The Antiquities War
Enchantment — Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I, II — Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an artifact card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
III — Artifacts you control become artifact creatures with base power and toughness 5/5 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Dominaria Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #11253
The Antiquities War closes games — three chapters of tutoring up your artifacts, then animating your entire artifact board into 5/5s for a combat step your opponents almost never survive. The cost is five mana and three full turns of patience, which means it earns its slot in dedicated artifact decks and nowhere else; Sai, Master Thopterist lists run it because by chapter three, twenty Thopter tokens just became a 100-power alpha strike.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sai, Master Thopterist
Sai, Master Thopterist converts every artifact cast into a Thopter token, so by the time The Antiquities War's third chapter resolves, the board is already packed — every one of those tokens becomes a 5/5 for a lethal swing that bypasses the need for any other finisher.
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 |
Commander is where The Antiquities War does its best work — artifact strategies at that table run deep enough to guarantee chapter three turns into a one-shot, and the three-turn window is survivable in a format where games regularly stretch past turn ten. In competitive non-rotating formats like Legacy and Modern, the saga is too slow; five mana over multiple turns is a liability when opponents are winning on turn two or three, and there are faster artifact payoffs available. Pioneer is legal but the same problem applies — the format's aggro and midrange clocks don't give you three upkeep triggers. The Antiquities War is a Commander card dressed in a format-legal suit.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available at the moment — check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for a current figure. Given its niche role as an artifact-deck finisher in Commander, The Antiquities War tends to hold value in proportion to how popular those strategies are, so compare against recent sales before buying.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.