Altar of Dementia

Artifact

Sacrifice a creature: Target player puts a number of cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

Discussion (51)

thegreynbow on MF Krenko Deck

6 days ago

Thanks for the suggestion SmokyDart13! I'll probably look to add that. My thought with Sol Ring was 2-fold; every commander deck seems to have it lol and I plan to add a few more things that require more mana to cast to give the deck a few other paths to victory than the traditional mono-red deck, like Darksteel Forge to help keep some of my artifacts in play as long as possible, paired with Throne of the God-Pharaoh to deal straight damage and Altar of Dementia to mill them to death.

SueMe on Shirei

1 week ago

Yoyoyo ThatOneGuyAI!

I'd start by cutting the low-impact creatures such as:

Tattered Mummy, Shambling Goblin, Serrated Scorpion, Orzhov Enforcer, Myr Sire, Festering Goblin, Doomed Dissenter, and Deathgreeter.

I like your sac-outlets that can protect themselves through Shirei (e.g. Viscera Seer/Thoughtpicker Witch/Fume Spitter), and I'd try to avoid the ones that don't have that particular interaction: Nantuko Husk/Carrion Feeder.

Cards I would add in: Altar of Dementia, Plagued Rusalka, Dark Ritual, Feed the Swarm (enchantment removal in black), Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip, Kaervek, the Spiteful (allows you to protect Shirei), and Liliana's Steward.

johnwayne1488 on Chainer, Big Fan of Nightmare's!

1 week ago

I ran Woe Strider just for the sac outlet it gave me to go off with Underworld Breach and a 3+ art/enchant on board Dockside Extortionist but Altar of Dementia does the job waaay better so i'd see it being cut alongside Nightmare Shepherd. It's true I don't want to exile my good creatures and oh yes Master of Cruelties is awesome in this deck, I'll have to get one!

Necromancy is ony my list, Combustible Gearhulk is nice too, the black one seems decent also as big hitters! I have to play it a bit more to get the feel of it!

Archon_Bel on Blink of an Eye (Ephara, God of the Polis)

3 weeks ago

I think Sublime Epiphany has potential for the reasons I mentioned before, but I'll keep an eye on the card in case it ends up underperforming. 4UU is a steep cost to pay, but I think the modes available are great and mesh well with the deck.

Norn technically isn't that integral to my strategy, but she's good for going on the offensive and keeping other boardstates in check.

I've currently replaced the Altar of Dementia + Karmic Guide + Reveillark combo to try out Peregrine Drake and Capsize. I'm pretty uncertain about this considering the combo isn't searchable (save for Capsize with Mystical Tutor), but the other combo always felt too telegraphed or mana intensive if I wanted to pull it off in the same turn. On top of that, Reveillark and Altar of Dementia always felt like dead cards without the Karmic Guide. At least these cards can somewhat stand on their own.

Archon_Bel on Blink of an Eye (Ephara, God of the Polis)

3 weeks ago

I've made a few changed to the deck in an effort to lower the mana curve and also include some more hatebear elements to try and slow down the game to give me more time to catch up.

Flickerwisp swapped for Aven Mindcensor

Whirler Rogue swapped for Fatespinner

Harmonious Archon swapped for Thalia, Heretic Cathar

Mind Stone swapped for Sapphire Medallion

Altar of Dementia swapped for Damping Sphere

Karmic Guide swapped for Peregrine Drake

Reveillark swapped for Capsize

Apollo_Paladin on X/X Artifact Creatures

3 weeks ago

I hear ya on the mentality of not letting things sit on the shelf. You might streamline your build a bit more even if your playgroup is cool with the 4x Tinker thing.

I haven't played this build obviously so I'm only gauging by what I'm reading as an overview, but you might try splashing Black into the mix which could offer you some better control options (like targeted creature destroy for big threats, rather than relying on attack/block mechanics to do away with things), and it'd also offer plenty of options for "Sacrifice a Creature:" effects. Then you could run 4x Myr Retrievers and lean on him a bit more for protection.

Ashnod's Altar, Altar of Dementia, Spawning Pit, and High Market are all either Artifact or Land-based (colorless) options that you could use to sacrifice a creature to activate the Myr Retriever on your own, and gain a little benefit on top of it too depending.

Also, you could definitely bump up to multiples on all of the Urza Lands so that you needn't rely exclusively on "tutor" effects to drag w/e you need out of your library.

Monomanamaniac on The Hydra X

1 month ago

You should be running Elemental Bond and Garruk's Uprising you're almost always paying 3 or more into x so they're great. Vastwood Hydra might be a better creature than some of your choices. Curse of the Swine would be neat as creature removal. Capricopian is an amazing hydra that will bounce around your opponents getting bigger till they run out of mana. If you're not on a budget is suggest Doubling Season and Kalonian Hydra for obvious reasons. Then there's x card draw like Blue Sun's Zenith, Thassa's Intervention, Mind Spring, Pull from Tomorrow, or Stroke of Genius. Honestly I'd suggest any of the intervention cards, they're excellent. Think about replacing one of your non basics with Zagoth Triome and Opulent Palace and maybe Sunken Hollow

So as for cuts. Trophy Mage, Umbral Mantle, Basalt Monolith, Altar of Dementia, I'd suggest ditching some artifact rocks for some green land ramp like Farseek or Rampant Growth, and take out a few of your artifact rocks in general because you're in green and your ramp already is solid. Reclamation Sage, Elixir of Immortality, Vorel of the Hull Clade, Nimbus Swimmer. Now I would like to say that I'm not trying to hate on your deck, I quite like the concept, but I do think you need to hone in on your strategy, play an x card, make a hydra, draw into the next x card, cast that card, make another hydra. It's a great deck and I enjoy the way you built it, just trying to do as you said and help you cut some cards, and at the same time I wanted to point out a couple things you might've missed

Massacar on Cut my deck into pieces

1 month ago

Chandra585

So Aphetto Alchemist and Kiora's Follower are specifically there as combo pieces with Illusionist's Bracers to enable infinite untaps for dorks/rocks. It's about enabling infinite mana for the X cost spells. I would be fine with cutting all three of these cards if they were replaced with similarly low cost infinite mana combo pieces that provide utility without the other components.

Altar of Dementia is there specifically as an alt wincon. Since some decks make it so that traditional combat damage isn't a viable wincon. Make big x/x creatures, sacrifice them to mill out your opponents.

I would rather avoid cutting too many more of my X cost mana sink spells since that's Zaxara's specialty.