kpr_ep21_sanctumplaybook

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Cold Open

How's sanctum is one of the original KeyForge houses. They can hold a board, they can capture Amber, but can they hold their own in winds of exchange? Let's find out together in the sanctum playbook. Let's get sweaty.

Introduction: The Sanctum Playbook in Winds of Exchange

Welcome dear listener. This is KeyForge public radio, where we are helping you get better at KeyForge. I am your host, Zach Armstrong, and welcome to this episode where we're talking. About house sanctum and winds of exchange. What's their playbook. What are they good at? What are they bad at? What are you going to expect? What to you need to look for when you are playing with or against sanctum and wins of exchange. We're going to look at a couple things they're penchant for capturing Amber. They do that a lot. So we're going to look at how they capture Amber, [00:01:00] what you can do with it. We're going to look at their specialized Amber burst because they do have it. This set, funnily enough, they had a little bit in dark tidings. As well, but they've definitely got some specialized Amber bursts that we're going to look at so that you can be aware of it, play towards it.

And then we're actually going to break our playbook rule a little bit. The playbook rule is that we look at the commons. And Uncommon's from a house in winds of exchange so that we can get an idea of what they're going to be doing really on average in most given games. You know, knowledge that you take with you that whether you're playing sealed at a local. Uh, sealed in a local context or whether you are headed off to a Vault Tour, things you'll generally see with sanctum, especially when they're operating. Well, however, this time we're going to look at a couple or rares and specifically some rare. Artifacts they warped the game so completely that I believe they bear mentioning this time around. And then of course, we'll wrap up talking about their token creatures, [00:02:00] all four of them, and what value each of them brings to the table. Again, this is KeyForge public radio. We're diving into the sanctum playbook and Hey, if you're not subscribed on your preferred listening platform, go ahead and do that because then you can make sure to hear these episodes when they drop. Let's dive in.

Capturing Aember

Sanctum has always been great at capturing Amber from gatekeeper and color of the Arkham. Call of the archives, capturing all about five of your opponents, Amber keeping them off that key or up to age of Ascension with obeyed the grim, the creature, capturing three Amber, and then reaping and discarding the captured Amber from that creature. Sanctum has always captured Amber, but they haven't always known what to do with it capturing Amber can be good in especially a sealed context where perhaps your opponent is not going to be. As ready to fight off the creatures with captured Amber to use cars, to remove those creatures and to get it back. Because in, in this set, especially with [00:03:00] sanctum. There's no way to dump that captured Amber. It really is simply a tempo. It really is simply a tempo hits. You capture that Amber. So hopefully you're stopping them from forging a key. Right. Putting them one more for Jackie step behind where they would be otherwise. But as soon as they get that, Amber back there, back in the game, they've just lost some time. So sanctum is sanctum is very good at that. And that is useful. Not nearly as good, of course, as Amber loss or Amber stealing. So when we look at captured Amber, uh, if you can take over a game simply by capturing the Amber and then reaping out and holding that board, excellent. That is a viable path to victory in a number of circumstances, maybe, you know, you can push for that. If in a game with open deck lifts, you have, uh, used up, used up all of your opponents creature control or in a sealed match, you go ahead and capture it and keep you and capture it and protect it.

And if they can't get to it, [00:04:00] Well, they're just going to have that much harder of a time, forging their keys if they're not making up for it elsewhere.

Aside from tempo wants that, Amber, it goes back to your opponent. Really? They're going to be ready to forge with it. And one of the only things, even in all of winds of exchange to actually hit that hit a large amount of Amber advantageously is martyr of the Vault here in sanctum and winds of exchange martyr of the Vault is a four power, one armor human Knight. It is a creature with the ability destroyed. If your opponent has seven Amber or more, they lose all. But five. The, the destroy defect is great. If they have seven or more Amber, then you get them down below. The amount they need to forge a key. So that's fantastic. However, the biggest issue is that it's a destroyed ability. And so the best way to get this to fire is to play martyr of the Vault and then immediately. Destroy it. There is night upholds the artifact in set that lets you put a creature into play. [00:05:00] Ready. And so motor of the wall can come and ready, but then you need something of at least five power to fight into.

Now there are a couple of great ways to do this. There's a few rare artifacts. Like Hive and offering to kill a Gog. That have Omni destroy a creature, and then you do a couple other things. So those are great for inner sanctum, turn playing martyr of the Vault and then immediately blowing it up with either of those artifacts. So you have an on demand scaling, Amber controlled. Response, which is, which is pretty fantastic. And I do have to shout out the, the, uh, things that let you capture a whole lot at once because those get really powerful. It really feels like when you put our putting capture on a car, do you need to put a whole lot more capture on a card for it to be powerful? You need to be taking so much Amber that it really is a tempo hit to your opponent, even if they get it back later. Things like light bringer, outpost, the uncommon artifact that lets you put a friend like creature on the bottom of its owners deck. If you do a [00:06:00] friendly creature, captures three, three is quite a lot, right? There is requested donations where you make a token creature and it captures two. So you're getting a token creature and then taking some Amber there's also Colonel Mariana, the creature that has play every friendly night creature captures one. And you can usually have a couple of nights out there, much better about those night synergies in this set. So I think that capture is good when you can do it a bunch when it's an actual tempo hit and martyr of the volt can really deliver. If you're able to dump some of that Amber back to get them above that seven threshold. Uh, otherwise that Amber is going to go back if they're blowing it up And it's not doing a whole lot for you, but in bigger bursts, like with light ringer and with Mariana, I think you're in a pretty good spot. A pretty good spot.

Specialized Aember Burst

Next symptom does have their specialized Amber birth. This is really fun that this is present. Here in sanctum and winds of exchange. Of course, the most famous card is the action card at common hearing sanctum [00:07:00] membership drive. It says play make a token creature gained one Amber for each friendly token creature.

It is such a good card, especially when you get a deck that wants to make a lot of tokens. Maybe you have Mars with a couple of their great token makers. Like we talked about back in their play book just last week.

Or you have other things to make a whole lot of tokens at once, even in sanctum, like a Catarina, the seminar with a whole bunch of Amber on her who has destroyed make a token creature fridge, Amber on Catarina, the seminar, maybe pairing that with something like. Like bring your outpost, right. So you can get a whole lot of tokens in one turn and then get a big payoff for it. With membership drive. A couple of the advantages membership drive has as an Amber burst card is one. You generally have some control. If you have a couple of token creatures over how much. You can, uh, you can play it for right. You can, uh, you can either destroy a few tokens. You can play a few more tokens. Generally you want to go as high as possible unless you're facing down some scaling, Amber control. So you've got some control [00:08:00] there. It rewards you for tokens that you've even put into play this turn. So let's say you've made a whole lot of tokens and then you play membership drive. You're already getting rewarded for that board presence on the same turn before your opponent can respond. The other consideration with membership drive is that it's getting you because it's getting you an Amber per token creature. That is either double the aember. For a sanctum token creature board where you're reaping out and playing membership drive. Or.

It allows you to take a really productive, big off turn. If you have a whole lot of tokens in one of your other two houses, right? If that's the token that came with the deck, you can go over into sanctum and still capitalize on having a whole lot of token creatures. So I love the versatility. It gives there that it is always rewarding. Token creature is something many decks want to do anyways, and it helps soften the blow. If you're, you've put some good cards underneath. As tokens, if you can still get the membership, drive out, play that and get a ton of Amber. You're still moving pretty strongly [00:09:00] towards that third key with your Amber burst. A few honorable mentions here. Membership drive, of course, really is the biggest specialized Amber burst, but a few honorable mentions here to a reprint and uncommon artifact, a sigil of brotherhood that says Omni sacrificed, digital of brotherhood for the remainder of the term, you may use friendly sanctum creatures. This is fantastic with a sanctum token. If you either need to fight. Or reach out if you're making a whole lot of sanctum tokens, this really lets you, uh, like membership drive does on an off house turn capitalize on the presence of those tokens. So keep an eye out for that. That is really kind of a reap out. Strategy like we have with a SB three Lander, the uncommon Star lines artifact that has Omni. You may use friendly token creatures. This turn that really does. Uh, the same thing just for all token creatures instead of four justice sanctum creatures. So look out for a sigil of brotherhood there and then another classic reprint, glorious. Phew. Now not as many on average decks, I think we'll want to use glorious view [00:10:00] to great effect. Glorious view is an action card that gains you, Amber one for every one, for every creature, your opponent controls, uh, more than you do. So if they control for you, control two, it would gain you too.

Now, if you want to blow your own creatures up with something like the rare, uh, martyrs and or, or some other trick to blow them up, especially if you're getting a benefit for blowing them up, like drawing a card with prospector, then you're in a great spot to at least have this one turn combo that bursts really high at the sacrifice of taking away a lot of. Your own creatures, but glorious few, definitely. Uh, can operate but less so in winds of exchange, because it rewards you for having few creatures and generally, and when's an exchange. You want to have a lot and you will with tokens. If you're just playing everything that comes into your hand.

Game-warping Artifacts

Now, lastly, before we get to the token creatures, I mentioned talking about a few game, warping rare artifacts, because they both have such a huge impact when they do hit that. It's actually important to [00:11:00] be aware of these. First off is him to Duma. This is an artifact with the power trait and it is says each friendly creature gains, Omni destroy this creature. Uh, friendly creature captures to. So the Omni there, of course, giving an Omni ability to all friendly creatures means you can use them for that ability. No matter what house you're in. And let's a friendly creature capture two. It is the combo potential of having the Omni on all friendly creatures that really shines here. Him to Duma is very good at letting you blow up creatures and use destroyed abilities and capture Amber. However you want to it has a lot of combo potential, really, because it gives all those friendly creatures, Omni, and then in some decks they'll make use of the capture too. And some decks they won't. So keep an eye out for him to Duma. This one is quite powerful.

The other card is heavy subsidies. Now this is an artifact. Again, a rare, it is a law and it says keys costs plus six. Keys cost plus [00:12:00] six. So that's for everybody. Everybody's default key cost goes to 12. It also says each creature gains after reap gain one. So that's friendly creatures and enemy creatures. That's all creatures. In play gain after he gained one. So they're going to be gaining, two. Of total on a reap. Now this card is so fun and so interesting that I actually wrote an entire blog post about it. I'll put it in the show notes here, analyzing how game warping this card is because in effect what it does, what you need to keep in mind if you're playing with or against heavy subsidies, is that it halves the value of all non reaping Amber. The value of steel is halved because remember, keys are your goal. We've talked about KeyForge as a racing game, you've got to keep those keys in mind to get your, to your third key. Right? And so we've just doubled the Amber. It takes to get a key. So stealing one is now a 12th of the key instead of a six of the key, but reaping still gets you a sixth of a key. And then all of a sudden looking at, [00:13:00] uh, you know, really the funny, special token creatures like blurb or ambling leaves, things cannot reap. You are removing your access to extra reaps through those tokens. So you'd better be capitalizing on them and other ways, but air Berlin is still only one 12th of a key. And if you're using something like membership drive, On blower, but you're still only getting, you know, one 12th of a key per creature. So heavy subsidies is an awesome game. Warping artifact that I think is fantastic. And you really have to be aware of what the math is doing, because it's just, it's so good. And it just totally, totally warped the game and really, really cool ways.

Token Creature Overview: Squire

So looking at sanctums token creatures, they've got squired defender cleric, and then the special one. Disciple. These are all, these are all quite fun and cool in their own way. Some of them are better than others. I do believe we'll start with Squire. Squire has two power, which is great. Like we've talked about earlier, even just having to power on a token [00:14:00] makes it pretty useful. And it has taught now often you'll end up with more of these top pockets, right?

Then you know what to do with, if you're making a number of these and they're not terribly hard to fight off, but taunt means you're removing some of your opponents options for removing. Your creatures. It means they have to do extra fights to get in there. Especially if you have Squires on both sides of a particular creature that you're protecting. Right. So not terribly hard to remove, but to power is pretty good. And Tom is fun to play with. So Squire is, Squire is fine. I think it's a solidly middle of the pack. Uh, token creature for sure.

Token Creature Overview: Defender

Then defender has two power and one armor. And here's the thing. It has the night trait. It has the nitrate. So it's got a couple of great things going on. The armor is based in, in one sense, right? Grid Genet around regenerative power that doesn't apply towards how much damage it does. Right. It makes it a bit more survivable from pink damage. So [00:15:00] two, one is fantastic. And the thing is with having it, having the nitrate and that extra defense, right. Via that armor. Makes it so good with things like Colonel Mariano we're all night creatures capture one. Uh, it means that Squire recruitment, the action card that says play for every night for every friendly night, make a token creature. 'cause defender is a night. You're going to at a minimum double your number of token creatures because you can't all your defenders. And then you go ahead and make another token creature for every friendly night in play. So there are some great Squire recruitment. Membership drive decks out there where you can just double and gain profit all day. It's absolutely fantastic. So I really like defender. It's a really cool card. It's sticky. It sticks to the board. You're going to be able to Repat with it. You're going to going to be able to fight a little bit with it if you need to.

So as far as sanctum, token creatures go, I like defender a lot. I don't think it's as good as grunt. Or a few other tokens, but it's, it's pretty solid. I'd say a [00:16:00] solid B. A solid B on a traditional grading scale there.

Token Creature Overview: Cleric

Next we have cleric. Cleric is one power and it says after cleric enters play capture one.

Now the interesting thing about this you capture after it enters play? Not after it is played because of course, first off token creatures. Enter play. They are not played. We talked about this and the reasoning for it. Back in the token creature episode, episode two, all about token creatures, everything you need to know.

And what's great about cleric is that even though it's one power, so pretty easy to take out. Is that it turns token generation into Amber control.

Remember, we talked about capture earlier in this episode, capture is tempo. Right. Capture is tempo. So if you're able to generate. If you're able to generate token creatures. And so maybe capitalize on them in some other ways, you are, you are controlling the Amber tempo of the game with the capture and hopefully capitalizing on the presence of these token creatures. And some other [00:17:00] way as well. So it is very interesting. They are easy to, they're easy to kill, but there is some cool tech and some cool things you can do with them. And the deck that wants to generate a lot of clerics is going to constantly be capturing Amber and constantly be bothering the opponent by taking all of that from them. So cleric has some cool tech to it. I haven't seen any top tables in this Vault Tour season. However, I think there are some very cool things you can do with that. There might be a Vault Tour, worthy deck out there that really just abuses the heck out of cleric. And just look out for some fun tech you can do by capturing, you know, one across. All a whole bunch of creatures like this.

Token Creature Overview: Disciple

Lastly disciple is a one power human monk and it says disciple gets plus one power and plus one armor for each a monk neighbor. It has it itself is a human and amongst, so it will power up itself. Other things that are monks. R a gray writer. And, uh, revered monk, of course. But have an unfortunate card there. So this one. It becomes [00:18:00] sticky when it has better neighbors. Right. It gets up to a two, one, and then eventually a three, two. Which is fantastic. That's very sticky, but you have to have kind of a board full of sanctum to really start having enough of these to make a difference. They do. Of course, come with material, the gray who readies each disciple. After reap, which is fantastic. You can reload six real quick with disciples that way. So, this is a very cool one. I think you can hold a board quite well in a good disciple deck with a lot of monks. If you're doing this in, in sealed or something else. However, I haven't seen this have a whole lot of power because it does have, even though it's a relatively easy one to pull off, it does have a qualification on becoming more buff at one power. It's crazy. Easy to get rid of. And then as a, to one it's a little bit tougher as a three-two. It's great. But a three, two has multiple needs. Oh, on top of it.

Outro

So that is the sanctum playbook, four winds of exchange. Hopefully that helped to give you some insights into what this house is doing. Uh, here in [00:19:00] winds of exchange. And of course, as you're hearing this word, just a number of days away from the grim reminders game found campaign. So we'll be looking out for that on game found.com. You can just type in grim reminders or KeyForge, and it'll pop right up there. Uh, the ghost galaxy has moved to doing crowdfunding for their sets so far. It seems so keep an eye out as they reveal all the tiers of what you can get. All the special things from this campaign that you can get, uh, through the game found there. I've been Zach Armstrong at checkout KeyForge public radio.com for blogs and episodes and other things you can check out the merchant shop there. We have a couple of new designs over the past few months. That have gone up. In the shop. And of course, if you'd like to join us on Patrion, you get access to our discord and access to everything on Patrion. That's two Patriot only episodes per month talking about how the podcast is doing and. My news and reactions to more current KeyForge news. As well, thank you. Especially to our AirWave [00:20:00] advocate level supporters like Paul Roadrunner. And remember like your radio dial may or KeyForge skills always be well-tuned.

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