In all the games I've played with Shrines, I don't think I've activated Sanctum of Tranquil Light a single time (although I'm sure it will happen eventually). Last and most certainly least, we have Sanctum of Tranquil Light, which is just a one-of because it's really bad. Basically, in a perfect world, we'll get Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest and Sanctum of Calm Waters going first, and maybe even Sanctum of All, and then Sanctum of Shattered Heights and Sanctum of Stone Fangs will come down to close out the game. The red Shrine doesn't kill much of anything (and quickly runs us out of cards without Sanctum of Calm Waters to refuel), and draining for one with the black Shrine isn't really all that helpful. On the other hand, both of these cards are pretty lackluster as our first Shrine on the battlefield. In the mid- to late game, when we have several Shrines on the battlefield, these are some of the best cards in our deck, with Sanctum of Stone Fangs being our main win condition and Sanctum of Shattered Heights offering repeatable removal (and another way to get rid of extra Shrines we draw). Next, we have our two-of Shrines, Sanctum of Shattered Heights and Sanctum of Stone Fangs. Meanwhile, Sanctum of Calm Waters loots on its lonesome, which is especially valuable in a deck full of legendary enchantments that tends to have a lot of dead draws, but it turns into a free, repeatable source of card advantage once we get a few Shrines on the battlefield. Even without any other Shrines on the battlefield, Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest is basically a Gift of Paradise, giving us an extra mana of any color every turn, which is super important not just because it ramps us into Sanctum of All but also because it fixes our five-color mana. Our three-of Shrines are Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest and Sanctum of Calm Waters. In general, any Shrine (well, at least most of them) becomes extremely powerful once we have three or more Shrines on the battlefield to power up their abilities, but the best of the new Core Set 2021 Shrines are decent even on their own. Sanctum of All, with its ability to tutor a Shrine to the battlefield every single turn, is the perfect way to find our Shrines, with the bonus of making them even better once they are assembled.Īs for the rest of our Shrines, they are either three-, two-, or one-ofs in our deck, depending mostly on how good they are on the battlefield by themselves. On the other hand, we still need to find all five different Shrines consistently. That means we need to try to avoid playing four copies (and in many cases, even three copies) of a specific Shrine. One of the challenges of building around Shrines is that they are legendary, so drawing more than one of a specific Shrine doesn't offer that much value. Not only does it offer a payoff for getting a bunch of Shrines on the battlefield (essentially turning into a Shrine Panharmonicon once we have at least six Shrines), but it also finds our Shrines. ![]() Sanctum of All is the reason that Core Set 2021 Shrines are so exciting. ![]() And then once we get a few Shrines on the battlefield, we should quickly take over the game. ![]() When things go well, our plan is that our Gates will power up our removal, lifegain, and card draw to help us stay alive until we get our Shrines going. One of the ways to get around this problem is by using our lands to generate extra value since we'll need a bunch of them in our deck to cast our spells, which is what led me to the Gates plan to back up our Shrines. One of the weird things about building with Shrines is that the cycle itself takes up a lot of slots in the deck, which means there isn't really that much room for utility cards. ![]() The question was how to build around the enchantments. Against the Odds: Five-Color ShrinesĪs soon as Sanctum of All and the rest of the shrines were spoiled, I was pretty sure that we'd be playing them for the first Against the Odds episode. Can Shrines compete in Core Set 2021 Standard? Let's get to the video and find out in today's Against the Odds then, we'll talk more about the deck!Ī quick reminder: if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube channel. Backing up our Shrines are some Gate synergies, which not only help us to fix our five-color mana base but also provide a cheap sweeper in Gates Ablaze as well as lifegain from Archway Angel and some solid sideboard options. The main goal is to get all five Shrines and Sanctum of All on the battlefield at the same time, giving us an absurd amount of free value. Which Core Set 2021 card deserves the honor of being the first Against the Odds card from the set? Sanctum of All and the rest of the new Shrine cycle, of course! Our deck today is Five-Color Shrines, or perhaps Gates & Shrines. Core Set 2021 is here, which means it's time to kick off our exploration of the format with a special episode. Welcome to episode 246 of Against the Odds.
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