Return the Past
Enchantment
During your turn, each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard has flashback. Its flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Doctor Who
- Price
- $0.89
- EDHREC rank
- #8999
Return the Past exiles target graveyard and lets you keep one card from it — a graveyard hate spell that leaves the caster ahead on resources rather than even. The catch is the mana investment: at its base cost it competes with cheaper options, but Judith, Carnage Connoisseur can cast it for free off a sacrifice trigger, which changes the math entirely.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Judith, Carnage Connoisseur
Judith, Carnage Connoisseur's ability to cast spells without paying their mana cost when creatures die means Return the Past becomes a free graveyard wipe with a bonus card in hand — hitting an opponent's engine while fueling your own on the same trigger.
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 |
Return the Past sees almost all of its play in Commander, where graveyard-heavy strategies are common enough that a hate piece that replaces itself is worth a slot. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but has no meaningful footprint — those formats have faster, cheaper graveyard hate like Surgical Extraction and Leyline of the Void that don't ask you to spend three mana at sorcery speed. Commander is the one format where the card selection clause justifies the cost, particularly in decks that sacrifice creatures frequently and can chain the spell off an ability rather than cast it from hand.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.89 bulk tier
At $0.89, Return the Past sits at the high end of bulk — real enough to register on a budget but not a financial commitment. Given that it's a narrow, mostly Commander-specific card, that price is likely a ceiling rather than a floor as copies filter into the market.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.