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The Book of Exalted Deeds

Legendary Artifact — Book

At the beginning of your end step, if you gained 3 or more life this turn, create a 3/3 white Angel creature token with flying.
{W}{W}{W}, {T}, Exile The Book of Exalted Deeds: Put an enlightened counter on target Angel. It gains "You can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game." Activate only as a sorcery.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{W}{W}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
mythic
Set
Magic Online Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#3493
Buy on TCGplayer
The Book of Exalted Deeds card art
The Book of Exalted Deeds is a three-mana enchantment that puts an emblem counter on an Angel you control, making that Angel's controller immune to losing the game — which translates to a near-unbreakable lock when you protect the creature it targets. The cost is real: triple white and the Angel requirement mean this card belongs in dedicated tribal or lifegain shells, not general white goodstuff, and Transcendence does the same permanent life-floor trick for more mana without the combo ceiling.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Giada, Font of Hope

Giada, Font of Hope

50.4% of decks · synergy 0.40

Giada, Font of Hope is the premier home for The Book of Exalted Deeds — Giada is herself an Angel, so slapping the emblem counter on your commander turns her into an indestructible lock piece that also keeps growing your board every turn.

02
Sigarda, Font of Blessings

Sigarda, Font of Blessings

15.7% of decks · synergy 0.15

Sigarda, Font of Blessings runs a dense Angel tribal package where The Book of Exalted Deeds finds plenty of targets, and Sigarda's hexproof-granting ability makes the emblem-bearing Angel much harder to answer before the lock seals.

04
Sephara, Sky's Blade

Sephara, Sky's Blade

20.9% of decks · synergy 0.11

Sephara, Sky's Blade commands a flying-creature strategy already stacked with Angels, giving The Book of Exalted Deeds multiple viable targets to stamp with an emblem counter while Sephara's mass-indestructibility ability keeps the chosen Angel alive.

05
Liesa, Shroud of Dusk

Liesa, Shroud of Dusk

11.4% of decks · synergy 0.10

Liesa, Shroud of Dusk bleeds every opponent with spell taxes, and The Book of Exalted Deeds shores up Liesa's own life-loss vulnerability — put the counter on Liesa herself and the incremental damage she deals herself every turn stops being a clock on your own life total.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where The Book of Exalted Deeds actually matters — the combination of Angel tribal density, long games, and a single emblem counter creating a game-ending lock is exactly what 100-card multiplayer rewards. In Modern and Pioneer it's a fringe curiosity at best; the three-white mana cost is brutal in competitive non-white shells and Angels don't have the redundancy in those formats to reliably protect the target. Legacy and Vintage have faster, more consistent lock pieces and The Book of Exalted Deeds sees essentially no play there. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home if your signature spell lines up with an Angel gameplan, but Commander remains the format where this card punches at its actual ceiling.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Price data isn't available in our current feed for The Book of Exalted Deeds, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number before buying. It has spiked historically around Angel-tribal content cycles, so if you're building Giada or Sephara, picking it up outside those hype windows tends to be the better entry point.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.