Ancient Excavation

Ancient Excavation card image

Ancient Excavation: Instant, Commander Anthology Volume II. MTG card printings, market prices, rulings, and format legality on Mana Grove.

Mana cost
{2}{U}{B}
Mana value
4
Type
Instant
Colour identity
Blue and black (UB)
Rarity
Uncommon
Set
Commander Anthology Volume II (CM2)
Released
2018-06-08
Collector number
150
Artist
James Paick
Commander rank
9,442 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)
Keywords
Basic landcycling, Cycling, Landcycling, Typecycling

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About Ancient Excavation

Ancient Excavation is a Magic: The Gathering card, an uncommon blue and black instant from Commander Anthology Volume II (CM2), a Commander product released in June 2018. It is collector number 150 in that set, with art by James Paick. It costs {2}{U}{B} (two generic, one blue and one black mana) to cast, for a mana value of 4. Its colour identity is blue and black. It is legal in Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander and Oathbreaker. It has been printed in 4 sets, from Commander 2016 (2016) to The List (2020). The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $1.21 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-11).

Card text

Draw cards equal to the number of cards in your hand, then discard a card for each card drawn this way.

Basic landcycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $1.21 (as of 2026-11-11).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Ancient Excavation by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

LegacyLegal
VintageLegal
CommanderLegal
Duel CommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal

Other printings of Ancient Excavation

Ancient Excavation has been printed in 4 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.

PrintingRarityYear
The List (PLST) #PZ2-38Uncommon2024
Treasure Chest (PZ2) #38Uncommon2016
Commander 2016 (C16) #27Uncommon2016

Official rulings

Two official rulings apply to Ancient Excavation, newest first.

  • The number of cards drawn this way might not be equal to the number of cards in your hand (for example, if you apply Necroplasm’s dredge ability instead of drawing one of those cards). The number of cards that you actually drew is what determines how many cards you discard.
  • The number of cards in your hand is counted only as Ancient Excavation resolves. Ancient Excavation is on the stack at this time, so it’s not counted.

Similar cards

Other instant cards with a blue and black colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

In these precons

Ancient Excavation is in the decklist of these preconstructed Commander decks.

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