Wail of the Forgotten
Wail of the Forgotten: Sorcery, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Descend 8 - Choose one. Printings, market prices, rulings, and format legality on Mana Grove.
- Mana cost
- {U}{B}
- Mana value
- 2
- Type
- Sorcery
- Colour identity
- Blue and black (UB)
- Rarity
- Rare
- Set
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI)
- Released
- 2023-11-17
- Collector number
- 244
- Artist
- Ryan Valle
- Commander rank
- 13,789 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)
- Keywords
- Descend
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About Wail of the Forgotten
Wail of the Forgotten is a Magic: The Gathering card, a rare blue and black sorcery from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI), an expansion set released in November 2023. It is collector number 244 in that set, with art by Ryan Valle. It costs {U}{B} (one blue and one black mana) to cast, for a mana value of 2. Its colour identity is blue and black. It is legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator and Penny Dreadful. It has been printed in 2 sets. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $0.29 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-01).
Card text
Descend 8 - Choose one. If there are eight or more permanent cards in your graveyard as you cast this spell, choose one or more instead.
• Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand.
• Target opponent discards a card.
• Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
Market price
Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.29 (as of 2026-11-01).
The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.
Format legality
Legality of Wail of the Forgotten by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.
| Standard | Legal |
|---|---|
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Standard Brawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Penny Dreadful | Legal |
Other printings of Wail of the Forgotten
Wail of the Forgotten has been printed in 2 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.
| Printing | Rarity | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI) #343 | Rare | 2023 |
| The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Promos (PLCI) #244p | Rare | 2023 |
| The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Promos (PLCI) #244s | Rare | 2023 |
Official rulings
Three official rulings apply to Wail of the Forgotten, newest first.
- If all targets for the chosen modes become illegal before Wail of the Forgotten resolves, the spell will be countered and none of its effects will happen. If at least one target is still legal, the spell will resolve but will have no effect on any illegal targets.
- Some descend triggered abilities include intervening "if" clauses (i.e. "if you have [four or eight] permanent cards in your graveyard" in the middle of the ability). Each of these abilities checks your graveyard at the moment it would trigger to see if it does. If you don't have the required number of permanent cards in your graveyard at that time, the ability doesn't trigger at all. If it does trigger, it will check again as it tries to resolve. If you don't have the required number of permanent cards in your graveyard at that time, the ability won't resolve and none of its effects will happen.
- Cards with the ability word "descend N" have abilities that care if you have at least N permanent cards in your graveyard.
Similar cards
Other sorcery cards with a blue and black colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.
In these card lists
These card lists include Wail of the Forgotten.