Lorehold Excavation MTG Card


Lorehold Excavation - Strixhaven: School of Mages
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityUncommon
TypeEnchantment
Abilities Mill
Released2021-04-23
Set symbol
Set nameStrixhaven: School of Mages
Set codeSTX
Number200
Frame2015
LayoutNormal
BorderBlack
Illustred byJinho Bae

Key Takeaways

  1. Lorehold Excavation excels at amassing cards and setting up plays with a well-stocked graveyard.
  2. Rapid mana expansion and instant-speed flexibility are integral benefits of this strategic card.
  3. Resource sacrifice and specific mana costs are potential downsides for its users.

Text of card

At the beginning of your end step, mill a card. If a land card was milled this way, you gain 1 life. Otherwise, Lorehold Excavation deals 1 damage to each opponent. (To mill a card, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.) , Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Create a tapped 3/2 red and white Spirit creature token.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Delving into the depths of the past, Lorehold Excavation offers a streamlined method for players to amass a vast array of cards from their library. The ability to consistently excavate your library and stock your graveyard doesn’t just fill your hand with options, it also sets the stage for future plays that thrive on a well-filled graveyard, ensuring that you’re never without resources.

Resource Acceleration: For players looking to rapidly expand their mana resources, Lorehold Excavation stands out. With each turn, the mechanism of churning through your deck can potentially unearth additional lands, ensuring that you’re achieving the critical land drops each turn. Moreover, having access to key cards faster than your opponents can be a decisive factor in the game.

Instant Speed: The flexibility that instant speed offers can’t be overstated. With Lorehold Excavation, the art of timing becomes pivotal. It allows players to react to opponents’ moves adroitly while continuing to shape their own strategy unimpeded. This seamless integration of card advantage and resource acceleration, performed at the most opportune moments, can shift the momentum in your favor, often when your opponent least expects it.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Leveraging the power of Lorehold Excavation comes with a strategic setback. Each upkeep demands you to sacrifice another resource—a card from your hand. This inevitably dwindles your options over time, potentially leaving you at a crucial moment with fewer opportunities to react or seize the lead.

Specific Mana Cost: To activate Lorehold Excavation, one must meticulously tap both red and white mana sources. This cost restricts the card’s versatility, dictating it to be a staple only within decks that can consistently provide such mana, potentially sidelining it from an array of other viable strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the enchantment’s ability to sift through your graveyard and cast spells can be invaluable, its initial investment is weighty. With a cost that rivals many impactful four-mana spells in the game, players must weigh its long-term benefits against other cards that may provide immediate impact or advanced board state for the same mana expenditure.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Lorehold Excavation offers flexibility in gameplay, seamlessly integrating into decks that harness graveyard-based strategies or value engines. Its ability to chip away at opponents’ life totals while filling your own graveyard with potential resources makes it a multi-faceted tool in any player’s arsenal.

Combo Potential: The card’s synergy with other graveyard-utilizing cards opens up numerous combo avenues. Its incremental damage and self-mill can set the stage for larger plays, serving as a powerful catalyst in the right deck configuration.

Meta-Relevance: Given an environment that favors long games or a graveyard-centric meta, Lorehold Excavation becomes a consistent threat. Its presence on the board can subtly shift your opponents’ strategies by applying pressure and shaping the flow of the game.


How to beat

Lorehold Excavation is a distinctive card in MTG often found at the heart of red and white graveyard strategies. Its ability to mill a card each turn and potentially excavate a powerful artifact or creature from the graveyard makes it a threat that can’t be ignored. To counter this, one should consider instant-speed graveyard disruption. Cards like Tormod’s Crypt or Bojuka Bog can exile a graveyard in its entirety, neutralizing the potential value that Lorehold Excavation could generate.

It’s also important to recognize that Lorehold Excavation’s strength grows with time, as it steadily fills the graveyard. To limit its impact, fast-paced aggressive decks or decks deploying counterspells like Dovin’s Veto can ensure Lorehold Excavation doesn’t hit the board in the first place, or gets removed swiftly if it does.

Bearing in mind that Lorehold Excavation relies on a stocked graveyard to truly be effective, controlling the flow of your opponent’s graveyard is crucial. By prioritizing the exile of impactful targets or, alternatively, implementing preventive measures against Lorehold Excavation’s activation, you can efficiently mitigate the advantage this card is designed to impart to your opponent in the nuanced world of MTG.


BurnMana Recommendations

Exploring the strategic intricacies of MTG is a path to mastery that only the most dedicated players embark on. Card by card, Lorehold Excavation has emerged as a cornerstone for graveyard aficionados, blending the past with the present for tactical advantage. It’s crucial for players to bridge their knowledge of deck-building with gameplay execution, and understanding the multifaceted nature of a card like Lorehold Excavation can be pivotal. Dive deep into the world of red and white mana, refine your strategies, and harness the full potential of your graveyard. Discover more with us and carve your path to becoming a lore-master on the MTG battlefield.


Cards like Lorehold Excavation

Within the realm of graveyard synergizing spells in MTG, Lorehold Excavation offers a unique blend of effects. It bears resemblance to other enchantments like Tormod’s Crypt or Relic of Progenitus which also interact with graveyards. Yet, Lorehold Excavation stands out by slowly churning your graveyard to ping opponents and create card advantage over time.

Comparatively, Rest in Peace is a heavyweight, exiling graveyards entirely, but it doesn’t provide the incremental damage or the ability to fill your hand as Lorehold Excavation does. On another note, Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger also uses graveyard as a resource to deal damage but in a more aggressive and immediate manner than Lorehold Excavation, which is more of a steady, background threat.

While each of these cards find their home in different strategies, Lorehold Excavation’s continuous impact on the board in the right deck could make it a sleeper hit, especially in long-drawn-out games or commander setups. Overall, Lorehold Excavation is a steady performer, offering repeated value within MTG’s diverse array of graveyard interacting cards.

Tormod's Crypt - MTG Card versions
Relic of Progenitus - MTG Card versions
Rest in Peace - MTG Card versions
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - MTG Card versions
Tormod's Crypt - MTG Card versions
Relic of Progenitus - MTG Card versions
Rest in Peace - MTG Card versions
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Lorehold Excavation MTG card by a specific set like Strixhaven: School of Mages, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Lorehold Excavation and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See MTG Products

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Lorehold Excavation has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
TimelessLegal

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
See more decks