Icon of Ancestry
Artifact
As this artifact enters, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control of the chosen type get +1/+1.
, 
: Look at the top three cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card of the chosen type from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Core Set 2020 Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #2242
Icon of Ancestry pumps every creature of the chosen type on board and turns three mana into a free dig every turn — that's anthem plus card filtering on one artifact. At three mana it fits cleanly under most tribal curves, and commanders like The Swarmlord that want both density and velocity run it without hesitation.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Swarmlord
The Swarmlord floods the board with Tyranid tokens of varied subtypes, and Icon of Ancestry's naming 'Tyranid' turns every wave into a buffed threat while the activated ability churns through the deck for the next payoff piece.
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable needs Pirates on board to reanimate fallen crew, so the +1/+1 anthem from Icon of Ancestry makes each Pirate harder to kill in the first place — and the repeatable digging keeps the hand full of new ones to deploy.
Sethron, Hurloon General
Sethron, Hurloon General triggers off every nontoken Minotaur entering the battlefield, so Icon of Ancestry pulls double duty: it makes the Minotaurs bigger and filters toward the next one each turn.
Arahbo, the First Fang
Arahbo, the First Fang wants as many Cats on board as possible to compound power rewards, and Icon of Ancestry provides a persistent anthem that stacks with Arahbo's own buffs while quietly filtering for more threats.
Marrow-Gnawer
Marrow-Gnawer generates Rat tokens at scale, and Icon of Ancestry's +1/+1 bonus turns a wide board of small Rats into a genuine damage threat — the activation is almost secondary in a deck that floods the board this fast.
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 |
Icon of Ancestry is a Commander card through and through — the payoff is a repeatable activated ability that assumes a long game and a tribal-dense board, neither of which exists in faster 60-card formats. In Modern and Pioneer it's strictly outclassed by cheaper anthems or more explosive tribal payoffs, and the three-mana cost with a tap-based filter ability is simply too slow to matter competitively. Commander is where Icon of Ancestry earns its slot: tribal decks regularly hit the board state that makes both halves relevant, and a three-mana artifact that replaces itself every few turns while buffing the whole team is a genuine engine in the right shell.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Current pricing data for Icon of Ancestry isn't available in this snapshot, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number. Historically it has sat in the budget-to-mid range for Commander staples, and given its consistent 30–37% inclusion in top tribal commanders, any copy under a couple of dollars is worth grabbing for a tribal build.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.