The Spirit OasisThe Spirit Oasis | Art by Slawek Fedorczuk

Hello everyone! My name is Jonathan and today I'll be looking at the new Shrines from Avatar: The Last Airbender to see how well they can fit in the pre-existing ecosystem of Shrine Commander decks.

This topic interests me quite a lot, considering I've been running a Go-Shintai of Life's OriginGo-Shintai of Life's Origin deck for quite some time now. So I'm very excited to delve into these cards to see if they can be cool new additions to refresh a favorite topic of mine.

As always, these will be my personal opinions based on my experience with this kind of strategy, so feel free to let me know in the comments if you agree or not!

The State of Shrine Decks

Before discussing these brand new cards, I consider it relevant to briefly mention the current state of Shrine decks. In this way, it'll be easier to understand where my opinions come from and what perception I have of the Shrine game plan as a whole. Above all, what's truly important to discuss is: What do we want our Shrines to do?

In my experience, the average game with a Shrine deck is divided into three main steps.

Colored Mana

First off, getting access to colored mana. This process can be further divided into two sub-steps, with the first being prioritizing green mana production. In fact, through green spells like FarseekFarseek or Nature's LoreNature's Lore we're able to put our hands on lands that generate all colors of mana, which is precisely the second sub-step.

Additionally, cards like Chromatic LanternChromatic Lantern truly shine in this archetype. The most important cards of our deck (i.e., Shrines) are equally spread across all colors, which also means each color can be equally relevant depending on which ones we draw. So, while we're always aiming at getting multiple green lands into play to never have color issues throughout the game, it's also nice to have a get-out-of-jail card that immediately erases all of our color constraints.

Card Draw

From here, we can go to step number two: establishing a draw engine. Luckily for us, there are a ton of good options in this department for enchantments-matter decks. Think about Sythis, Harvest's HandSythis, Harvest's Hand or Eidolon of BlossomsEidolon of Blossoms; they're singlehandedly able to keep our hand constantly full, just like many other cards with a similar template, by replacing almost every card we play with another one.

Also, we can also count on Shrines like Honden of Seeing WindsHonden of Seeing Winds, although this one is less of a setup card and more of a late game payoff. Once we've established a solid Shrine board presence, we can slam it onto the battlefield and start drawing tons of cards every turn.

Winning With Shrine Decks

Lastly, the end game. There are two main variants for the later stages of a match, and I'll talk about them in a second, but they do have one thing in common: the importance of the commander.

In fact, the first way to end the game doesn't directly involve Shrines, but greatly benefit from Go-Shintai of Life's OriginGo-Shintai of Life's Origin sticking around for some turns. In fact, once we've produced enough capable-of-attacking Shrines, we can count on Enduring CourageEnduring Courage, Soaring LightbringerSoaring Lightbringer, and Fear of Sleep ParalysisFear of Sleep Paralysis to close out the game.

And I know there seems to be a problem with the lack of damage output, but trust me, once the game has reached turn 12 or 13, being able to tap down most of our opponents' creatures while granting ours evasion can truly end the game in the blink of an eye.

The second way to bring home the victory is obviously centered around Shrines. And two of them are especially good at doing so.

First, Honden of Infinite RageHonden of Infinite Rage, which is what the chosen opponent will feel once we've blasted them for 15 direct damage. This one can also be a political tool under the right circumstances. In fact, considering how it can only target one player (or creature, I guess), if more than one opponent is low on life, we can use the threat of dealing damage as a way to strike a deal with them.

Then, my beloved Sanctum of Stone FangsSanctum of Stone Fangs. This one is much less political and much more to the point: It drains a ton of life from each opponent and nets us an equal ton of life. This is by far the card I've won most games with and the one my playgroup removes the fastest from the board. While having it stick around for a turn is strong but not deadly, if we manage to untap two times with it, we're more than likely to be on the finishing line of the game.

Once again, these win conditions strongly depend on Go-Shintai of Life's OriginGo-Shintai of Life's Origin, which is the primary source of additional Shrines. We can also manually deploy the majority of our actual Shrines, but it takes a lot of time and we also need to hope they don't get destroyed in the process.

Additionally, this line also strongly benefits from Sanctum of AllSanctum of All. The scenario in which we untap with both this card and Sanctum of Stone FangsSanctum of Stone Fangs on the battlefield is dream-like, but it usually lasts for a very short time, as we'll be winning the game on the spot most of the times.

Evaluating the New Shrines

With all of this being said, one question remains: What are we looking for in new Shrine? Which can be rephrased as: What are the main problems of the deck?

While we're pretty good at closing out the game, it's not unusual to get lost in the process. What I mean is we don't really have a strong board presence. We usually will have only a few creatures and a bunch more enchantments. And while this is cool (I'm actually trying to come up with a creature-less list for my personal Shrine deck), it also comes with the drawback of being constantly exposed to our opponents' attacking creatures.

Additionally, we could use some help smoothing certain aspects of our game plan, especially ramp. While it's true that we have access to all of the best ramp spells in the game, it'll be nice to tie this feature to the Shrine theme. At the moment, only Sanctum of Fruitful HarvestSanctum of Fruitful Harvest is capable of generating mana, and I've loved every game where I had it on the battlefield. So getting some more of these effects wouldn't be bad.

On a lesser note, a lower-costed drawing Shrine would be appreciated, although not strictly urgent. In fact, both Sanctum of Calm WatersSanctum of Calm Waters and Honden of Seeing WindsHonden of Seeing Winds are pretty expensive, making their casting awkward at times. In particular, if we cast them too early, we're taking a whole turn off where they might get blown up, generating little to no value. On the other hand, if we wait too much they become borderline irrelevant, especially if we've gotten any other draw engine online before them.

With all this in mind, let's see what the new Shrines from Avatar: the Last Airbender have in store for us!

Southern Air TempleSouthern Air Temple

This one seems not-so-good on the surface, but it could actually do some work. As I've just said, we're not especially good at creating a board presence, so we're not looking to jam it as soon as possible by any means.

Nevertheless, we need to win the game eventually, and I've mentioned how one of our win-cons is combat damage with the help of some fancy Duskmourn cards. This card could certainly increase our numbers and smooth some calculations to close out the game.

I do have one gripe with it: its casting time is inevitably weird. As I've just said, we don't want to cast it early because we both wouldn't benefit from it and we have better things to do on turns two to four.

It could be a good mid-game card, but in that moment we're looking to improve our Shrine count. As a consequence, it wouldn't be doing much in this scenario either, or we may simply have something better to do once again.

Lastly, the late game could be too late for it, transforming it into a weird anthem effect. In fact, we won't have many more Shrines to cast at that point, making it weird to trigger.

All in all, I think this card will play better than it reads. While it won't be the cornerstone of the deck, it's not unreasonable to imagine scenarios in which a well-timed Southern Air TempleSouthern Air Temple completely turns a game inside-out and allows us to win out of nowhere.

The Spirit OasisThe Spirit Oasis

That's one I really like! Honestly, I think this one is the best drawing Shrine out of all the ones we have. Let's break down why it's so good.

First things first, it's cheaper than both Sanctum of Calm WatersSanctum of Calm Waters and Honden of Seeing WindsHonden of Seeing Winds, which is a great upside. Costing only three mana instead of four or five makes it much easier to cast together with another spell (perhaps another Shrine) during the same turn.

It draws cards as soon as it enters the battlefield. This is huge because it means our draw power isn't tied to a permanent surviving until the following turn. Instead, we immediately get a burst of cards followed by a bonus one whenever we have a Shrine enter the battlefield. As a gentle reminder, this is extremely easy to do if we're playing Go-Shintai of Life's OriginGo-Shintai of Life's Origin.

Nonetheless, The Spirit OasisThe Spirit Oasis does have a downside: It'll draw fewer cards on average than both Sanctum of Calm WatersSanctum of Calm Waters and Honden of Seeing WindsHonden of Seeing Winds. While they're both slower, since we need a turn to get them online, Calm Waters and Seeing Winds will be more consistent at drawing cards.

Northern Air TempleNorthern Air Temple

Give it up for another strong contender for the title of best Shrine in this cycle!

I've already mentioned how Sanctum of Stone FangsSanctum of Stone Fangs is one of our primary win-cons, so it's not hard to envision this as the perfect co-star for that plan. Still, let's go into the details of the reasons that make it that good.

First, it only costs . I repeat, it only costs one mana. I was already extremely happy with the SanctumSanctum's ratio, but getting the same effect for even cheaper is absolutely exciting.

Then, the effect is exactly what we want to do to close out games: a cheap spell that comes out of nowhere and drains 10-to-15 life from each opponent.

The second triggered ability is premium as well in this case. Draining our opponents for one whenever a Shrine enters (again, very easy to do with Go-Shintai of Life's OriginGo-Shintai of Life's Origin) is exactly what we need to get us over the finish line.

Just like The Spirit OasisThe Spirit Oasis, we lose out on multiple bursts of life drain. And yet, I think it's a price more than worth playing for what we're getting, considering the second trigger of Sanctum of Stone FangsSanctum of Stone Fangs is usually an overkill anyways.

Crescent Island TempleCrescent Island Temple

While not quite at the same level of the previous two, but I think this card is sneakily good.

One problem we do face when playing a Shrine deck is board presence. While Go-Shintai of Life's OriginGo-Shintai of Life's Origin somewhat fixes it thanks to the constant stream of tokens it generates, this still isn't enough to keep up with most decks. If we get targeted early in the game, we don't have blockers to preserve our life total; and if we're the designated target of a huge attacker, we might never have the resources to significantly mitigate the incoming damage.

Crescent Island TempleCrescent Island Temple tries to address both of these issues. It does so generating a pretty substantial board presence composed of creatures that are capable of growing in stats, giving us a sliver of possibility against threatening creatures. Of course, it's way better at simply creating an army of tokens capable of blocking an equal number of small creatures, but you never know how big a Monk with prowess can get.

Moreover, let's not disregard this cardthis card's offensive potential. In the same scenario in which we're able to maintain 10-to-15 Shrines on the battlefield, Crescent Island Temple generates an equal amount of power, which can easily double or triple with a few spells during the following turn.

Kyoshi Island PlazaKyoshi Island Plaza

I'm not completely sold on this card. Sure, the ceiling is high; getting a ton of lands directly onto the battlefield is always excellent in Commander.

And yet, this Shrine runs into two pretty big problems.

First, as with Southern Air TempleSouthern Air Temple, its casting time may be a bit awkward. Earlier in the game, when ramping is as good and useful as it gets, we'd probably not have enough Shrines to really make it shine. But if we cast it later in the game, we might not care about lands 15-to-20, making its effect less useful, even though we're maximizing on the value.

Then, considering we'd most likely play this card in a five-colored deck, the number of basic lands we'd run wouldn't be that high. In my current list, which by no means has an optimized mana base, I only run 11 basics. This means that, after the initial burst and a few triggers, Kyoshi Island PlazaKyoshi Island Plaza would become a blank Shrine.

Of course, we could adapt our build to take into account the presence of Kyoshi Island Plaza, but this would also hurt our mana production in any game we don't cast it.

In the end, I think it'll definitely be good enough to be included in any Shrine deck list (also because it's hard to justify leaving out any of them), but I don't think deploying it will be much of a priority when compared to other cards.

This is all from me for now! What do you think of the new Shrines? Which one are you most excited for? Let me know in the comments below!