Dark Heart of the Wood
Enchantment
Sacrifice a Forest: You gain 3 life.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BG
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Ravnica: City of Guilds
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #23739
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
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
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
Prize PigGravecrawlerAshaya, Soul of the WildDark Heart of the Wood
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count
View on Commander Spellbook ↗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.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Prize Pig
- Gravecrawler
- Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.