MTG Salvation

I got to thinking that I seem to not be that happy with my sac outlets overall. I love my land based sac outlets but they are single use and I often need repeat sacs and when I need repeat sacs I often want them to be: free to activate, repeatable, and able to activate at instant speed. Obviously black is no stranger to sac outlets but with my needs being free to use primarily, instant speed, and repeatable I dont feel like the options are that great. Creatures tend to be fragile and their triggers they achieve seem to be hit and miss.

I guess I made this to ask what other people are using for sac outlets, what they like about them, and where they use them.

I recommend Spawning Pit. It's a really good anti-wrath sac outlet as you can get value back later.

They aren't black, but my two favorite sac outlets are artifacts: Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar. They're both free to use, at instant speed, repeatable, and gives you mana.

Viscera Seer is a creature, but its only and lets you Scry 1! And Deserted Temple that can interact with Cabal Coffers as well as High Market Phyrexian Tower and Diamond Valley.

Attrition is baller in Nath of the Gilt-Leaf.

Quote from SengirVampire »

Altar of Dementia is great as it is cheap to cast, free to activate and can also act as win condition in some cases. You can also self mill with it, which might be relevant in black for reanimation and recursion purposes I guess. The reprint in CNS also lowered its price quite a bit. The other altars are good but Dementia is just amazing.

Works great with Undead Alchemist.

Anyway, I use cards such as Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar great for combo, infinite mana or some token decks, when you need mana but not tokens you have. Also, saved me few times when opponent casted cards as Insurrection or any attempt to gain control of my creatures.

Carnage Altar or Phyrexian Vault are good in decks, when I need card draw. I got Carnage in my Mono-W Khemba and I sac tokens into it. I prefer Carnage over Phyrexian, because even if it cost 1 more, you don't need to tap it.

Also there is Spawning pit, but I don't have it in any deck right now.

that is for artifacts I use. I don't know what colors you play or prefer, but there are few more. I don't use them all, just some of them.

Shivan Harvest in any R. Cheap, effective and very usefull agaisnt any multicolored deck.
Perilous Forays great in G decks with some tokens or things to sac. Land directly to battlefield for 1 and creature? try it out in Marath or Prossh.
Martyr's Cause damage preventing can be great, mainly agaisnt voltron generals. I am not sure, but as it is worded, it works agaisnt Shroud or Hexproof.
Goblin Bombardment classic card, great with some shenanigans, infinite tokens, can be used as reaction to some boardwipe to shoot some player.
Attrition destroy target nonblack for B and somne creature sac? Well, ask that Prossh again.

My monoblack deck with Geth, Lord of the Vault abuses sacrifice outlets a lot.

I run ashnod's altar, phyrexian altar, viscera seer, sadistic hypnotist, phyrexian plaguelord, and infernal tribute.

The deck prefers to play value out of opponent's graveyards, so not all of these quite meet your requirements.

I have considered mind slash, which still isn't quite what you're looking for, but it seems good.

The better colorless choices have already been provided by others. I know you did mention that you're not a fan of creatures as Sac outlets but they seem to be the most plentiful in Black.

Usual suspects:
Carrion Feeder
Nantuko Husk
Phyrexian Ghoul and maybe even
Fallen Angel
Blood Bairn

Sadistic Hypnotist is also pretty good

I like Dimir House Guard. If you already have a sac outlet, you use him as a tutor.

I run a Chainer deck that's focused on abusing creature loops. I tend to prioritize free creature sac outlets in my list. Here are the ones that I run:

Phyrexian Altar: Great mana engine, allows you to easily Living Death loop, and can lead a lot of other infinite combos.
Altar of Dementia: It was already talked about. I'm not the biggest fan but its free to use and only costs two.
Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder: Both are cheap and free to use. The constant scry from the Seer has pulled me through a decent amount of games but I mainly run the Feeder because its a free sac outlet that's cheap. He can get pretty big when you start looping a Reassembling Skeleton or Ophiomancer.
Dimir House Guard: Free to use and it can tutor other four drops. My four slot is pretty packed so he can find some nice targets.
Sadistic Hypnotist: Higher on the curve but it can shred hands and help shut down the combo/control players..
Attrition: This can single-handedly control the board.
Disciple of Griselbrand: Honestly kinda weak, not free to use. My deck can be highly suicidal so the life gain can be nice.
Infernal Tribute: Draws you cards and gives you devotion. Not bad.

I also run Skullclamp, Braids, Cabal Minion, Smokestack, and Contamination in the deck. With cards like Dark Prophecy and Blood Artist to get value from looping creatures.

Culling Dais is at least free, though unfortunately it's single-use.

I run Sadistic Hypnotist, Ashnod's Altar, Attrition and Mind Slash in Nath.

In Thraximundar I have a couple of the above Infernal Tribute and Viscera Seer

Has a hint of white, but Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter usually makes for strong plays with sacrifice.

Some of my favorite sac outlets:
Attrition
Mind Slash (not instant speed, sadly, but good)
Sadistic Hypnotist (see Mind Slash, above)
Shivan Harvest (not black)
Dark Impostor (seems strange, I know, but it can occasionally be good)
Rescue from the Underworld
Malevolent Awakening
Infernal Tribute
Skirsdag High Priest (conditional, but quite good when it works).
Perilous Forays (not black, but very good).

Thoughtpicker Witch seems to be in a lot of lists, and seems reasonable if you just need a cheap sac outlet.

Fallen Ideal can be pretty aggressive if you're going for a Commander damage kill, and it comes back to your hand if the creature that's enchanted is killed. Importantly, it's free, instant-speed, and grants evasion.

Plunge into Darkness is lifegain, a ton of scry, and a surprise instant-speed sac outlet for 1B.

Victimize gives you good value if you want to sacrifice a creature.

Pox, Smallpox, Innocent Blood, Barter in Blood, Fleshbag Marauder, Slum Reaper, and Death Cloud are all good if you're playing control.

Grafted Wargear can be used to sacrifice a bunch of your creatures during your turn, and is good pump for the cost. It's a decent card in Kresh the Bloodbraided, but you might find a use for it in anything Voltron that wants to sacrifice things.

Blasting Station is another way you can potentially sacrifice a lot of creatures at once, but is usually used for its combo applications.

Claws of Gix is cheap and isn't a creature, plus you can sac anything to it.

In general, my favorites are Dimir House Guard for its durability and versatility, Culling Dais because it draws a few cards for cheap, Plunge into Darkness because it's rarely a bad draw, and Victimize and Rescue from the Underworld because they can give tremendous value. However, combo decks love Altar of Dementia, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Spawning Pit, and Blasting Station. Infernal Tribute is very good if you don't mind the triple black, and in sacrifice-focused decks, Attrition, Mind Slash, and Sadistic Hypnotist do a ton of heavy lifting. Cards similar to Pox and Innocent Blood are great in control.

If you just want free, instant, repeatable sac outlets, I'd start with Dimir House Guard and a few of the altars/artifacts. Viscera Seer isn't bad for a fragile creature though if you're able to dig deeply off of it. Phyrexian Plaguelord isn't bad either if you're willing to pay more.

Gutless Ghoul is worthy of mention

No mention of Fallen Angel?

Quote from Slarg232 »

No mention of Fallen Angel?

Toddytot mentioned Fallen Angel.

The new Abhorrent Overlord is pretty good if you want another way to sacrifice creatures, albeit one a turn, since it comes with a large body and a ton of fodder for your sacrifice engines and Skullclamp.