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Wake the Past

Sorcery

Return all artifact cards from your graveyard to the battlefield. They gain haste until end of turn.

CMC
7
Mana cost
{5}{R}{W}
Color identity
RW
Rarity
rare
Set
Fallout
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2039
Buy on TCGplayer
Wake the Past card art
Wake the Past returns all your artifacts from the graveyard to the battlefield — every single one, simultaneously — for six mana, and that's before you account for enablers like Encroaching Mycosynth that convert your entire board into artifacts pre-wipe. Megatron, Tyrant runs it because a single sweeper followed by Wake the Past reassembles the entire threat package in one shot; the cost is real but the ceiling is a full board rebuild on one card.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01

Megatron, Tyrant

62.4% of decks · synergy 0.61

Megatron, Tyrant converts opponents' creatures into treasures, which means Wake the Past doesn't just rebuy your permanents — it also recovers the entire artifact engine that makes Megatron's tap ability lethal at scale.

02
Liberty Prime, Recharged

Liberty Prime, Recharged

68.7% of decks · synergy 0.58

Liberty Prime, Recharged wants a critical mass of artifacts in play to trigger its combat damage rider, and Wake the Past functions as the reset button that reassembles that mass after any sweeper.

03
Alibou, Ancient Witness

Alibou, Ancient Witness

64.2% of decks · synergy 0.58

Alibou, Ancient Witness pings opponents every time tapped artifacts trigger, so Wake the Past entering a battlefield full of artifacts that immediately trigger haste or tap effects turns one recovery spell into a burst of damage.

04
Dr. Madison Li

Dr. Madison Li

64.8% of decks · synergy 0.55

Dr. Madison Li generates value off artifacts entering the battlefield, making Wake the Past a one-card storm of enters-the-battlefield triggers rather than just a graveyard refill.

05
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel

Inspirit, Flagship Vessel

63.6% of decks · synergy 0.53

Inspirit, Flagship Vessel cares about artifact creatures crewing and attacking, and Wake the Past reliably puts a full crew back into play after a wrath clears the way for a rebuilt alpha strike.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Wake the Past is a Commander card through and through — six mana is only acceptable when the payoff is returning ten or more permanents at once, and that scenario only materializes in a 99-card singleton format where artifact density is a deck-building identity rather than an accident. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but never played; those formats don't trade board states through attrition in ways that reward a six-mana sorcery, and faster win conditions make the setup cost prohibitive. Oathbreaker can support it in the same artifact-heavy shells that Commander uses, though the compressed game length makes the six-mana investment harder to justify. For anyone building artifacts in Commander, Wake the Past is a legitimate finisher-disguised-as-recovery that belongs in the conversation alongside Scrap Mastery.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Wake the Past isn't available in the current feed — check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number before buying. Given its narrow but powerful role in artifact Commander decks, it tends to hold value steadily rather than spike, so there's no urgency premium to worry about.

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Sources

Mentioned

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