Is Forgotten Ancient good in Commander?

Forgotten Ancient

Creature — Elemental

Whenever a player casts a spell, you may put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may move any number of +1/+1 counters from this creature onto other creatures.

CMC: 4
Mana cost
Color identity: G
Rarity: rare
Set: New Capenna Commander
Price: $0.54
EDHREC rank: #396

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Forgotten Ancient is one of the most efficient +1/+1 counter generators in Commander — every spell your opponents cast stockpiles counters on it, and at the beginning of your upkeep you redistribute those counters across your team however you like. Four mana for a 0/3 looks underwhelming until you realize that in a four-player game, Forgotten Ancient routinely arrives with four or more counters and grows exponentially from there, which is exactly why commanders like Falco Spara, Pactweaver and Agatha of the Vile Cauldron treat it as a core piece rather than an afterthought.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

Agatha of the Vile Cauldron

80.0% of decks · synergy 0.70

Agatha of the Vile Cauldron cares about creatures with +1/+1 counters activating abilities, and Forgotten Ancient feeds her the counters she needs to keep the whole board online — every spell an opponent casts in the early game translates into resources Agatha can redistribute and exploit.

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave

72.7% of decks · synergy 0.68

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave retains counters through zones, so Forgotten Ancient's end-of-turn redistribution is a reliable way to dump a large stack of counters directly onto Skullbriar and make those counters permanent across the rest of the game.

Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener

70.1% of decks · synergy 0.66

Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener doubles counters placed on creatures, so funneling a pile of Forgotten Ancient's accumulated counters into a single target during upkeep triggers that doubling and turns one redistribution into an enormous swing.

Shalai and Hallar

69.1% of decks · synergy 0.65

Shalai and Hallar deal damage equal to the number of counters placed on your creatures, meaning every upkeep where you move counters off Forgotten Ancient and onto your team is also a direct ping to each opponent — the redistribution trigger becomes a win condition.

Me, the Immortal

72.1% of decks · synergy 0.65

Me, the Immortal gains life and grows whenever +1/+1 counters are placed on creatures you control, so Forgotten Ancient's mass redistribution each upkeep is a repeatable, opponent-fueled source of both lifegain and board development.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

Format	Verdict
commander	legal
legacy	legal
modern	not legal
pioneer	not legal
standard	not legal
vintage	legal
pauper	not legal
oathbreaker	legal

Forgotten Ancient is a Commander card through and through — its design assumes multiple opponents casting spells every turn, and in a four-player game that assumption pays off fast. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees no competitive play; a 0/3 that does nothing the turn it enters and depends on opponents' cooperation has no place in those formats. Commander and Oathbreaker are the correct homes, and even within Commander the card scales with table speed — the faster your opponents are casting spells, the more counters Forgotten Ancient generates before your next upkeep.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

19 decks