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The Magic Chest 18: Island Sanctuary
Island Sanctuary isn't that strong as cards go. Propaganda usually does a better job of keeping opponent's creatures at bay and Moat is almost strictly better than Island Sanctuary, except for the casting cost (and the money cost if you want to buy four). Still, Island Sanctuary is useful enough in the right deck. To me, it's also a card that just feels right. If you set up shop on an Island, you don't have to worry about elephants trampling you down. Only flying beasts and fish can get to you. There are two obvious cards that go well with Island Sanctuary. Mystic Decree and Howling Mine. Mystic Decree takes flying and islandwalk away from all creatures, which is exactly what Island Sanctuary needs to provide a solid lock. Howling Mine makes the cost of using Island Sanctuary somewhat less painful, making sure you can still draw cards. The three of those cards together suggest a defensive deck that wins by decking your opponent. It's a risky strategy, because your opponent will see each card in his or her deck before you win. A few counterspells will help keep the worst spells from being cast. A cheaper version of the deck, without any rares, could be built using Flood to replace Island Sanctuary, Treasure Trove to replace Howling Mine and Downdraft against flying creatures. That's quite an expensive lock to keep up, mana wise, and you'll have trouble dealing with untargetable creatures like Blastoderm, but on the other hand, you're not giving your opponent the free cards from the Howling Mines either. Ivory Tower: With the Mines, you should be able to keep your hand reasonably full. An Ivory Tower or two will help against burn decks as long as they're not too fast. Bottle Gnomes: I'd use four of these in the sideboard against burn decks and creature rushes. A 1/3 stops most weenies and kills Jackal Pups and Wild Dogs. Enlightened Tutor: Gets you the parts of the lock that you need. Impulse: Not as reliable as Enlightened Tutor, but it'll either get you something useful or get you four cards closer to something useful. Force of Will: A staple counterspell. With the Howling Mines, the alternate casting cost shouldn't be a problem. Counterspell: Another staple. Foil: It's not a bad counterspell, but I'm not crazy about it either. With Force of Will and Island Sanctuary already costing extra cards, I'll skip Foil. Thwart: The alternate casting cost makes it suicidal to use early on. On the other hand, this deck doesn't need a lot of mana, so a few would work. Quash: Depending on your opponent Quash could be useless or very strong. Some cards you'll just have to counter, no matter how many your opponent has in his or her deck. Disenchants, Fireballs, Armageddons, Capsize etc. It's also useful against Hammers. I usually play with two of these maindeck if I'm playing blue and they've rarely let me down. Two more in the sideboard are good against a variety of decks that run a lot of non-permanents, like burn, counterspells and discard. Rebound: Not very useful in the main deck, but as good as a Counterspell against burn, some discard spells and, most importantly, Urza's Rage. Misdirection is a better alternative, because it can help against Disenchants, land destruction and even counterspells. They're quite expensive, though, so I've settled for Rebound. Disenchant: In case something bad makes it through your counters. Capsize: Ditto, plus it gives you something to do once you get a lot of mana. Wasteland: A way to get rid of cards like Shivan Gorge and Volrath's Stronghold, both of which could be a problem. Argivian Find: If you expect to face a lot of Disenchants and such, Argivian Find will help you recover.
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