Excava, the Risen Past
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.)
How Excava decks play in EDH
Excava, the Risen Past is a Boros commander in white and red costing 2RW, and its legendary creature - spirit horse line shapes the whole deck around it. It works out of the graveyard, so self-mill and cheap recursion effectively become extra card advantage. Artifacts drive the deck, so cheap mana rocks and artifact recursion do double duty. The cards below are the ones Excava, the Risen Past decks actually play most often, grouped by the job they do.
Most-played cards
20 cards · about $67.72Play rates from EDHREC. Prices from Scryfall, refreshed daily.
Ramp (2)
Card draw (7)
Removal (3)
Creatures (3)
Synergy & payoffs (3)
Lands (2)
Build the full 100
Grimoire generates a complete, Commander-legal Excava, the Risen Past decklist with a written strategy, a full mana base and live prices — from the whole card pool, or only from cards you already own.
Start with ExcavaExcava deck questions
What colours can I use in a Excava, the Risen Past deck?
Excava, the Risen Past has a Boros colour identity, so every card in the deck must be white and red or colourless. That includes mana symbols in rules text, not just casting cost.
What are the best cards for Excava, the Risen Past?
The cards played most often in Excava, the Risen Past decks include The Queen of Dale, The Mountain-king's Return, Troop of Ponies. The full list of staples above is grouped by the job each card does, so you can see the deck's skeleton rather than just a pile of names.
How much does a Excava, the Risen Past deck cost?
The 20 most-played cards shown above come to roughly $67.72 at current market prices. A complete 100-card build costs more, and Grimoire can generate a budget version instead if you set a price ceiling.
Can I build a Excava, the Risen Past deck from cards I already own?
Yes. Import your collection into Grimoire and choose "my cards" when you build. The generator will only use cards you actually own, and the Missing Cards page shows what you would need to buy to finish any list.