Live Play Data

Arcane Lighthouse

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

710

Decks Running

379

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

76%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Arcane Lighthouse appears in 2% of tracked Commander decks, and when players draw it, 76% of those copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.

Arcane Lighthouse is a niche utility land that earns its slot by answering one of Commander's most frustrating problems: hexproof and shroud. Across 693 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, it sits in 2% of decks, a focused rather than ubiquitous inclusion. The 76% draw-to-play rate signals that players who find it tend to put it to work.

The card's colorless identity means any deck can run it, and that flexibility shows up in the commander distribution. It appears across a wide spread of commanders rather than clustering in one archetype. Once it lands, 90% stickiness reflects what you'd expect from a land: it rarely leaves play. The activated ability costs only 1 generic mana plus a tap, which is low enough that players activate it the turn they need it without meaningful setup cost.

The win-rate data is directional at this sample size. What the numbers do show clearly is that Arcane Lighthouse is a deliberate include: brought by 327 distinct players, no single contributor dominates the dataset, and the draw-to-play rate holds up as an early positive signal.

At a glance

2% of tracked Commander decks include Arcane Lighthouse
76% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn
90% battlefield stickiness once it enters play
327 distinct players have brought Arcane Lighthouse to a tracked game
132 total casts recorded across all tracked games

First-cast turn

n=132

13%

14%

15%

12%

28%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 49%

The "good card" funnel

710 brought · 327 players

Brought to game

710

Ever drawn

173

Reached battlefield

132

Still on board at game end

119

76%

Of 710 Arcane Lighthouses brought to games, 173 were drawn, 132 of those were cast, and the large majority stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -9.8pp

Players who cast this card win 22% of the time (n=125) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=460).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 27% (n=41) — about the same as leaving it in the library. Those players survived long enough to draw it, so the gap above is about the card resolving, not just about surviving.

Observed gap -2.2pp; 95% confidence interval -9.8pp to +5.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

193 instances

4.1%

Library

61.7%

Battlefield

14.0%

Graveyard

6.2%

Exile

The vast majority of Arcane Lighthouses never leave the library, which is structural: a singleton in a 100-card deck simply does not get drawn in most games. The copies that do surface tend to stay on the battlefield, consistent with its 90% stickiness figure.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Killian, Decisive Mentor 82 decks
2 Zhulodok, Void Gorger 38 decks
3 Eriette of the Charmed Apple 11 decks
4 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 9 decks
5 Molecule Man 6 decks
6 Silverquill, the Disputant 6 decks
7 Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought 5 decks
8 Ultima, Origin of Oblivion 5 decks
9 Zenos yae Galvus // Shinryu, Transcendent Rival 5 decks
10 Hylda of the Icy Crown 4 decks

The commander spread skews toward aura and targeting strategies like Killian, Decisive Mentor, where removing hexproof and shroud is a core game requirement, but the colorless identity keeps the list broad across many archetypes.

Card text

Arcane Lighthouse

Land

: Add

: Until end of turn, creatures your opponents control lose hexproof and shroud and can't have hexproof or shroud.

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Uncommon · Illustrated by Igor Kieryluk

Frequently Asked

How often is Arcane Lighthouse drawn in a Commander game?

In 693 tracked multiplayer games where Arcane Lighthouse was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time, consistent with what you'd expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 173 drawn copies, 76% were cast before the game ended. That's a strong draw-to-play figure for a utility land, suggesting players prioritize getting it into play once they find it.

What turn does Arcane Lighthouse typically come down?

Median first-cast turn is 4.0, with the interquartile range spanning turns 3 through 7. The distribution shows a cluster of early casts in turns 1 through 3, likely from opening hands, and a long tail out to turn 13. The mean of roughly turn 5 reflects that many copies arrive after the early-game ramp window, which makes sense for a situational land that players may prioritize differently depending on what their opponents are presenting.

Is Arcane Lighthouse legal in Commander?

Yes. Arcane Lighthouse is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Vintage, Duel Commander, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Brawl, or Pauper. Its colorless identity means it can slot into any Commander deck regardless of color restrictions.

Which commanders most often run Arcane Lighthouse?

Across Playgroup Live's tracked games, Arcane Lighthouse appears most frequently alongside Killian, Decisive Mentor and Zhulodok, Void Gorger. The pattern makes sense: both commanders benefit from targeting opposing creatures, and hexproof or shroud on key threats can shut down those game plans entirely. The card's colorless identity means it also shows up in five-color and colorless commander builds.

Does casting Arcane Lighthouse correlate with winning?

At this sample size the win-rate signal is directional rather than conclusive. Win rate when cast is 22% across 125 observations, and win rate when the card stays in the library is 24% across 460 observations. The delta is small, which is typical for a utility land whose value comes from enabling other plays rather than generating direct advantage.

How concentrated is the Arcane Lighthouse data among a small group of players?

The data is well-spread. 327 distinct players have brought Arcane Lighthouse to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and no single contributor dominates the dataset. That breadth is a meaningful strength of the numbers here: the draw-to-play rate and cast-turn distribution reflect a genuine cross-section of play patterns rather than one player's habits inflating the figures.