AI DraftFeb 26, 2026
Phyrexian Altar + Pitiless Plunderer + Reassembling Skeleton
Overview
You can sacrifice Reassembling Skeleton to Phyrexian Altar; the sacrifice moves the Skeleton to your graveyard and sacrificed objects are put into their owners' graveyards . That event causes Pitiless Plunderer’s “Whenever another creature you control dies” ability to trigger (it will create a Treasure token when that trigger resolves). After the Skeleton is in the graveyard you may pay its activated ability cost (
) to return it to the battlefield tapped; to pay that cost you must have two mana (one of which must be black), so you typically need both the Altar’s produced mana and the Treasure (or some other mana source).
) to return it to the battlefield tapped; to pay that cost you must have two mana (one of which must be black), so you typically need both the Altar’s produced mana and the Treasure (or some other mana source).Step 1
You activate Phyrexian Altar and sacrifice Reassembling Skeleton as part of paying the Altar’s activation cost; sacrificing moves the Skeleton from the battlefield to the graveyard and sacrificed objects are put into their owners' graveyards .
Step 2
That creature being put into the graveyard meets the condition “another creature you control dies” for Pitiless Plunderer, so Pitiless Plunderer’s triggered ability triggers (it will create a Treasure token when that triggered ability resolves).
Step 3
The Phyrexian Altar activation (itself an activated ability) is on the stack and will add one mana of a chosen color when it resolves; the Plunderer’s triggered ability is also placed on the stack (order depends on APNAP and timing, but the trigger exists).
Step 4
After the sacrifice and once the Skeleton is in your graveyard you may activate Reassembling Skeleton’s ability to return it to the battlefield tapped; to pay that cost you must actually have two mana (one black) available when you activate it.
ability to return it to the battlefield tapped; to pay that cost you must actually have two mana (one black) available when you activate it.Step 5
Typical way to pay is: let the Altar activation resolve to add one mana (choose black for the black requirement), let the Plunderer trigger resolve to create a Treasure, sacrifice that Treasure for one mana, then use those two mana (one black, one generic) to activate the Skeleton’s return ability and put it back onto the battlefield tapped.
Resolution
Sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton to Phyrexian Altar moves it to the graveyard as part of paying the Altar activation cost and putting it into the graveyard is subject to . Pitiless Plunderer will trigger for that creature’s death and create a Treasure token when the trigger resolves (the ruling Ruling [2018-01-19] confirms Plunderer still triggers for other creatures that die even if it also dies simultaneously). Once the Skeleton is in the graveyard you may activate its ability to return it tapped; you need two mana total (including a black) to do so, so in the usual sequence you use the Altar’s mana plus the Treasure’s mana (or other mana) to pay the cost. This produces no net mana gain per cycle (you spend the produced mana to return the Skeleton), so it’s not an infinite mana loop under normal conditions.
ability to return it tapped; you need two mana total (including a black) to do so, so in the usual sequence you use the Altar’s mana plus the Treasure’s mana (or other mana) to pay the cost. This produces no net mana gain per cycle (you spend the produced mana to return the Skeleton), so it’s not an infinite mana loop under normal conditions.Feedback