Skip to content
Commander Nexus
  1. Commander Nexus
  2. Archetypes
  3. Sacrifice
Sacrifice artwork

Sacrifice

decks give up their own creatures, and other cards on purpose and get something back each time. A , a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you want, is the heart of the deck.

  • KindArchetype
  • Cards1,111

An archetype is a whole game plan: the way a deck tries to win.

Find these cards in the app Commanders with this archetype

How it plays

You give up your own on purpose, creatures, and others, and you get something back each time: a card, a , damage dealt. A , a card that lets you whenever you want, is the heart of the deck, and cards that return what you sacrificed keep it going.

How it wins

By draining or burning opponents a little with every until there is nothing left, or by looping a creature in and out of the with a until the loop wins.

What beats it

effects that stop things coming back, and cards that stop players from sacrificing. Removing the leaves you with a board and no way to use it.

If this is your first deck

A second deck. It overlaps a lot with , and like that deck it asks you to track many small at once.

Commanders to Start With

The most played commanders where Sacrifice is one of their two main plans, in order from EDHREC, a site that counts the Commander decks players post online.

Example Cards

Sacrifice OutletA card that lets you sacrifice your own creatures or other permanents whenever you want, usually for little or no cost, such as Viscera Seer or Ashnod's Altar. Sacrifice means putting your own card into the graveyard on purpose. Decks use an outlet to cash in creatures that are about to be destroyed or stolen, and to set off cards that reward a creature dying.Open the full glossarySacrificeTo put one of your own permanents into your graveyard because a card tells you to or lets you. You can only sacrifice things you control, and it does not count as destroying them, so effects that stop a card from being destroyed do not stop it.Viscera SeerOpen the full glossaryTreasureA token you can sacrifice for one mana of any color. Many cards make Treasure, and it is mana you can save for a later turn.Big ScoreOpen the full glossaryTokenA permanent that is not a card. Tokens are made by other cards' effects, and a token that leaves the battlefield stops existing. Creature tokens, Treasures and Clues are all tokens.Secure the WastesOpen the full glossaryPermanentAny card that stays on the battlefield once it resolves: creatures, artifacts, enchantments, lands, planeswalkers and battles. Instants and sorceries are not permanents; they resolve and go to the graveyard.Open the full glossaryGraveyardThe discard pile. Cards that are destroyed, discarded or used up go here. In Commander plenty of cards bring them back, which is why graveyards are a resource rather than a bin.Open the full glossaryExileRemoves a card from the game entirely rather than putting it in the graveyard. Exiled cards are much harder to get back, which is why exile is the strongest answer to recursion.Open the full glossaryAristocratsA play style that sacrifices your own creatures on purpose and profits from them dying, usually draining opponents' life a little at a time.Open the full glossaryTriggerAn ability that fires automatically when a specific event happens, usually written "when" or "whenever". You do not choose to use it; it happens on its own.Open the full glossary