Lord of the PitHow it works & interactions with other cards

The Demonic Mandate

Lord of the Pit has a triggered ability that occurs at the beginning of your upkeep. You are required to sacrifice a creature other than the Lord itself. Crucially, this is not an optional cost; if you control any other creature, you must choose one to sacrifice. You cannot choose to take the 7 damage if you have a valid creature to offer.

Resolving the Upkeep Trigger

When your upkeep starts, the ability goes on the stack. Upon resolution, the game checks if you control any other creatures. If you do, you select one and put it into its owner's graveyard. If Lord of the Pit is your only creature, the sacrifice is impossible, and the second part of the ability kicks in: the Demon deals 7 damage directly to you.

Common Mistakes

Players often think they can choose between the sacrifice and the damage, but the damage only happens if you 'can't' sacrifice. Another common error involves timing; you cannot use other abilities to sacrifice your last creature in response to the trigger just to avoid the damage, as the check happens during resolution. Note that if the Demon somehow gains lifelink, the 7 damage it deals to you will simultaneously cause you to gain 7 life, resulting in a net change of zero.

Strategic Implementation

To use Lord of the Pit effectively, you need a steady stream of 'expendable' creatures. Playing it in a deck that generates tokens ensures you always have a snack for your Demon. Alternatively, using recursion effects to bring back fallen creatures can turn the mandatory sacrifice into a loop that triggers other 'dies' abilities.

Interaction examples

Generating Tributes

Thomil, the Destroyer

You use Thomil, the Destroyer's -5 ability to create a Lord of the Pit token. To ensure you don't take 7 damage on your next turn, you can use Thomil's +2 ability on following turns to create a 2/2 Zombie token. During your upkeep, you sacrifice the Zombie to satisfy the Lord of the Pit's hunger, keeping your life total safe while maintaining a 7/7 threat.

The Eternal Harvest

Sheoldred, Whispering One

With both Lord of the Pit and Sheoldred, Whispering One on the battlefield, you can create a loop. During your upkeep, both triggers go on the stack. You can order them so that Sheoldred returns a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield first, and then you sacrifice that same creature to the Lord of the Pit, ensuring you never run out of sacrifices.

Mutual Sacrifice

Massacre Wurm

If your opponent has a Lord of the Pit and you play Massacre Wurm, the -2/-2 might kill their small tokens. During their next upkeep, if the Massacre Wurm wiped out their other creatures, the Lord of the Pit trigger will fail to find a sacrifice and deal 7 damage to your opponent. If they are forced to sacrifice a creature they have left, Massacre Wurm's second ability will trigger, causing them to lose an additional 2 life.