First printed in Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (2026)
Excava, the Risen Past 
Legendary Creature — Spirit Horse
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.)
3/3
- Illustrated by
- Ilse Gort
Legality
- Legal in
- Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Competitive Brawl
- Not legal in
- Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Pauper, Future Standard, Alchemy, Penny Dreadful, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Pauper Commander, PreDH, Tiny Leaders, Standard Brawl
Rulings (4)
- If a card in a graveyard has
in its mana cost, X is 0 for the purpose of determining its mana value. - 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.
- An artifact creature card or enchantment creature card returned this way will have base power and toughness 1/1.
- 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.
Prices
MTGO price: 4.45 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 29 Oct 2026).
Combos
29 combos, the most popular first:
- Infinite mana creatures you control can produce, Infinite creature sacrifice triggers…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Solemnity (+ 1 other requirement)
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Anger + Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Solemnity
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Solemnity + Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Fervor + Solemnity
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Frostcliff Siege + Solemnity
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Solemnity + Urabrask the Hidden
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter + Solemnity
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Solemnity + Temur Ascendancy
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Samut, Tyrant Smasher + Solemnity
- Infinite creature ETB, Infinite creature LTB…: Breath of Fury + Excava, the Risen Past + Hammer of Purphoros + Solemnity