<p>You can only sacrifice a permanent when instructed to do so by some ability. Even if you had another ability such as "when a creature is sacrificed...", you would need something else to let you sacrifice a creature. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-24T01:35:22.010Z
2014-11-24T01:35:22.010Z
GendoIkari
<p>You can't spontaneously sacrifice a permanent. Even if you have a permanent with an ability of the form "whenever a creature dies" or "whenever a creature is sacrificed", you need to find some means of sacrificing it.</p>

<hr>

<p>There's no rule forbidding it; there's simply no rule allowing it. CR 116 itemizes what actions you can perform. When you have priority<sup>[1]</sup>, you can do the following<sup>[2]</sup>:</p>

<ul>
<li>116.1a Cast a spell.</li>
<li>116.1b Activate an activated ability.</li>
<li>116.1c Perform certain Special Actions.
<ul>
<li>115.2a Play a land.</li>
<li>115.2b Turn a face-down creature face up.</li>
<li>115.2c Take an action an effect previously permitted you to take at a later time (usually to end a continuous effect or to stop a delayed triggered ability from triggering).</li>
<li>115.2d Take an action a static ability allows you to take to ignore the effect of that static ability for a duration.</li>
<li>115.2e Exile a card with Suspend.</li>
<li>115.2f Role the Planar Die.</li>
<li>115.2g Turn a face-down conspiracy card face up.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>116.1d Activate a mana ability.</li>
</ul>

<p>As you can see, sacrificing a Permanent is not an option (unless it's part of one of the above actions (e.g. The cost to activate an ability)).</p>

<hr>

<ol>
<li>There are other actions you can take (e.g. Drawing a card in your Draw Step), but they aren't actions you chose to do, so I won't bother listing them. They are itemized by CR 116.2.</li>
<li>Conditions may apply.</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-24T03:55:05.787Z
2014-11-24T04:10:46.003Z
2014-11-24T04:10:46.003Z
ikegami
<p>Can one sacrifice any permanent at any time for any reason, or is "permission" to sacrifice only granted by other cards?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-24T02:01:26.127Z
I want to note that sacrifice isn't a special case. The rules say exactly what you can do and exactly when you can do it.
murgatroid99
<magic-the-gathering>
Can I always sacrifice a permanent whenever I want, without anything telling me to do so?
ProductionValues
# Can I always sacrifice a permanent whenever I want, without anything telling me to do so?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-11-24)

Can one sacrifice any permanent at any time for any reason, or is "permission" to sacrifice only granted by other cards?

**Tags:** magic-the-gathering

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I want to note that sacrifice isn't a special case. The rules say exactly what you can do and exactly when you can do it.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-11-24. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

You can't spontaneously sacrifice a permanent. Even if you have a permanent with an ability of the form "whenever a creature dies" or "whenever a creature is sacrificed", you need to find some means of sacrificing it.

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There's no rule forbidding it; there's simply no rule allowing it. CR 116 itemizes what actions you can perform. When you have priority[1], you can do the following[2]:

* 116.1a Cast a spell.
* 116.1b Activate an activated ability.
* 116.1c Perform certain Special Actions.
  + 115.2a Play a land.
  + 115.2b Turn a face-down creature face up.
  + 115.2c Take an action an effect previously permitted you to take at a later time (usually to end a continuous effect or to stop a delayed triggered ability from triggering).
  + 115.2d Take an action a static ability allows you to take to ignore the effect of that static ability for a duration.
  + 115.2e Exile a card with Suspend.
  + 115.2f Role the Planar Die.
  + 115.2g Turn a face-down conspiracy card face up.
* 116.1d Activate a mana ability.

As you can see, sacrificing a Permanent is not an option (unless it's part of one of the above actions (e.g. The cost to activate an ability)).

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1. There are other actions you can take (e.g. Drawing a card in your Draw Step), but they aren't actions you chose to do, so I won't bother listing them. They are itemized by CR 116.2.
2. Conditions may apply.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2014-11-24. Score: 9

You can only sacrifice a permanent when instructed to do so by some ability. Even if you had another ability such as "when a creature is sacrificed...", you would need something else to let you sacrifice a creature.


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