Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Whenever Ragavan deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token and exile the top card of that player's library. Until end of turn, you may cast that card.
Dash (You may cast this spell for its dash cost. If you do, it gains haste, and it's returned from the battlefield to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.)
How It Works
One unblocked hit on a player runs the whole chain. The trigger goes on the stack, then it resolves into a Treasure and a stolen card. The catch is when you can actually cast what you stole.
The window is the trap. Connect on turn one, exile a sorcery, and you still cannot cast it until your second main phase. Exile a land and it is stuck in exile for good, because Ragavan only lets you cast the card. The Treasure is there to pay for a card in a color you do not run.
Reading The Result
- It only triggers off a player. Ragavan reads combat damage to a player. Damage to a planeswalker, a battle, or a blocking creature does nothing.
- You always get the Treasure. The Treasure and the exile happen together on resolution. You make the Treasure even if the player you hit has no cards left to exile.
- Cast, not play. You may cast the exiled card until end of turn, paying its real cost and obeying its normal timing. A land cannot be cast, so a land you exile stays in exile forever.
Tips
Cast Ragavan for his Dash cost, swing, then he bounces to your hand at the next end step. He spends your opponents' turns safe in hand, out of reach of board wipes and main-phase removal. Bring him back down each of your turns to keep the pressure on without ever leaving him exposed.
The card you exile is usually a color you do not run. Ragavan does not fix your colors for you, but the Treasure he makes taps for any one color. Crack it to cover the odd pip and cast the spell you just stole the same turn.
Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon turns opponents' nonbasic lands into Mountains and chokes their colored mana. Your Treasures keep your own colors flowing underneath the lock, so you still pay for the spells Ragavan steals while the rest of the table stalls.
Misplays
Ragavan says you may cast the exiled card. Casting does not include playing a land. If the top card you exile is a land, you can never put it into play, and it sits in exile for the rest of the game. This also blocks the back face of a modal double-faced card when that back face is a land.
The permission lasts until end of turn, but it does not turn the card into an instant. A sorcery or creature you exile during combat waits for your main phase with an empty stack. It is not a free flash, so a card exiled on an opponent's turn often cannot be cast at all.
Ragavan does not let you spend mana as though it were any color. You pay the exiled card's actual cost with the correct colors. The single Treasure is your only fixing, so a card with two off-color pips can be uncastable even though you are allowed to cast it.
Combos
Kinnan adds an extra mana whenever you tap a nonland permanent for mana. A Treasure is a nonland permanent, so cracking one Ragavan Treasure gives two mana of the color you chose instead of one. A stream of doubled Treasures turns the monkey into an explosive ramp engine early in the game.
The Saga's Construct token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control. Treasures are artifacts, so every hit from Ragavan quietly makes that Construct bigger while it sits on the board. The token can become a real beater off nothing but the tokens Ragavan is already generating.
Fine Print
- His mana value is always 1. Dash is an alternative cost, not a new mana cost. Ragavan's mana value comes from his printed cost, so cost-matters and one-drop effects still see him as a one-mana creature even when you pay the Dash cost.
- The trigger survives him dying. If Ragavan deals the combat damage and dies in the same step, for example trading in combat, the ability has already triggered. It still resolves, makes the Treasure, and exiles the card from the graveyard's vantage.
- A Dashed Ragavan only bounces if he is still around. The return to hand is a delayed trigger at the next end step. If he leaves the battlefield before then, he stays gone. A token copy of a Dashed Ragavan gets neither the haste nor the bounce.
- The cast permission ends at cleanup. Until end of turn means the window closes during the cleanup step. Any exiled card you did not cast stays in exile face up for the rest of the game.
- You cannot use the exiled card's other zones. Abilities that work from hand, like Cycling, Channel, or the channel lands, do nothing while the card is in exile. Ragavan only grants permission to cast it.
Governing Rules
Rulings last verified: June 2026
Official Rulings
You'll create a Treasure token even if that player has no cards left in their library to exile.
You must still follow all timing restrictions and pay all costs when casting the exiled card. If you exile a land card, you can't play that card.
If you choose to pay the dash cost rather than the mana cost, you're still casting the spell. It goes on the stack and can be responded to and countered. You can cast a creature spell for its dash cost only when you otherwise could cast that creature spell. Most of the time, this means during your main phase when the stack is empty.
If you pay the dash cost to cast a creature spell, that card will be returned to its owner's hand only if it's still on the battlefield when its triggered ability resolves. If it dies or goes to another zone before then, it will stay where it is.
If a creature enters the battlefield as a copy of or becomes a copy of a creature whose dash cost was paid, the copy won't have haste and won't be returned to its owner's hand.
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Request a cardSources
- Scryfall: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer (Modern Horizons 2 #138): oracle text, type line, legality, and the official rulings dated 2021-06-18.
- EDHREC: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: synergy partners and deck inclusion data.
- Wizards of the Coast: Banned and Restricted List: confirmation of the Legacy ban.
- Wizards of the Coast: Magic Comprehensive Rules: the CR references listed under Governing Rules.