Ancient Excavation

Instant

Draw cards equal to the number of cards in your hand, then discard a card for each card drawn this way.

Basic landcycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

Femme_Fatale on Ancient Excavation Has Bug On …

1 year ago

actually when I look at that the cardkingdom link redirects to the c16 storefront of that.

Ancient Excavation *list*

Yeah there is definitely some bug going on with it as that is what the image for mystery booster should look like, as there's no list treatment for the c16 image of that card marked on our site.

Femme_Fatale on Ancient Excavation Has Bug On …

1 year ago

Ancient Excavation *list*

So it's a bug with sets marked as skip as latest then as the mystery booster version shouldn't be showing up.

Shaffe_House on Araumi of the Dead Tide

4 years ago

Instant/Sorceries/Artifact/Enchantment

Enablers:

Ancient Excavation, Dihada's Ploy, Fact or Fiction, Frantic Search, Forbidden Alchemy, Otherworldly Gaze, Thirst for Knowledge, Thirst for Meaning, Winds of Rebuke, You Find the Villains' Lair, Careful Study, Funeral Rites, Notion Rain, Ransack the Lab, Perpetual Timepiece

Reanimation:

Dread Return, Incarnation Technique, Living Death, Necromantic Selection, Victimize

Ramp:

Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, Skyclave Relic, Sol Ring, Worn Powerstone, Songs of the Damned

Other:

Discontinuity, Siphon Insight, Songs of the Damned, Bone Shards, Tortured Existence

Daedalus19876 on To Drown the World in Death: Araumi EDH [PRIMER]

5 years ago

Squirrel_of_War: I DO love those effects. Ancient Excavation in particular should be in there. The reason I went for more looting effects is because 1) they interact well with my untapping creatures, 2) they let me refill my graveyard after a Bojuka Bog, and 3) they come down early when I'm setting up! But yes, I might cut one or two to swap for more one-shot effects.

Squirrel_of_War on To Drown the World in Death: Araumi EDH [PRIMER]

5 years ago

Have you thought about running Ancient Excavation, Thirst for Knowledge, Monastery Siege, Mirrodin Besieged, and similar cards? I personally prefer them over the single card looting creatures.

Optimator on Gisa and Geralf EDH V.2.2

5 years ago

I have a guide/repository for card-draw cards if you want to peruse it. You may find some cards with more synergies that you like. Weight of Memory can be decent for self-mill strategies, etc. EDH Card-Draw Master List

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As for cuts... let's see...

I don't love Forgotten Creation, personally. I always felt like I had non-creatures I wanted to keep in my hand all the time. Your deck is a bit more creature-heavy than mine, so perhaps it's pulling its weight.

You have the necessary components for Gravecrawler combos, but not a ton of tutors to make them reliable to get out. As such, perhaps one of the weaker payoffs for that can go, such as Vengeful Dead or Plague Belcher. If you're using Buried Alive to find the pieces then you'll only ever need one, and Diregraf Captain is an excellent choice. That said, your deck is fairly token-heavy so perhaps the incidental groupslug is being underappreciated by me.

I don't really love Ancient Excavation or Compelling Deterrence.

Personally I think Endless Ranks of the Dead is a bit of a trap unless you're all-in on the token strategy, such as a Ghoulcaller Gisa or Sidisi, Brood Tyrant zombie deck. Very fun, but a bit win-more unless you can really make it pop off. I've never been satisfied with it's performance in my deck, but you're going wider than I do so perhaps it's fine. Something to think about though.

It all kind of depends on how much you're self-milling. You have a decent amount, but you aren't exactly going all-in. As such, Grimoire of the Dead may be a liability. I have played around with that card in some of my decks and it just seems to get removed before it works. When it did I usually won the game, though. It's fun, but unreliable. Rise of the Dark Realms is obviously more reliable but it's very pricey.

I never found the self-mill in my deck as useful as regular card-draw. There's not a ton of point to have 15 zombies in the graveyard if you only want to cast one or two of them over and over. There are payoffs, of course, but to me it feels like being in the middle-ground is way worse than being all-in or having minimal self-mill. I just hate milling over answers or Rooftop Storm!

I don't think you're running enough to make Nightscape Familiar worth it.

Honestly, I don't love Havengul Lich a ton. The color restriction makes it hard to use and you have lots of ways to bring out your own zombies already. He's better in a more mill-your-opponents strategy IMO.

Tymaret Calls the Dead is a bit of a weaker card. Exiling your own zombies is a bit of a non-bo (unless your self-mill strategy is really rolling). The lifegain can be nice but I'd rather run Whip of Erebos if that's the goal, or a better card-draw card if that's the goal.

thymecop on Zombie Tribal Scarab God

5 years ago

I like the idea of having the plan B of milling your opponents. This way your commander has more targets and Rise of the Dark Realms becomes so much spicier.

For this I’d suggest running cards that fill your opponent’s hands and graves using cards like Font of Mythos/Howling Mine, Fascination, and Anvil of Bogardan. This sets up explosive combos with cards like: Psychic Corrosion, Dreamborn Muse, and Windfall/Jace's Archivist.

Another suggestion I have is to run Phyrexian Altar. It’s 1. a sac outlet 2. Ramp 3. a whole lot of fun with Gravecrawler. He combos with the altar giving you infinite 2/2s with Diregraf Colossus and infinite Altar of the Brood triggers.

Big finishers cost a lot so Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers got you covered. Running the two I believe always calls for a handy Expedition Map. Cut some basics, easy.

Things I’d cut for the 9 cards I mentioned would be: Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet (see above), Liliana's Mastery (too much for too little)), Dark Salvation (same reason), Sinister Sabotage (same reason), Expropriate (cut for something that synergies with your general. Take a cooler Rise over some stolen permanents), Ancient Excavation (Dreamborn Muse tho), Liliana, Untouched By Death (the best part about her Gisa and Geralf do already), Entomb (not sure about this one actually), and a land.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

P.S. Traumatize

wegnerdevin on Death, Taxes, and Thopters

5 years ago

I'd run Preordain over Impulse, Gamble over Fabricate, and Ancient Excavation over Dark Deal. Thought Scour seems kinda weak overall, and if you could fit a Codex Shredder and a Scrap Mastery to play off each other while dumping into Krark-Clan Ironworks between iterations, I'm sure you'll have a great time.