MagicTheGathering.fyi

Phyrexian Altar

Artifact

Sacrifice a creature: Add one mana of any color.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{3}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
The List
Price
$53.88
EDHREC rank
#310
Buy on TCGplayer
Phyrexian Altar card art
Phyrexian Altar turns any creature into a mana float — one-at-a-time sacrifice for one mana of any color — and that single ability is the engine behind some of Commander's most degenerate loops. Pair it with Gravecrawler and any death trigger, or slot it into Rakdos, the Muscle to fund a self-sustaining sacrifice machine, and you have a three-mana artifact that wins games.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Rakdos, the Muscle

Rakdos, the Muscle

51.9% of decks · synergy 0.46

Rakdos, the Muscle taxes opponents for each creature they control, and Phyrexian Altar converts the resulting sacrifice fodder into colored mana, keeping the engine self-funding as you churn through bodies.

02
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

55.0% of decks · synergy 0.41

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder floods the board with Thrulls on every creature cast, and Phyrexian Altar lets you sacrifice the excess before Endrek's own triggered ability destroys him — converting the overflow into mana rather than a liability.

03
Teysa, Orzhov Scion

Teysa, Orzhov Scion

49.2% of decks · synergy 0.38

Teysa, Orzhov Scion exiles creatures whenever three white creatures die, and Phyrexian Altar is the throttle — feeding a continuous loop of sacrifice, token generation, and exile triggers that ends games on the spot.

04

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER

49.8% of decks · synergy 0.36

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER accumulates counters and grows through repeated combat and life-loss triggers, and Phyrexian Altar provides the on-demand mana to keep recasting or reanimating him while generating the sacrifice events his engine craves.

05
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

41.5% of decks · synergy 0.36

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver replaces every non-token Zombie that dies with a Decayed token, and Phyrexian Altar converts those Decayed tokens — which can't attack and must be sacrificed — into mana, turning a limitation into a resource.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Phyrexian Altar lives — the 100-card singleton format is full of recursive creatures, death triggers, and token generators that turn one free sacrifice outlet into an infinite loop. In Legacy, it's legal but sees essentially no play; the format's pace and pressure demand faster and more disruptive tools. Vintage is the same story: legal on paper, irrelevant in practice when the format is defined by free spells and turn-one threats. Phyrexian Altar is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, so if your format isn't Commander or Oathbreaker, it isn't an option.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Ashnod's Altar is the closest substitute at under a dollar — it also sacrifices creatures for mana at instant speed with no limit, though it produces colorless rather than any color, which matters for decks with tight pip requirements. Thermopod and Altar of Dementia cover narrow use cases (the latter mills instead of making mana entirely), so if color flexibility is what you actually need, Phyrexian Altar has no true budget replacement — Ashnod's Altar is the realistic stand-in, with the colorless caveat as the real trade-off.

Price Context

Current price

$53.88 premium tier

At $53.88, Phyrexian Altar sits firmly in the premium tier — a price driven by years of sustained demand across every Commander archetype that touches sacrifice. It has been reprinted, which trimmed the peak, but the combination of power level and broad applicability keeps it from dropping meaningfully, making it a buy when you need it rather than a card to speculate on.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.