Live Play Data

Archivist of Oghma

· Creature — Halfling Cleric · Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (CLB)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

679

Decks Running

347

Median Cast Turn

5.0

Drawn → Played

72%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

72% of drawn Archivist of Oghma copies are cast before the game ends, with a median first-cast turn of 5.0 across 658 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live.

Archivist of Oghma punishes opponents for tutoring, drawing a card and gaining 1 life for each library search they make. In 658 tracked multiplayer Commander games, it reaches the battlefield 72% of the time once drawn, a strong signal that players treat it as a snap-play rather than a card to hold.

The cast-vs-library win-rate delta sits at +3.0 percentage points, a positive but small gap on a dataset where neither bucket clears the threshold for a confident claim. Read it as directional: casting the Archivist is associated with better outcomes, but the sample size warrants caution. What is clear is the cast turn: the median lands on turn 5.0, and the interquartile range spans turns 3 through 7, meaning players deploy it across a wide window rather than rushing it onto the battlefield.

At 3% inclusion across tracked decks, the Archivist is a niche white staple rather than a universal include. Its payoff scales directly with how many tutors the table runs. In tutor-heavy pods it overperforms; in low-tutor metas its trigger never fires. The data here spans 298 distinct players, with no single contributor accounting for more than a small slice of the dataset, which gives the numbers reasonable breadth.

At a glance

3% of tracked Commander decks include Archivist of Oghma
72% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T5.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
51% battlefield stickiness once the Archivist resolves
298 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
23% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck

First-cast turn

n=110

15%

33%

T6-9

11%

T10+

Median 5.0 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 14

On curve 19% (16 / 110 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 35%

The "good card" funnel

679 brought · 298 players

Brought to game

679

Ever drawn

153

Reached battlefield

110

Still on board at game end

72%

Of 679 Archivists brought to tracked games, 153 were drawn, 110 of those were cast, and 51% of cast copies survived through the end of the game.

≥ -6.3pp

Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=103) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=442).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 43% (n=40) — 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 +3.0pp; 95% confidence interval -6.3pp to +12.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

175 instances

4.0%

Library

32.0%

Battlefield

38.9%

Graveyard

9.1%

Exile

Most Archivist of Oghma copies never leave the library, a structural reality of 100-card singleton decks rather than a verdict on the card's power. Among the copies that were observed in play, the split between battlefield and graveyard reflects the removal pressure a high-value stax piece attracts.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Sonic the Hedgehog 15 decks
2 Winota, Joiner of Forces 15 decks
3 Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer 14 decks
4 Giada, Font of Hope 14 decks
5 Liesa, Shroud of Dusk 12 decks
6 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 12 decks
7 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 9 decks
8 Gluntch, the Bestower 7 decks
9 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV 6 decks
10 Heliod, Sun-Crowned 6 decks

The commander list is spread across more than a dozen distinct commanders, with mono-white and white-heavy builds dominating. No single commander has a runaway lead, which suggests the Archivist earns its slot on its own merits rather than riding one dominant shell.

Card text

Archivist of Oghma

Creature — Halfling Cleric

Flash Whenever an opponent searches their library, you gain 1 life and draw a card.

2 / 2

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (CLB) · Rare · Illustrated by Stella Spente

Frequently Asked

How often is Archivist of Oghma drawn in a Commander game?

Across 658 tracked multiplayer games where the Archivist was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 153 instances that reached a player's hand, 72% were cast before the game ended. The median hand-to-cast delay is 1 turn, indicating players generally move to cast it quickly once they have it.

What turn does Archivist of Oghma typically hit the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 5.0, with the middle 50% of casts landing between turns 3 and 7. A small cluster hits as early as turn 1 or 2, likely off ramp or because it was kept in the opening hand. The long tail extends to turn 14, which reflects late draws rather than deliberate holds. Flash means players can also deploy it as a reaction to an opponent's tutor at instant speed, which may compress the effective cast window in live play.

Does casting Archivist of Oghma improve your win rate?

In tracked games, the win rate when the Archivist is cast is 30%, compared to 27% in participations where it stayed in the library. That is a +3.0 percentage-point gap. Both sample sizes are moderate, and the confidence interval for this delta crosses zero, so treat it as an early directional signal rather than a proven lift. Deck quality and tutor density at the table are likely confounding factors.

How sticky is Archivist of Oghma once it resolves?

51% of cast Archivists remain on the battlefield through end of game. That places it in the lower half of creature stickiness benchmarks, which makes sense: a 1/2 body with no evasion or self-protection is a removal magnet in any pod where the Archivist's trigger is a real threat. If opponents are tutoring heavily, they are incentivized to kill it immediately.

Which commanders most often run Archivist of Oghma?

Across tracked decks, the Archivist clusters most heavily in white-heavy commanders. Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer; Giada, Font of Hope; and Sonic the Hedgehog (Jeskai) each appear at the top of the list with the highest raw deck counts. The spread across 298 unique players and no single contributor dominating the dataset suggests this is a genuine meta preference rather than one player's outlier collection.

Is Archivist of Oghma legal in Commander?

Yes. Archivist of Oghma is legal in Commander with no restrictions. It is also legal in Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and several Brawl variants. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. Its color identity is mono-white, so it fits into any deck whose commander is mono-white or any color combination including white.