MagicTheGathering.fyi

Diligent Excavator

Creature — Human Artificer

Whenever you cast a historic spell, target player mills two cards. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Dominaria
Price
$0.22
EDHREC rank
#17585
Buy on TCGplayer
Diligent Excavator card art
Diligent Excavator turns every artifact you cast into a mill trigger, and in the right shell that translates directly into a kill — pair it with Emry, Lurker of the Loch looping artifacts and the opponent's library disappears in a single turn. The cost is that it does nothing alone; it needs a critical mass of cheap artifacts or a recursive engine like Underworld Breach to convert those triggers into a win condition.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

20.0% of decks · synergy 0.19

Emry, Lurker of the Loch recasts artifacts from the graveyard for free, and each cast triggers Diligent Excavator — loop a zero-cost artifact enough times and every opponent mills out before you pass the turn.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Diligent Excavator is a Commander card first and foremost — outside of dedicated artifact loops it rarely generates enough triggers to matter in faster formats. In Legacy and Vintage, artifact-based combo decks have stronger pieces that win more directly, so Diligent Excavator stays on the bench. Modern artifact synergy decks have similar issues; the mill payoff is too slow without a dedicated loop, and those loops prefer faster payoffs. Commander is where it thrives because the longer game and commander-anchored artifact engines give it the time and repetition to be genuinely threatening.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.22 bulk tier

At $0.22, Diligent Excavator is bulk — it costs less than a sleeve and is easy to pick up in any order. Given its narrow combo role, that price is unlikely to spike unless a new artifact commander pushes the archetype into the mainstream.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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