Card
Excava, the Risen Past
Mana cost {2}{R}{W}
Legendary Creature — Spirit Horse 3/3
Flying, haste Whenever Excava attacks, return up to one target artifact, creature, or non-Aura enchantment card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter on it. It's a 1/1 Spirit creature with flying in addition to its other types. (If a creature with a finality counter on it would die, exile it instead.)
No bracket restriction: playable from bracket 1. Part of 29 known combos. 4 official rulings.
- Commander
- Legal
- Printing
- Mythic · SOC · #2
- Cheapest printing
- €0.36
- EDHREC salt
- —
- Color identity
- Red, White
- Keywords
- Flying, Haste
Bracket
- B1 Exhibition — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
- B2 Core — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
- B3 Upgraded — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
- B4 Optimized — allowed: No restriction beyond the banned list
- B5 cEDH — allowed: No restriction beyond the banned list
Why
- No Game Changer, mass land denial, extra turn, tutor or two-card combo
How Lotus Vault estimates a bracket
Bracket: Lotus Vault analysis, with Commander Spellbook flags
Combos
29 known combos.
- Excava, the Risen Past + Solemnity + Breath of Fury
Produces: Infinite mana creatures you control can produce, Infinite creature sacrifice triggers, Infinite untap of creatures you control
View on Commander Spellbook - Excava, the Risen Past + Solemnity + Breath of Fury + Anger
Produces: Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB, Infinite combat damage
View on Commander Spellbook - Excava, the Risen Past + Second Chance + Solemnity
Produces: Infinite turns, Lock
View on Commander Spellbook
Combos: Commander Spellbook
Rulings
- 2026-03-20 · Wizards of the Coast
If a card in a graveyard has {X} in its mana cost, X is 0 for the purpose of determining its mana value. - 2026-03-20 · Wizards of the Coast
An Equipment that's also a creature can't be attached to anything. You can activate its equip ability, but it won't become attached. - 2026-03-20 · Wizards of the Coast
An artifact creature card or enchantment creature card returned this way will have base power and toughness 1/1. - 2026-03-20 · Wizards of the Coast
If another effect causes one of the returned permanents to become a creature and sets its base power and toughness as it does so, that creature will have that power and toughness; it won't be 1/1. However, a Vehicle returned this way will remain a 1/1 if you crew it, and a Spacecraft returned this way will remain a 1/1 even if enough charge counters are placed on it for it to become a creature.
Rulings: Scryfall · Wizards of the Coast