Black is becomming more and more powerful.. play this on turn 3.. go through their deck, hmmm take out their 3 highest level cards. Play the kicker and you could remove their entire mana base, or all their best cards practically on one turn. If it weren't for mind break trap this would be way over powered.
revilolee
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Wow.
JosirisDavid
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Sick card. 3 important cards is enough to make the opponent gloom. 15 cards? that's sick. Ha.
Saha
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(4 votes)
"You don't need to topdeck anything."
GoGo26
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Yood card, if you manage to get yourself 10 mana, and your opponent already has a lot of lands, you can simply exile all his/.her creatures.
Lestat13
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Sideboard, anything about main decking is a pipe dream.
Arachibutyrophobia
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This is my favorite of it's cycle.
Volcre
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Using this against five colour control to delete their win condition seems pretty funny, but I'm not sure how good it is in actual play...
DeviousPie
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I really like this card, but the art kinda scares me.
inmypants22
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
i get to choose what cards i mill? yes please
Grimn777
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(6 votes)
This is an amazing card. First of all, it lets you take any 3 cards out of their deck. Maybe 3 baneslayers, or something else ridiculous. maybe 3 path to exiles, or terminate, if they have no removal, you are looking good. Second, you get to look at their entire library. by the time you play this, your opponent will not have played all of his or her cards, and will very rarely have every copy of a certain card in their hand. This means you effectively get to look at their ENTIRE strategy, and then know exactly what they MIGHT have, so you can work around it. You maindeck this, then sideboard it out games 2 and 3, because now you know their whole deck and how to beat it.
Wraggles
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(2 votes)
"can I has 1 more card" says it all. Cranial Extraction was better in off colour, thought hemorrhage is also better in off colour(much better). Also Earwig Squad had the same effect for an easier cost (if prowled), on top of a 5/3 body. The kicker is nice, but unless you specifically build around the card chances of playing it with the kicker are as Lestat Said, a pipe dream.
To sum up, an ok card if you want to build a deck around it(probably some variation of mono black control), and almost terrible in anything else (or at least there's a better option).
MrPink343
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I just traded this card to my friend. I'm afraid to play im now...
Redeemer707
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Jester's Cap on crack!
Zulp
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(4 votes)
If Sadistic Sacrament was kicked, instead you win the game.
VwllssWndr
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This card really helps make mono-Black a worthwhile reality. I wouldn't count on blowing 10 mana to exile 15 cards, but putting three cards into exile could really tip the scales in your favor. it's much easier to deal with a Great Sable Stag if he never hits the table.
f_fivefiftyseven
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
A good card, despite what some nay-sayers say. Any 3 cards for 3 mana, plus looking at your oponents deck, plus forcing them to shuffle is good. Very very good. And by the time you get to 10 mana, you can cripple them (assuming they don't have something equally crippling in their hand). If kicked, it will win you the game in limited formats (particularly booster-drafts), again, unless the oponents win condition is already in hand or on the field.
Believe it or not, I see a ton of potential for this in a black-blue mill deck (although Mill isn't and probably never will be a popular stragegy, as if it becomes too powerful people will just start making larger decks). It can be used to ensure you're oponents serious threats are taken care of. Also, it combo's well with Mind Funeral, since you can take out 3 of your opponents lands, which will likely increase the number of cards Funeral mills. It also acts as a trigger for Archieve Trap, so in theory you can mill 16 cards for 3 mana using 2 cards (assuming you only have 1 Archieve Trap in your hand). Given that our oppoent will theoretically have about a 50 card deck if you get this off as soon as possible, it will hurt.
But even outside of Mill, it's always good to get rid of 3 cards. Don't underrate this card, especially with the crazy mana accel. in Zendikar (ie. Black-Green is looking good).
Gezus82
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I enjoy running this in BR, turn 3 plus a turn 4 Hemmorage, knowing exactly what to take out, maybe even be able to tell what is in their hand from the numbers in the deck. Bye bye Johnny. though this of course doesn't work at all against an agro deck
no_body
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
i used this on my friend's ally deck and kicked it. got rid of all his oran rief survivalists, umara raptors, kazandu blademasters, turntimber rangers and a couple lands. he conceded. i'll never forget the look on his face the turn i cast this.
Nickkom
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(19 votes)
this is at least as good as Jester's cap, and probably better since it's less vulnerable to removal (since it's never a permanent), and you can kick it to make it devistating. How can an opponent recover from having the most important 15 cards removed from the game?
Anyone else remember praying each of your Ice Age boosters would be a jester's cap? When I got sadistic sacrament in my zendi booster i was actually disappointed at first. Goes to show how much more powerful sets are now.
Loozar402
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
The kicker is pretty expensive, but 15 cards is absolutely devastating. And I can see it plausible to pay the kicker if you run green since you have so much mana acceleration - Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, Druid of the Anima, Harrow, Oracle of Mul Daya, Rampant Growth, etc.
HairlessThoctar
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Kicking one of these is the best feeling in the world.
PatrickWamsher
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Devastating in Limited. Deck info plus removing three cards early on is quite useful in that format. Obviously adding the kicker will leave a opponent with very little to do
DarthMohawk1
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Dang, this card is harsh! An opponent with a good deck can probably deal with three of his best answers to yours getting the axe, but who's to say you won't draw a second copy and exile three more? And kicking this card should basically read "You lose" since depending on the board position you can pretty much take out anything that looks remotely threatening. And since you're playing heavy, if not mono-Black (because who splashes a card with in its cost, anyway?!), you can kill your opponent's hand with things like Mind Shatter.
SChowney
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I play four of these in a Green/Black deck with landfetch which allows me to get the kicker on turn 5 or 6. Don't forget, you can also play this on your own library to thin out your land/early-game cards for the late-game, ala selective memory. As a casual player, I give this 5/5, if only for how much fun it is.
Megrimage
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(3 votes)
it's like jester's cap for half the mana
PaladinOfSunhome
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Wow. Harsh and cheap, since the Kicker can be any multitude of colours.
4.0
Demonic_Angel13
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
I'm running four of these and I love playing them. Kicked or not still a great card and great art. Remove the most threatening of those pesky Eldrazi and bypass the anti-mill abilities.
jstorrie
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Excellent sideboard card, though whether you choose this or Thought Hemorrhage largely depends on what you expect in the local meta. Hemmorhage is more useful for combo pieces which must be cast, while this excels at taking out anything they'd expect to cascade or Polymorph into... so long as they don't have more than three targets, anyway.
statiefreez
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(8 votes)
This is one of exactly two ways I know that can deal with Emrakul, the Eons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, when trying to mill your opponent. The other way is to force it into your opponent's hand. If not for these two methods, mill would be dead. Thanks, R&D, you've insured that mill decks will have to play heavy black or lose to anyone who went to the RoE prerelease.
If you truly want this card to live up to its name, the most sadistic thing you can do is kick it, then (since the text doesn't say "non-land card") exile their first 15 lands. Watch their face after you show them what you took. :P
pixieCrack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i tried to make a deck twincasting a kicked one of these with the help of soldevi adnate in an affinity deck, fun card.
Azazyel
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
1.- Dark Ritual
2.- Sadistic Sacrament, exiling three Wrath of Gods or whatever will hose your deck.
Possible on turn 1, hilarious if it happens. It's not even a "god draw" or anything of the sort, since it requires only two cards you'd be running 4x in your deck.
Malkhiah666
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
this thing is awesome! even without paying the kicker cost, got 3 of them in my blue/black eldrazzi leveler's scorn deck,for example if you've got Echo Mage at level 4+ make two copies of the overly sadistic sacrament, that's nine cards out of your opponent's library for basically 5 mana along with cast through time and then just copy it again, but i say if you really wanna add insult to injury you traumatize him aswell
SoulShatterer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Kicking it allows you to more or less annihilate anything that looks even semi-dangerous in just about any deck, and it exiles instead of sends to graveyard, so no regeneration allowed.
BantCaptain
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Question. If you use Sadistic Sacrament, and see their entire deck, is their anything preventing you from showning their deck to another player, or atleast reading out what cards they have? The situation we had was Arch Enemy, and the Arch Enemy player got very upset when I asked our black player to show us his cards. My logic is we're on the same team, and there's nothing against it, or am I missing something?
donjohnson
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
With a few Thran Dynamo's and a few Worn Powerstones, this can be kicked pretty early in a game....I win.
EvilCleavage
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This card is so versatile, I have 2 in my Vamps. But seriously, this can go anywhere! In land destruction, you can use it kicked to seal the deal later in the game by exiling their last fifteen lands. There's just so many possibilities. Definitely one of my favorite cards from Zendikar.
I use this card as part of a mill combo in my B/U deck:
Sadistic Sacrament + Mind Funeral
It goes something like this:
Mana build using Dimir Signet/ Dimir Aqueduct,
bring out cheap creatures with level abilities ( Echo Mage + Lighthouse Chronologist)
I also have Clone in my deck, just in case a huge creature comes out while I'm mana building
Make use of blue counterspells: Unsummon/ Boomerang/ Into the Roil
Chuck in a doomblade
You can alternate your counterspells depending on your sideboard: (Negate/ Cancel)
Cheap mill such as Tome Scour are excellent (copy with Echo Mage)
Pair up with heavier mill spells: Traumatize
Throw in some Diabolic Tutor's just in case
Cast through Time and Leyline of the Void also help out massively - mostly late game but that depends on your mana situation
Play sadistic sacrament kicked and exile 15 lands + Mind Funeral = awesome mill!
The great thing about this card is even if I can't play it with the kicker cost payed I can use it in multiplayer to exile the biggest threats (e.g. Eldrazi decks- Emrakul, Ulamog etc. and those pesky cards that reshuffle a players graveyard into their library)
It's also a great card because you get to search your opponents deck from early on in the game, this allows you to better understand how your opponent intends to win with his/her deck, so you can predict who to target with your mill spells
p.s. thanks in order to surewhynot for giving me the idea to exile lands :D
Narim
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(4 votes)
My friend kicked it... I Redirect it... he wanted to kill me... in real life :P
it's really powerfull card... but, what comes to my mind is that Archive Trap can work much better... sure, you don't choose the cards, and you don't exile them... but it can be for free... or costing 1/2 of the sacraments cost... so I still prefer Archive Trap... blue is considered to be best miller, but it's perfectly combined with black beauties :)
CerealBoxOfDoom
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Its a sadistic sacrement. This card punishes bad luck hard even without the kicker. Mnemonic Wall just makes it even more versitle. Play once early game and again late game. Or try to do it faster if youre into land hate.
This card is better than Memoricide in most environments since it offers you deck knowledge as well.
fbninja
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Viable way for dealing with valakut? stealing three valakuts out of their deck, something that no other card does. After that it is very difficult for valakut triggers to kill someone, forcing them to try to creature beat you to death.
Now, what makes this decks awesome? three cards. Cawblade runs three cards that without, it kinda sucks. (Two swords and a batterskull) This card exiles three cards. I mean look at any cawblade list, when you take away the swords they are left with a bunch of control cards with no win condition. Some models play titans, which is fair and oftentimes hard to deal with, but the main way they want to win is sworded birds in the midgame. Take away the swords, and essentially their whole early-midgame plan is screwed. Black has vampire nighthawk, one of the best three drop creatures in print. Control the early game of cawblade and any other deck with inquisition, despise, and this card, then put pressure midgame and drop a grave titan, massacre wurm, wurmcoil engine or sheoldred late game to seal the deal. Anything else you can just dismember or Go For the Throat. Black seems good.
Henrietta
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
TheSwarm: You're completely and totally wrong. Equipment is the main plan, but the deck has a ton of win conditions. Jace and Celestial Colonnades are in every single UW Cawblade list, and are both easily capable of winning games, and Squadron Hawks have won games before without equipment, because if you can keep your opponent under control a bunch of 1/1 fliers can do the trick. In addition to those universal win conditions, every other Cawblade list has at least some of the following win conditions - Gideon Jura, Inkmoth Nexus, Sun Titan, Consecrated Sphinx, Baneslayer Angel.
Besides that, not only are you just hitting their plan A, your plan doesn't even work if the Cawblade player is on the play, because if they have either a Stoneforge Mystic or any of the equipment, they can play it by turn 3.
Lyinginbedmon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Turn 2: Overgrown Battlement Turn 3: Orochi Leafcaller, 2nd Battlement, tap the first to play a third Turn 4: Sadistic Sacrament (kicked) = exile opponent's land.
In EDH, I've won two games with this, kicked and copied twice with Echo Mage.
drpvfx
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
"Is that Emrakul, Ulamog, and Kozilek in there? Please remove them. They're cramping my mill deck's style."
ax_morph
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The only thing more horrendous than getting hit with a kicked Sacrament is it getting Twincast'd as well.
Ideatog
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cast a play-set kicked and exile your opponent's entire library! That's it. I need to build that deck now.
ninjabear
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't see the awesomeness in this card. It has *absolutely* no effect on board state. If you are losing, you'll still lose. If you are winning, you are still winning, but with one card less and some lands tapped.
The only use of this cards I see is as sideboard, against certain decks that rely on very specific cards. As most combo (specially 2-cards combo) or decks with an extremely low count of threats (I'm thinking of control decks that have a couple fatties as finishers). It's a decent card as sideboard because if you remove them most of their threats, they have much more trouble winning. But most decks are immune to this kind of shenanigans....
Haunting Echoes, on the other hand, is a really decent finisher, because by the time you have the mana to cast it, it will probably empty your opponent's library in a *big* way, and thus, even if it has no effect on board state, it's a decent winning condition on its own. But this card can't make the same. Only when kicked it can be decent, and it's 10 freaking mana to do it....
DarthParallax
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
At first, exiling 15 cards seemed closer to a milling strategy than a 'target resource cripple' strategy.
Then I thought 'holy crap, EDH!'
actually, you know what? 15 cards out of your deck is always going to feel like milling.
TheWrathofShane
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@TheSwarm Yeah good thought, but cawblade completely dominated the tourney scene and was considered the best standard deck in history. 2 cards got banned in standard, that almost never happens, pretty close to rotation as well.
If it was that simple, im sure the pros would have thought of that a long time ago.
j_mindfingerpainter
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@ drpfx: Unless, of course, you are running a Knowledge Pool-based deck, in which case you'd get rid of stuff like the Pact cycle. Eldrazi would be exactly what you wanted to keep there.
Stinga
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Its time to kick Sadistic Sacrament and break combos And you are all out of combo pieces.
TheManakinTransfer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Bought 6 Zendikar boosters. Pulled three of these. I think the powers that be were hinting at something.
Sessy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Run with sinkhole and kick to exile their lands.
ereidivh
★★☆☆☆ (2.3/5.0)(5 votes)
Favorite use of this card?
I had a Leyline of Anticipation out in a 4-person EDH game. I was planning to cast this on player B at the end of the turn rotation turn, when player B casts this (kicked, because EDH) on Player D. Player D had a Vedalken Orrery out, and responded by casting her own copy of the Sacrament on me, also kicked. I couldn't resist.
We rotated decks and had an exiling party, while my poor friend player C sat there with his Mayael deck looking sad. On his turn, of course, his Defense of the Heart went off, and he got an Avenger of Zendikar and a Craterhoof Behemoth with Fervor out, cast Overwhelming Stampede and killed all three of us, while we sat there tapped out from our sadism.
Favorite last 15 minutes of a game in recent memory.
Cygore
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I've only ever gotten the epic chance of kicking this thing once! (Mind you I only played this in a deck for a very short time.) It was an awesome moment... you basically remove any and all threats. Great in group games that are being controlled, letting you build up the mana.
tmoporo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Lets you see your opponent's library and choose 3 of their most important card to be exiled. A must for all mono control or UB mill decks.
Okuu-chan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Buying Sadistic Sacrament: $0.70 Casting Sadistic Sacrament: . Casting Sadistic Sacrament Kicked: . Casting Sadistic Sacrament on another deck you made and removing all the win conditions: Priceless.
NoIHavent
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@iraah9
My friend... I've been down that path... It only leads to disappointment. Mine was red/black to accommodate thought hemmorhagge, and it eventually just became a b/r discard deck, which was much more efficient, but much less satisfying. The cards just aren't cheap enough to cast to support it. It may be possible, one day, but not today. Though, a better deck builder than I might just be able to pull it off. Thinking back on it, it was a very fun deck, it basically made itself an arch enemy in multiplayer, but couldn't support it. I had fun playing it, and it ***ed my opponents off so much that they were thrilled to beat it. It's good to have that one *** to gang up on.
Continue
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(2 votes)
: Exile target deck.
TwentyFifthBaam
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Killed my opponents tribal lord. He said "Hah! I've still got three others left in my deck!"
"At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay {7}. If you do, search target player's library for up to fifteen cards, exile them, then that player shuffles his or her library."
Paleopaladin
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Use this in conjunction with Mind Funeral. Nab lands with this, then mind funeral has a clearer path to cut through what's left.
tasteful
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
man if you concede when hit by a kicked sadistic sacrament you're the most boring type of magic player. if you cant win without your best cards you dont deserve to play.
unless you're playing a combo deck i mean.
ConleysWood
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Prickom:
"How much more powerful sets are these days..."
Uh, buddy, sets these days don't have Balance, Mind Twist, Dark Ritual, or Duallands.
dberry02
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Seriously. This card does it's job. The kicker is just candy on top. Solid 4/5.
Why bother taking out their biggest threats... Exile 13 lands from their library and mill them with mind funeral
Enelysios
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't see why you would target lands. If you have for the 15, you opponent probably has enough lands. Maybe you you are dedicated land destruction? In that case you are awful. Mind Funeral is a neat combo, but I think you are better off just taking all their good cards and winning cautiously then trying to mill them out with a 13 mana combo.
The use of this should be obvious, take your opponent's best cards. And yeah, they will probably concede if you kicked this. 15 cards? That's a full fourth of their deck; including lands. If you had the to pay for that, we can probably assume they don't have anything beyond land and a few weak creatures or situational spells left. (and what was in their hand but hey, BLACK.) Look on Daily MTG for the list of decks popular right now. Now take 15 cards out of any of those decks and tell me if that is playable at all.
I think what people aren't mentioning is the less flashy, but excellent unkicked version. A card that lowers your opponent's deck quality early on and just plain kills them late game? yes please, one of the absolute best kicker spells for being playable at any stage of the game.
Comments (79)
To sum up, an ok card if you want to build a deck around it(probably some variation of mono black control), and almost terrible in anything else (or at least there's a better option).
Believe it or not, I see a ton of potential for this in a black-blue mill deck (although Mill isn't and probably never will be a popular stragegy, as if it becomes too powerful people will just start making larger decks). It can be used to ensure you're oponents serious threats are taken care of. Also, it combo's well with Mind Funeral, since you can take out 3 of your opponents lands, which will likely increase the number of cards Funeral mills. It also acts as a trigger for Archieve Trap, so in theory you can mill 16 cards for 3 mana using 2 cards (assuming you only have 1 Archieve Trap in your hand). Given that our oppoent will theoretically have about a 50 card deck if you get this off as soon as possible, it will hurt.
But even outside of Mill, it's always good to get rid of 3 cards. Don't underrate this card, especially with the crazy mana accel. in Zendikar (ie. Black-Green is looking good).
though this of course doesn't work at all against an agro deck
Then, bring in eternal witness for some real fun.
Anyone else remember praying each of your Ice Age boosters would be a jester's cap? When I got sadistic sacrament in my zendi booster i was actually disappointed at first. Goes to show how much more powerful sets are now.
4.0
2.- Sadistic Sacrament, exiling three Wrath of Gods or whatever will hose your deck.
Possible on turn 1, hilarious if it happens. It's not even a "god draw" or anything of the sort, since it requires only two cards you'd be running 4x in your deck.
I use this card as part of a mill combo in my B/U deck:
Sadistic Sacrament + Mind Funeral
It goes something like this:
Mana build using Dimir Signet/ Dimir Aqueduct,
bring out cheap creatures with level abilities ( Echo Mage + Lighthouse Chronologist)
I also have Clone in my deck, just in case a huge creature comes out while I'm mana building
Make use of blue counterspells: Unsummon/ Boomerang/ Into the Roil
Chuck in a doomblade
You can alternate your counterspells depending on your sideboard: (Negate/ Cancel)
Cheap mill such as Tome Scour are excellent (copy with Echo Mage)
Pair up with heavier mill spells: Traumatize
Throw in some Diabolic Tutor's just in case
Cast through Time and Leyline of the Void also help out massively - mostly late game but that depends on your mana situation
Play sadistic sacrament kicked and exile 15 lands + Mind Funeral = awesome mill!
The great thing about this card is even if I can't play it with the kicker cost payed I can use it in multiplayer to exile the biggest threats (e.g. Eldrazi decks- Emrakul, Ulamog etc. and those pesky cards that reshuffle a players graveyard into their library)
It's also a great card because you get to search your opponents deck from early on in the game, this allows you to better understand how your opponent intends to win with his/her deck, so you can predict who to target with your mill spells
p.s. thanks in order to surewhynot for giving me the idea to exile lands :D
it's really powerfull card... but, what comes to my mind is that Archive Trap can work much better... sure, you don't choose the cards, and you don't exile them... but it can be for free... or costing 1/2 of the sacraments cost... so I still prefer Archive Trap... blue is considered to be best miller, but it's perfectly combined with black beauties :)
Also for those who said mill is dead... yeah...
This card is better than Memoricide in most environments since it offers you deck knowledge as well.
Now, what makes this decks awesome? three cards. Cawblade runs three cards that without, it kinda sucks. (Two swords and a batterskull) This card exiles three cards. I mean look at any cawblade list, when you take away the swords they are left with a bunch of control cards with no win condition. Some models play titans, which is fair and oftentimes hard to deal with, but the main way they want to win is sworded birds in the midgame. Take away the swords, and essentially their whole early-midgame plan is screwed. Black has vampire nighthawk, one of the best three drop creatures in print. Control the early game of cawblade and any other deck with inquisition, despise, and this card, then put pressure midgame and drop a grave titan, massacre wurm, wurmcoil engine or sheoldred late game to seal the deal. Anything else you can just dismember or Go For the Throat. Black seems good.
Besides that, not only are you just hitting their plan A, your plan doesn't even work if the Cawblade player is on the play, because if they have either a Stoneforge Mystic or any of the equipment, they can play it by turn 3.
Turn 3: Orochi Leafcaller, 2nd Battlement, tap the first to play a third
Turn 4: Sadistic Sacrament (kicked) = exile opponent's land.
Please remove them. They're cramping my mill deck's style."
The only use of this cards I see is as sideboard, against certain decks that rely on very specific cards. As most combo (specially 2-cards combo) or decks with an extremely low count of threats (I'm thinking of control decks that have a couple fatties as finishers). It's a decent card as sideboard because if you remove them most of their threats, they have much more trouble winning. But most decks are immune to this kind of shenanigans....
Haunting Echoes, on the other hand, is a really decent finisher, because by the time you have the mana to cast it, it will probably empty your opponent's library in a *big* way, and thus, even if it has no effect on board state, it's a decent winning condition on its own. But this card can't make the same. Only when kicked it can be decent, and it's 10 freaking mana to do it....
Then I thought 'holy crap, EDH!'
actually, you know what? 15 cards out of your deck is always going to feel like milling.
Yeah good thought, but cawblade completely dominated the tourney scene and was considered the best standard deck in history. 2 cards got banned in standard, that almost never happens, pretty close to rotation as well.
If it was that simple, im sure the pros would have thought of that a long time ago.
And you are all out of combo pieces.
I had a Leyline of Anticipation out in a 4-person EDH game. I was planning to cast this on player B at the end of the turn rotation turn, when player B casts this (kicked, because EDH) on Player D. Player D had a Vedalken Orrery out, and responded by casting her own copy of the Sacrament on me, also kicked. I couldn't resist.
We rotated decks and had an exiling party, while my poor friend player C sat there with his Mayael deck looking sad. On his turn, of course, his Defense of the Heart went off, and he got an Avenger of Zendikar and a Craterhoof Behemoth with Fervor out, cast Overwhelming Stampede and killed all three of us, while we sat there tapped out from our sadism.
Favorite last 15 minutes of a game in recent memory.
A must for all mono control or UB mill decks.
Casting Sadistic Sacrament:
Casting Sadistic Sacrament Kicked:
Casting Sadistic Sacrament on another deck you made and removing all the win conditions: Priceless.
My friend... I've been down that path... It only leads to disappointment. Mine was red/black to accommodate thought hemmorhagge, and it eventually just became a b/r discard deck, which was much more efficient, but much less satisfying. The cards just aren't cheap enough to cast to support it. It may be possible, one day, but not today. Though, a better deck builder than I might just be able to pull it off. Thinking back on it, it was a very fun deck, it basically made itself an arch enemy in multiplayer, but couldn't support it. I had fun playing it, and it ***ed my opponents off so much that they were thrilled to beat it. It's good to have that one *** to gang up on.
I said, "No. You don't."
boundless realms
this, look for their lands
mind funeral or, now, even better, mind grind
Boseiju, Who Shelters All to make sure this goes off.
"At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay {7}. If you do, search target player's library for up to fifteen cards, exile them, then that player shuffles his or her library."
unless you're playing a combo deck i mean.
"How much more powerful sets are these days..."
Uh, buddy, sets these days don't have Balance, Mind Twist, Dark Ritual, or Duallands.
My Top 5 Punch-Your-Friend-in-the-Face Card List:
#1. Haunting Echoes
#2. Extirpate
#3. Mind Shatter
#4. Blightning
#5. Sadistic Sacrament
The use of this should be obvious, take your opponent's best cards. And yeah, they will probably concede if you kicked this. 15 cards? That's a full fourth of their deck; including lands. If you had the
I think what people aren't mentioning is the less flashy, but excellent unkicked version. A card that lowers your opponent's deck quality early on and just plain kills them late game? yes please, one of the absolute best kicker spells for being playable at any stage of the game.