Sacred Excavation
Sorcery
Return up to two target cards with cycling from your graveyard to your hand.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Amonkhet
- Price
- $0.14
- EDHREC rank
- #21084
Sacred Excavation returns two cards with cycling to your hand — a clean two-for-one that rewards any deck built around the cycling mechanic. Six mana is steep for a sorcery that doesn't affect the board, so it earns its slot only when you're deep in a cycling shell.
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 |
Sacred Excavation is a Commander card through and through — the format's singleton structure and longer games give cycling-matters decks the time to fill the graveyard before cashing it in. Outside Commander, the six-mana sorcery speed is a near-disqualifying liability: Legacy, Modern, and Vintage all have faster ways to recover resources, and competitive cycling strategies in those formats rarely need this much setup. Pioneer is the most plausible non-Commander home, but even there the rate is too slow for any serious build. Stick to EDH, specifically alongside commanders that reward cycling repeatedly.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.14 bulk tier
At $0.14, Sacred Excavation is deep bulk — a throw-in at any card shop. Bulk cycling payoffs rarely climb unless a new commander pushes the archetype into the spotlight, so don't expect movement.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.