Shrine of Loyal Legions is the new Squadron Hawk. Yes, that is my current theory (or those things that pops on your mind out of nowhere). After trying out the artifact in Green White Tokens, I immediately knew its potential, waiting to be explored in Standard.

Since the decline of Tempered Steel decks, I can say that artifact-hate cards had also lessened or stayed on the sideboards. I can conclude at the moment that it is its time to shrine err shine.

Here is my initial list:

UW Shrine Control v. 1.0
By Mark Ian Alloso

Lands
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coast
7 Plains
1 Shimmering Grotto
7 Island
2 Ghost Quarter

Creatures
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Gideon Jura
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Consecrated Sphinx

Spells
1 White Sun’s Zenith
3 Dissipate
3 Mana Leak
2 Pristine Talisman
1 Dismember
2 Gut Shot
4 Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 Think Twice
2 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Day of Judgment
1 Timely Reinforcements

The core list is similar to the Esper Control from Worlds, just without the black spot removals. Similar with Green White Token Town, a turn-two Shrine is very important. This is in both case with agro and control. There is no worry on tapping out early as the big spells to counter come in the late turns.

The shrine nulls creature spot removals and if ever it gets answered with Beast Within or Oblivion Ring, then they have trouble later on on dealing with the Sphinx or an EOT Swarm of cats.

The two approach of the deck is first via the fish type, which is activating the shrine on 4 or five counters and deal attack damage early, backed up by counter spells. The second one is through a control type, sandbagging the shrine to a high number of charge counters, enough to kill the opponent in one swing. Also Elesh Norn hastens this type of kill and a good bomb against creature swarm.

The deck is still on the testing stage so the sideboard cards would be based from the typical Blue White builds at the moment. There will be updates so just stay tuned.

Until the next post and thanks for reading y’all.