Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Core Set 2021. Today it’s all about the Shrines coming in Core Set 2021. We first saw Shrines which are Legendary enchantments in Champions of Kamigawa. They are enchantments which get better with each additional Shrine you have on the battlefield. The difficulty is that they are Legendary and all in different colours. This means if you want to have the full impact, you will need to play a five-colour deck. You know what? That’s fine with me. Shrines return in Core Set 2021, with a little twist at the end. I’m going to talk about the new Shrines and whether they have an impact on their own or whether they need additional Shrines to be good.
Sanctum of Tranquil Light
Sanctum of Tranquil Light – Despite it’s cheap 1-mana casting cost, this is not the best Shrine on its own. Without any other Shrines, it costs 5 mana just to tap one creature. The good part about it is that you can tap multiple creatures if you end up having enough mana. A good cost to tap something would be 2 or 3 mana which means you would need to have at least 3 or more Shrines on the battlefield for this to be an above average card to me. Even with that reduced cost, there will be times where your opponent doesn’t have any creatures to tap and it just sits there doing nothing.
Sanctum of Calm Waters
Sanctum of Calm Waters - I can see why this is the most expensive of the new Shrines as there is a strong possibility of this drawing you two cards per turn or more. Even by itself, you get to draw two cards each turn and choose which one you want to keep or keep both if you’ve got a bad card already in your hand. With 2 or more Shrines on the battlefield, this becomes increasingly powerful. A small thing on this card is the fact that drawing cards is a may ability and will never cause you to deck yourself.
Sanctum of Stone Fangs
Sanctum of Stone Fangs – We have seen an enchantment like this recently in the form of Ill-Gotten Inheritance which cost four mana. This means that right away, this is a better turn by turn card. This card becomes your winning line once you start the throw more Shrines into the mix. Draining your opponent for three or four mana per turn will let you both survive longer and be a finisher against your opponent.
Sanctum of Shattered Heights
Sanctum of Shattered Heights - By itself, you will be able to deal 1 damage to a creature or planeswalker by spending a mana and discarding a certain card. Not the best, but where it does provide value is in the mid-to-late game as it exchanges your dead draws of lands and duplicate Shrines into direct damage towards a creature or planeswalker. Great ability but needs help from the other Shrines to be successful.
Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest
Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest - This is the Shrine that has the best immediate impact just by itself. It helps you ramp one turn faster than where you are at and even throws in the ability to get any colour mana from it. If you do end up getting a whole pile of Shrines on the battlefield, it can team up well with Sanctum of Tranquil Light by providing a ton of white mana and tapping down your opponents’ team for little mana. What this Shrine also does is allow you to get the mana needed to cast your 4 other coloured Shrines.
Imagine you have all 5 Shrines on the battlefield and the amount of havoc you could create. I don’t think it’s quite enough though. It needs a little help from Sanctum of All.
Sanctum of All
I like the fact that you will be able to hit the full wheel of five Shrines quickly with this card on the battlefield. The final ability to double your Shrine abilities is quite the overkill and should finish off your opponent in no time. With this and the other five Shrines on the battlefield you'll be able to:
- Tap the same creature twice
- Draw twelve cards while discarding two
- Drain your opponent for twelve life
- Discard a land to deal twelve damage to one creature or planeswalker
- Add twelve mana of one or two different colour to your mana pool
There you have it, folks, the best new deck in Standard. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Core Set 2021. Join me again tomorrow as the set continues towards its finality and we start moving towards playing these new cards.
