A few weeks ago you may remember me writing about Keyforge and saying that I don’t know whether to get into it…

Well…dear reader…I did…I did get into it.

Nine owned decks and one store tournament later (coming 4th out of 18 – woo), as well as around 25 games clocked, Keyforge is rapidly becoming one of my favourite card games. Now I know a bit more about it I figured it was time to talk about the cards.

There is no doubt about it – Sanctum is one of my favourite houses in Keyforge. The Paladin-esque knights have a few really cool combinations that make them true forces to be reckoned with on the battlefield. They can devastate enemy lines, whilst also being incredibly difficult to harm in response. Sanctum are one of the few houses to have great armour, and because of that they are a truly tough. There is no doubt about it, Sanctum are badasses.

Sanctum offer a few incredible abilities, including board wipes, additional defences, and repeat attacks. These lead to powerful combos that are worth exploring.

Today, we going to look at five Sanctum cards in a bit more detail, including how to use them to beat your opponents.

The Spirit’s Way

Play: Destroy each creature with power 3 or higher.

The Spirit’s Way is one of the great reduction cards that Sanctum have in their ranks, the second being The Harder They Come. That being said, where The Harder They Come permanently purges a creature from the game, the card The Spirit’s Way is a strong board wipe, removing the highest level creatures from playing field.

What this unfortunately means is that, if you have a whole host of level 3 or higher creatures in your battle line then you will lose them to your discard pile; however, it also means that if your opponent has some serious power in their battle line you have removed it in one foul swoop. It is, for want of a better term, an anti Brobnar card.

One of the best times to play a card like The Spirit’s Way, especially in a Sanctum heavy deck, is to play it the turn after Epic Quest has done its work. If you archive your hand of knights and save them for later, then you can clean your battle line with your opponent’s, before lining up your knights again. This may even tick off the cards needed for Epic Quest to be triggered and forge a key.

One Stood Against Many

Play: Ready and fight with a friendly creature 3 times, each time against different enemy creature. Resolve these fights one at a time.

One Stood Against Many is possibly one of my favourite cards in the entirety of Keyforge (that I have come across). It is a truly brilliant card, especially when paired with the Shield of Justice.

What you do is you play Shield of Justice to protect your creature. You then attack with said creature, and then play One Stood Against Many. You can stand it, attack, stand it, attack, stand it, and attack. It’s a whole flurry of blows with quick precision.

One Stood Against Many is a fantastic way of wiping the opponent’s battle line through fighting. It can be used to wipe out some of the strongest opponents in the game, like the Kelifi Dragon, in a singular turn with a common card like the Champion Anaphiel. How this works is you play Shield of Justice, followed by attacking with the Champion Anaphiel, and then (and only then) play One Stood Against Many.

This means you get two attacks against one creature, and the rest against different, because you get an attack in before playing One Stood Against Many. You can then use any additional Sanctum knights to attack as well. It’s just that awesome.

Epic Quest

Play: Archive each friendly Knight creature in play.

Omni: If you played 7 or more Sanctum cards this turn, sacrifice Epic Quest and forge a key at no cost.

Epic Quest is an interesting card because it allows for players to forge a key at no cost. This makes it incredibly powerful as it not only allows for a card to be forged outside of sequence (like with Chota Hazri or Key Charge for Untamed) but, unlike other cards offering similar out-of-sequence play, Epic Quest also allows for the key to be forged for free. That makes it really strong, if you can play it.

So, how do you play it? Well, first of all you need an incredibly strong Sanctum hand, as well as having a good number of Knights on the field. Ideally, you need three or four cards in your hand that you can play, and an equal number of cards in your battle line (it’s better to over-egg than not be able to due to some small limitation). Unfortunately, I believe Artifacts, of which Epic Quest is one, come in tapped, so this needs to be split over two turns.

It could; however, go like this –

Turn 1:

• Play Epic Quest.
• Archive Champion Anaphiel, Protectrix x2, and Bulwark.

Turn 2:

• Play Champion Anaphiel, Protectrix x2 and Bulwark from your archive.
• Play Grey Monk
• Play Protect the Weak
• Play Charge
• Finish Epic Quest and Forge Key

It’s the play action of archiving cards that makes it possible, and is a fantastic combination all around.

Radiant Truth

Play: Stun each enemy creature not on a flank.

There isn’t a huge amount to say about Radiant Truth other than it is a great way of slowing your opponent down. There are a few cards that can be used to slow opponents down in the Sanctum deck, including cards that capture (like the Staunch Knight or Take Hostages) and cards that even out the aember (like with Doorstep to Heaven). Nothing, though, in my opinion (although I accept I may be wrong) comes close to the Radiant Truth.

The Radiant Truth is simple. If an opponent is using a creature heavy deck, or has a long battle line ready for Reaping, then the Radiant Truth stuns all but the creatures on the flank. Since, in a game, the number of creatures out can get as high as eight or ten creatures at a time, being able to stun an entire line is a fantastic way of seriously limiting the effectiveness or reap-ability of an opponent’s battle line.

Shield of Justice

Play: For the remainder of the turn, each friendly creature cannot be dealt damage.

Shield of Justice. It may not come as much of a surprise that I have included this card on this list. Shield of Justice is a fantastic card because it realigns the rules of combat in the game, meaning that, when combined with all kinds of other cards (such as One Stood Against Many) it can ensure a purely successful combat round.

It is because of this that Shield of Justice is a must Sanctum card for me. Played before a combat round it protects your troops and, with the high damage/high shields of the Sanctum knights it keeps them protected for that extra round. This reserves your stopping power, whilst also making it possible to use cards like One Stood Against Many without wiping out a knight in the process. There is no point playing a card like that if you can’t use it to its max due to your creature dying half way through.

So yes, not a huge amount to say about Shield of Justice. It’s pretty standard in what it does, but it is a combo catalyst. It helps spur on incredibly awesome moves that make it hard not to smile.

So, there we have it – a brief run down today of five of my favourite Sanctum action cards and why they are some of my favourites. I have to admit, that I whole heartedly recommend the game and think it is ace.

If you have got into Keyforge recently, let me know what your thoughts are. What are your favourite cards from the Sanctum set? Let me know in the comments below.

Published by Luke

Board game nerd, comic book geek, Rubik's Cube solver, Splendor player, and Blogger. View all posts by Luke