Cranial Archive
Artifact
, Exile this artifact: Target player shuffles their graveyard into their library. Draw a card.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Khans of Tarkir
- Price
- $0.27
- EDHREC rank
- #14163
Cranial Archive shuffles any graveyard into its owner's library and draws you a card — all for three mana and zero setup. It's a fine piece of incidental graveyard hate that replaces itself, but the sorcery-speed activation keeps it out of the premier tier.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Cranial Archive occupies the low end of graveyard-hate options — it handles one graveyard per activation, replaces itself, and costs nothing beyond its three-mana equip, making it a reasonable inclusion when you need hate that doesn't strand you on cards. Competitive Commander tends to prefer instant-speed answers like Tormod's Crypt or Soul-Guide Lantern that can interrupt a combo mid-stack; Cranial Archive's sorcery restriction is a real liability there. In Modern and Legacy, the format speed makes sorcery-speed hate almost unplayable — Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void do the job permanently and proactively. Pioneer is the friendliest non-rotating home, where the hate suite is thinner and the self-replacing draw makes the tempo loss more palatable.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.27 bulk tier
At $0.27, Cranial Archive is pure bulk — a throw-in card that costs nothing to include and nothing to cut. Expect it to stay at this price point; it fills a narrow role and has no scarcity driving it upward.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.