Sad Panda Time: Islands

We're all very happy about Consecrated Sphinx. Well, all of us who play Islands are happy about Consecrated Sphinx, those of you who hate that little drop of water probably loathe "Mind's Eye Sphinx". While everyone was looking at ways to draw silly amounts of cards with the Sphinx (Windfall, Wheel of Fortune etc.), others were pondering what would happen if two copies of Consecrated Sphinx were in play simultaniously under the control of two different players whether it be two original copies or some sort of Clone of the original.

What happens is this:
A player draws a card.This triggers the draw ability of both Player A & Player B's Sphinxes. Both draw 2 cards off his Sphinx's triggered ability. This, in turn, triggers the ability of the other conrtroler's Sphinx, who can draw up to 4 cards, and so on, and so on until one of the two players chooses to stop drawing cards. This will repeat every single time any player draws a card. Sad face for everyone else in the game.

Consecrated Sphinx is not the only offender for this sort of silly trickery. Imagine a similiar situation where the two players in question don't control Consecrated Sphinx but instead each has a fully levelled up copy of Lighthouse Chronologist.

Here we go again:

Chronologist A player takes his turn and announces that it's finished. Then Chronologist B player takes their extra turn. When that's finished, they pass the baton back to Player A, and so on, and so on until one wins the game.

The only little problem with both the double Chronologist and the double Sphinx situations is that they are both creatures and, as we all know, creatures are pretty fragile in EDH/Commander. That said, both situations are potentially very easy to set up and anyone looking to avoid these situations needs to keep their wits about them to avoid "EDH Mafia"-type situations developing.

Things that are harder to contend with are locks like Erayo, Soratami Ascendant and Arcane Lab and a new, nefarious lock featuring Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Knowledge Pool. I mentioned in my review of the Mirrodin Besieged artifacts that someone would probably find a way to break this otherwise annoying chaos card. Lo and behold, it's now officially broken.  

Here's a resume from Sinis on the MTGcommander.net boards:
1. Knowledge Pool exiles spells as they are cast from hand as a triggered ability.  Exiled spells do not resolve. This triggered ability is more involved than a mere exiling of spells cast, it allows you to cast a spell exiled by knowledge pool without paying it's cost.

2. If Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is on the table, opponents of the Teferi controller can only cast spells when they could cast a sorcery. This means that you can only cast a spell when the stack is empty (i.e. there are no spells or abilities on the stack already, and it is your main phase).

3. The triggered ability from Knowledge Pool is still on the stack when you are selecting a spell to cast without paying its mana cost (after your initial spell from hand is exiled). Because that triggered ability from knowledge pool is still on the stack, Teferi expressly forbids casting a spell under these circumstances (the stack is not empty, no spells for you) unless you are the controller of Teferi. If you are not: Sad Panda Face.

All is not lost, there are outs: Ancient Grudge, Bash to Bits and Ray of Distortion, Ulamog, the infinite Gyre and a few others will help you but you need to be both running these and have them in the correct zone when you need them. The combo doesn't stop cycling, activated abilities, spells cast from the graveyard, Commander Zone or exiled (with rebound or suspend) but again you have to have all these in the right zone at the right time which makes your ability to respond to this combo quite narrow.

While this is not the straw that broke the camel's back, it is the third card in 3 non-core sets that gives Blue based Commander decks an extra tool and makes a mockery of interactivity. If we keep getting cards that slot too easily into blue-based decks, the oft joked about suggestion of banning Islands may gather pace.

What do you guys think?