Apparently, since the Great Skullclamp Disaster of 2004 Wizards have become really, really careful about letting players sacrifice their creatures to draw cards. I'm sure this ability was way cheaper in early design, but they eventually decided to make it more expensive, just in case.
Posted By:
True_Mumin
(10/29/2009 5:27:34 PM)
You could potentially combo this card with Bloodghast. Then it's basically, a free card for three mana every time you play a land.
Posted By:
Yakutsk
(1/15/2010 10:45:57 AM)
This and Act of Treason are best friends. Hi! I just stole your creature and beat you up with him. Ooops! He's dead! I'll draw a card now :D
4/5
Posted By:
Gaussgoat
(1/21/2010 6:57:53 AM)
Laff @ Phyrexian Vault.
You can sacrifice one (1) creature to it to draw one (1) card.
This card has a higher activation cost obviously but can sac multiple creatures at once if someone Wraths. I don't see much use for this outside EDH but cards like Grave Pact, Abyssal Gatekeeper and Butcher of Malakir make this card stronger and even capable of killing pro-creatures while still drawing.
Posted By:
KarmasPayment
(4/30/2010 12:58:41 PM)
Very versatile in the right deck (token, recursion, etc.). Especially useful in recursion decks because of all the Path to Exile's, Oblivion Ring's, and Journey to Nowhere's running around. Mana cost seems about right for the effect, though of course it is a bad fit for faster decks.
Posted By:
gelleetin
(8/7/2010 10:05:11 AM)
Cathodion will give you infinite card draw if you pay the initial {3} to get the ball rolling with the right graveyard recursion.
Posted By:
tcollins
(1/10/2011 10:52:56 AM)
Reassembling Skeleton
also, this card does not need to tap to use it's effect makes it abusable incombo decks
Posted By:
iSlapTrees
(5/6/2011 3:13:55 PM)
From my experience in limited, not worth the card slot there. On the occasions when you could activate it without trading a creature for a card (creature about to die) there is nearly always something more important that you need your mana for and unless you use it twice you're just getting back to even and costing yourself 5+ mana in the process.
Using Jayemdae Tome, Greed, Browse, etc as a reference a card should cost about 4 mana without the sacrifice. Using Jalum Tome a card for a discard costs 2...seems this should be cheaper, but I think they're trying to avoid easy combos.
In constructed it might have a place in some sort of trick deck, but that's about it.
Posted By:
Nighthawk42
(9/28/2009 3:09:20 PM)
Can i block a creature and still use the carnage altar's ability?
Posted By:
jamesFALLEN
(1/6/2010 11:03:01 PM)
This thing is really here just for a way of destroying ur own creatures if u need to :/ maybe worldwake or rise will bring something that makes this better but blah
Posted By:
Duffey
(1/19/2010 3:20:35 PM)