Passionate Archaeologist

Card text

Commander creatures you own have "Whenever you cast a spell from exile, this creature deals damage equal to that spell's mana value to target opponent."

You can't remember a time when you didn't feel the pull of forgotten stories and buried secrets.

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the foil finish of this printing: $17.69 (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 Passionate Archaeologist by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

Other printings of Passionate Archaeologist

Passionate Archaeologist has been printed in 2 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.

Official rulings

The 8 most recent official rulings for Passionate Archaeologist, newest first.

• 2022-06-10 You can choose two commanders that are the same color or colors.
• 2022-06-10 If your commander loses the choose a Background ability or stops being a Background during the game, as appropriate, it is still your commander.
• 2022-06-10 An effect that checks whether you control your commander is satisfied if you control one or both of your two commanders.
• 2022-06-10 If a card refers to a commander creature you own, a Background won't usually be counted or included for that effect. If another spell or ability causes your Background to become a creature, however, it will be included. Any effect that refers to your commander or a commander you own or control without specifying creature will apply to a Background that is your commander, as appropriate.
• 2022-06-10 Once the game begins, your two commanders are tracked separately. If you cast one, you won’t have to pay an additional {2} the first time you cast the other. A player loses the game after having been dealt 21 combat damage from any one of them, not from both of them combined (although your Background won’t usually be a creature anyway).
• 2022-06-10 If your Commander deck has two commanders, you can include only cards whose own color identities are also found in your commanders’ combined color identities.
• 2022-06-10 Choose a Background is a variant of the partner ability. You may have two commanders if one of them is a legendary creature with the choose a background ability and the other is a legendary Background enchantment. Backgrounds and cards with choose a Background do not interact with cards which have any other partner ability.
• 2022-06-10 Both commanders start in the command zone, and the remaining 98 cards (or 58 cards in a Commander Draft game) of your deck are shuffled to become your library.

Similar cards

Other enchantment cards with a red colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

• Impact Tremors
• Underworld Breach
• Goblin Bombardment
• Shared Animosity
• Curse of Opulence
• Aggravated Assault