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)

Strangelove on Mimeoplasm & Your Things

3 days ago

Yo I saw you were looking for help! I haven't built it yet, but here's my Mimeo Mill; It has a fat maybeboard. Here's every card I considered while building the deck.

(The goal was to make The Mimeoplasm as big as possible and then sacrifice it to Altar of Dementia ... relatively casual, but Mimeo can get pretty mean... especially with infect.)

Here's a great edh resource: Command Zone Deck Building Template

From your post, it sounds like you don't like Nekusar... but don't worry... nobody does! It's a burn deck and everyone at the table should target the player who's trying to slug everyone at once. It's a pretty weak strategy because it has poor politics and is easily disrupted. Remove Nekusar when he's about to cast a wheel and watch out for Tainted Strike .

Looking at your deck, a few things pop out right away: (1) You need more ramp, (2) better removal, (3) more draw. Focus on getting the engine turning before you're seduced by flashy plays that might work against you. If a card doesn't progress your game plan powerfully and quickly, cut it!!!

1) I count 5-6 ramp, but you want 10-12, all below 4 cmc. For a 5 drop commander you want about 46-47 mana sources. Good old Rampant Growth , Burnished Hart , etc, will serve you well.

2) You have a lot of clunky counterspells. Add in 3-4 board wipes, like Ixidron and Massacre Girl and swap niche and costly interaction for Beast Within , Naturalize , etc. Creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra are great too.

3) Draw!!! You can't play if you don't have cards. There are a lot of ways to draw 7+ cards a turn. Champion of Wits , Fathom Mage , and every version of Windfall ( Whispering Madness , Forgotten Creation ,etc) are killer in this deck.

My favorite card for this deck is Morality Shift . Its not the best, but its what I really want to do.

You absolutely need Mirror-Mad Phantasm . If you clone it with Mimeoplasm, you mill your whole library. Then cast a typical Laboratory Maniac for the win.

Apocalypse Demon is your budget Lord of Extinction .

Building on a budget is a rewarding challenge. Cut cards ruthlessly! Your commander already does what you want to do (...steal and play your opponent's creatures), so try to open up the deck and make it flow. Commander starts as a slow and clunky format, but its broken!

Good luck and +1

dingusdingo on Tana / Tymna, Draft Two

2 weeks ago

Alright, lets look at Loyal Retainers in another way.

You're running 7 legendary creatures outside of your commanders (which we will assume you WONT send to GY), so there are only 7 creatures that Loyal Retainers can return. Assuming a 99 card deck, 7 in starting hand, and 2 specific cards to see (retainers + legend), you've got a 7% chance to get Retainers, and a 41% chance to have one of your legends in your opener. After 5 draws, you're only at a 60% chance to hit a legend.

Now lets compare to Life . Same chance to see the card, 7%, but it works with 29 creatures instead of 7. Geometric calculator is telling me 91% chance to see a creature in your opener that works with Life . After 5 draws, 98.8% that you'll have a critter.

Obviously Retainers does have some benefit. It can be used to make an infinite etb/ltb loop for winning. How valuable is that to your deck though? Loyal Retainers can only be used BEFORE combat on your turn, and Tymna gives you cards AFTER combat. Your main source of card advantage is going to cause you to have to wait a rotation after finding all the pieces to your combo. This is a massive downside. You can already assemble infinite loops with Saffi + Titan, or Saffi + Karmic.

Lets imagine another scenario. You have the Saffi on the board with Retainers, but you have Sun Titan/Karmic Guide in the graveyard. Loyal Retainers can't grab that half of your combo back for you.

Reveillark is going to outperform Loyal Retainers most of the time. It forms a loop with Saffi + Karmic + sac outlet to recover your entire GY.

• Sacrifice Saffi Eriksdotter targeting Karmic Guide
• Sacrifice Karmic Guide . It returns to battlefield, we put ETB trigger on stack targeting Reveillark
• After Reveillark returns to battlefield, we sacrifice Karmic guide. We now have both Saffi + Guide in GY
• Reveillark is sacrificed, we will return both Saffi AND Karmic.
• We now pull creature 1 we want from GY with Karmic
• Sacrifice Saffi, targeting Karmic. Sacrifice Karmic, it returns from Saffi effect, giving us Reveillark again. Sac Karmic so its in GY, then sac Reveillark to give us Karmic + Saffi. Karmic entering gives us creature 2 from our GY. Rinse and repeat until you pull entire GY and combo finish.

Other Stuff

You're running Kiki and splinter twin but you don't have any creature payloads to win. If you want to value reuse/copy creatures with an ETB, there are more cost efficient ways of doing it. I recommend you either cut these or put in Village Bell-Ringer or Combat Celebrant to have a Kiki payload. Overall though, I would just cut this combo.

You're running Yisan and Birthing Pod but you aren't running the cards to make them go. You need effects that untap them based off creature ETBs or actives, which are slot intensive. Yisan is dope, but if you aren't running the cards to support it you're running a slow tutor. Once again, I'd cut these if you aren't going to build around.

You are trying to fit too many combos in. Pick 1 or two that overlap in card usage and cut the others. Its better to do two things extremely well than it is to do 5 things mediocre. You should run reanimation loops + protean hulk + sac outlets, OR you should run kiki combo + pod/yisan lines. The hulk/animation loops both require sac outlets to be present on your field, while kiki/pod lines require untap effects. This will let you reuse your combo cards in multiple spots which will help reduce dead draws. Nothing feels worse than when you're holding 3 different pieces to three different combos that have very little utility outside combo lines. This is also why you're struggling to find space for more stax and ramp pieces.

You are also running a pretty high amount of beater cards. You should pare them down and run only the most efficient beater cards with high utility. Cathars' Crusade is a nice card but it does nothing on its own and buckles from Wrath effects. Compare to Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite which gives a buff but can also beat even if its your only creature. It also hurts your enemies board presence greatly. Bitterblossom is a fantastic card but you aren't getting as much value out of it because you aren't running enough pieces to slow down the game. Keep it but consider that a 1/1 flyer doesn't do much if your opponent is able to drop their giant dragon commander, you have to slow the game! Champion of Lambholt will provide you with free swings, but if you just lock the game out instead you don't need the evasion and this card doesn't beat that well. Custodi Soulcaller is a meme card, it requires either haste or an untap step (so its slow), you have to swing to use it, and its limited in what it can grab, and it gets worse the fewer players there are.

Price of Glory is a wonderful hate card, but unfortunately far less effective than you think. Compare to Grand Abolisher . Abolisher can beat down, which is your game plan. Abolisher 100% protects your combo window. Price of Glory doesn't stop the counterspell that stops your combo, it just exacts a massive price for your opponent casting it. However, when faced with the option of losing the game or losing two lands, every single opponent is going to choose the two lands. Strong card but you don't need to run it.

Zombie Infestation is a nice discard outlet, and great when you're ahead and have locked the board. Just like Bitterblossom though, you have to slow the game or this card will be outclassed by the casual stompy 6 drops that are allowed to hit the table. Stax up or cut out.

Broken Bond is nice for minor ramp but bad for sorcery speed. Doesn't let you stop combos popping off. Don't be tempted by this card. Run Nature's Claim for cheap instant speed removal.

Cryptolith Rite is strong when you have a mana sink or tons of critters. Tymna will keep you stocked up on cards to dump with, while Tana gives you the critters. If you can afford it, Carpet of Flowers will outperform this card though. Keep it around if you don't have access to the Carpet.

What Goes In

So after cutting down all the shenanigans, heres what you want to add

DORKS: You get cards for hitting with creatures. Dorks are creatures that give mana and come out very fast. The maximum density of turn 1 dorks means Tymna turn 2, means free cards turn 3. This will improve the consistency of your deck more than anything else you can put in. You're currently missing Llanowar Elves Fyndhorn Elves Boreal Druid Deathrite Shaman Arbor Elf Elvish Mystic . These have the bonuses of working well with Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid , which will help you if you decide to run mana denial cards like Winter Orb or Armageddon (which I recommend both). Deathrite hates on GY and will ramp consistently with fetchlands which are prevalent in the format, extremely value. Arbor Elf can ramp more than 1 in tandem with Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth . These dorks will help guarantee strong starts and consistent power to your deck I can't stress this enough.

ROCKS: Adding in the signets/talismans is going to ramp you, color fix you, and work in tandem with shutting off your opponents mana. Really really recommend these especially if your playtesting leaves you unhappy with mana availability.

STAX: This deck only works when you slow the game, I also want to stress this. Yeah you have some neat combos for winning discretely, but you are primarily a beater stax deck. Your commander gives you cards PER TURN, your other commander gives you CREATURES PER SWING. You want to games to go longer so you get more turns for more cards and more free creatures. It really isn't that hard dude. Cards that slow down the game will help you far more than they help your opponent, even symmetrical ones. This is why the deck runs Blood Moon despite being a four color deck. If you let your opponents start tutoring and dropping their big creatures, they will do better in combat than you and you will have a real bad day. If you hit their mana, stop their tutors and draw, and destroy their engines, you will pull ahead from the massive value you generate in the command zone. Please look at Root Maze Winter Orb Armageddon Rule of Law Deafening Silence Eidolon of Rhetoric Stranglehold Collector Ouphe Kataki, War's Wage

SAC OUTLETS: Real important if you decide to go with Reanimation/Protean combo lines. Look at Viscera Seer Carrion Feeder Altar of Dementia

Closing Thoughts

If you want to run a stax deck, you have to run the slow down pieces. If you want to build a cool reanimation combo deck, I recommend switching commanders or lists, take a peek at Karador Boonweaver

https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/621075-karador-boonweaver-combo

This list is certainly looking a lot better with the first round of revisions! With some more cuts and shaving off some combos, you will improve its efficiency a lot!

P.S. I couldn't open the choice guidelines tab you made sorry bud.

xaarvaxus on My First Zombie Deck, Pls Help

2 weeks ago

Altar of Dementia to give yourself another sac outlet plus additional way to fill the yard.

Living Death as additional boardsweeper and insta zombie horde assuming the yard was getting full the way you want.

Wonder to fetch into the yard with Buried Alive = Flying Zombies! I had to add this combo to my Grimgrin deck so I didn't keep getting run over by flyers. Not sure of the jank factor on this....YMMV.

Ethereal Absolution ? Interesting anthem effect that gives you a way to get rid of creatures from other reanimator deck graveyards.

bushido_man96 on Non-Black Aristocrats/Sacrifice

2 weeks ago

I agree that red is probably going to be the easiest way to go outside of black, and the goblins would be the way to go. They just seem to readily offer up ways to kill themselves, and they can multiply like rabbits, making it easy to maintain a board state. You can splash in the artifact sac outlets like Ashnod's Altar , Phyrexian Altar , Altar of Dementia , and red ones like Goblin Bombardment and Purphoros, God of the Forge .

DSquirrel on Golgari Graveyard

3 weeks ago

Merciless Executioner , Fleshbag Marauder and Plaguecrafter are great for experience points and dealing with non token decks

Glowspore Shaman is good for selfmill and can grab a land.

Golgari Findbroker can help get an artifact, enchantment or land out of the graveyard.

Deadbridge Chant is nice in recursion decks but can be a bit too random for some people.

Altar of Dementia and Ashnod's Altar are great free sacrifice outlets if you can fit them in you budget

Poison-Tip Archer and Vindictive Vampire are budget extras for additional drain

Mana rocks like Golgari Signet , Golgari Locket , Golgari Cluestone , Mana Geode are always important to help cast bigger spells early. and if you can put in a Sol Ring

Whitehamma on Black Plague, On The Rocks: Yawgmoth EDH [PRIMER]

3 weeks ago

Altar of Dementia and Grave Pact I wanted to say gravepact, but its in your primer just not on the list so you have already thought about it. I do like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed in your maybe board..... I don't know what to replace. I still need to read the primer more, to know your combos

Poly_raptor on Korvold Buff Bot

3 weeks ago

I’d strongly recommend running some free sac outlets.

Ashnod's Altar

Phyrexian Altar

Altar of Dementia

Also there’s some good combos with Words of Wilding and Animation Module that let you infinitely buff of Korvold if you have acess to an altar that adds mana.

Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos could be better than butcher of Malakir due to their reduced casting cost.

Hope this is of some use :)

bushido_man96 on Lord Landgrace, with Lands

4 weeks ago

The best argument to be made for Zuran Orb is that it fills the role that cards like Altar of Dementia do for Aristocrats decks: it's a free sac outlet. In Lord Windgrace , it's a free land-sac outlet that also gains you life.

With The Gitrog Monster on the battlefield, it reads, "sac a land, gain two life, draw a card." With Titania, Protector of Argoth on the battlefield, it reads, "sac a land, gain two life, put a 5/3 elemental into play." It also allows you to get value from your lands when you decide to land wipe the table. It just seems like a great enabler for the deck, and is free to cast to boot.