Serra's Sanctum (Original Sketch)

Serra’s Sanctum is a Legendary Land from Urza’s Saga (1998), that adds white mana to your mana pool for each enchantment you control. It’s the white member of the “Saga Legendary Lands” cycle (Tolarian Academy, Gaea’s Cradle, Shivan Gorge). It produces explosive amounts of white mana, supercharging enchantment-based combo decks. Serra’s Sanctum scales quickly, since every enchantment becomes a “mana source” that fuels massive turns. Legacy is the format where Sanctum has had its greatest impact, as it’s the defining card of the Enchantress archetype for 20+ years. Legacy Enchantress is a combo/control value deck that uses enchantments to draw a large number of cards, creating an overwhelming advantage. The core strategy involves casting cheap enchantments like Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth to accelerate mana – followed by playing “Enchantress-effects” like Argothian Enchantress and Enchantress’s Presence to draw cards whenever enchantments are cast. With a large hand, the deck then uses enchantments like Solitary Confinement to shut down the opponent while assembling a win condition, such as creating tokens (Sigil of the Empty Throne) or milling the opponent’s entire deck (Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience). While there are many different versions throughout the years (e.g. older lists played Replenish, Living Wish for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Doomwake Giant), the main strategy remained the same. In cEDH/Commander, Sanctum is also very popular, and used in decks like Sythis, Harvest’s Hand, Tuvasa the Sunlit, and Ellivere of the Wild Court. Sanctum is often one of the best lands in EDH when played in the correct strategy. Serra’s Sanctum is on the Reserved List, it will never be reprinted.