Ashnod's Altar

Artifact

Sacrifice a creature: Add to your mana pool.

Discussion (48)

Sultai_Sir on How's Kaldheim Looking to You? …

1 day ago

In my humble opinion, Kaldheim is looking like an amazing set. We haven't gotten any broken things, but they all look fun. Let's go over some of the future commanders of our hearts! I'm skipping over commanders that use fortell, as we don't have many cards for them. Oh, and the cards that don't interest me. My post, my rules!

• Magda, Brazen Outlaw: The dwarf commander we've all been waiting for! Dwarven Recruiter is finally good, and you can add in some spicy treasure/dragon synergies, too! I-I think we did it guys. We broke Dockside Extortionist. Oh, and Hellkite Tyrant is a must.

• Halvar, God of Battle  ^Flip: While pretty good in Voltron decks, he makes for the first artifact commander we've ever had, and I know my Inner Johnny is tickled at that fact. The Equipment side is also super cool, with being able to pay 4 mana to resuscitate one of your creatures. With some Phyrexian Altar + Ashnod's Altar janks, we can make a fun mono-white combo deck! Oh, and Batterskull says hi.

• Lathril, Blade of the Elves: I'm really psyched for this general. She looks like a way to make Golgari Elfball more viable, has a crazy, but not broken, activated ability, and is one of the only generals to make a usually too-competitive strategy fit for more casual tables. She has synergy up the wazoo with cards like Immaculate Magistrate and Timberwatch Elf. Oh, and one card that should be in every one of her decks, but is in zero so far, is Elder of Laurels. This card = broken in this deck, often turning your Lathril, Blade of the Elves into a four-digit power commander. Run it!

• Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider: Finally, Superfriends has some support! But seriously, this is just another Doubling Season with an upside on a stick for Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. If you want to be cruel and run this bad boy as a commander, stax/superfriends seems the way to go. Say hello to Smokestack!

• Toski, Bearer of Secrets: And people said Green couldn't draw cards! Why did they have to print another Edric, Spymaster of Trest? This card is also an indestructible blocker with cards like Seedborn Muse and Quest for Renewal. Oh, and it can't be countered. Why? Because green.

• Valki, God of Lies  ^Flip: This card is super fun. It's like a Lazav, the Multifarious but you get to use your opponent's creatures. But where this 'lil trickster god really shines is in the 99. But more specifically, in the 99 of The First Sliver. See, you can cascade into Valki, God of Lies  ^Flip, but instead of casting the small side, you can just windmill-slam Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor on Turn 4. Fun!

• Sarulf, Realm Eater: Golgari Control is a thing, I guess? Stack your deck like card:Skullbrair, the Walking Grave does, but instead of going for the voltron combos, instead, you wipe your opponent's board every turn. Evolutionary Escalation is a must. Who cares about an 8/8 on your opponent's side when it's dead?

• Kolvori, God of Kinship  ^Flip: Man, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain sure got a lot of new goodies in this set! This card is unfortunately not great as a commander. If I'm playing mono-green legends, I'd rather play Reki, the History of Kamigawa.

• Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip: I love this card. There. I've said it. I'm done. This goes in so many different decks: Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Tinybones, Trinket Thief, Malfegor, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, the list goes on and on! As a commander, she's kill-on-sigh. A single Smallpox just wins you the game.

• Vega, the Watcher: I'll say it: This is probably the most powerful uncommon commander ever printed. This triggers off of so many things: Elsha of the Infinite, Flahsback, Cascade, Retrace, Future Sight, Suspend, Adventure, Foretell, Impulse Draw, etc. Need I say more?

• Jorn, God of Winter  ^Flip: ... Sigh. I know this is a fun card, but why is it sultai? Oh wait, it's generic value. EVen from a sultai-loving man as myself, this seems like overkill. Oh, you want me to talk about the commander? Stuff your deck full of snow lands. Attack. Repeat. Etc. So uninspiring.

PhotogenicParasympathetic on Who gets control?

5 days ago

Small additional note: As has been mentioned, state-based actions aren't really coming into play here, this is more about time stamps.

However, when SBA's do come into play, it is not possible for a player to respond. For example, you cannot sacrifice a creature that has taken lethal damage to Ashnod's Altar.

dirkinzs on Who gets control?

1 week ago

I'm working on a Commander deck based around taking control of my opponent's things and I've run into a little rules question. Let's say I've enchanted an opponent's creature with Volition Reins. It reads "You control enchanted creature". Then let's say my opponent plays Bond of Passion which says "Gain control of enchanted creature until end of turn".

Am I right in the following interpretation of events?

My opponent plays Bond of Passion and gains control of the creature. Then, as a state-based action the creature is returned to me due to my Volition Reins. However, if my opponent had Ashnod's Altar out they would in fact have time to sacrifice the creature before it returned to me.

Orange+ on Yasova Theft/Threaten/Sacrifice EDH

1 week ago

How about Ashnod's Altar as another sac outlet for your control spells? IMO its one of the better sac outlets in commander, although it's a bit pricey.

I'm also playing a threaten themed deck, feel free to take a look: The Act of Treason.

the_solitaire on First attempt BW

1 week ago

Thank you for your feedback.

Since I am not familiar with the commander rules yet, I overlooked the fact planeswalkers could not be commanders. I thought they were obvious commanders and did not look any further.

With your help, I decided that Athreos, God of Passage would make a good commander for this deck, with his ability to return died creatures to my hand. That is part of this decks "strategy" if you may call it that.

The 2nd bouncing card is Enduring Renewal, which also bounces a creature back from the graveyard to my hand.

I removed some cards that did not follow the main theme (disenchant and some like it) to make room for the suggested signets, as well as a few other cards.

The Ornithopter. Phyrexian Walker, Vebulid and Hangarback Walker have a prominent place in their deck. They fuel the strategy so to speak. This startegy bases on the following cards in synergy:

Enduring Renewal athreos (unless a player decides to pay 5 life he is an enduring renewal as well)

Ashnod's Altar, sacrifice a creature to gain colorless mana Phyrexian Altar, sacrifice creatures to gain colored mana

Lampad of Death's Vigil, sacrifice creature to drain opponents life Thoughtpicker Witch, sacrifice a creature to decimate opponents libraries Undercity Informer, see thoughtpicker witch, but faster Sadistic Hypnotist, empty opponents hands fast Spawning Pit, sacrifice creatures until mana runs out to create huge amounts of 2/2 tokens (infinite amounts once Ashnods Altar or Phyrexian Altar shows up on the battlefield) Admittedly, the most beautiful way out would be to generate a large amount of mana through enduring renewal, ashnods/phyrexian altar/0 mana creature and cast a Torment of Hailfire for 999BB

MindAblaze on Altar Combos!

1 week ago

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest = infinite +1/+1 counters on creatures other than Ghave, and infinite colourless mana.

Activate the “make a token” ability on ghave, sac to the altar, repeat.

kpres on Card creation challenge

1 week ago

Taxus, Badgerer of Debts

Legendary Creature - Human Bureaucrat

: Target opponent who has more creatures than you may return a creature he or she controls to its owner's hand. If that player doesn't, then create a 2/2 white Badger creature token with "This creature blocks each turn if able". Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.

1/4

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He "badgers" your opponents. As long as you have a sacrifice outlet that makes mana like Ashnod's Altar, then you can get your opponent down to just one creature, by sacrificing badgers if they refuse. Your opponents will definitely feel badgered after being asked to make this choice so many times.

Create an aura with Enchant Planeswalker that grants it a loyalty ability (A loyalty ability is an activated ability that adds or removes loyalty counters as part of the cost).

StopShot on Altar Combos!

1 week ago

Ashnod's Altar + Eldrazi Displacer + Sling-Gang Lieutenant

Sacrificing two tokens gets you four colorless mana. Blinking the original creature costs three mana. Repeat until you have infinite colorless, then spend that to blink the creature to produce infinite tokens. Then sacrifice infinite tokens to the creature’s ability to win the game.