Gnawing Zombie

The price on the sacrifice ability is what dates this design. A repeatable sacrifice outlet that turns each dying creature into a one-point drain is exactly the engine aristocrats decks are built around, but charging mana every activation puts a governor on the loop: you cannot churn through a board of tokens in a single turn the way a free outlet lets you. That extra mana is the difference between a combo enabler and a grind tool, and it pushes the card toward slow, attritional black rather than explosive starts. The 1/3 body is the other tell, a defensive frame that wants to sit back and trade away creatures for incremental life swings rather than attack. Free outlets like Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer eventually made this kind of taxed version look quaint, since the whole appeal of an outlet is the ability to respond to removal at no cost. What this one offers instead is the drain attached: every creature already destined to die becomes a guaranteed two-life swing, a Blood Artist trigger whose timing you dictate. It is the workmanlike version of the effect, prioritizing reliable, repeatable life manipulation over a fast kill.