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Commander Nexus
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  3. Excava, the Risen Past

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Excava, the Risen Past

Excava, the Risen Past

Legendary Creature — Spirit Horse

Excava wants a deck that keeps making its creatures bigger turn after turn. It also works in a deck built around Horses or Spirits.

  • Mana cost2 genericredwhite
  • White, Red ()
  • Power / toughness3 / 3
  • RarityMythic

Flying, haste

Whenever Excava attacks, return up to one target artifact, creature, or non-Aura enchantment card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter on it. It's a 1/1 Spirit creature with flying in addition to its other types. (If a creature with a finality counter on it would die, exile it instead.)

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Archetypes
Themes

Cards That Fit Excava, the Risen Past

Picked for what they do in Excava's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Excava's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Sol RingOpen the full glossary

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

Rulings for Excava, the Risen Past

explain how Excava works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary

Wizards of the Coast 20 Mar 2026

An artifact creature card or enchantment creature card returned this way will have base power and toughness 1/1.

Wizards of the Coast 20 Mar 2026

An Equipment that's also a creature can't be attached to anything. You can activate its equip ability, but it won't become attached.

Wizards of the Coast 20 Mar 2026

If a card in a graveyard has {X} in its mana cost, X is 0 for the purpose of determining its mana value.

Wizards of the Coast 20 Mar 2026

If another effect causes one of the returned permanents to become a creature and sets its base power and toughness as it does so, that creature will have that power and toughness; it won't be 1/1. However, a Vehicle returned this way will remain a 1/1 if you crew it, and a Spacecraft returned this way will remain a 1/1 even if enough charge counters are placed on it for it to become a creature.

4 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Excava, and what they share.

Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryWRPlayers write colors as letters: W for white, R for red.+1/+1 Counters+1/+1 counter decks put small markers on their creatures that make each one permanently bigger, and keep adding more every turn. Each +1/+1 counter adds one to a creature's power (the damage it deals) and toughness (the damage it can take).Open the +1/+1 Counters pageCounter ManipulationAdds, moves or multiplies counters already on permanents. It works on any kind (+1/+1, loyalty, charge), so the same card can serve very different decks. Karn's Bastion, Doubling SeasonOpen the Counter Manipulation pageEvasionAn ability that makes a creature hard to block, so its attacks reach the player. Flying, menace, landwalk and plain 'can't be blocked' are the common kinds.Open the Evasion pageSpiritsSpirits are found in every color, most often white, blue and black; many fly, and many care about the graveyard.Open the Spirits pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion page