This week we are hitting another one of my "Extreme Themes" decks, where every card must support the theme, not just the mechanics.

A few weeks ago, I did a "Castle" theme with Kenrith and then last week an "Oasis" theme around Jegantha. Those are both brilliant and strong concepts. The Castle brew really highlights what I mean by extreme theme. The deck had Walls, Castle, a Veteran Bodyguard, the King and his family, some Monarch stuff and defenses like Unruly Catapult.

This week, we'll be moving to "The Temple." This should be a deck built around the physical structure as well as the various things we could find inside a temple. Make sense?

What colors should I use? The original Shrine cards in Kamigawa are all Honden, which is word that references a part of a holy shrine. It'd be germane to include them, a bit like some of the Deserts in the Oasis deck.

I could go generic with something like Sanctum of All or go ahead and set this in Kamigawa the way that Kenrith was set in Eldraine. I do like White for "Your Temple is Under Attack." Or, I could go all five colors like the previous two, as a bid to include all the Temple Lands and Temple Garden.

"Go-shintai" is a secret God-filled object hidden at the heart of all Shrines, which makes sense here. Let's go with that for my Commander:

For our Commander, we'll put Go-Shintai of Life's Origin at the helm to kick off our theme. Go-Shintai is a four-drop, 3/4, Legendary Enchantment Creature. Whenever this or another Shrine enters the battlefield, we get to put a 1/1 colorless Shrine enchantment creature token on the board.

Once Go-Shintai is in play, we can pay and tap him to return an Enchantment from the graveyard to the battlefield.

Ramp, Mana, Lands

Let's start with this Saga Kamigawa, Jugan, who will defend attacks on our Temple. Aptly named, Jugan Defends the Temple is a Enchantment Saga.

On turn one, he makes us a Human Monk dork that we can tap for . On the second turn, he throws out +1/+1 counters to two of our creatures. On the third turn, that is when Jugan gets to transform.

Remnant of the Rising Star is a 2/2 Dragon Spirit with Flying. He comes with a useful Enter-the-Battlefield ability where he lets us pay X to put X +1/+1 counters on a creature every time we play one out.

If at least five creatures are modified this way, Remnant becomes a 7/7 with Trample. I'm sure he'll be able to defend our temple just fine.

Next up are these two lands. The first in a Shock Dual Land, Hallowed Fountain, which gives us an Island and Plain with a perfect name. Starlit Sanctum is a great fit as well; its Cleric-kindred abilities also give it a boost.

We can tap it on its own for a colorless mana, or use or and sacrifice a Cleric to gain life points, or take them from our opponent, respectively.

Now, a land and Mana Rock that keeps our theme going. Sanctum of Eternity lets us bounce our Commander from the battlefield to our hand when it's our turn, so we can bypass the Commander tax.

Our Mana Rock, Talisman of Conviction, can give us a colorless mana for free, or we can take one damage to use it for or .

Finally, we round out with Sanctum of the Fruitful Harvest. It costs us to get on the board, but it's the perfect ramp for our deck: each precombat main phase, we get to add X mana to our pool where X is our total number of Shrines. We're limited to one color here, though.

I decided against throwing in Sanctum Weaver because it's from Theros and it shows in the art style, but its name certainly fits.

Synergies and Win-Cons

In Commander, synergies are everything. So, let's look at our synergies and win conditions.

First up, Go-Shintai of Ancient Wars is a 2/2 with First Strike for . During our end-step, we can pay 1 and this Shrine will deal X damage to a planeswalker or player of our choosing, where X is the total number of Shrines we control.

Our other Shrine, Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose costs to get on the board. It's a 1/3 with Vigilance and allows us to pay to create a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token for each Shrine under our control.

I've also thrown in these two Shrines. Honden of Life's Web is a Legendary Enchantment. Once we play it out, it allows us to put a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token out for every Shrine under our control.

Sanctum of Stone Fangs is also a Legendary Enchantment but only a two-drop this time. In our precombat phase, it steals X life points from all opponents for us to gain. Of course, X is our Shrine count once again.

Next up are these three non-Shrine, but flavorful, White Enchantments. Three-drop Divine Sacrament is similar to Glorious Anthem, but it gives +1/+1 to all White creatures, not all colors. If we've got at least seven cards in our graveyard, it gives +2/+2 instead.

I also included Answered Prayers, which gives us one life every time we put a creature in play. It also can be a 3/3 with Flying, so a great blocker. And finally, True Conviction, which is expensive at but gives all our creatures Double Strike and Lifelink.

The first five-drop of the deck, Sanctum of All, lets us search our library or our graveyard for a Shrine at the beginning of every upkeep. Choose graveyard first.

On top of that, if we have at least six Shrines, any of their triggered abilities get doubled. Inner Sanctum, a Enchantment, has Cumulative Upkeep. We'll lose two life every turn until we sac him.

The cost is worth it, though, because all damage to our dorks is reduced to zero. That's not just combat damage either.

These two, two-drop Land protection Enchantments have perfect names.

Hallowed Ground takes to get on the board and to use; when we pay it, we can bounce any nonsnow Lands back to our hand.

Sacred Ground protects our mana pool. Whenever one of our lands would be sent to the graveyard, we get to put it back in play instead.

Continuing with holy cards to go into our Temple deck, I chose Hallowed Haunting and Hallowed Healer.

Hallowed Haunting is a four-drop Enchantment that gives all our creatures into Flyers with Vigilance if we have at least seven Enchantments in play. On top of that, it produces White Spirit Cleric creature tokens every time we cast a new Enchantment. For obvious reasons, that's great here.

Hallowed Healer is a 1/1 common Cleric that we can tap to block two damage. If we have more than seven cards in our graveyard, Threshold causes our healer to prevent four damage instead.

Now, I'm going to lean into Cleric kindred cards with names that fit the theme. Some cards like Profane Prayers or even Vile Deacon could be great here, but we're going for a holy church.

Doubtless One is a Cleric Avatar whose power and toughness depends on how many Clerics we have on the board. She also gives us Lifelink, stealing life for all the damage she deals.

For , we have Ancestor's Prophet. He's a 1/5 Cleric Lord that can be a great blocker. What the Prophet really does for us though is let us tap any five Clerics to gain a decade of life.

These two are creatures, but they're really here to tap for stuff.

Master Apothecary is a bit rough to cast at , but worth including. She is a 2/2 Cleric that lets us tap any Cleric to block two damage to anything. Our other friend here, Hand of Justice, is a six-drop but splashable.

He's a 2/6 Avatar that we can tap, and then tap any three of our other White creatures to murder a target creature.

I added two more Cleric-enablers, bringing in an Angel combo and a Wizard combo.

Righteous Valkyrie is a 2/4 Flyer. What makes her a good choice is that any time another Angel or Cleric enters the battlefield, we'll gain life equal to that creature's toughness. Also, if we're at 47 or higher, all our dorks get +2/+2.

Alongside our Angel, we have Shieldmage Elder. He's expensive, at for a 2/3 Cleric Wizard. However, once he's out, he is a huge help. We can tap two Clerics to block all damage from a creature or tap two Wizards to prevent all damage from a spell.

I also tossed some Voltron stuff here and there like Divine Transformation along with this holy Equipment and Aura cards.

Holy Avenger costs us to cast and another to equip. It gives our guy Double Strike and whenever that creature deals damage, we can play out an Aura on it for free.

Without our Avenger in play, Holy Mantle would be a three-drop. Whenever we put this Enchantment onto a Creature, it gets +2/+2 and protection from all creatures. Now, that creature is even stronger, and can't be blocked.

Unquestioned Authority tags along as a Cantrip. All perfect names, here.

Obviously, a Temple needs someone to convert folks, right? So, I went with this clearly-thematic, three-drop Cleric. For , we get a measly 1/1, but with an awesome ability.

When you tap Preacher, you gain control of a creature of your foe's choosing until you untap. Untapping is fully optional, of course.

This card is obviously perfect flavor-wise, but, a higher value on the Reserve List, so you may want to skip this one.

Answers

Now it's time for answers. One of the first cards to come to mind for this brew was, of course, Your Temple Is Under Attack. This is an Instant for that can make all our dorks indestructible for the rest of the turn or lets you and an opponent draw two cards.

We have two ways to use Divine Resilience, too; we can pay and use it to make one creature indestructible until the end of turn. If we kick it and pay total, our whole team is indestructible until our turn ends instead.

Fountain Watch is a 2/4 Guardian that we can get on the board for . Our guards make it so our Artifacts and Enchantments can't be the target of any spells or abilities.

We also need some targeted removal. Go-Shintai of Hidden Cruelty is an obvious pick. For , we get a Legendary Enchantment Creature that is a 2/2 with Deathtouch.

Not only can he kill everything he attacks, but as long as he's out, we can use his ability to pay 1 and destroy any creature that's weaker than our total number of Shrines. Invoke the Divine is a perfectly-flavorful Instant for our cause, too.

We'll use that card to destroy any Artifact or Enchantment we choose and gain a quartet of life as we do it. I also tossed in Altar's Light, a similar Instant, but at a cost of four.

I had a lot of options for on-theme sweepers, like Wrath of God or Day of Judgement, and tons of others.

I went with Hallowed Burial for its synergy here and its name, which is great for the deck. For , we can bury all creatures on the bottom of their owner's libraries.

Divine Reckoning is a four-drop that forces every player to choose one creature and destroy the rest. It's also flashbackable for seven, so not bad.

Card Draw

I also needed some card draw. I picked two Shrines that do it for me but differ based on when and how. Honden of Seeing Winds triggers during upkeep, letting us draw a card for each Shrine we control. At , that's pretty good.

For , Sanctum of Calm Waters draws us cards during our precombat main phase; we still get one for every Shrine but, this time, we have to discard one.

Next, Temple Bell, with temple right in the name. When we tap it (or... ring it), every player draws a car. We could add in Midnight Clock.

I rounded out the deck with a relic to be celebrated, and an altar at the center of our temple.

Relic Vial is a three-drop Artifact. We can pay two and tap it to sac a creature and draw one card. It's perfect here because as long as we have a Cleric, we gain a life every time one of our dorks dies while our opponents all lose one.

Carnage Altar is also a sac outlet for us, but instead of tapping, we can just pay three over and over again. I threw in Altar's Reap, too.

The Temple | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Go-Shintai of Life's Origin

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Ancestor's Prophet
• 1 Clergy of the Holy Nimbus
• 1 Doubtless One
• 1 Fountain Watch
• 1 Go-Shintai of Ancient Wars
• 1 Go-Shintai of Boundless Vigor
• 1 Go-Shintai of Hidden Cruelty
• 1 Go-Shintai of Lost Wisdom
• 1 Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose
• 1 Hallowed Healer
• 1 Hand of Justice
• 1 Master Apothecary
• 1 Order of the Sacred Torch
• 1 Preacher
• 1 Righteous Valkyrie
• 1 Sanctum Guardian
• 1 Shieldmage Elder
• 1 Temple Acolyte
• 1 Temple Elder

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Altar's Light
• 1 Altar's Reap
• 1 Divine Reckoning
• 1 Divine Resilience
• 1 Divine Verdict
• 1 Hallowed Burial
• 1 Holy Day
• 1 Invoke the Divine
• 1 Sacred Fire
• 1 Your Temple is Under Attack

• Enchantments (25)
• 1 Answered Prayers
• 1 Conviction
• 1 Divine Sacrament
• 1 Divine Transformation
• 1 Hallowed Ground
• 1 Hallowed Haunting
• 1 Holy Mantle
• 1 Honden of Cleansing Wind
• 1 Honden of Infinite Rage
• 1 Honden of Life's Web
• 1 Honden of Night's Reach
• 1 Honden of Seeing Winds
• 1 Inner Sanctum
• 1 Jugan Defends the Temple // Remnant of the Rising Star
• 1 Pacifism
• 1 Prayer of Binding
• 1 Sacred Ground
• 1 Sanctum of All
• 1 Sanctum of Calm Waters
• 1 Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest
• 1 Sanctum of Shattered Heights
• 1 Sanctum of Stone Fangs
• 1 Sanctum of Tranquil Light
• 1 True Conviction
• 1 Unquestioned Authority

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Carnage Altar
• 1 Fountain of Renewal
• 1 Holy Avenger
• 1 Skyclave Relic
• 1 Relic Vial
• 1 Talisman of Conviction
• 1 Temple Bell

• Lands (37)
• 3 Forest
• 3 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Swamp
• 8 Plains
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Sanctum of Eternity
• 1 Starlight Sanctum
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Temple Garden

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Conclusion

There we go! That's a very White-color brew, overall.

I included cards like Pacifism and Holy Day that fit the theme, along with some less obvious stuff like Conviction and Sacred Fire (a nice burn spell you can Flashback). I also adore Temple Acolyte that arrives and gains life.

Sanctum Guardian is on theme and can protect you from damage. Also, Reliquary Tower is here, since that's where Relics are stored. Would you add Sanctum Weaver or more Sweepers? I didn't toss in the Avatar Shrines but, I did include pump knights to help round it out.

Monks and Clerics? Enjoy this fun "Temple" brew in Kamigawa.