Best Sacrifice Outlets in Commander EDH: Aristocrats Strategy Guide

Building an aristocrats deck means you need sacrifice outlets that actually do something. I see too many lists running mediocre sac outlets because they're "on theme" when better options exist. Your sacrifice outlet is not just an enabler. It's half your engine.

A good sacrifice outlet does at least one of three things: it's free to activate, it makes mana, or it wins the game on the spot when you go infinite. The best ones do two of those. Let's talk about which outlets are worth running and why.

Free outlets that replace themselves

Viscera Seer costs one black mana and scrys every time you sacrifice a creature. Free activation, instant speed, and it digs through your deck while you're comboing off or just making value plays. I've won games where Viscera Seer let me scry fifteen cards deep to find a combo piece or answer. For $0.43, this is an auto-include in every black aristocrats deck.

Carrion Feeder is similar but grows instead of scrys. Sacrifice a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on the Feeder. It can't block, which barely matters. What matters is you have a free outlet that turns into a real threat. I've killed people with a 20/20 Carrion Feeder more times than I'd like to admit.

Both of these are one mana, indestructible to most board wipes (they dodge damage-based wraths), and let you sacrifice your board in response to exile effects. That last part is important. Someone casts Farewell and you can still trigger all your death effects before your creatures leave.

The altar question

There are three main altars and they're not interchangeable.

Ashnod's Altar costs three mana and gives you two colorless for each creature. This is the one you run when you need to make mana for a sink like Walking Ballista or Torment of Hailfire. It's $14.48, which is expensive for an artifact that does nothing by itself, but it's the best colorless mana engine in the format. I run it in decks where I'm trying to convert creatures into big mana spells.

Phyrexian Altar costs three mana and gives you one mana of any color per creature. This is the one you want for combo lines where you need colored mana to loop spells or recast creatures. At $48.61, it's genuinely expensive. Is it worth it? In a tuned aristocrats list, yes. In a casual build, probably not. Ashnod's Altar does 80% of the same job for a third of the price.

Altar of Dementia costs two mana and mills cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power. This is the win condition. When you have infinite death triggers, you mill everyone out. It's $12.68 and worth every penny if your deck can consistently make tokens or recur creatures. My Meren deck wins half its games with Altar of Dementia.

Damage-based outlets

Goblin Bombardment costs

and pings for one damage per creature. Free activation, instant speed, hits any target. In a deck that makes five or six creatures per turn cycle, that's real damage. It's $3.22 and slots into any red aristocrats build. I like it more than Blasting Station because it's an enchantment, which is harder to remove in most metas.

The downside is you need a lot of creatures or a loop to actually kill a table. Pinging for one is slow. But when you're recurring Nested Shambler or looping Putrid Goblin with Grumgully, Goblin Bombardment becomes a machine gun.

The premium option

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is $39.43 and he's the best sacrifice outlet ever printed for aristocrats. Pay one life, sacrifice a creature, put a -1/-1 counter on something, draw a card. Every activation draws you a card. That's insane. He also has a built-in proliferate ability that combos with -1/-1 counters, and protection from humans means he dodges a lot of spot removal.

I put Yawgmoth in every black deck that cares about creatures dying. He's expensive but he does everything. Free outlet, card draw, removal, combo piece. If your deck can support

, run him.

What you actually need

Your sacrifice outlet needs to be free to activate or make mana. Outlets that cost mana to activate (like Bloodthrone Vampire or Nantuko Husk) are traps. You run out of mana before you run out of creatures and then you're stuck.

You want instant speed if possible. Being able to sacrifice in response to removal or on an opponent's end step is a real advantage.

And you want redundancy. Most aristocrats decks should run 3-5 sacrifice outlets. You're building around this effect, so you need to see it consistently.

Building the package

Here's what I run in a typical Orzhov or Rakdos aristocrats list:

• Viscera Seer (scry)
• Carrion Feeder (grows)
• Ashnod's Altar (mana)
• Goblin Bombardment (damage)
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician if the budget allows

That gives me five free outlets with different payoffs. When I draw into two or three in a game, I can chain them together for maximum value. Scry with Viscera Seer until I find what I need, then pivot to Ashnod's Altar to make mana for a big play.

The worst thing you can do is run one sacrifice outlet and hope it sticks. Someone will remove it and your deck stops working. Redundancy is the whole point.

Find sacrifice outlet options and prices for your deck on GrimDeck.