Altar of the Wretched

Artifact

When Altar of the Wretched enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a nontoken creature. If you do, draw X cards, then mill X cards, where X is that creature's power. (To mill a card, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.)

Craft with one or more creatures {2}{B}{B} ({2}{B}{B}, Exile this artifact, and then exile one or more creatures you control from the battlefield or from your graveyard: Return this card transformed under its owner's control. Craft only as a sorcery.)

{2}{B}: Return Altar of the Wretched from your graveyard to your hand.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (4)

legendofa on noctis is cheating

3 days ago

Ferropede and Thrull Parasite are a little fragile, but they're very good at keeping finality counters away. Magister Sphinx has a big mana cost, and it's a niche meta card, but can help reign in someone's life total if it's getting out of control, or just set up a lethal attack. Sharuum the Hegemon could be fun here.

I'm not sure you're getting full value out of Altar of the Wretched  ^Flip. What's the intent here? You get one sacrifice, some draw, some self-mill, and a potentially big but not especially versatile creature. And the creatures in the deck are generally small to mid-sized, so you have to dump a lot of future value into what's basically a big-but-not-huge beater. Am I missing something?

With no Rooms, Keys to the House isn't any better than Wanderer's Twig or Traveler's Amulet. Armillary Sphere, Moonsilver Key or Wayfarer's Bauble might be better--a little more expensive to use, but more utility.

Stoic Rebuttal is on-theme, but Counterspell is just better.

There's kind of a Thopter token subtheme here. Does it feel like it's working?

ArmchairRuler on Will Altar of the Wretched …

1 year ago

I was looking into adding Altar of the Wretched  ^Flip to my sliver deck, but am unsure if it will work the way I want it to. Ex: I have Cloudshredder Sliver and Lancer Sliver in my graveyard. I activate the craft ability of Altar of the Wretched  ^Flip, exiling the two slivers. Both slivers explicitly state that they give their respective abilities to other slivers, and they only possess their abilities because they are also slivers. If I exile them to make Wretched Bonemass  ^Flip, will it have these abilities even though it is not a sliver?

Rhadamanthus on Altar of the Wretched and …

1 year ago

No, this won't work. A double faced card can only have the characteristics of the back face either when it's on the battlefield after being transformed or if it's a modal DFC (Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip, etc.) that's been cast with the back face. In any other situation it only has the characteristics of the front face. In your example that means Altar of the Wretched  ^Flip isn't a creature card in your library and Buried Alive can't find it.

NTakamura on Altar of the Wretched and …

1 year ago

Am I able to use cards like Buried Alive to Tutor out Altar of the Wretched  ^Flip since it transforms into a creature?