Not been much for sacrifice. For the most part it gets expensive and can be slow and dangerous to pay. Panda showed us his THRAXIMUNDAR deck that works pretty awesomely. But it wasn’t until Streets of New Capenna that I started becoming interested in using sacrifice again in my Commander deck.
This is mainly due to the BLITZ mechanic. Blitz is an alternative cost option that brings out brings it out with haste, draws a card if when it dies and, just to make sure it does die, sacrifices it during the next end step. There are a varied amount of cards with costs (some cheaper, some more expensive) that creates a very aggro situation.
Tenacious Underdog is my favorite, by far! Being able to Blitz him out of the graveyard is handy and puts your opponent on high alert. If played for their Blitz cost, they still do their thing. Workshop Warchief still gains 3 life and creates a 4/4 Rhino. Girder Goons still creates the token. Meyhem Patrol still gives its +1/+0 to a creature.
Blitz also feeds Ognis, the Dragon’s Lash. Every time you pay the Blitz cost and bring a hasted creature out, you create a tapped treasure token!
Standard also feeds this sacrifice engine with Hungry for More and Lagomos, Hand of Hatred. Hungry for More is a one time deal but has a cheap flashback cost; so cheap, you could probably play it twice on some turns! Lagomos, Hand of Hatred creates an Elemental token before every combat. Both tokens sacrifice themselves at the end step. This makes for some cheap sacrifice.
And that’s what we’re looking for: Cheap, Quick Sacrifice. The ability to create sacrifice so fast that your opponent is reeling to try and stop you. It’s almost Sacrifice Aggro!
Let me introduce you to the ECHO keyword mechanic!
ECHO is another alternative cost mechanic that must be paid of the creature sacrifices itself. WHAT? You play it for its ETB ability and let it sacrifice itself for the team! Hammerheim Deadeye destroys a flying creature. Firemaw Kavu does 2 damage and then 4 damage to target creature and THEN sacrifices itself. Bone Shredder destroys a nonartifact, nonblack creature.
There are a varied amount of cool things you can do with ECHO, but, unfortunately, it can get pricey, manawise.
EVOKE
EVOKE is yet another alternative cost mechanic that sacrifices it as soon as it hits the battlefield. That means, unlike ECHO, the creature doesn’t stick around but moves onto the sacrificing immediately. Now, the good news is that this cost is usually much less than, not only, the original mana value of the card, but also, the Echo costs.
This cuts to the chase a bit. Most of the other card mechanics I’ve offered you temp to you other directions but what you really want to do is sacrifice it. SO you may not even attack with them and still get triggers off the sacrifice. EVOKE just goes straight for the throat. And, as you can see above, they come in a variety of colors and abilities and come off rather cheap!
VANISHING
Cards with the VANISHING keyword will stay around a little. They come onto the battlefield with a number of ‘time counters’ indicated by the number attached to the keyword VANISHING. One of the time counters are removed at your upkeep and, the creature is sacrificed when the last time counter is taken off.
The cost isn’t bad and you can get some use out of them until it’s time to sacrifice them. VANISHING may take too long for the speed you want from this deck.
ENCORE
ENCORE, for the most part, is just too expensive. It’s another alternative cost mechanic that exiles this creature out of the graveyard and creates a token copy for each opponent you have. Only problem is they HAVE to attack and that may mean NO SACRIFICE.
However, Araumi of the Dead Tide will create Encore Creatures every turn and only for exiling cards from your graveyard equal to the number of your opponents. But, the cost is much cheaper! Only the mana cost of the creature exiled!
PERSIST
Want to make things difficult for your opponent? Sure you do! Just give all of your creatures PERSIST. You sacrifice them and they bounce back into play if they don’t have a -1/-1 counter! Extra sacrifice fodder!
UNDYING
UNDYING is much like PERSIST, but it returns from the graveyard with a +1/+1 counter on it instead. Still irritating as hell if you keep sacrificing it and it comes back. Once again, it only does that once, but Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Haunted One are handy none the less!
WHAT IS ALL OF THIS SACRIFICING FEEDING?
First of all, we make Kresh the Bloodbraided our commander so that every time we sacrifice something, he gets a +1/+1s equal to that creature’s power! That can ramp fast!
Next, let’s add creatures that ramp to sacrifice.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest will add + counters to each creature you control on every sacrifice!
PLAY-SAC-REPEAT
Don’t stop there! Let’s make this deck a never ending carousel of sacrifice!
Pull in cards that prepare your creature for a return trip! This includes cards that include ‘when this creature dies’ triggers!
They are cheap and gives value to your soon to be fallen comrade!
AND if that doesn’t work out for you, just play return cards; preferably those that return your creatures into play!
A lot of the mechanics and cards listed above quicken your play by adding speed to your sacrifice game! Less cards need to be played and less mana spent on sacrificing. But the sky is the limit! What are your favorite sacrifice combos? We’d love to hear from you. Hit us up in the comments below or follow us onto our social media!
AoE Table Top 