The Ancient One
Legendary Creature — Spirit God
Descend 8 — The Ancient One can't attack or block unless there are eight or more permanent cards in your graveyard.
: Draw a card, then discard a card. When you discard a card this way, target player mills cards equal to its mana value.
8 / 8
- Set
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Promos (PLCI #222p)
- Rarity
- Mythic
- Mana value
- 2
- Released
- 2023-11-17
- Artist
- Victor Adame Minguez
- EDHREC rank
- #5,737
- Colour identity
- Finishes
- Nonfoil, Foil
- Served from
- Local database
Commander bracket
Derived from card traits, not a ruling — bracket rules turn on how a deck intends to use a card. Bracket rules
EDHREC
Combos
Not part of any combo on Commander Spellbook.
Commander recommendations
Top synergy 50
Played far more in this commander's decks than elsewhere.
- Training Grounds
- Stitch Together
- Wonder
- Matzalantli, the Great Door
- Cruel Somnophage
- Terror Tide
- Syr Konrad, the Grim
- Dread Return
- Likeness Looter
- Millikin
- The Everflowing Well
- Obsessive Stitcher
- Wail of the Forgotten
- Singularity Rupture
- Victimize
- Animate Dead
- Breach the Multiverse
- Consuming Aberration
- Deranged Assistant
- The Cauldron of Eternity
- Dreadhound
- Reanimate
- Laboratory Maniac
- Souls of the Lost
- Sheoldred, Whispering One
- Ripples of Undeath
- Starving Revenant
- Fleet Swallower
- Rise of the Dark Realms
- Sepulchral Primordial
- Terisian Mindbreaker
- Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator
- Windfall
- Kiora, the Rising Tide
- Shadow of Mortality
- Nephalia Drownyard
- Frantic Search
- Living Death
- Grave Researcher
- Stitcher's Supplier
- Restless Reef
- Drown in the Loch
- Disciple of Bolas
- Mesmeric Orb
- Persist
- Altar of the Wretched
- Phenax, God of Deception
- Extract from Darkness
- The Mindskinner
- Fraying Sanity
Most included 50
Highest share of decks running them, distinctive or not.
- Island
- Swamp
- Command Tower
- Sol Ring
- Arcane Signet
- Sunken Hollow
- Reanimate
- Dimir Signet
- Drowned Catacomb
- Training Grounds
- Syr Konrad, the Grim
- Talisman of Dominance
- Wonder
- Stitch Together
- Counterspell
- Watery Grave
- Victimize
- Cruel Somnophage
- Consuming Aberration
- Singularity Rupture
- Likeness Looter
- Matzalantli, the Great Door
- Dread Return
- Choked Estuary
- Animate Dead
- Tainted Isle
- Underground River
- Shipwreck Marsh
- Frantic Search
- Terror Tide
- Breach the Multiverse
- Drown in the Loch
- Millikin
- Darkwater Catacombs
- Windfall
- Bojuka Bog
- Dimir Aqueduct
- Obsessive Stitcher
- The Everflowing Well
- Rise of the Dark Realms
- Morphic Pool
- Wail of the Forgotten
- Deranged Assistant
- Polluted Delta
- Undercity Sewers
- Sheoldred, Whispering One
- Laboratory Maniac
- Dark Ritual
- Dreadhound
- The Cauldron of Eternity
Format legality
Rulings
- 2023-11-10
Cards with the ability word "descend N" have abilities that care if you have at least N permanent cards in your graveyard.
- 2023-11-10
Once The Ancient One has legally attacked or blocked, removing permanent cards from your graveyard so the descend 8 ability no longer applies won't remove The Ancient One from combat.
- 2023-11-10
Some descend triggered abilities include intervening "if" clauses (i.e. "if you have [four or eight] permanent cards in your graveyard" in the middle of the ability). Each of these abilities checks your graveyard at the moment it would trigger to see if it does. If you don't have the required number of permanent cards in your graveyard at that time, the ability doesn't trigger at all. If it does trigger, it will check again as it tries to resolve. If you don't have the required number of permanent cards in your graveyard at that time, the ability won't resolve and none of its effects will happen.
- 2023-11-10
You don't choose a target for The Ancient One's activated ability at the time you activate it. Rather, a second "reflexive" ability triggers when you discard a card this way. You choose a target for that ability as it goes on the stack. Each player may respond to this triggered ability as normal.