Ancestral Memories
Sorcery
Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Portal
- Price
- $0.50
- EDHREC rank
- #20683
Ancestral Memories lets you look at the top seven cards of your library, put two in your hand, and bury the rest — net two cards for six mana, which is a bad rate by any honest measure. The Emperor of Palamecia is the rare commander that justifies it, since stacking the graveyard is half the point.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Emperor of Palamecia
The Emperor of Palamecia treats the five cards Ancestral Memories dumps into the graveyard as a resource rather than a loss, making the card's worst feature into a feature — fueling whatever graveyard-based recursion or cost-reduction the deck runs.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Ancestral Memories is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's a non-starter in Legacy and Vintage — those formats have access to the actual Ancestral Recall and a dozen other draw spells that cost a fraction of the mana. In Commander, six mana for two cards is below the threshold most decks want, and the competition at that spot on the curve is steep. The card earns its slot only in decks that treat the self-mill as upside rather than overhead — graveyard-matters builds where loading five cards into the bin is part of the plan.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.50 bulk tier
At $0.50, Ancestral Memories sits firmly in bulk territory, and there's no pressure driving that up. It's cheap enough to slot in without regret if your deck wants the self-mill, but the price reflects the card's narrow playability honestly.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- The Emperor of Palamecia
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.