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Mystic Sanctuary

Land — Island

LegalEDHREC #172

( {T} : Add {U} .)

This land enters tapped unless you control three or more other Islands.

When this land enters untapped, you may put target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard on top of your library.

Why is this card good?

Mystic Sanctuary is a free, repeatable spell-recursion engine disguised as a land. In any heavily blue deck, rebuying a key instant or sorcery — a counterspell, board wipe, draw spell, or tutor — for the cost of a land drop is excellent value. The real payoff is in dedicated combo and "spellslinger" lists. With ways to bounce and replay lands (Cloudstone Curio, Crucible of Worlds, or any land-return effect like Trade Routes), Sanctuary becomes a loop that puts a spell back on top each cycle — a common piece in High Tide/storm-style blue combo decks and infinite-mana payoff shells. Wants it: mono-blue or blue-heavy control, spellslinger, and combo decks running enough basic Islands to enter untapped. Skip it if: you're three-color-or-more with few true Islands (it'll almost always enter tapped and whiff), or your deck is creature/permanent-based with little graveyard-worthy instant/sorcery density. The "three other Islands" clause punishes greedy mana bases hard.

Related cards

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

Utility blue-friendly land for card advantage in mono-blue shells.

Riptide Laboratory

Utility Island-type-adjacent land that recurs wizards, similar value land.

Crystal Vein

Comparable nonbasic utility land but for ramp instead of recursion.

Time Warp

Extra-turn spell often looped with Mystic Sanctuary for infinite turns.

Time Walk

Premier extra-turn spell to put back on top via Sanctuary's recursion.

Reality Shift

Cheap instant repeatedly returned to library for value.

Brainstorm

Cheap cantrip that pairs well with topdeck recursion from Sanctuary.

Ghostly Flicker

Blink spell to re-trigger Sanctuary's enter-untapped recursion ability.

Printings (6)

socSecrets of Strixhaven Commander · #388C$0.88Buy

sldSecret Lair Drop · #2143R$20.02Buy

mb2Mystery Booster 2 · #110C$2.68Buy

mkcMurders at Karlov Manor Commander · #277C$3.13Buy

tsrTime Spiral Remastered · #408S$9.60Buy

eldThrone of Eldraine · #247C$1.36Buy

Played by these commanders

Mirko, Obsessive Theorist100% of 1

Rootha, Mastering the Moment100% of 1

Rulings (2)

2019-10-04
As these lands are entering the battlefield, they check for lands that are already on the battlefield. They won't see lands that are entering the battlefield at the same time (due to Scapeshift, for example).
2019-10-04
If another effect puts these lands onto the battlefield tapped, they enter tapped, even if you control enough lands with the appropriate basic land type.