One of the best things about MTG Foundations is the way it appeals to pretty much every type of Magic player. Not only are there new toys for a range of different formats, but tons of different archetypes got new support too. There are great cards here for Burn, Reanimator, Aggro, Control, Midrange; the list goes on.
One archetype in particular that got a surprising amount of support is Aristocrats. This sac-happy deck received a number of powerful tools in MTG Foundations, including the currently underrated High-Society Hunter. Most Aristocrats cards either let you sacrifice creatures or reward you for doing so. Hunter does both, at a very reasonable rate.
High-Society Hunter MTG

- Mana Value: 3BB
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Creature – Vampire Noble
- Stats: 5/3
- Card Text: Flying.
Whenever this creature attacks, you may sacrifice another creature. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Whenever another nontoken creature dies, draw a card.
There’s quite a lot to unpack with High-Society Hunter, which is surprising in a simplified set like MTG Foundations. First and foremost, it’s a sacrifice outlet. Not a free sacrifice outlet in the vein of Ashnod’s Altar or Bartolomé del Presidio, but a sacrifice outlet all the same. When Hunter swings in, you can choose to sac a creature in exchange for a +1/+1 counter. This isn’t a great rate on the surface, but the rest of the card supports it well.
Hunter’s last line of text is probably its most significant. Whenever a nontoken creature in play dies, you draw a card. Simple, yet potentially deadly. Obviously, this ability will trigger when you sacrifice a nontoken creature to Hunter itself. This makes the ability much more attractive since you get to immediately replace the creature you give up. It will also trigger off of any other sacrifices you make, or any other creatures you control dying in combat.
Crucially, this ability doesn’t specify “nontoken creature you control,” which means your opponent’s creatures can trigger it too. With Hunter out, your removal spells are now cantrips. It will also be very difficult for your opponent to come out ahead in combat since every trade will draw you a whopping two cards. It’s worth noting that this ability isn’t optional, so you can very easily overdraw with it. That’s a nice problem to have, however.
Finally, Hunter’s stats are actually pretty decent. A 5/3 flier is very vulnerable to Lightning Strike, but it does survive Cut Down. Assuming you’re sacrificing a creature each time, this card can take your opponent out in just three swings. That’s a surprising degree of aggression for a support card.
Feeding Across Formats
High-Society Hunter has a number of potential homes, in MTG Foundations Standard and beyond. To start with Standard, while there isn’t a dedicated Aristocrats deck in the format right now, Foundations does add a lot of support for one. Cards like Nine-Lives Familiar and Vengeful Bloodwitch are fantastic in such a strategy, and we already touched on Bartolomé del Presidio earlier. Whether a deck like this rises up or not remains to be seen, but if it does I expect Hunter will be a key part of it.
Elsewhere Pioneer does have a dedicated sacrifice deck, which could well find some slots for Hunter. Jund Sacrifice, and its up-and-coming Golgari variant, rely on grindy sac value and infinite combos to win the game. Hunter supports both plans well. It digs through your deck for combo pieces and turns the Cat/Oven combo into a card advantage engine. Five mana is a lot, but Ygra already sees play in the deck at the same cost so it’s not totally out of the question.
Finally, the card is an obvious addition to many Commander decks. Aristocrats strategies are very popular in the format, and this is one of the best card draw engines for them. Harvester of Souls is a staple in such lists already, so getting it with a one-mana discount and a built-in sac ability is too good a deal to pass up. Hunter is more vulnerable to removal, yes, but cards like this are typically used as combo engines in Commander, so that’s not super-relevant. By the time this card hits the board, the game will already be over a lot of the time. Not bad at all for what is, currently, a bulk rare.