Favor and The Sanctum are important parts of Gods Unchained - by providing both players with a shared selection of cards that can be played by taking daring actions, it raises the skill ceiling required for top-tier playing. I have won many games by utilizing the Sanctum effectively. I have also lost the advantage many times by picking the wrong Sanctum card. Want to get better at using The Sanctum? Let's break it down and see how you can too improve your Sanctum game.
What's Favor and The Sanctum?
The Gods Unchained team have put out a comprehensive post about what Favor and The Sanctum is (blog post here), and to summarise it:
- Each player starts with 0 Favor
- Favor is earned by one of three actions
- Attacking the opponent god with a creature or a relic
- Killing an enemy creature but your creature survives - includes killing enemy creature with a relic
- Killing an enemy creature via non-combat means - spells, god powers, and creature abilities all trigger this
- Each action gives the same amount of favor: 1 favor on turn 1, 2 favor on turn 2, and 3 favor onwards
- Favor is used to buy cards from The Sanctum
- The Sanctum always has 3 cards for sale, each having different themes: Answers, Defenders, Removal, Threats, and Value. They cost between 13 and 17 Favor
- Buying a card in the Sanctum will replace it with another card from another Sanctum deck
- Cards in The Sanctum can be replaced by a Blessed effect. From my knowledge, there are only 2 possible Blessed effects that replace Sanctum cards
- Blessed effects can increase or decrease favor required to buy cards from the Sanctum
Essentially, it serves as a shared deck between the two players that can turn the tide of games if played properly. There are certain rules for what Sanctum cards are available that you can read on the official Gods Unchained blog post above.
All Sanctum Cards
These are all the Sanctum cards that are available as of now, it was last updated in August. They may change it again in the future.
(Data Source: Reddit)
Key strategy for picking cards
When buying cards from the Sanctum, I generally follow these rules of thumb (in order of importance mostly):
Buying direct damage spells for dealing lethal damage
Pre-emptively buy cards so that my opponent cannot buy them
This is highly dependent on what deck you are playing and what you are trying to achieve. For example, when playing an Aggro War deck that is trying to finish off the opponent, I would pre-emptively pick Frontline cards available like Shield Maiden and Battle Aurochs.
If I am wielding a relic and a Wiccan Trapper or Bronze Servant is available in The Sanctum, I would be sure to pick them up before my opponent can.
- Dealing with an opponent's threats
Similar to how an opponent would pick cards from The Sanctum to deal with my threats as seen above, I will also pick cards to foil my opponent's plans. - Pre-emptively picking removal spells
Removal spells are always helpful in dealing with a pesky threat that you would otherwise not have an answer for. For this reason, I tend to pick a lot of Rune of Fire, Vow of Champions, and Form of Power even if there isn't an immediate threat on the board. Additionally, Rune of Fire and Vow of Champions can be used to target the opponent god directly, which can be helpful for aggressive decks.
- Making use of remaining mana
When playing aggressive decks, using Sanctum cards to buy units that I can play with my remaining mana gems has won me a few games.
Blessed
One of the keywords that the Divine Order expansion introduced was the Blessed keyword. What does it do? Check out this marketing video from the Gods Unchained team.
Essentially, cards with Blessed allows you to choose one of 3 effects from a pool of effects. These range from giving you extra favor, reducing your opponent's favor, replacing Sanctum cards or their costs and more. If you play a deck with Blessed cards there is an added layer of strategy when considering each player's favor levels, albeit with some randomness involved. Knowing that you can get an extra 6 favor possibly by playing one of your Blessed creatures can possibly allow you to buy that Form of Power to end the game.
Pre-emptive Strategizing
Here comes the fun part - pre-emptive strategizing. This is usually done after turn 3 where each favor action will give you 3 favor. When looking at the cards available in the Sanctum, you should keep in mind how many favor actions your opponent will require to buy certain cards in the Sanctum. For example, if I'm playing an aggressive deck and my opponent currently has 10 favor, I would note that it would require him 3 favor actions to buy a Rune of Fire or Form of Power. This then in turn will form the basis for my actions in the turn - if I clear his board of creatures, he is unlikely to be able to buy these key removal cards.
In the cases where I am unable to prevent my opponent from getting the amount of favor for some specific card, I will play around it as though my opponent already has it in his hand. For example, if my opponent is able to buy Form of Power the next turn, I will try to play a creature with 3 health or more instead of one with less.
Strategizing also carries over to when you should buy cards. As a new Sanctum deck is picked to replace one when someone buys a card, buying a Sanctum card can be the wrong choice sometimes. For example, if the Removal deck is not present in the Sanctum currently, by buying a Sanctum card, I invite the possibility of a Removal spell being available for the opponent. This can be the deciding factor between a loss and a win.
I hope that my explanation of how you can use the Sanctum to your advantage was helpful! There are many non-obvious strategies when the Sanctum is involved, especially if your deck or the opponent's deck includes Blessed creatures. I do think that its inclusion in the game has allowed for a higher skill ceiling due to the amount of strategizing needed. Skill difference is real in Gods Unchained.
Did you find this guide helpful? Let me know what are your strategies for utilizing the Sanctum.