Excava, the Risen Past
Some links are affiliate links — if you buy through them Mauldron may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. How this works.
Build around Excava, the Risen Past as your commander →
Create a free account to add this card to a deck or collection — log in if you have one.
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.)
What it does
Tagged as Recursion — the jobs the deck report counts it toward.
Keyword reminders
Official rulings
- 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)
- 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)
- An artifact creature card or enchantment creature card returned this way will have base power and toughness 1/1. (2026-03-20)
- 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. (2026-03-20)
Printings & prices
Every set Excava, the Risen Past has been printed in, with the art, the finishes and the market price of each — the headline price above is the cheapest of these.
Cards like this
The most-played cards that do something similar to Excava, the Risen Past, and are playable in its colours.
