Having been around for around 33 years at this point, Magic: The Gathering has an insane amount of pedigree. Thanks to the ever encroaching tide of power creep, however, a lot of Magic’s older cards have long been forgotten. Considering the abilities that cards like Crumbling Sanctuary offer, this is definitely a real shame.
MTG Crumbling Sanctuary
Crumbling Sanctuary is a rather odd MTG card. Once in play, Crumbling Sanctuary prevents everyone from taking damage, at the cost of exiling cards from their library instead. Essentially, this turns each player’s deck into their life total.
Considering Commander decks are significantly larger than starting life totals, this might seem like a pretty naff tradeoff on the surface. After all, you now have to work over twice as hard to eliminate an opponent via damage. That said, the damage that happens with Crumbling Sanctuary in play is a whole lot more punishing than usual.
As much as your life total is a resource in MTG, Crumbling Sanctuary pushes this to another level. Any damage that Crumbling Sanctuary prevents could easily exile a card they needed, limiting their deck’s power. If nothing else, this is incredibly frustrating to play against, as it turns basically every deck into a Mill deck. The only thing you really have to watch out for is having the tables turned on you, since this card’s effect is symmetrical.
In theory, mitigating this rather damning downside can be as easy as going wide with a ton of creatures. Should that not be enough for your liking, however, you could also build a Turbo Fog deck to ensure you don’t get damaged. Within this archetype, and even outside of it, cards like Inkshield, Solitary Confinement, and Energy Field can work wonders.
Alternatively, if you can’t prevent damage and Crumbling Sanctuary’s exile shenanigans, there are ways to lean into it. Cards like Misthollow Griffin and Eternal Scourge can be played from exile, for instance, ensuring you’re not left without options. Similarly, cards like Laelia, Blade Reforged, and Crackling Dake scale when cards get exiled, and can make for great inclusions in any Crumbling Sanctuary deck.
Choose Your Commander
While sowing chaos and keeping yourself safe is always an entertaining strategy, realistically, Crumbling Sanctuary is best suited to Mill decks. In this strategy, damage simply becomes better Mill, which is ideal in Oona, Queen of the Fae and Phenax, God of Deception decks. As compelling as these homes are, however, nothing quite beats Umbris, Fear Manifest alongside Crumbling Sanctuary.
Sadly, while powerful, Umbris being Dimir locks you out of some of the best exile support in MTG, which is in red. Technically, generic Commanders like Zedruu or Kenrith solve this problem, but Pramikon, Sky Rampart and Nekusar are more interesting choices. By limiting attacks and drawing more cards, respectively, these commanders actually feed into Crumbling Sanctuary’s chaos.
Unfortunately, while Crumbling Sanctuary can technically be useful in any archetype, most decks would rather deal 40 damage to win, rather than 99. Due to this, it’s not all too surprising that this card has been forgotten about. Most of the time, you’re just left adding insult to injury and kicking an opponent while they’re down. Still, while not necessarily effective, that can be a lot of fun.
Adding Insult to Injury
Sadly, since there isn’t a card that burns an opponent on exile, Crumbling Sanctuary doesn’t have any real combos. That said, it can latch onto other loops, making them punishing in a different way. Admittedly, most of the time, damage is more effective; however, that all changes if you’re up against a lifegain deck.
Since Crumbling Sanctuary effectively caps your opponent’s life pool at 99, Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought and Brash Taunter become a guaranteed kill. After being stationed, these two cards can redirect 100 damage to your opponent’s face. This will then have Crumbling Sanctuary exile their entire deck, ensuring your win when they next draw.
Unfortunately, as fun as this combo is, the chances of it being useful in Commander are pretty slim. Thanks to this, Crumbling Sanctuary will almost always be butting up against the difference between life total and deck size in Commander. With this in mind, perhaps it’s not the biggest surprise that Crumbling Sanctuary only sees play in 884 Commander decks.
Ultimately, while Crumbling Sanctuary might not be amazing everywhere, this MTG card does still have real potential in the right archetype. Hell, if you just want to cause chaos, it’s totally awful outside of it, too. At $5 for a near-mint copy as well, experimenting with this artifact shouldn’t break the bank.
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