Event

Ritual.

Cost: 0. XP: 1.

Mystic

Discard a asset you control. Then, draw 3 cards or gain 3 resources, or any combination thereof.

The first step is the hardest.
Melissa Findley
The City of Archives #234.
Sacrifice

FAQs

No faqs yet for this card.

Reviews

I 'm actually surprised noone has writen a review about this card yet, so I thought I'd write one myself. I think this card is actually quite good. Mystics don't usually have a good source of card draw and this card is really good for that. But it doesn't offer only card draw, it can also offer resources, which are usually not a big issue for Mystics; you can run Forbidden Knowledge and/or David Renfield and have a satisfying source of resource generation, but the best part of this card is that it can give you a certain amount of resources and/or cards, what you need at most at the time you use it. The only other card that uses the language "gain X amount of this, or X amount of that or any combination thereof" is Emergency Cache (3) and both of these cards offer you the choice to get what you need at most at the time you use them, and I think that's kind of neat. Now this card can't exactly be used whenever you want; you have to wait the right time to use it, but when you use it, you get a really good bonus.

I think a lot of Mystics will usually have plenty of good targets for this card. A spell that has run out of charges or that you don't need in play anymore, a used-up Forbidden Knowledge, an Arcane Initiate that you don't want in play anymore either because you 've drawn many of your spells, or because you want to get rid of that doom (or maybe both), but I think the best target by far for this card is David Renfield. It basically becomes another card that allows you to abuse him. Why use Forbidden Knowledge or Painkillers to kill him after he has accumulated a lot of doom?? Use this card instead and get even more benefit out of him!! Now Moonlight Ritual and Calling in Favors are still superior choices for abusing David Renfield but this card adds up to these options and it can be a better inclusion in some decks.

I think this card is especially good for Marie Lambeau because she usually wants to have a lot of spells in her deck so that she makes good use out of her special ability and she 's the no. 1 candidate to use David Renfield. It might be bad for Akachi Onyele because she might want to keep her spells in play so that she can recycle them with Spirit-Speaker and it doesn't really comply with decks that use Recharge. But I think it can find a good place in many Mystic decks.

matt88 · 3117
Problem with this Card, it doesn’t help on turn 1 when Important assets or resdources are missing. But it’s flexibility is nice. — Django · 5070
@Django Yeah it's true it won't help in the early game. You actually have to set up first and do things before this card becomes a good play, so it's more of a mid-late game card. The flexibility is nice indeed, that's my favourite part about this card. — matt88 · 3117
@Django if you have Arcane research you can discard that turn one... unless I've misunderstood permanents... — Rparson · 1
Oops nevermind just reread the rules on permanents — Rparson · 1
I agree that this conflicts a bit with Akachi's spells as a target, but I run a charisma based Akachi with allies in addition to spells and think Sacrifice is a decent 1xp upgrade over Moonlight Ritual. It's also decent if you haven't found your Spirit-Speaker yet and just need to dig. — dubs · 1
Sacrifice looks like a 3rd or 4th copy of Emergency Cache, which would be a good option if you need that much money. Unless you are Akachi or possibly Dexter your used up spells will sit around in your arcane slots, ready to be sacrificed. Not a card you keep in the mulligan, but a welcome sight around turn 3 or later. — Mataza · 19

From my limited testing, this seems a really nifty card. By the mid-game you've probably got resources you want to ditch, such as empty spells like Shrivelling or Mists of R'lyeh, or possibly allies like Arcane Initiate, Alyssa Graham or David Renfield with irritating doom on them that you want to get rid of. Now you can bump them off for fun and profit.

At worst, this is an extra Emergency Cache, but it's best feature is it's flexibility, and it's ability to draw 3 cards. Amnesia or Paranoia just cleaned you out? This can help you recover.

The down sides?

First is that it requires XP - though 1 is reasonable, I think.

Secondly, you need to have an asset to to discard. This is a problem at the start of a game. I would always throw Sacrifice back during a Mulligan. Still, if you do have one early, for mystics icons are usually useful.

Lastly, if we see mystic builds that are very event heavy (Sefina Rousseau) or where they might not want to discard empty assets (Akachi Onyele) then it might not be the card for them.

I think there might also be a combo with Quantum Flux here, too. If you've used all your Shrivelling charges, you can use Sacrifice to push it into the discard pile, and then Quantum flux to pull it back to the draw pile. That feels quite a lot of work, though...

AndyB · 944

This can offer good card draw when combined with Taboo Scroll of Secrets. Once you have Scroll of Secrets in play for a single resource and action, you will get 3 cards from Scroll (or a discarded weakness). And then, since Scroll of Secrets is a Mystic card (multi-class cards count as cards of both classes), you can get three more cards/resources with Sacrifice at a cost of one more action.

It nets out as two actions for a gain of three cards, but it is better than it sounds since there is flexibility in getting resources instead, it filters out weaknesses and it overall helps you move through your deck quickly.

One obvious downside is that it takes 3 rounds to payoff since Scroll of Secrets exhausts after each use.

xemxi · 12
As a Mystic you will have Mystic assets in play regardless of their cost. This card nets you the same, whether you sacrifice your Scroll or your Shrivelling. Sure, the Scroll was cheaper to play, but you probably would have played your Shrivelling as well anyway. — Susumu · 366
If you're Agnes, Marie, or Patrice, you can also Scavenge the taboo Scroll after discarding it. The other downside, though, is that it isn't spell traited so you can't tutor it with Arcane Initiate. — Zinjanthropus · 227

I think three things make this less attractive:

  1. It is situational
  2. Its effect is small (like emergency cache, +1 net action economy assuming you didn’t need the asset)
  3. It costs an XP

The most useful scenario is when you actually benefit from discarding the asset (e.g. David Renfield before the doom harms you), but there are other perfectly good ways to do this (painkillers, forbidden knowledge) that don’t cost XP.

jmmeye3 · 621