Godless Shrine is one of the ten original Ravnica shock lands, and it has quietly become one of the most reprinted lands in Magic's history.
Five genuinely different printings now exist, spanning almost two decades, and they range from a plain black-border common-looking land to a serialized retro-frame chase card worth sleeving on its own.
Not every version belongs in the same bulk land box, and treating a full-art Expeditions copy the same as a Guildpact copy is a mistake a lot of collectors make without realizing it.
Here is the complete printing history, in order, along with an honest answer on which versions actually need individual protection.
Godless Shrine taps for either white or black mana and enters the battlefield tapped unless its controller pays two life, the same template shared by every original Ravnica shock land.
That flexibility has kept it in constant demand across Orzhov-colored decks in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, and Commander since its debut, which is a big part of why Wizards keeps bringing it back.
Godless Shrine first appeared in Guildpact in 2006, the second set of the original Ravnica block, printed as card number 157 with the Orzhov guild's black-and-white color identity front and center.
This original printing uses the standard modern card frame of its era, no special treatment, and it remains the cheapest way to own a legal copy of the card today.
A common assumption is that Godless Shrine was reprinted in Return to Ravnica, the 2012 set that kicked off the second Ravnica block, but that is incorrect.
The actual reprint landed one set later, in Gatecrash in 2013, as card number 242, since Return to Ravnica covered a different five guilds and left Orzhov's lands for its sequel set.
Godless Shrine's first full-art printing came as part of Zendikar Expeditions, the premium foil land subset randomly inserted into Battle for Zendikar booster packs starting October 2, 2015.
As one of the ten shock lands included in that wave, it carries full-art Zendikar artwork rather than its original Ravnica illustration, making this version a genuinely different collectible than the first two printings.
Godless Shrine returned again in 2020 as card 128 in a Secret Lair Drop release, illustrated by Alayna Danner in a style distinct from either its original or Expeditions art.
Secret Lair printings carry their own unique set symbol and borderless-adjacent presentation, so this version is instantly recognizable next to the three earlier printings sitting in the same binder page.
Ravnica Remastered brought Godless Shrine back twice over in 2024: once in the set's modern frame, and again as a retro-frame throwback card numbered 401, which nods back to its Guildpact-era look.
A limited run of that same retro printing was also serialized at number 401z, turning an already nostalgic reprint into a numbered chase card that trades well above the set's other land reprints.
A Guildpact or Gatecrash copy is replaceable and cheap enough that bulk-land storage makes sense, but the Expeditions, Secret Lair, and serialized retro-frame copies are a different category of card entirely.
Each of those three carries scarcity that a common-feeling shock land never had, and a single crease or edge ding on a serialized 401z copy is a permanent, visible value hit in a way bulk storage was never designed to prevent.
Each of Godless Shrine's five printings carries its own set symbol in the card's text box, which remains the fastest way to confirm which version a secondary market listing is actually describing.
A photo that only shows the card face without a visible set symbol is worth asking about directly, since artwork alone cannot reliably separate the Guildpact original from the Gatecrash reprint at a quick glance.
Five times, counting Guildpact, Gatecrash, Zendikar Expeditions, Secret Lair Drop 128, and Ravnica Remastered.
No, its first reprint after Guildpact was in Gatecrash the following year.
It is a serialized, numbered version of the set's retro-frame treatment, making it scarcer than the standard reprint.
No, it uses entirely new full-art Zendikar-themed illustration rather than the original Ravnica art.
A serialized or full-art Godless Shrine is not a card to toss in with bulk duals, and a dedicated single-card holder keeps the edges and surface exactly as sharp as the day it was pulled. Start with the EVORETRO Magnetic One Touch Card Holder for your best copy.
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