Sanctuary Agents

I've mentioned it before fairly often, but I always find myself coming back to the idea that Agents will be stronger next format in both the TCG and the OCG.  It's around midnight my time and I've decided it's time for me to formalize my thoughts on Sanctuary Agents.  Sanctuary Agents run a similar Agent core, but they also ran The Sanctuary in the Sky which unlocks extra abilities from Earth, Hyperion, and Jupiter (of the played Agents).

In The Agent of Mystery - Earth, Sanctuary unlocks an extremely powerful ability to search Master Hyperion instead of an Agent monster.  Hyperion is the powerful boss for the deck, so you can imagine how much of an advantage searching him via three copies of Earth would be.  Now, realistically you would still want to search Venus first to pull of the strong Venus into Gachi Gachi Gantetsu or perhaps Trishula.  The second search would be able to go to Hyperion under most circumstances but the chances of drawing into two Earths and having a good time to Summon both is not so high.

Having now searched Master Hyperion with Earth (with the help of The Sanctuary in the Sky), you can summon him and use his effect to destroy a card on the field.  Then, since you have The Sanctuary in the Sky on the field you can use this effect again to destroy a second card of the field.  This doubles his strength to eliminate backrow threats or strong monsters.  In a format without Heavy Storm, destroying a second backrow card could be essential, but most of the backrow this format will either stop Hyperion from using his effect (either through negation or just removing him from the field before he can use his effect) or it will be chain-able.  None-the-less, one can never complain about destroying a second card.

Finally there is The Agent of Miracles - Jupiter.  I have, in this case, saved the best for last.  In my opinion, Jupiter without The Sanctuary in the Sky is a decent card at best.  2600 ATK for a Normal Summon is no laughing matter, but that's all he is.  With Sanctuary however, he becomes a source of Monster spam.  He can bring banished Earths back for Synchro Summons, revive a Venus that fell to a Bottomless Trap Hole or even bring back Master Hyperions.  With his ability to banish Agents from your grave, he can set up his own effect.  An excellent way to dispose of unwanted Shine Balls.  Having written all that, the ability is still only a +0 that relies on having both a banished Fairy and one in hand.  In Agents the former will be fairly common while the latter perhaps less so.

Beyond the secret powers that The Sanctuary in the Sky unlocks within

Agents, it also allows you to play an incredibly powerful trap card called Divine Punishment.  This card requires a face-up The Sanctuary in the Sky to be activated, but in return it can negate the activation of a Spell, Trap, or Monster Effect.  While this is not quite as sweeping as Solemn Judgment, it comes awfully close without having a massive Life Point cost.  Most negation that you can run in an average deck is either extremely situational or it comes at a heavy cost.  This is neither.

If any of this has convinced you to run Sanctuary Agents then there is one more card that cannot be forgotten about.  In Sanctuary Agents the goal is to have The Sanctuary in the Sky on the field from the very start and to keep it on the field so getting copies to your hand can be instrumental.  For most field spells, the solution is Terraforming, but for The Sanctuary in the Sky you have special access to Zeradias, Herald of Heaven.  Zeradias has the special benefit of not being dead weight if you have no copies of Sanctuary in your deck anymore, and that benefit is a 2100 ATK body which is extremely high for a level 4.  He can be combined with Jupiter (who can summon him from the Banished zone) to summon Starliege Paladynamo.  Overall, Zeradias is more useful in the Graveyard and harder to negate than Terraforming.

Even after writing all that I feel the need to remind you that Sanctuary Agents are not the ideal build. The benefits from The Sanctuary in the Sky do not make worth the running of a useless field spell that is practically never a useful draw on its own.  If you do insist on running Sanctuary Agents, I suggest running something like this as your core:

3 The Agent of Mystery - Earth

3 The Agent of Creation - Venus

2 The Agent of Miracles - Jupiter

3 Mystical Shine Balls

3 Master Hyperion

3 Zeradias, Herald of Heaven

3 The Sanctuary in the Sky

3 Divine Punishment

These 23 cards need, of course, to be supplemented with staple in Agents such as Honest, Herald of Orange Light, and Archlord Kristya as well as general staples of your choice.  If you have any questions or you disagree with anything I said do not hesitate to leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Thanks for reading,

Welche.