Back when OG Kamigawa block was released, the 17 year old me, apart from being in love with the japanese art of the set, was excited to brew kitchen table decks ( the ones without sleeves) with the first cycle of the shrines.
Years passed, I discovered EDH and when I wanted to make enchantress decks I was trying to fit the shrine cycle. When the deck was being optimized the shrines ended up going to the chopping board.
With the arrival of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain and the subsequent spoiling of Sanctum of All and the newer shrine cycle, I could at last play a decent enchantment / shrine deck. The deck was packing the usual enchantress suite and was usually winning with a resolution of Armageddon or Obliterate . My playgroup's decks are 70-90% power so that was the most viable strategy.
Enter the new Kamigawa set and Go-Shintai of Life's Origin . At last we get a dedicated 5c shrine commander AND a newer shrine cycle! Rejoice shrine enthusiasts!
So, I will obviously change Sisay with Shintai as commander. What cards / winning angle would you suggest for a shrines/enchantments deck which now leans more to shrines than generic enchantment goodstuff? I want to push the deck as close to 75-80% as possible (excluding manabases, i use shocks, some fetches and that's all). Is still MLD the only viable option? Come near the fire fellow shriners and discuss!
Okay, we need to talk about the Shrines.
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The Pontiac Bandit - Posts: 201
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Not to undercut the cool-ness of a Shrine deck. I feel like what you have outlined is a mass land destruction (MLD) deck with a Shrine win-con. I am not sure what a 70-90% power curve looks like for your group, but (here is my useless opinion) I feel like the MLD overshadows the sweet-ness of the Shrines.
You could make this a defensive deck using Propaganda effects, and aim for strong control while your Shrines ooze value. I imagine just controlling up would allow you and using stuff like Mirror Entity on the tokens made by your Honden of Life's Web to make all the Spirits into Shrines, which would make Sanctum of Shattered Heights and Honden of Infinite Rage deal tons of damage, and then let you clean up with your pumped Spirit/Shrines. Also, don't forget to include Sphinx of the Second Sun. If you play it on your first main, it pays for itself, draws a card, and gives you another trigger for your upkeep shrines.
EDIT:
Also, Maskwood Nexus works well with the commander/Sanctum of Shattered Heights
Shrine is an enchantment type, not a creature type.
You could make this a defensive deck using Propaganda effects, and aim for strong control while your Shrines ooze value. I imagine just controlling up would allow you and using stuff like Mirror Entity on the tokens made by your Honden of Life's Web to make all the Spirits into Shrines, which would make Sanctum of Shattered Heights and Honden of Infinite Rage deal tons of damage, and then let you clean up with your pumped Spirit/Shrines. Also, don't forget to include Sphinx of the Second Sun. If you play it on your first main, it pays for itself, draws a card, and gives you another trigger for your upkeep shrines.
EDIT:
Also, Maskwood Nexus works well with the commander/Sanctum of Shattered Heights
Shrine is an enchantment type, not a creature type.
Last edited by Tryno 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
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I am boycotting shrines until WotC fixes Goblin Shrine (along with Aven, Dwarven, etc.) with the Shrine subtype.
That said, @Tryno's suggestion matches most of the non-LD Shrine decks I have seen that bore success. Pillowfort until your value engine can take off. I would also suggest Wheel of Sun and Moon so destroyed shrines can be searched for again; especially in a GY hate heavy environment (and it will double as GY hate if you need it to do so).
In the end, bear in mind this is just a variant of a Sliver deck; it will be vulnerable until a critical mass is reached and you will need to protect your most crucial shrines.
That said, @Tryno's suggestion matches most of the non-LD Shrine decks I have seen that bore success. Pillowfort until your value engine can take off. I would also suggest Wheel of Sun and Moon so destroyed shrines can be searched for again; especially in a GY hate heavy environment (and it will double as GY hate if you need it to do so).
In the end, bear in mind this is just a variant of a Sliver deck; it will be vulnerable until a critical mass is reached and you will need to protect your most crucial shrines.
V/R
Treamayne
Treamayne
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Generic enchantress stuff can also support shrines pretty well. Eidolon of Blossoms, Enchantress's Presence, etc. With a recursion engine in the CZ, they increase your change of drawing into what you need.
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The Pontiac Bandit
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I totally agree with your MLD statement. That's why the deck felt kinda awkward to play and that's why I want to remove [card]Obliterate[card] and friends from the next iteration.Tryno wrote: ↑3 years agoNot to undercut the cool-ness of a Shrine deck. I feel like what you have outlined is a mass land destruction (MLD) deck with a Shrine win-con. I am not sure what a 70-90% power curve looks like for your group, but (here is my useless opinion) I feel like the MLD overshadows the sweet-ness of the Shrines.
You could make this a defensive deck using Propaganda effects, and aim for strong control while your Shrines ooze value. I imagine just controlling up would allow you and using stuff like Mirror Entity on the tokens made by your Honden of Life's Web to make all the Spirits into Shrines, which would make Sanctum of Shattered Heights and Honden of Infinite Rage deal tons of damage, and then let you clean up with your pumped Spirit/Shrines. Also, don't forget to include Sphinx of the Second Sun. If you play it on your first main, it pays for itself, draws a card, and gives you another trigger for your upkeep shrines.
EDIT:
Also, Maskwood Nexus works well with the commander/Sanctum of Shattered Heights
This is how the deck looks like now by the way:
Sisay's Shrines
Ertai, Wizard Adept counts as a Wizard.
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Bird in human form - Posts: 354
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Interesting decklist! I am currently brewing a shrine decklist with an enchantress engine. I will post it here when I finish it (I never brewed a five-colour deck before, but I think I am going to focus on selesnya/bant since those colours support enchantress decks well).
EDIT
This is a first draft of how I would build the deck, including all 16 shrines. I think it is very tempting to play all kinds of five-colour goodstuff, but it seems like a trap to me. I focus on Selesnya mainly, with a few blue cards in there. I should probably run cards like Swan Song and Dovin's Veto. The manabase is not optimal, but I just threw something together. Your winconditions are Honden of Infinite Rage, Go-Shintai of Ancient Wars, Sanctum of Shattered Heights and Sanctum of Stone Fangs. So yeah, the deck is pretty slow in that aspect.
EDIT
This is a first draft of how I would build the deck, including all 16 shrines. I think it is very tempting to play all kinds of five-colour goodstuff, but it seems like a trap to me. I focus on Selesnya mainly, with a few blue cards in there. I should probably run cards like Swan Song and Dovin's Veto. The manabase is not optimal, but I just threw something together. Your winconditions are Honden of Infinite Rage, Go-Shintai of Ancient Wars, Sanctum of Shattered Heights and Sanctum of Stone Fangs. So yeah, the deck is pretty slow in that aspect.
LaHistorica's Go-Shintai of Life's Origin (Shrine Enchantress)
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The Pontiac Bandit
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Thanks for the reply! Your decklist is interesting, I haven't thought of using the traditional enchantment removals (Oblivion Ring and friends). Because I considered them too slow. Perhaps the new mill shrine can be an interesting wincon but you would have to really up the pillowfort cards and make sure you can bring it back when it dies. It's the same problem I have with Honden of Infinite Rage . It's a kill on sight for my opponents and I have to either dedicate significant resources to protect it or play it much later in the game.
Maybe Avacyn, Angel of Hope can solve this problem if the game lags too much.
Maybe Avacyn, Angel of Hope can solve this problem if the game lags too much.
Ertai, Wizard Adept counts as a Wizard.
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Personally, I think the secondary wincon for Go-Shintai of Life's Origin is pretty easy to determine: Go wide tokens. You're already pumping out 1/1's for every shrine you find, and 2 of those go hard on pumping out 1/1 spirits. Throw in a Cathars' Crusade or Celestial Ancient and you're cooking with gas.
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Shrine is an enchantment type, not a creature type. @BeneTleilax's comment is very important for deck building.BeneTleilax wrote: ↑3 years agoShrine is not a creature type, it does not work with Changeling. The same way Changeling doesn't make your creatures into Vehicles, or Forests.
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Bird in human form
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If you go full enchantress they are definitely worth consideration. I like O-ring and friends because they are so flexible. I think the mill shrine will often be targeted at yourself, since you can reanimate your own shrines in the graveyard with Go-Shintai of Life's Origin.vandertroll wrote: ↑3 years agoThanks for the reply! Your decklist is interesting, I haven't thought of using the traditional enchantment removals (Oblivion Ring and friends). Because I considered them too slow. Perhaps the new mill shrine can be an interesting wincon but you would have to really up the pillowfort cards and make sure you can bring it back when it dies. It's the same problem I have with Honden of Infinite Rage . It's a kill on sight for my opponents and I have to either dedicate significant resources to protect it or play it much later in the game.
Maybe Avacyn, Angel of Hope can solve this problem if the game lags too much.
This should work yeah! Perhaps add a few more token production cards to the deck and that gameplan is fleshed out nicely.Wallycaine wrote: ↑3 years agoPersonally, I think the secondary wincon for Go-Shintai of Life's Origin is pretty easy to determine: Go wide tokens. You're already pumping out 1/1's for every shrine you find, and 2 of those go hard on pumping out 1/1 spirits. Throw in a Cathars' Crusade or Celestial Ancient and you're cooking with gas.
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With ever halcyon witness and second chance thrown into the deck you have an infinite that leads to an upkeep effect win, so that's a possibility too. I've also got a shrines deck now and 1, yeah discount slivers. I'm also building a slivers deck xD. 2, infinites are surprisingly easy to set up with the amount of tutors I have shoved in there. As I can afford to upgrade, I'll be slimming the tutors down, but here's my current deck list https://archidekt.com/decks/13341178/co ... nes_tribal
