggered ability itself before the search and summoning can happen keeps you a step ahead. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case, and timely disruption can prove more effective than allowing the ability to resolve and then addressing the consequences.
Ultimately, maintaining board control and having a well-rounded response to various types of threats will give you the upper hand against Sphinx’s Herald and similar combo pieces in Magic: The Gathering.
Cards like Sphinx's Herald
Sphinx’s Herald stands out in Magic: The Gathering as a specialized creature card designed to set the stage for mightier plays. Comparable creature cards can be found in the shapely form of other heralds, such as Demon’s Herald and Angel’s Herald. Each of these functions to usher in a more formidable creature—their respective Sphinx, Demon, or Angel. Sphinx’s Herald distinguishes itself with its ability to fish out a Sphinx card from your deck, putting you in a commanding position with a potentially game-ending creature.
Yet, looking at a more direct comparison, cards like Mausoleum Harpy or Silvergill Adept might come to mind, as both involve a degree of searching or drawing. Mausoleum Harpy provides a mid-game power boost with the right triggers, while Silvergill Adept offers card draw only requiring you hold another Merfolk. As strategic as these cards are, the ‘herald’ mechanic’s unique fetch capability places Sphinx’s Herald in a league of its own when it comes to deck synergy and tactical plays.
All things considered, Sphinx’s Herald may not provide an immediate advantage like card drawing spells, but its specific role in strategically planning and executing a long-term game plan cements its value among creature cards with unique utility in Magic: The Gathering.
Cards similar to Sphinx's Herald by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Sphinx's Herald MTG card by a specific set like Shards of Alara, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Sphinx's Herald and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Sphinx's Herald has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Sphinx's Herald card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2008-10-01 | The only difference between a colored artifact and a colorless artifact is, obviously, its color. Unlike most artifacts, a colored artifact requires colored mana to cast. Also unlike most artifacts, a colored artifact has a color in all zones. It will interact with cards that care about color. Other than that, a colored artifact behaves just like any other artifact. It will interact as normal with any card that cares about artifacts, such as Shatter or Arcbound Ravager. |
| 2008-10-01 | To activate the ability, you must sacrifice three different creatures. You can’t sacrifice just one three-colored creature, for example. |
| 2008-10-01 | You may sacrifice multicolored creatures as part of the cost of the search ability. If you sacrifice a multicolored creature this way, specify which part of the cost that creature is satisfying. |
| 2008-10-01 | You may sacrifice the Herald itself to help pay for the cost of its ability. |
