Ancestral Statue
Artifact Creature — Golem
When this creature enters, return a nonland permanent you control to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Dragons of Tarkir
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #6820
Ancestral Statue is a four-mana 3/4 that bounces itself — irrelevant in a vacuum, but in Animar, Soul of Elements it becomes an infinite loop that grows Animar to an arbitrarily large size before swinging for lethal. The cost is running a dead card in every other shell.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Animar, Soul of Elements
Animar, Soul of Elements reduces Ancestral Statue's cost with each +1/+1 counter, and once Animar has four counters the Statue costs zero — bounce it, replay it, repeat until Animar is as large as you want and your opponent is dead on the next attack.
Sami, Wildcat Captain
Sami, Wildcat Captain cares about creatures entering and leaving, and Ancestral Statue's self-bounce generates a repeatable enter-the-battlefield trigger engine that scales with whatever payoffs Sami has on board.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Ancestral Statue is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Pauper, Oathbreaker, and Vintage, but it sees real play in exactly one of those: Commander. Outside of Animar, Soul of Elements specifically, Ancestral Statue does nothing in competitive constructed — a 3/4 that bounces itself is not a card in Legacy or Modern. In Pauper it's technically an option for enters-the-battlefield abuse, but the self-bounce cost without a cost reducer makes the engine too slow to matter.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Ancestral StatueAnimar, Soul of Elements
Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite storm count
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Intruder AlarmAncestral Statue
Infinite untap of creatures you control; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce; Infinite storm count; Infinite untap of creatures
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Ancestral StatueRakdos, Lord of Riots
Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite storm count
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Helga, Skittish SeerChakram RetrieverAncestral Statue
Infinite card draw; Near-infinite lifegain; Near-infinite lifegain triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite storm count; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature; Near-infinite colored mana that can only be spent to cast creature spells with mana value 4 or greater or creature spells with X in their mana cost
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Ancestral StatueTemur Battlecrier
Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite storm count
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.17 bulk tier
At $0.17, Ancestral Statue is deep bulk — pick it up from any dollar bin or throw it in a cart to hit free shipping. It won't hold or lose value in any meaningful sense; it's a common that spikes in demand only inside Animar, Soul of Elements lists, and supply is large enough that the price has nowhere to go.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.