The 34 Best Sacrifice Payoff Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on May 21, 2026

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King | Illustration by Wisnu Tan

Lots of MTG decks have a very heavy sacrifice component, usually involving sacrificing your own permanents for value. These archetypes are usually called aristocrats, paying homage to Falkenrath Aristocrat and other similar cards.

Aristocrat decks have cards that let you sacrifice creatures or permanents and cards that do something good for you (or bad for your opponents) when you sacrifice permanents. You’ll actually want a mix of cards that allow you to sacrifice, cards that want to be sacrificed, and sacrifice payoffs. So let’s check out that last category!

What Are Sacrifice Payoffs in MTG?

Bag of Devouring | Illustration by Sean Murray

Sacrifice payoffs, as the name implies, are cards that reward you for sacrificing other permanents you control, or in some cases, reward you when an opponent sacrifices a permanent. A card like Korvold, Fae-Cursed King is a great reason to build a deck around sacrificing permanents, because each time you sacrifice something, you’ll draw a card and buff Korvold. Some sacrifice payoffs will trigger only when you sacrifice tokens, like Mirkwood Bats, while others will specifically care about lands or creatures.

Honorable Mentions

Cards like Blood Artist, Grave Pact, or Zulaport Cutthroat are the backbone of sacrifice decks or aristocrats decks because these decks make creatures die, and you want to profit from that. For this list, I’ll include only cards that work when sacrificing permanents, so these are out. Although these cards are sacrifice payoffs in the bigger picture, I'm making a distinction from death triggers in general.

#34. Bag of Devouring

Bag of Devouring is very similar to Prowling Geistcatcher in the sense that you can sacrifice cards and stash them in the Bag. After sacrificing the Bag, you get to retrieve those cards. They go back into your hand, so the best cards to sacrifice are ones with good ETB/LTB abilities, preferably cheap ones. You’ll also have to roll a D10, though you'll regularly get 3-4 cards back.

#33. Persuasive Interrogators

Who doesn’t love integrating poison counters into their games? Persuasive Interrogators gives Clue decks an alternate win condition that’s honestly pretty cool; I like this application of direct poison counters much better than infect or toxic. The biggest drawbacks are the cost and black’s general lack of support for Clue tokens – it uses them here and there, but nothing like blue or red.

#32. Prowling Geistcatcher

Prowling Geistcatcher is at home in a deck full of good ETB creatures. You can sacrifice them once they become outclassed, and when the Geistcatcher dies, you’ll reload. It has a different application from other creatures on this list. I rate it a little better than the Bag of Devouring in the sense that you’ll get the cards back to the battlefield and you don’t depend on the die roll to get your cards back.

#31. Sawblade Skinripper

I find Sawblade Skinripper endlessly intriguing. It’s kind of like a Mayhem Devil that stores up all its damage for a single burst. That’s worse than the GOAT, but a bad Mayhem Devil still seems pretty impactful, especially with an ability that could turn infinite mana into infinite sacrifices into infinite damage to one target. Take that, Toby.

#30. Fleshtaker

Fleshtaker combines aspects of cards like Nantuko Husk and Viscera Seer, being able to sacrifice creatures and generate benefits. Scrying and gaining life for free each time you sacrifice a permanent is great, and in WB lifegain decks you can trigger lots of your synergies.

#29. Smothering Abomination

With Smothering Abomination, you can fill your hand pretty quickly if you have lots of sac fodder lying around, but there’s a main downside: It’s really, really bad on an empty board. At least if you sacrifice the Abomination, you’ll draw a card. One of the best devoid cards in MTG, this is at its best in stax decks and decks that produce lots of tokens or decks that work with symmetrical sacrifice effects.

#28. Experimental Confectioner

Not many decks go in for Food tokens, but those that do love Experimental Confectioner. Sure, you get the infinite combo with Peregrin Took, but the board presence alone is worthwhile, especially with Ygra, Eater of All turning everything into food.

When your deck broadly cares about sacrificing permanents, you can feed the Food into one outlet and the resulting rat into another for oodles of value.

#27. Thraximundar

As you can see, 2009 MTG was a lot simpler, but Thraximundar still packs a punch in sacrifice decks. Thraximundar feeds itself as a massive 6/6 creature with haste, and the opponent is forced to sacrifice a creature when it attacks. As with many sacrifice payoffs, this card gets a +1/+1 counter each time a creature is sacrificed. This card takes a completely different approach to sacrifice decks, which are usually very grindy, slowly draining people with cards like Blood Artist.

#26. Scouring Swarm

Scouring Swarm is similar to Scute Swarm, in that when you reach a certain threshold, it spirals out of control. In this case, you need seven or more lands in your graveyard to get a copy of this creature. Otherwise, you'll get a 1/1 flier, and that's an interesting sacrifice payoff. The Swarm works better with cards like Scapeshift, whihc let you sacrifice a lot of lands at once to quickly fill your graveyard.

#25. Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher

Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher exploits players sacrificing creatures by becoming a massive threat that generates lots of grindy value over the course of a game. Feeding cards like Ichor Wellspring and Bounty Agent to the graveyard, then reanimating them over and over provides some excellent value in a long game. I’m a huge fan of uniting Carmen with Fleshbag Marauder variants in Commander since you often get three or four counters and reanimating such cards provides meaningful board control.

#24. Furnace Celebration

Here’s one of the most innovative Limited cards. Scars of Mirrodin had Furnace Celebration as one of its viable Draft archetypes, and each time you sacrifice a permanent, you may pay and deal 2 damage to any target. Furnace Celebration is a Shock factory, and in sacrifice decks it adds quickly to the damage generated by other sacrifice payoffs like Mayhem Devil.

#23. Obsessive Pursuit

Obsessive Pursuit rewards you for sacrificing multiple permanents per turn. Each turn you'll get a Clue, which is basically an extra card and a sacrifice trigger. When you attack, you get to turn these sacrifice triggers into +1/+1 counters. It's a nice card for Orzhov () decks that sacrifice creature tokens, or Rakdos () decks that sacrifice a lot of treasure.

#22. Esoteric Duplicator

Esoteric Duplicator requires lots of mana, but the reward of copying oodles of artifacts makes up for it. It’s a great combo with something that sacrifices an artifact (Krark-Clan Ironworks, perhaps?) and artifacts like Spine of Ish Sah and Portal to Phyrexia that impact the board.

#21. Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth

Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth is a Dimir commander that cares specifically about sacrificing tokens. That can range from creatures to Clues and Treasures, and Eloise can also investigate a lot during a game, which translates to card advantage. Although the payoff isn’t great like dealing damage or drawing cards, you’ll get to surveil often, filling your graveyard and opening the way for interesting builds.

#20. Martha Jones

I love pairing card draw with pressure, so I’d be happy to slip Martha Jones into any Clue deck. Sneaking a few creatures past your opponents’ defenders is quite strong, especially when those creatures include cards like Tireless Tracker and Lonis, Genetics Expert that grow ever-larger as you come closer to cracking the case.

#19. Phoenix Fleet Airship

Phoenix Fleet Airship is already close to playable as a straight-up vehicle with not extra knobs. But you're also building a future fleet, because if you sacrifice a permanent, you'll get another copy of this vehicle. The next turn, two Airships can become four, until it snowballs into a giant fleet. Not to mention the possible copy shenanigans.

#18. Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz

If there were ever a card to justify adding Smothering Tithe to a deck, it would be Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz. Since this Orzhov card doesn’t care about tokens or non-tokens, it pairs great with Treasure and gives you reasons to play cards like Mondrak, Glory Dominus as both fuel and a reward for the final trigger.

#17. It That Betrays

It That Betrays is a 12-mana Tergrid, God of Fright and a good sacrifice payoff, especially in decks that can cheat it into play. Plus, it’s a 12/12 with annihilator that can force opponents to sacrifice permanents and get the engine running. You can use it in Eldrazi decks and decks that ramp a lot.

#16. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is a clunky but fun Golgari commander . It starts small and dies to almost all removal spells, but you can quickly build an army of creatures with +1/+1 counters if you keep sacrificing permanents.

It’s weak to board wipes, but powerful if left unchecked. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set gave this commander a nice boost with cards like Mirkwood Bats and Rise of the Witch-king. You can either go wide by putting counters on various creatures or go tall on Mazirek and beat people down.

#15. Fumulus, the Infestation

Fumulus, the Infestation helps out sacrifice decks by turning any real creatures you sacrifice into a second body for cards like Goblin Bombardment and Ashnod's Altar. The additional pressure is nice, but unlikely to be the draw to this black creature.

For you Commander players, consider that Fumulus works exceptionally well with Fleshbag Marauder and other edict creatures since they often result in three or more creatures dying and this vampire insect counts each one for a total of four tokens.

#14. Ashnod the Uncaring

Ashnod the Uncaring is a powerful Grixis commander that cares about sacrifice outlets, effectively doubling the benefit they provide with a given activation. Suddenly each card that says “Sacrifice this: Draw a card” gives you two cards, while Clue and Food tokens give you twice the benefits when sacrificed. Time Sieve is a good one here because it lets you play two extra turns.

It doesn’t work with mana though, so you can’t manipulate Treasure or the mana generated by cards like Ashnod's Altar. Note that death triggers aren't doubled; you’ll need Teysa Karlov for that.

#13. Mirkwood Bats

Mirkwood Bats is a godsend for people looking to maximize token creation and sacrifice, particularly Treasure tokens. Treasures are already created at a good rate thanks to cards like Brass's Bounty or Smothering Tithe, and since you sacrifice them eventually, each Treasure token makes your opponents lose 2 life.

Mirkwood Bats also works with creature tokens and Clues/Food, so expect this card to fit lots of different decks and hit your EDH table often.

#12. Crime Novelist

In case you didn’t think Treasure was strong enough, Crime Novelist doubles their mana production and evolves into a large threat. You don’t need to pair it with Treasure, but we all know that’s where this is headed, even if it has utility alongside Clues, Food, and cards like Bosh, Iron Golem.

#11. Rakdos, the Muscle

Card advantage is a fantastic payoff for doing… pretty much anything in Magic. The charming combination of a sacrifice payoff and outlet makes Rakdos, the Muscle a nasty threat, especially since its card advantage naturally synergizes with the impulse draw synergies Rakdos has become known for. You typically want cheap payoffs, but gaining indestructible offsets that nicely.

#10. Jaws, Relentless Predator

Jaws, Relentless Predator creates Blood tokens by attacking, and this 5/5 trample haste can create several of these. By sacrificing the Blood, or Treasure tokens, you'll deal more damage to your opponents. Jaws can be a win condition in combos that create and sacrifice artifacts indefinitely, like those involving Pitiless Plunderer.

#9. Juri, Master of the Revue

Juri, Master of the Revue is a very straightforward Rakdos commander . It comes down early and grows with cards that can be sacrificed, most notably Treasure, but fetch lands also do it. You'll end up with a very large Juri that can hit your opponents hard, win via commander damage, or deal lots of damage to any target if removed. Ruthless Technomancer is an interesting combo because you’ll sacrifice your big Juri, generate lots of Treasure, cast it again, sacrifice all the Treasure for mana, and have your commander again ready to fight, almost as big as it was before. Another nice interaction is with Fling effects since you’ll deal double the damage.

#8. Scavenger’s Talent

Bloomburrow‘s Scavenger's Talent has wild potential. A sacrifice payoff that evolves into a powerful sacrifice outlet, this class has put up numbers in Pioneer sacrifice decks. Much of this class's power comes from Food production, which not only fuels the third level but also turbo-charges Cauldron Familiar.

#7. Zodiark, Umbral God

Zodiark, Umbral God is a very powerful card that's obviously hard to cast outside of heavy black decks. When it enters, each player sacrifices half their creatures, including you, and Zodiark gets a surge of counters. It won't be hard to make a 10/10 indestructible here. It's best friends with Accursed Marauder and the like, which dump a bunch of counters on Zodiark.

#6. Evendo Brushrazer

Evendo Brushrazer pays you off for sacrifing any nontoken permanent by exiling cards from the top of your library, which you may cast later. So, you'll get some potential card advantage, and its ability cashes in a land for a sacrifice trigger and 2 mana. This card is a complete sacrifice package, and very interesting in aggressive decks that deal damage when sacrificing permanents as it mitigates mana flooding with card advantage.

#5. Baloth Prime

Baloth Prime is another complete sacrifice package. You want to sacrifice lands to remove the stun counters from this card while creating 4/4 tokens, so that you can attack with your 10/10, and you have the means to do so on the card. 4/4 tokens are a really good payoff, and to sacrifice lands, you can play cards like Harrow, Wasteland, or Crop Rotation. Fetch lands will also trigger this for free, and you can make use of the 10/10 body even while the baloth's stunned.

#4. Szarel, Genesis Shepherd

Szarel, Genesis Shepherd wants us to sacrifice nontoken permanents, ideally lands, so you can play them from the graveyard and trigger your landfall synergies. When you do that, you'll also put at least two +1/+1 counters on another creature, which is easy to increase in Golgari +1/+1 counter decks. Green and black have many ways to sacrifice lands and profit from that too, like The Gitrog Monster, or cards that let you play lands from your graveyard, like Icetill Explorer.

#3. Mayhem Devil

Mayhem Devil was the sacrifice-matters card in Standard, and it still sees play in Pioneer. Dealing a damage to any target whenever a permanent is sacrificed is a strong effect, and it triggers on any sacrifice, not just yours. It alone turns the Cat/Oven combo into a machine gun, and it’s the card you’ll definitely not want to see in a sacrifice mirror match since it turns your game plan back at you.

#2. Tergrid, God of Fright

Tergrid, God of Fright is an awesome commander and sacrifice payoff. It’s just that it’s a payoff for opponents sacrificing their stuff. Tergrid decks want to make their opponents discard or sacrifice as much as possible, and cards like Plaguecrafter shine here since both modes benefit you. With Tergrid as your commander, a card like Death Cloud is a game changer since you’ll be the one left with all their sacrificed and discarded goodies. Pun intended on Game Changer.

#1. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King costs three colors of mana and it’s more expensive than Mayhem Devil overall, but the benefit it provides is huge. First, you get a 5/5 flying and a card right away, and an unanswered Korvold wins the game. Second, Korvold can be your Jund commander, and a fairly powerful one at that. Along with Trail of Crumbs, this card is the reason why people play green in their sacrifice decks, and drawing more cards often means more fun.

Sacrifice Enablers

You’ve patroned your Blood Artist, made a pact with Mayhem Devil, and recruited Korvold, Fae-Cursed King as a general. How will you get those triggers? You need a combination of sacrifice fodder and sacrifice outlets!

Sacrifice fodder often comes as tokens, especially from cards like Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia that produce them each turn. You can also sacrifice creatures with strong death triggers like Greedy Freebooter or creatures like Helpful Hunter that gave you a strong enters ability and left a body around.

The best sacrifice outlets are permanents with activated abilities. Some, like Ashnod's Altar, are free sac outlets notorious for going infinite. Other sacrifice outlets include spells that require sacrificing creatures as one of their costs (Deadly Dispute should be the first card in any sacrifice deck), as well as cards with an enters ability that cares about sacrificing like God-Eternal Bontu.

Umbral Collar Zealot and Viscera Seer are classic, free sacrifice outlets. The Zealot even lets you sacrifice artifacts at will.

Ygra, Eater of All is an interesting sacrifice enabler, in that it makes all creatures Food, so any player can sacrifice a creature and gain life. It’s especially good if you have ways to benefit from other players sacrificing creatures. Prossh, Skyraider of Kher also lets you sacrifice creatures for free, and it even enters with some 0/1 tokens ready to be sacrificed.

Wrap Up

Juri, Master of the Revue (Multiverse Legends) | Illustration by Julie Dillon

That’s all from me on sacrifice payoffs today. Sacrifice decks are usually on the Johnny side of things, and it’s a style of deck I enjoy playing. Thanks to the popularity of the Commander format, more cards that build sacrifice engines and reward you for following this strategy are being printed, and I’m all for it. We can also see by the number of decklists posted online that sacrifice Commander decks are very, very popular.

What are your favorite interactions involving sacrifice payoffs? Let me know in the comments section below, or come find us in the Draftsim Discord. Check out our newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Thanks for reading folks, and may your sacrifice interactions in MTG always pay off.