Beat the New Sanctum - Feb '26

This guide will cover Sanctum Showdown's meta and provide lots of deck ideas. If you're interested in a breakdown of the economy, check out Lauren's article here:

The Ultimate Guide to the Sanctum Showdown Economy - Feb ’26

Lauren guides you through the ins and outs of the latest edition of Sanctum Showdown.

Fourth LocationLaurenWhatevs

Sanctum Showdown February 26 - March 4

It’s an all new Sanctum this time around with multiple new mode staple cards released since we had the last run of Sanctum just last month. The big meta tyrants last time around were big Ongoings (Darkhawk, Ronan), Fin Fang Foom, Chamber, and Batroc. They'll all be powerful again, but they'll have company at the top.

A Whole New Ballgame

Since the last time around, we saw the releases of three cards that are sure to make a major impact in Sanctum Showdown: Star-Lord, Master of the Sun, Drax Avatar of Life, and Major Victory. Of these, Drax is the best for this mode. He’s reliable power that moves, and he counters what is, by far, the most popular strategy – playing giant cards. I feel like Drax might just need to be in every deck in this mode. Star-Lord, MotS is a little trickier in this mode than on ladder because you don’t exactly want to skip to set up for a single large turn, but I think skipping the Turn 1 and then playing below curve on Turns 2 and 3 will still leave Star-Lord in a solid position. Major Victory will fall short against the smartest players in the mode, but I think he’ll make plenty of hay outside of that small group. He provides the only access to Rocket Raccoon, who is spectacular in this mode. 

Death of a God

Galactus First Steps was an ever-present force in Sanctum. He was good in decks that played powerful small cards early. He was powerful in big cards and ramp decks. He was just a reliable giant payoff for Turn 6 or later that put a lot of pressure on the opponent. His banning will shake things up. Here are the other banned cards:

Dominant Cards to Know

Batroc wasn’t the most dominant card last time, but only because too few people were playing him. I think he’s, quite easily, the single best card in the mode. If you want to dominate in Sanctum, play Batroc. The other card that is going to be everywhere this time is Grandmaster. Moving a card to the center can be game-winning and he also allows players to play with Star-Lord, which I expect people will want to. Grandmaster wasn’t played quite as much last time around, but with the release of Star-Lord, MotS, people have really figured out how powerful he can be, even without Star-Lord. Sending an Ares, one of the Guardians, or Foom mid, while dodging an opposing Guardian is going to account for a lot of Scrolls. Nightcrawler’s buff makes him an immediate staple in this mode.

Hate Cards to Pack

Mercury can counter Batroc, Grandmaster, and the new Drax, and can steal scrolls unexpectedly at times. She also gains value the more Guardians-heavy the meta is, as players will start using Move decks to adeptly dodge the Guardians. Shang Chi is terrible on ladder right now, but he’s significantly better in this mode – do not sleep on him. Killmonger is an important card with Zoo being so good, but I often prefer to just pack an Elektra to assassinate the occasional Bob, Batroc, or Maw. Morph is a fun card to add in if your pocket meta just devolves into giant cards, or you could try Leader, though he's more expensive. For similar reasons, Copycat has long been one of my favorite cards in the mode – try her out in Sanctum, she's fun! Echo can help you out if you’re running into a ton of Darkhawk decks and will have some occasional other uses – beware the Maw, Red Skull, Typhoid decks though.

Scott’s Sanctum Decks

Here are proven concepts that will help you get off to an immediate hot start in this mode and stomp the competition. Many of the decks from last time are still relevant, so you can check them out as well, but this is an entirely new crop of 14 decks, built for this run of Sanctum. For the sake of diversity and hedging, I didn't actually include Drax, Avatar of Life in every single deck, but feel free to pop him into basically all of these, until his inevitable emergency ban.

Bat Around

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This is similar to the deck I ran most of last Sanctum. I'm divided in many of these decks between the power of Drax, AoL and the response ability of Shang Chi. I'll alternate between the two a lot when the mode gets going to see which one I feel provides more value.

Dodge Spike

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If Guardians really are more popular this time around, Move is one of the easiest ways to clown on them. Scalers can also adroitly play around Drax, AoL.

Versa Hawk

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The reason big 5-Cost Ongoings are so good is that you don't have to worry too much about them getting blown up. Even if your opponent responds with a tech card, it's often after you've already gotten stack of points towards victory out of him.

Moon Afflict

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Afflict is a fun Sanctum deck and it can play around Drax and Shang. Dragon of the Moon is actually one of the more intriguing new cards in this mode. A 3/4++ on Turn 3 that diminished your opponent's future output is tailor-made for Sanctum.

Special Mammu

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Dormammu is slow in Sanctum, but is one of the best comeback decks available in this mode.

Chamber of Boom

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The advantage of this build of Chamber + Bigs is that it packs a couple of ways to play around an opposing Drax, AoL rather than just playing into him. Kraglin allows us to play a 6 on turn 4 or he can be a 3/7, both of which are better in Sanctum than on ladder. Feel free to swap him for Drax, though.

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This is another deck that doesn't have to worry about playing into opposing Guardians and isn't especially worried about Drax, AoL.

There are a 7 more decks below the paywall including my favorite list for this run and the big cards build that I think is the most promising.

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