Strictly better Banishing Light. This having flash and being able to target your own permanents gives this a lot of flexibility, allowing you to be reactive and protect your own stuff, and is a Parallax Wave enabler. Waterbend is a nice bonus and gives you a way to get your permanent back assuming you exiled something of yours.
I'm wondering what the threshold for Serra's Sanctum to be viable in cube.
Serra's Sanctum — Someday, with the right support, I want to go that deep! I am a huge supporter of the enchantress archetype for cube. At about 74/540 enchantments, I find that even drafting all-in Selesnya or GWx enchantment decks it’s hard to get the density of enchantments as high as artifact decks in other vintage cubes, which makes me hesitant to try Serra's Sanctum. The influx of excellent enchantmentcreatures in Duskmourn helped some, but the major difference between Serra’s Sanctum and Tolarian Academy is that there are so many cards that incidentally make clues, foods, treasures, and thopters. Where are the cubable shard makers? What we need to make Serra’s Sanctum work are cube power level cards that make large numbers of enchantment tokens. Also needed is at least one Walking Ballista-style enchantment that is scalable (generically useful at low mana values, and can be a finisher when you have a ton of Serra’s Sanctum mana).
Not to derail the thread, but for those interested in enchantress themes in cube, here are the payoffs I run now:
What I think about most for picking payoffs is the fail case. The floor on some of these are low for the times you don’t draw an enchantment (or the times when your opponent removes all your enchantments), but not as low as a land that doesn’t tap for mana.
I'm wondering what the threshold for Serra's Sanctum to be viable in cube.
Still lightyears away in a high powered environment, IMO. Not only does there need to be a high critical mass of enchantments similar to artifacts, but they have to be CHEAP (1-2 mana). Artifacts also have the advantage of being colorless, having a good amount of 0-cmc cards, and generating artifact tokens is very common. Enchantments don't have any of those benefits. Not to mention that white can't take as much advantage of a mana sink like blue / green can with Tolarian Academy / Gaea's Cradle.
Have pulled all the classic enchantment removal stuff from my white section. Might be enough better for me to try it. Lots of good 1-2 mana instant removal so the bar is pretty high at 360 IMHO.
This is a huge upgrade from some of the stuff available to me, so this goes in for sure. Overall, this seems like enough additional upside from Oblivion Ring & co to see testing in medium-sized cubes, but probably not high-powered cubes.
Leyline Binding at 3/5 Domain is a fine card, so a card that is functionally the same minus the Domain requirement should be quite good. The waterbending also makes this incredible with Parallax Wave.
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StaffStrictly better Banishing Light. This having flash and being able to target your own permanents gives this a lot of flexibility, allowing you to be reactive and protect your own stuff, and is a Parallax Wave enabler. Waterbend is a nice bonus and gives you a way to get your permanent back assuming you exiled something of yours.
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I'm wondering what the threshold for Serra's Sanctum to be viable in cube.
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Serra's Sanctum — Someday, with the right support, I want to go that deep! I am a huge supporter of the enchantress archetype for cube. At about 74/540 enchantments, I find that even drafting all-in Selesnya or GWx enchantment decks it’s hard to get the density of enchantments as high as artifact decks in other vintage cubes, which makes me hesitant to try Serra's Sanctum. The influx of excellent enchantment creatures in Duskmourn helped some, but the major difference between Serra’s Sanctum and Tolarian Academy is that there are so many cards that incidentally make clues, foods, treasures, and thopters. Where are the cubable shard makers? What we need to make Serra’s Sanctum work are cube power level cards that make large numbers of enchantment tokens. Also needed is at least one Walking Ballista-style enchantment that is scalable (generically useful at low mana values, and can be a finisher when you have a ton of Serra’s Sanctum mana).
Not to derail the thread, but for those interested in enchantress themes in cube, here are the payoffs I run now:
Optimistic Scavenger
Sythis, Harvest's Hand
Sanctum Weaver
Calix, Guided by Fate
Setessan Champion
Eidolon of Blossoms
Archon of Sun's Grace
What I think about most for picking payoffs is the fail case. The floor on some of these are low for the times you don’t draw an enchantment (or the times when your opponent removes all your enchantments), but not as low as a land that doesn’t tap for mana.
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StaffYeah, flash really adds a lot of flexibility to this. Emergency Eject was also enticing to me, but I like the upsides of this more.
Still lightyears away in a high powered environment, IMO. Not only does there need to be a high critical mass of enchantments similar to artifacts, but they have to be CHEAP (1-2 mana). Artifacts also have the advantage of being colorless, having a good amount of 0-cmc cards, and generating artifact tokens is very common. Enchantments don't have any of those benefits. Not to mention that white can't take as much advantage of a mana sink like blue / green can with Tolarian Academy / Gaea's Cradle.
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