Sphinxes

## Overview

*The great Sphinxes are masters of riddles and manipulators of man. Force your opponents to make hard choices and corner them into no-win situations. No matter what path they choose, the Sphinxes get what they want.*

Use a myriad of draw abilities and power counters to out-pace your opponent, all the while confounding them with mind games and hard decisions. Make sure that regardless of what choices they pick, you'll always be coming out on top!

### Details

#### General

* Name: Sphinxes
* Author: LordMewtwo73
* Complexity: 2.5/5
* Last updated: October 21, 2022

#### Mechanics

* +1 Power counters

### Breakdown

This faction has 10 minions and 10 actions, with 30 total minion power and an average minion power of 3. Among their actions, they have:

* 1 play-on-minion actions: Gilded Armor
* 1 play-on-base actions: Foretelling Chambers
* 8 standard actions, 4 of which directly affect one or minions (in **bold**): **Insatiable, No Strings Attached (x2)**, Reawakening, Scripted Fate, Two Futures (x2), **Unsavory Deal**
* 6 actions that directly increases a minion's power: Foretelling Chambers, Gilded Armor, Insatiable, No Strings Attached (x2), Unsavory Deal

### Minions (10)

* 1**x Great Old One (5):** Talent: Choose a card in your hand and another player. That player must guess whether the card is a minion or an action. If they were incorrect, you may play the card as an extra card. Otherwise, you and that player draw a card.
* **2x Malicious Arbitrator (4):** Ongoing: Once per turn, after another player draws one or more cards due to a card's ability, draw a card.
* **3x Royal Sphinx (3):** Each player draws a card. Talent: Choose another player. That player may have you draw a card. If they do not, place a +1 power counter on this minion.
* **4x Grand Seer (2):** Look at the top two cards of your deck. Place them on the top and/or bottom of your deck in any order, then draw a card.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Two Futures:** Reveal the top four cards of your deck and choose another player. That player separates the revealed cards into two pile. Draw all cards in one pile and discard the rest.
* **2x No Strings Attached:** Choose another player to choose an effect. Either they place two +1 power counters on a minion and you draw three cards, or they draw a card and you place three +1 power counters on a minion.
* **1x Gilded Armor:** Play on a minion. Draw a card. Ongoing: This minion has +1 power for every two cards in your hand.
* **1x Foretelling Chambers:** Play on a base. Ongoing: After another player draws one or more cards due to a card's ability, you may place a +1 power counter on a minion here.
* **1x Scripted Fate:** Reveal two cards with different names from your hand and choose a player. That player chooses one of the revealed cards. You may play that card as an extra card, then you may play an extra action.
* **1x Reawakening:** Choose a minion in your discard pile and another player. That player may discard two cards. If they do, place that minion on the top of your deck. Otherwise, place it into your hand.
* **1x Unsavory Deal:** Each player draws a card. Give a minion +2 power until the end of the turn. Special: You may play this before a base scores. If you do, other players cannot play cards until the end of the turn.
* **1x Insatiable:** Give a minion +3 power until the end of the turn. Special: Before you would draw a card due to a card's ability, you may place this card from your discard pile on top of your deck.

### Bases

* **(19) Hidden Temple (3 2 1):** On your turn, if you have a minion here, you may choose another player. They must either draw a card or place a +1 power counter on a minion here, then you may do whichever choice they did not choose.
* **(27) Sphinx's Library (5 3 2):** After you play a minion here, you may look at the top two cards of your deck. Place them on the top and/or bottom of your deck in any order, then, if you have two or more minions here, draw a card.

## Clarifications

* **Malicious Arbitrator:** Multiple copies of Malicious Arbitrator can trigger in the same turn, but each only triggers once per turn.
* **Two Futures:** The two piles do not have to be the same size. If an opponent really does not want you to have a certain card, they may make one pile that is only that card and another pile that is the other three revealed cards.
* **Gilded Armor:** Round down.
* **Reawakening:** You must choose the minion before the chosen player decides whether to discard or not. Once they have made their choice, you cannot decide on a different minion.
* **Unsavory Deal:** If you played this as a Special, no other players can play cards until you are at the Draw Cards phase. This includes if a second base would score during that turn after the base where you played Unsavory Deal.
* **Insatiable:** You can use this card's Special ability multiple times in the same turn, if you manage to get it back into your discard pile.

## Strategy

### General

Out-value your opposition with a slew of strong draw and power counter abilities. Force your opponents to make difficult decisions by playing cards like *No Strings Attached* and *Scripted Fate* in situations where either choice would push you forward. Play mind games with *Great Old One* - is it too obvious that you want to play an extra minion? Choose an action instead to keep your opponents guessing. Recur your best minions with *Reawakening* and continuously buff your cards by cycling *Insatiable*. Finally, use *Unsavory Deal* to sneak out a win when you're worried about your opposing Specials!

### Partner Suggestions

Sphinxes are a great value engine, and thus are a very good support faction. While they provide card draw and power counter buffs, their partner should be able to pull out the big guns when necessary and burst down a base. Partnering with another support faction like Wizards might have you drawing through your deck very quickly, but your power output will end up wanting. Sphinxes also contain multiple ways to consistently place +1 power counters, which opens up synergy with counter-oriented factions.

#### Published

* Check out Crank it Up's video on this faction for in-depth analysis and some possible partner picks!

## Author Notes

* This faction uses the Akhenaton font.
* This faction was created and submitted for Crank it Up's Custom Faction Month 2.
* The first conceptualization of this faction came from a very old, poorly designed faction LordMewtwo73 made based around various D&D creatures. The leader minion of that faction was the Great Sphinx, whose ability was very similar to Great Old One.
* Multiple abilities in this faction are greatly inspired by various Magic the Gathering sphinx creatures and generally "blue" abilities. The color of the faction represents this as well.
	+ Malicious Arbitrator is inspired by Consecrated Sphinx, Two Futures is inspired by Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign, Unsavory Deal is inspired by Sphinx of the Final Word, and Grand Seer has an ability identical to scrying.

## Artist Credits

Chauncy Felisz

Nathan Rosario

Chris Rahn

Jesper Ejsing

Romain Kurdi

Scott Purdy

Yu Cheng Hong

Nicole Cardiff

Andres Canals

Jose Brand

Ren

Joel Chaim Holtzman

Farrah Siu

*Note: These images were found through Google. If your art appears in these cards and you would not like it to, or if your art is uncredited (as for some images I could not find the source), please contact me through discord (user: lordmewtwo73) and I will be happy to square that away for you!*