MagicTheGathering.fyi

Ancestor's Chosen

Creature — Human Cleric

First strike (This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.)
When this creature enters, you gain 1 life for each card in your graveyard.

CMC
7
Mana cost
{5}{W}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Ultimate Masters
Price
$0.17
EDHREC rank
#24514
Buy on TCGplayer
Ancestor's Chosen card art
Ancestor's Chosen enters the battlefield and gains you life equal to the number of cards in your graveyard — a massive life swing for seven mana, but seven mana is the problem. The combo ceiling with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker keeps it relevant in specific shells, but as a standalone card it's too slow and too replaceable for most lists.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Ancestor's Chosen is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but competitive play in Legacy, Modern, and Vintage ignores it entirely — seven mana for a 4/4 and a life-gain trigger doesn't come close to clearing the bar in those formats. Commander is the only home where it sees real play, and even there the context has to be right: graveyard-stuffing strategies or dedicated life-gain commanders are the prerequisite. In Oathbreaker the lower starting life total makes large life swings more meaningful, but the mana cost remains a liability in a faster format.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.17 bulk tier

At $0.17, Ancestor's Chosen is deep bulk — the kind of card that ends up in a collection binder rather than a cart. Price stability is essentially guaranteed because demand is too narrow to move the needle in either direction.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.