Pointed Discussion

what's sad it was a rare, it was a part for some old combo.

Comically bad. Fun fact: this is the worst rated card with "Phyrexian" in its name.

Its also one of the two black cards that lets you kill non-creature artifacts, three if you count rats of rath.

What a 'rare' card.
>:-(

I like this card, it lets you destroy artifacts in mono-black. I just wish there was some random card that lets you destroy an enchantment in mono-black.

This may be one of the worst cards ever. Like, seriously, it might.

Why does this even get more than 1 star, this should be an instant 0.5 stars. Meanwhile there are much worse cards than this but they get less than 1 star. This is by far the worst destruction effect in black. Not only that the mana cost is overcost, it's a sorcery, and it doesn't have "cannot be regenerated". Should deserve 0 stars to be honest but too bad we can't rate it that low.

as incredibly terrible as it is, for its mana, cast, cost and rarity... it still smushes a time vault.

Few black destruction effects allow you to blast away artifacts, but boy, what a cost for that effect.

Wow, this seriously makes no sense being rare. Or a card.

Can someone tell me exactly what combo this was used in? Aside from that, I guess it might have some use if your opponent has an artifact you seriously want to get rid of, and simultaneously you only have 4 cards in your graveyard and need threshold for some reason.

Phyrexian Tribute, I would like to introduce you to every card in From the Vault: Relics! I'm sure you'll get along just great!

You people make me sad. This is one of the few ways for mono black to trash artifacts in EDH.

It's in the same set that gave us Carrion. Cheap creatures from doomed creature that you can sac.

Sacrifice 2 Perilous Myr, deal 4 damage to target creature or player and destroy an artifact. There's so many creatures you want in the graveyard for effects, this card isn't so impossible to build around. Being a Sorcery definitely hurts it but there are much, much more useless cards out there. 2.5/5

Rare like a bloody cut of beef.

Most people can't handle it and it's unwise to have since it'll make you sick more often than not

: I

The reason why this card was rare was because black literally has no other targeted spell options for dealing with non-creature artifacts, not even via other artifacts. Although we usually talk about Color Pie as something that developed after Mirage was out, the truth was that before the Pie there was an informal set of rules as to what certain colors could or could not do. One of those rules was that Black couldn't destroy artifacts. Within that environment, this card makes a lot of sense. The cost for it is fairly huge, but for a while it allowed monoblack decks to sideboard some solution to artifact effects which shut them down.

These days of course this card is mediocre at best, even in monoblack. Not that monoblack has any more options for dealing with artifacts, but people are more willing to splash for other colors of mana so they can at least sideboard a Naturalize or something. And if you're playing Vintage or Legacy you can always sideboard a Gate to Phyrexia, which costs less mana, less creatures, and is reusable.

I thought it strange that everyone was hating on this card. I mean, yeah, saccing creatures gives them card advantage, but if you run it in a green/black token deck as a sideboard card, I thought it was a pretty decent card.

That was until I saw that it wasn't, in fact, an enchantment but rather a sorcery.

I agree with everyone else. This is an awful card.

The flavor text seems very... off to me.

Not the text itself, but attributing it to Afari, Tales.

Pretty much all other Afari, Tales flavor texts are like little fairy tales, sometimes poetic, sometimes philosophical, but almost always "good", for better lack of a word.

This sounds like it was spoken by a Phyrexian itself.

People are sort of missing the fact that this card is supposed to suck.

Black has almost nothing that deals directly with artifacts. This is basically the equivalent of hornet sting showing how green sucks at direct damage. Its emphasising the colour pie. It is unfortunate that it is rare, but at the time mirage was printed what made a card rare had a very different meaning to today. For mono-black players, who were very popular, this was the only real solution to nasty artifacts for a long time. So commenting on it by today's standards is sort of unfair. Its rating today may be rubbish because so much has come out since then, but to assumes its always been that bed is foolish

PLEASE READ, THIS POST WILL CHANGE HOW YOU VIEW CARDS.
Aww man, most people commenting are dumb. In a Mono Black EDH deck, this card is owns. Black has so many creatures and recurrsions it's hardly a drawback or something you have to build around. Just sac bloodghast and gravecrawler, landfall them both back into play. Oh what's that ?? Grave Titan gives Exactly two zombies on Entry?? Bitterblossom, Pawn of Ulamog. What??? Gravepact makes all your opponents sac 2 creatures as well ??? People have no imagination, Sacrifice dark confidant if your life is getting to low and you can't attack, Sacrifice Rune-Scarred Demon, then animate dead, exhume, or Xia Dun. Mikaeus the Unhallowed gives everything undying, not to mention the mechanic itself. All the aformentioned cards are not pet cards trying to utilize Phyrexian tribute, but common bombs and staples in EDH.

The card would be waaay to good if it were an instant since you could sac a targetted creature. In edh there is no way to get rid of a mind's eye, mindslaver, or any other godly artifact for black, only disk or O-stone, and those are slow and comprimise board position. I'd rather sac 2 creatures then lose the game to a powerful artifact. Not to mention black can just tutor this up when it's needed. No it ain't Sorin Markov, but I'm tired of people giving bad ratings to cards that are good, while storm crow gets 5
Fuuck Storm crow, this card is an out for black against a powerful artifact, belongs every Black EDH IMO 4/5

Let's say that you're chump blocking, and they have a... Sol Ring, I guess?

Well, now you've got a great spell to go with your situation.

Not only that, but you could use tokens for this. Maybe it'd be wise to play in a Green/Black deck, considering Green's powerful token-pumping abilities...



On second thought, you probably should just stick to Naturalize.

Fools. Speaking of your Green or White or Red artifact removal. Those colors are made to deal with them. Black is not. Black sits in a corner and cries while artifacts and enchantments control the board. This gives black an ability it rarely ever has, at a steep cost. But hey, isn't that the flavor of black?

Ouch, you essentially have to 3 for 1 yourself to destroy an artifact, but then again this effect is really rare in mono black.

@ ferlord

Yes, if this was an instant.

seems viable with grave pact or butcher of malakir...

Not sure why this is rated so low. It's pretty easy for black to turn that creature sacrifice cost into something you want to do anyway.

Wow, people commenting on this card are dumb. As people have already said, artifact destruction isn't part of Black's colour pie, and it wasn't that way at the time this card was printed either. This card not only gives Black a way to deal with artifacts, but also another way of sacrificing creatures, which it often wants to be doing anyways. So this card is still perfectly fine in a mono-black deck, especially an EDH one.

I find it funny that a card with tribute in it's name is a 3-for-1 in favor of your opponent. You're literally giving them card advantage (your 2 creatures + this card for an artifact).

That said, Gate to Phyrexia is the only other artifact destruction that can be run in a purely {B} deck (excluding colorless options and things with alternative casting costs, like discarding a Blood Crypt to cast Crash for free.)

But the 3-for-1 isn't all bad... {B} is notorious for taking advantage of sacrificing its own stuff for gain.