Introduction
The Sanctum in GU is technically a mini side deck, from where players are able to draw extra cards during the game that are not part of their original deck. The current Sanctum iteration actually can have a large impact in the game, as it includes a number of disruptive cards with the ability to turn the tide of the match if played at the correct time.
The sanctum has been touted as a distinctive feature in GU. However, it has also been the target of very valid criticism due to the way players accumulate Favor, the point system that enables purchasing cards there. The system essentially works as a win-more mechanic, because players that are already ahead have an easier time picking up more cards, which in turn contributes to making sure they remain ahead. The GU team has acknowledge as much.
In this post I will layout my ideas to ameliorate this win-more situation without changing the Sanctum character too much and preserving the Favor mechanic, as it is intertwined with cards like the Gods Unchained spell, Pious Giant, Ghostly Chariot, etc.
To maintain the balance with the Gods Unchained spell I think it would be very hard to change the Favor attribution rules. At least not without some serious testing. Since I'm not able to do that I will focus only on ideas to change the Sanctum itself, and not how Favor is earned.
Modified Sanctum rules
Sanctum cards become available at specific mana unlocks. For example every 2-3 unlocks starting at mana 4.
Alternatively, whenever a player is able to buy a card, the Sanctum opens at the same time for the other player as well, with the rules described below
Both players have an opportunity to pick a card, even if they have 0 Favor....
Which means there would be free cards available, or maybe other options (see below).
The player with the most Favor selects first.
The player with most Favor could have a larger selection of cards to chose from.
Buying non-free cards would still cost Favor, to maintain the Favor interactions with some specific cards.
So that both players make Sanctum choices at the same time, the interface could switch to full screen like what happens when both players are in the mulligan phase.
I can see several options in case the player doesn't have enough Favor to buy a card or is not interested in doing so. For example:
They could shuffle one card from their hand back to their deck and draw either a random card or their top card.
They could shuffle the Sanctum. This could potentially prevent the opponent from picking problematic cards.
There could be a list of 0 Favor cost vanilla 1 mana cards to select, for example
Illuminate
Dream Shaman
Made Mark
Blessed Acolyte
Shield Bearer
The list of free cards could consist instead of all the Promo 1 mana Rats (I think this would be fun and make those cards a little bit more relevant).
So here are some hypothetical situations:
When 4 mana unlocks for the first player, both players get a screen where they can chose something from the Sanctum. Alice has enough Favor to buy a card, but they are not interested; instead they elicit to shuffle the sanctum to try and make Gleamweaver unavailable. Bob also doesn't have enough Favor to buy a card and they elicit to flip an unwanted card from their hand back into their deck.
Alice buys a card they want from the Sanctum with Favor. At the same time Bob is also shown options from the Sanctum. They don't have enough Favor to buy a card, so they decide to pick a Rat of Perplexion that could potentially remove a creature from the opponent's board.
At the 6 mana unlock, Alice has enough favor to buy a card, but what would really be useful to them at this moment is a free Rat of Healing or a Dream Shaman to heal a creature. So while they pick a free card in this Sanctum opportunity, Bob buys a Frontline creature with their Favor points.
Alice buys a card they really want with Favor. This card will be important for them, but at the same time Bob is able to buy Illuminate for free and somewhat offset the advantage afforded by the card Alice bought.
Ideas from other people
https://discord.com/channels/457152051239976961/567957189764055050/1280481823469731851
This sounds interesting to me as well, although I don't see how this would help in making the Sanctum less 'win-more'.
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