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Ana Sanctuary, Blog, Card game, Card of the day, Cards, Discussion, Green Card, Magic: The Gathering, MTG, Tri Colors, Wizards of the Coast
A card that has the player run three colors to have an effect trigger. This is not uncommon in Magic: the Gathering. With the emergence of Kahn’s of Tarkir the latest three color set, Magic players have more options when it comes to how colors interact with one another. Ana Sanctuary is just one example of how one card relies on different interactions or in this case different cards.
Ana Sanctuary (2G), “At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control a blue or black permanent, target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. If you control a blue permanent and a black permanent, that creature gets +5/+5 until end of turn instead,” is an interesting card. The card must be played with at least one of the colors mentioned in the text. And this give players a variety of ways to build with this card. Regardless if the creature is blue or black they will get a small bonus for just being there. And the player has a nice opportunity to decide on how they want to use this ability if they have more than one creature on the battlefield. If a player has an Invisible Stalker out, they can do a bit more damage than with just the stalker. If they have a Vampire Nighthawk it give them a bit more to swing or block with and not worry about looking the creature when planning their move.
And if a player wishes to run all three colors, let’s say they run Mindleech Mass, that right there becomes threatening. What started off as a 6/6 creature with Trample and a damage trigger Ana Sanctuary makes it an 11/11 that is almost guaranteed a hit.
The design of Ana Sanctuary does not restrict the player to wait turn after turn until they can play it. A turn three Enchantment that interacts right at the next if you have a creature it can take effect. And it is in green so you have more options when adding this in a deck. You can ramp past it and play it plus another creature. It makes you play black or blue giving you protection with counterspells, and removal black spells.
Adding this card to a BUG (Black Blue Green Deck) build can have be just as flavorful as powerful. While it forces the player to work within the parameters of the card it give the player more of a boost if they play all three colors, even if they have to just slightly add one to get the desired outcome.