Shrine

Shrine
Honden of Night's Reach
Enchantment Type
(Subtype for enchantment cards)
Introduced	Champions of Kamigawa
Last used	Avatar: The Last Airbender
Scryfall Statistics
22 cards 18.2% 18.2% 18.2% 18.2% 18.2% 9.1%
1 token creation card 100%
31 artworks 41.9% 9.7% 6.5% 9.7% 12.9% 16.1% 3.2%

Shrine (Japanese: 祭 (さい) 殿 (でん) ; rōmaji: saiden) is an enchantment type.

Description

Shrine has no inherent rules-meaning, but each Shrine gets better and better as you control more and more Shrines. Shrines encourage multicolor decks, because they are all legendary, so a player can only access one per cycle, per color, and generally do not benefit from being cast when the same Shrine is already under their control. All members of the cycles have been uncommon. Each new cycle has a different trigger timing: the Hondens trigger during your upkeep, three Sanctums trigger on the precombat main phase, the Go-Shintai can be triggered with a mana payment during your end step, and the Avatar Shrines have enters triggers. The two remaining Sanctums have activated abilities. There are also two five-color aligned Shrines that act entirely differently from the others in their set.

History

Honden cycle

Shrines were introduced in Champions of Kamigawa. There were five shrines printed in as an uncommon cycle of Hondens (HOHN-dehn). The name of each Honden corresponds to the name of a legendary spirit—Myojin—in the set, as well as being mentioned in the flavor text of the same-colored Zubera. Each Honden has flavor text mourning the change of allegiance of the spirits against the humans.

• Honden of Cleansing Fire () — Gain two life for each Shrine you control.
• Honden of Seeing Winds () — Draw a card for each Shrine you control.
• Honden of Night's Reach () — Target opponent discards a card for each Shrine you control.
• Honden of Infinite Rage () — Deal damage to any target equal to the number of Shrines you control.
• Honden of Life's Web () — Create a 1/1 colorless Spirit token for each Shrine you control.

Sanctum cycle

Many years later, Core Set 2021 featured six new Shrines named Sanctums. These were also depicted as being on Kamigawa. The five-color Sanctum of All has an upkeep Shrine searching effect, which puts the other Sanctums on the battlefield in time to trigger in the main phase. Each of the mono-colored Sanctums has flavor text formatted and written as a Haiku.

• Sanctum of Tranquil Light () — : Tap target creature. This costs less for each Shrine you control.
• Sanctum of Calm Waters () — May draw a card for each Shrine you control, then discard a card if you did.
• Sanctum of Stone Fangs () — Each opponent loses life, and you gain life equal to the number of Shrines you control.
• Sanctum of Shattered Heights () — , Discard a land or Shrine card: Deals damage to target creature or planeswalker equal to the number of Shrines you control.
• Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest () — Add mana of any one color equal to the number of Shrines you control.
• Sanctum of All () — Searches Shrines and puts them onto the battlefield. It doubles Shrine triggers if you control six or more.

Go-Shintai cycle

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty featured a cycle of Shrines in the form of enchantment creatures named Go-Shintai. They all require paying at the beginning of your end step to activate their effects and have a classic colored keyword. Lore says they seek those of a certain disposition to grant them a boon. The additional Shrine with a five-color identity, The Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, features Shrine-typal support, being able to create Shrine tokens.

• Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose () — Pay at the beginning of your endstep to put Spirit tokens for each Shrine you control.
• Go-Shintai of Lost Wisdom () — Pay at the beginning of your endstep to mill target player one card for each Shrine you control.
• Go-Shintai of Hidden Cruelty () — Pay at the beginning of your endstep to destroy target creature with toughness equal to or less than the number of Shrines you control.
• Go-Shintai of Ancient Wars () — Pay at the beginning of your endstep to deal damage to a player or planeswalker equal to the number of Shrines you control.
• Go-Shintai of Boundless Vigor () — Pay at the beginning of your endstep to put +1/+1 counters equal to the number of Shrines you control on a Shrine.
• Go-Shintai of Life's Origin () with a ability to put enchantments from the graveyard onto the battlefield and create 1/1 Shrine enchantment creature tokens when nontoken Shrines enter (including itself).

Temple cycle

Avatar: The Last Airbender brought back Shrines, with three of them dubbed Temples. Historical lore of the series would suggest The Spirit Oasis and Kyoshi Island Plaza could also be considered temples. These are all legendary and also scale, but in slightly different ways. They have an additional trigger each time a new Shrine hits the board. Unlike the others, the entry effect means that casting a second of the same copy will have a tangible impact.

• Southern Air Temple () — Put +1/+1 counters on each creature you control for each Shrine you control.
• The Spirit Oasis () — Draw a card for each Shrine you control.
• Northern Air Temple () — Opponent loses life, and you gain life for each Shrine you control.
• Crescent Island Temple () — Create a 1/1 red Monk creature token with prowess for each Shrine you control.
• Kyoshi Island Plaza () — Tutor for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped for each Shrine you control.

Rules

From the Comprehensive Rules (November 14, 2025—Avatar: The Last Airbender)

• 205.3h Enchantments have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called enchantment types. The enchantment types are Aura (see rule 303.4), Background, Cartouche, Case (see rule 719), Class (see rule 716), Curse, Role (see rule 303.7), Room, Rune, Saga (see rule 714), Shard, and Shrine.

Rulings

• Each Shrine has an ability that counts the number of Shrines you control. These abilities include the Shrine they're printed on.
• Shrines count only enchantments with the subtype Shrine. Other cards with "shrine" in their name (such as Jungle Shrine, Luxa River Shrine, and Nantuko Shrine) don't count.

Trivia

• Since Shrine is an enchantment type, the Go-Shintai are the only creatures besides Nameless Race and Faceless One to have no creature type. This is partially due to the type line already being long enough to compress the font.
• A honden is the inner part of the shrine to a kami, while a shintai is a physical object in which a kami resides. The "go-" prefix indicates that it is honored and sacred.
• In Neon Dynasty, Shrine Steward and Chronicler of Worship interact with Shrines.
  • In Avatar, Aang's Journey, Hei Bai, Forest Guardian, White Lotus Hideout and Guru Pathik also support Shrines.

Tokens

Token name	Color	Type line	P/T	Text box	Source	Printings
Shrine		Enchantment Creature — Shrine	1/1		Go-Shintai of Life's Origin