Netherborn Altar MTG Card

Enables card advantage by directly putting creatures into play without drawing. Instant speed activation of Netherborn Altar adds the element of surprise. Strategic use in Commander decks to offset expensive commander tax.

Commander 2020 (C20)
2020-04-17 - Number 45

The List (PLST)
2020-09-26 - Number C20-45

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact

Text of card

, Put a soul counter on Netherborn Altar: Put your commander into your hand from the command zone. Then you lose 3 life for each soul counter on Netherborn Altar.

It is spoken of only in whispers, visited only by the desperate.

Cards like Netherborn Altar

Netherborn Altar is a unique artifact in the world of Magic: The Gathering. It bears some resemblance to cards that manipulate life totals or sacrifice mechanics for an advantage, akin to cards like Altar of Dementia. Yet, Netherborn Altar offers a distinct functionality – it allows players to put a commander from their command zone into their hand at the expense of life, rather than milling or sacrificing creatures.

Contemplating a card like Command Beacon, which provides a similar end result by bypassing the command tax, Netherborn Altar lends itself to a different strategic avenue. It does cost a bit of life, but it allows repeated use, unlike the one-shot nature of Command Beacon. Furthermore, considering Bolas’s Citadel, Netherborn Altar doesn’t grant the same level of direct casting power but avoids the hefty life payments for high-cost spells.

When analyzing Netherborn Altar’s place in MTG, it’s clear that it occupies a strategic niche, providing commanders with a repeatable tool for controlling their commanders’ accessibility while carefully managing life resources as the game’s state dictates.

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Netherborn Altar provides a unique form of card advantage by enabling you to bypass your draw step to put a card directly from your hand into play. This is particularly powerful when you have high-impact creatures that can turn the tide of the game in your favor.

Resource Acceleration: While this card doesn’t directly add mana, it accelerates your resources by allowing you to cheat the mana cost of a big creature into play. By sacrificing life instead of paying the creature’s mana cost, you can deploy threats earlier than normally possible.

Instant Speed: Although Netherborn Altar is an artifact and not an instant, its ability can be activated at instant speed. This means you can wait until the end of your opponent’s turn to decide whether to use the altar, keeping up the element of surprise and making it harder for your opponent to predict and play around your actions.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Netherborn Altar requires a card to be sacrificed alongside the activation of its ability. This can lead to card disadvantage, especially in tight situations where every card in hand is crucial to maintaining momentum.

Specific Mana Cost: Netherborn Altar’s activation leans on having black mana available. In multicolored decks, this can sometimes pose challenges, as the mana base may not always support the consistent generation of black mana when needed.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost of three mana to cast and also requiring a sacrifice of a creature to activate, Netherborn Altar can be a significant investment in a turn. Alternative options within the same mana range could potentially offer immediate impact or less restrictive activation conditions.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Netherborn Altar is a unique artifact that offers flexibility for a range of Commander decks. It provides an alternative way of getting your commander onto the battlefield, which is particularly useful if commander tax has become prohibitively expensive.

Combo Potential: This card has a natural synergy with commanders that have abilities triggered by entering the battlefield or dying. It also sets the stage for potent life manipulation strategies, where paying life can turn into a resource rather than a setback.

Meta-Relevance: In the Commander format where games can be drawn out and unpredictable, being able to circumvent recurring commander costs can keep you a step ahead of the competition, making Netherborn Altar relevant in various meta environments.

How to beat

Netherborn Altar is a unique artifact in the MTG universe, offering players a way to bypass commander’s tax at the cost of life points. To effectively counter this card, it is crucial to aim at disrupting the player’s life total, rendering the advantage of Netherborn Altar too costly. Strategies that include constant life-drain effects, like those from cards such as Exsanguinate or Gray Merchant of Asphodel, can put pressure on the opponent, making the life payment for Netherborn Altar less sustainable.

Additionally, employing artifact removal spells is a direct method to eliminate the altar from the battlefield. Cards like Nature’s Claim or Fragmentize can do the job efficiently, with low mana costs making it feasible to deal with the artifact early in the game. Targeted discard effects can also work wonders by preventing the artifact from ever hitting the board. Thoughtseize and Duress are perfect examples of such tactics, letting you pluck key cards straight out of your opponent’s hand.

The goal is to limit the benefits that Netherborn Altar can provide. Whether through life total management, removal, or preemptive discard strategies, ensuring that you mitigate the Altar’s influence is the key to overcoming the challenge it presents to you on the battlefield.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Netherborn Altar MTG card by a specific set like Commander 2020 and The List, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Netherborn Altar and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Netherborn Altar Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2020-04-17 and 2020-04-17. Illustrated by Titus Lunter.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2020-04-17	Commander 2020	C20		45	2015	Normal	Black	Titus Lunter
2	~~2020-09-26~~	The List	PLST		C20-45	2015	Normal	Black	Titus Lunter

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Netherborn Altar has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Netherborn Altar card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2020-04-17	If Netherborn Altar leaves the battlefield while its ability is on the stack, the amount of life you lose is determined by the number of soul counters it had on it immediately before it left the battlefield.
2020-04-17	If you have two commanders in the command zone, Netherborn Altar’s ability puts one of your choice into your hand, not both.
2020-04-17	If your commander isn’t in the command zone (or if you’re not playing the Commander variant), Netherborn Altar only makes you lose life.
2020-04-17	Putting a soul counter onto Netherborn Altar is part of the cost to activate its ability, and counting the number of soul counters is done as the ability resolves. Players may take actions between those times to change the number of soul counters, perhaps by removing them all so that you lose no life.
2020-04-17	The “commander tax” increases based on how many times a commander was cast from the command zone. Casting a commander from your hand doesn’t require that additional cost, and it doesn’t increase what the cost will be the next time you cast that commander from the command zone.