Pointed Discussion

note: shrines suck. four stars is three too many.

How so? In a two color deck, if you can get down this and, say, the blue shrine, you're getting 4 life and 2 cards. Every turn. For a total investment of 9, spread over one or two turns. Sure, it isn't going to appear in top decks, but it's certainly useful.

I love hondens, as long as you can keep them out on the field without getting destroyed they are devastating to an opponent, and being enchantments you can benefit from any card that works with enchantments like enchantresses or etc. They are quite possibly some of the most powerful cards in the game if you can get a number of them on the field at once. Its possible to run a deck that can play all 5 since you will note no honden takes more than 1 of the color mana it needs. Personally, I find the honden of cleansing fire, and honden of nights reach to be the two most interesting of the honden cards. Cleansing fire can keep your life points up even when your taking a beating, if you have even 2 hondens on the field it gives you 4 life a turn. Nights reach forces your opponent to discard cards, which after 2-3 turns can leave them without being able to draw anything and keep their card for more than the end of their turn. Even if you only play 2 its worth it, but 3-5 is practically instant game win. Another thing to note is the hondens steadily go up in mana cost starting with the honden of infinite rage (3 total, the next consecutive shrines jump to 4 and then 5), the trick is to play the lowest mana cost one first if you can, and work your way up.

Mirror Gallery and Hondens = Ownage. Can have more than 6 shrines on the field as well!

I went out of cards one time in a 5 player game with all five Hondens in play drawing six every turn.
On top of the Honden curve (3 to 5 mana) play Jokulhaups, you should be the first to recover after that...

All shrines are awesome! Note: Ya need to have at least 2 of them.

@AXER
You have to have two to gain as much as their mana cost, but... You do gain 2 life every turn because you own one.

First take some shrines.

Then add Mirror Entity.

Throw in Opalescence and laugh like a lunatic.

Having this and the blue honden out in a phyrexian mana deck would be incredibly bad-ass!

@PhyrexianAdvocate: I was thinking the same thing, but with Xenograft or Conspiracy, but "Shrine" isn't a creature type. :(

I guess I'll just have to make due with Mirror Gallery and Copy Enchantment, but it's just not quite the same.

This is I think one of the most underrated shrines there is. I play a shrine deck with 4 Enduring Ideal. Once you get a few shrines out while dealing damage with Infinite Rage and getting a few blockers with Life's Web, gaining 6-10 life per turn becomes insurmountable on the other side. Plus I don't think it makes sense to look at one shrine at a time. If you're using anything less than 4, maybe 3, then it makes no sense to use them at all.
5/5 on this shrine, for easily getting me up to 100 life on several occasions against several different and powerful decks.

Has anyone else noticed that the Hondens all have the same abilities as their corresponding Zuberas?