In this experiment, we study under the sphinx’s tutelage to bring the blue dawn and enter the infinite.

Last week, I experimented with a Magic Origins preview, and this week, I want to do another. However, unlike last week, I’m going to cover an oddball enchantment instead of a mythic and powerful Dragon. Oddball enchantments are a bit more my style.

Sphinx’s Tutelage is like an upgraded Jace's Erasure. It’s 1 more mana, but it mills for twice as much, which is a big deal. It also has an activated ability that I expect will rarely be activated—6 mana is a bit much.

I’ve written about Jace's Erasure before, but that time, we were using the mill effect on ourselves to power up Scrapyard Salvo. Sphinx’s Tutelage doesn’t give us that option, so we’ll have to embrace the game plan of milling out our opponent.

Whenever You Draw a Card

My next thought was Enter the Infinite. The thing about Enter the Infinite, though, is that when we cast it, we’ll almost inevitably win on our next turn regardless of the win conditions we’ve put into our deck. For that reason, Enter the Infinite isn’t the type of card I like to build with—it combos with everything, so it just never feels that special.

This time, however, was the exception. Enter the Infinite lets us win with anything on our next turn, but with Sphinx’s Tutelage, Enter the Infinite lets us win before our next turn! Casting it with Sphinx’s Tutelage can mill our opponent for sixty to eighty cards, which should be plenty. As long as our opponent doesn’t have a deck full of Eldrazi or other cards with shuffle-your-graveyard-into-your-library clauses, we’ll just win the game. (And if you’re worried about Eldrazi and the like, just toss in a copy of Ravenous Trap and hope it isn’t on the bottom of your library.)

Okay, so maybe Enter the Infinite is going to be fun. But it isn’t exactly easy to cast. We’ll need a backup plan. How about Interpret the Signs? This costs 6 instead of 12, and if we reveal Enter the Infinite, we’ll still be milling our opponent for twenty-four cards. That’s not quite an instant kill, but it’s a good distance toward ending the game, and we’ll have drawn twenty-four cards—don’t forget about that part. In this case, Interpret the Signs does its best Enter the Infinite impression: We’ll probably win on our next turn (or during the subsequent draw step of our opponent).

Expensive Spells

Let’s take a look at a few other expensive spells I picked out for Interpreting the Signs. Oh, and before I go too far, I should also mention that we’ll have Brainstorms around so we don’t have to rely fully on scry to hit our big tutelage triggers.

Draco — This is the classic synergy card with Erratic Explosion. Instead of hitting for 16 damage, though, we’ll be milling for thirty-two cards. Oh, and Draco is also a 9/9 with flying, so we have a bit of a backup plan. If we have basic lands of each type, it’ll only cost 6 to cast and will have its upkeep-trigger cost reduced to 0. Did I mention we’ll be playing domain?

Bringer of the Blue Dawn — As long as we’re in the market for domain cards and expensive things and drawing cards, Bringer of the Blue Dawn is the perfect solution. It costs 9, so it’ll mill for eighteen when revealed with Interpret the Signs. Its domain superpower means we can cast it for 5 with the right lands, and its upkeep trigger lets us draw extra cards and mill our opponent for as many as six cards per turn. If you love Bringers and are willing to make some room, try out Bringer of the Black Dawn as well for more of a combo bent—you won’t be drawing as many cards in your upkeep, but you can find the perfect card for a combo kill.

Treasure Cruise — This costs 8 but can be cast for cheaper, and it is a card-draw effect, which means milling. We can’t afford a ton of delve since we’re not milling ourselves, but with all our spells, we should be able to cast a Treasure Cruise or two relatively easily.

Blasphemous Act — I generally like to ignore what my opponent is doing, often to my detriment. If you’re more of an interactive player, you may want more of these and of spells like it—such as Dead Drop—but even I wanted to ensure I’d have a little bit of threat to my opponents. Like Treasure Cruise, Blasphemous Act has a high cost for Interpret the Signs interaction but can be cast for cheaper.

Seeking Domain

With all our big spells and with our domain goal, mana-ramp spells just seem natural.

Ravnica rare lands — These are pretty integral to this deck the way I’m building it. There are a lot of them, and they’re there to help us reach domain, which is having a basic land of each type on the battlefield for cards such as Bringer of the Blue Dawn and Draco. Well, the Bringer doesn’t care about the types of our lands—only the mana—but for Draco (and Stratadon if you want to try that one out), the land types will count.

Farseek and Skyshroud Claim — These are another part of why those basic land types will matter. Farseek will let us find any of our Ravnica rare lands, and Skyshroud Claim will let us find two of them—as long as we choose Forests. And unlike Ranger's Path, Skyshroud Claim will let us put one or two of them into play untapped if we’re willing to pay the 2 or 4 life.

Urban Evolution — This one’s a Divination and an Explore smooshed together, which means card advantage. And since Divination was already card advantage, we just get more. Playing extra lands is also nice since it’ll bring us closer to casting Enter the Infinite and the like.

If you don’t have the rare Ravnica lands, just play your Alpha dual lands instead. If you happen to not have those either, feel free to find another way to reach domain, and maybe ditch the Dracos.

Infinite Tutelage ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (6)
• 4 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
• 2 Draco

• Spells (30)
• 4 Brainstorm
• 2 Blasphemous Act
• 2 Enter the Infinite
• 3 Treasure Cruise
• 3 Urban Evolution
• 4 Farseek
• 4 Interpret the Signs
• 4 Skyshroud Claim
• 4 Sphinx's Tutelage

• Lands (24)
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 2 Godless Shrine
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Temple Garden
• 3 Stomping Ground
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Steam Vents

Buy This Deck

If you like sphinxes, tutelage, or mono-blue five-color, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com