Welcome back to the second article looking at the Top 5 Reprints for Keyforge's 5th set, Dark Tidings. If you missed the last one, check out Logos! You back? Good. This time we are moving into House Sanctum.
Here is the list of the 24 reprints that Sanctum will get along with their card number and rarity:
Charge! - 075 - R
Epic Quest - 077 - R
Lady Loreena - 079 - R
Lord Golgotha - 081 - R
Mad Prophet Gizelhart - 082 - R
Mighty Lance - 083 - R
Numquid the Fair - 084 - R
Orb of Wonder - 085 - R
Round Table - 086 - R
Sanctum Guardian - 087 - R
Seraphic Armor - 088 - R
The Vaultkeeper - 091 - R
Barrister Joya - 094 - U
Bring Low - 095 - U
Doorstep to Heaven - 096 U
Gatekeeper 098 - U
Gorm of Omm 099 - U
Haedroth's Wall - 101 - U
Radiant Truth 105 - U
Shoulder Armor - 107 - U
Bull-Wark - 109 - C
Cleansing Wave - 110 - C
General Xalvador - 111 - C
Staunch Knight - 120 - C
I don't think this list is quite as consistent as the Logos reprint list. There are definitely cards in here that I don't really care to get, especially when compared to others. Getting Charge!, Mighty Lance, or Seraphic Armor as a rare in your deck is a let down when you could get any of the others.
I feel far less confident about the ordering of Sanctum than I did about Logos. I feel as though you could shuffle these names and just pick one at a time out of a hat and the order would be just as valid. I am struggling with my own phrasing of "impactful". On one hand, something that is common is probably more impactful for an average game than a rare, simply because it is more likely to pop up. But if you have all 5 of the cards in the same deck, which would be considered the most impactful? Again, that depends on a few things, especially matchups or what the rest of your deck has. Or is it the card that everyone wants in their deck? Or the card that is a primary selling point when talking about why it is good or not. I think I'm going to veer towards the card that everyone should agree is an amazing card to have in their deck, and then secondly a card that would be a primary reason/selling point for why a deck is good or not. But, getting back to our reprint analysis, despite some lackluster cards, Sanctum does have some very strong reprints coming back, so don't let the chaff ruin your wheat (people say that, right?).
So let's dive in!
#5 Vaultkeeper 091
I always liked Vaultkeeper, especially in the early sets when Shadows was king. Stealing is a little less common these days, but Dark Tidings still has plenty of little steals in it, and of course the rest of the sets still have all their stealing so if you are playing Archon this will still be a really valuable card. Flat out preventing an opponent from stealing can shut down entire amber controlling strategies, and leave you free to gain amber as you want. Capturing is still pretty popular, but massive amounts of capturing is actually pretty limited in this set. I will always like seeing Vaultkeeper as one of the cards in my deck, and I think it automatically improves every Sanctum House component it is in.
#4 Gatekeeper 098
Gatekeeper is another one of those cards with which I have always had a soft spot. Scaling amber control has always been very important in Keyforge. It helps keep those rush decks in control. Scaling steal was king for a while, but since that has been pretty nerfed recently, we'll have to go with scaling capture. Being able to take your opponent off a key check with a single card (no matter how much amber they have) is always going to be huge. You can win/lose games based on being able to do this, or avoid it. The caveat for this card is of course they need to have 7 amber, and not just 6, so it won't always work. But still, Dark Tidings seems to have very little scaling amber control of either kind. Most of it is limited to Sanctum, with only a couple of cards in other Houses. I think Gatekeeper is going to be another one of those cards that catapults any Sanctum House component into competitive territory.
#3 Numquid the Fair 084
Ah Numquid, a horribly named character that didn't get a lot of love originally, but someone who sent us all digging into our collections when WC came out thanks to Saurians/Star Alliance with wards. With Keyforge moving into more complicated and wide board states, boardwipes were becoming more and more necessary. And with WC giving us Saurians and Star Alliance, who both gave copious amounts of wards on top of wide board states (actually so did Logos), a simple board wipe wasn't enough. In comes Numquid, not caring about wards at all. As long as you had fewer creatures, you could ping off every single ward an opponent had, and then start laying waste to their battle line. She is a game saving play. Now, there aren't as many wards in this set, but there aren't a ton of board wipes either. Plus, if you plan on playing Archon, there will most likely be WC Saurian/Star Alliance decks out there and you will definitely want this card for them. I still think she is a top tier card, even if only playing in this set.
#2 Orb of Wonder 085
This card was the one that I toiled over and revisited how I evaluated cards. Orb of Wonder originally was an Anomaly rarity card, which made it almost impossible to get in a deck. It was an incredibly powerful card and it's easy to see why. As long as it's out, you can use it's Omni ability (ie not have to have a specific House active), to get any card you want/need in your draw pile. That is very useful. The reason I don't have it number one is because its strength is still a bit situational. If you have a combo deck, it is a must have and an amazing card. If you need a specific card in your draw pile, this can get it for you. However, artifact stealing exists in this set, and the last thing you want is to give your opponent this card. Plus, in some decks you just might not need it as much. And lastly, it is a rare, so unlikely to come with the best cards available. It's still a card I will always want in any deck, and definitely deserves a #2 spot though. With other specific cards for combos, this could elevate a deck into Vault Tour winning territory.
#1 Bring Low 095/ Doorstep to Heaven 096
For #1 I have a tie. I'm sorry, but both of these cards are just too similar and too good not to put them both here. I definitely couldn't demote Orb of Wonder to a #3 slot, but these two cards will be amazing in absolutely every deck they are in, whether in Sealed or in Archon play. As I said before, scaling amber control is vitally important to the meta. It is the only thing that keeps rush decks in check. Not even just rush decks, it makes people debate on whether to just gain as much amber as they can on their turn. They are slightly different in how they do things though. Bring Low enhances another card, which I love, and it captures all but 5 amber from your opponent only. Doorstep on the other hand flat out gets rid of the excess of 6 amber, but it can also affect you. Sometimes it can be better to capture amber, especially with Saurians! But other times, you don't want your opponent just getting the amber back by destroying your creatures. But both are scaling amber control, which is surprisingly rare in this set. These 2 cards are the most widely available, most consistent scaling amber control in the set, and so will be really important cards to get for any competitive deck.
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So that's it for Sanctum. It has access to some extremely powerful reprints as we can see (3 scaling amber control cards!), and this alone could put Sanctum as one of the top Houses of the set, but time will tell. This House gave me a lot of headaches, debates, deletes, and edits before I decided on my list. And even then, you could probably ask me next week and I will change up the order, lol. Am I missing something simple? Would this be a really easy list/order for you? Please let me know. Thank you so much for reading, and as always, happy gaming!
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