SANCTUARY: THE KEEPERS ERA
Solid card slinging
Oh I do love me an enjoyable duelling card game. Get me a deck of cards that appreciates my time yet taxes my brain in equal measure and you’ll have one happy Matthew.
Sanctuary is all of that, but at mach speed. Set in the dark fantasy world of Elnerth, players take on the roles of Keepers, guardians of powerful Sanctuary sites scattered across the world, with the goal being to destroy your opponent’s four sanctuaries first.
Everything you’d find in other CCGs has been accelerated. You start turns by automatically gaining two “essence,” with cards rarely needing more than that to play, you always draw up to hand size at end of turn and the types of card have been equally trimmed down to a core trio: Rituals, magical spells that remove enemies or empower your forces, Acolytes, representing your boots/claws/tendrils on the ground who attack or defend sanctuaries depending on if they’re played in the attack or defence position for each column, and Champions, unique individuals that exist outside of your deck, who are considerably more powerful than acolytes and, if defeated, provide a permanent buff to your allies.
The titular sanctuaries also provide a twist to the standard “life total” mechanic; each of the four unique sanctuaries for every faction provides a powerful ability which are unlocked after several turns of play. They’re also incredibly fragile, destroyed in a couple of unblocked attacks, making you weaker but also letting you consolidate your forces, providing a subtle balance that keeps games competitive.
Each faction has its own twist on the core mechanics. From the board manipulating Antar who exhaust foes, leaving their sanctuaries undefended, to the Molran cat warriors, who want to battle constantly, benefitting from their fallen allies to power up beefier battle hardened heroes. It’s a delight to crack upon a new faction and immediately play, discovering the powers and abilities of your forces on the fly.
The visuals are that particularly goofy-but-great blend of dark fantasy elements with a bizarre exoticness of otherworldly beings that feels fitting with the game’s brutal pace and violent explosions of conflict.
In addition to the game’s standard 1v1 mode, it also includes rules for solo play, campaign mode and 2v2, each adding mild tweaks to the base rules without reinventing the wheel entirely, ensuring that knowledge gained from the standard play can be transferred and acted upon whilst also reacting to the new mechanics offered. I particularly enjoyed the variety of ways to modify the solo mode, as it gives you plenty of opportunities to really understand the powers of each faction.
Whilst I’ve enjoyed the pre-built decks, I still feel that a great CCG needs to let you get creative. Sure, you can follow their deck building guide to create your own brews, provided you also get opaque card sleeves as each faction has its own unique card back, but each faction is so tightly built around its theme that breaking them apart never feels as rewarding as it should. Also, the streamlined approach to duelling is both unforgiving if you play badly (which can be soul crushing to people looking for a casual duelling game) but fast enough that you can get to the rematch quickly (which will hopefully persuade said soul crushed players to give it another go.)
As someone who loves card games I want to see this series continue to grow and offer real ways to build interesting unique decks, but for now I’m happy to have a system other than Netrunner to recommend to people burnt out on the price of TCGs.