Dark Heart of the Wood

Enchantment

Sacrifice a Forest: You gain 3 life.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{B}{G}
Color identity
BG
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Ravnica: City of Guilds
Price
$0.17
EDHREC rank
#23739
Buy on TCGplayer
Dark Heart of the Wood card art
Dark Heart of the Wood trades a Forest for 3 life — a thin return that barely registers on a 40-life board, and the sacrifice is a real cost rather than a bonus. Prize Pig generates more incidental life with less setup; Dark Heart of the Wood asks you to deplete your land base for an effect that rarely swings a game.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander
legacy
modern
pioneer
standard
vintage
pauper
oathbreaker

Dark Heart of the Wood is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but seeing meaningful play in essentially none of them. In Commander, 3 life per Forest is too slow and too land-hungry to matter — you're sacrificing mana development for a gain that heals one hit from an X-spell at best. Pauper is the most plausible home given the format's lower life totals and the presence of dedicated lifegain payoffs, but even there the card competes poorly against free or cheaper life-gain engines. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more powerful tools, and Dark Heart of the Wood never shows up in those lists.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.17 bulk tier

At $0.17, Dark Heart of the Wood is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not power. The price reflects the card's utility ceiling accurately, and there's no realistic catalyst to push it higher.

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