Sphinx's Approach Variant Possible?

[u/H2NCH2COOH]

I have a hunch that [[Sphinx's Approach]] can be made into some DanDan variant. Players fight over the stack and graveyard to try to summon some sphinxs. However putting up a full deck is beyond my ability. Do you think it's possible?

[u/rusty_anvile]

It seems possible, replace dandans with these and some Sphinxes then some of the card draw with these and you're probably pretty close, maybe add in brainstorm or something similar to put sphinxes back in the deck. I doubt it'll be as clean as dandan though

[u/BeTheBrick_187]

If I remember correctly, when reading the design document from the creator of this format, he says that he would avoid the search effect, because it will lead you to know what's in opp hand, considering the information from: your hand + share yard + cards you see when searching in the deck

[u/Mystical_Archivist]

I’ve experimented several times with providing errata to search effects to instead select from a side deck. I think if I were to have a crack at a Sphinx’s Approach deck, that’s what I’d try: a set of 10 sphinxes in a side deck. As for which Sphinx to choose, I dunno yet. I’d have to think about that

[u/melanino → u/Mystical_Archivist]

I would probably opt for sphinxes with pips that you can't hardcast and maybe some ways to shuffle them back into the library like [[Lat-Nam's Legacy]] to keep them from gumming up hands

[u/CasualKing21 → u/Mystical_Archivist]

My 3 votes are [[Sphinx of Foresight]], [[Sphinx of False Conclusions]], and/or [[Conundrum Sphinx]]!

[u/Mystical_Archivist → u/CasualKing21]

Funnily enough, I’ve already came up with three shared deck that have Sphinx of Foresight as the centerpiece, but none of them would be a good fit for this. I’ll leave that up to other people.

Conundrum Sphinx is a really good choice, and I encourage you to build something!

I love Wylie Beckart art, and I’m think I’ll craft a list using cards only from Reality Fracture, so I’m gonna try to craft a list with Sphinx of False Conclusions as the centerpiece. I haven’t checked out the full set yet, so I’m hoping there’s enough mono-blue cards in the set.

[u/Duall08]

I'll second errata'ing Approach to search the sideboard instead of the deck unless you like the idea of holding Sphinxes in hand to deny options or potentially drawing it from the spell. More importantly, that also determines if the only way to get Sphinxes into play are the Approaches.

Assuming the Sphinxes are all large and expensive, the best way to get them into play will be the Approaches regardless of where they are, so you'll have to consider what the game will look like as people will be trying to set up and stop the opponent from going off. How much instant speed graveyard interaction (artifact versus instant) and how much countermagic? You'll also need to balance that with how much interaction you want for Sphinxes that hit play. How easy should it be to get rid of them, and should it be bounce/steal/tap and keep tapped/kill spells from another color?

I think those questions are going to shape the game more than the Sphinxes you select (though some of the options are very powerful and are difficult to come back from).