Live Play Data

Archmage Emeritus

· Creature — Human Wizard · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

Deck Inclusion

Games Tracked

188

Decks Running

127

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

52%

Archmage Emeritus lands in 5.9% of tracked Commander decks, but when it hits the battlefield, its pilots win 37% of the time — a figure constrained more by the card's late median cast turn of 6 than by its raw power.

Archmage Emeritus sits in 100 of the 1,706 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, a 5.9% inclusion rate that reflects its narrow color identity and its demand for a critical mass of instants and sorceries to pay off.

The draw-to-play rate of 57% is the most telling number. When Archmage Emeritus reaches a player's hand, just over half the time it actually hits the battlefield before the game ends. The median cast turn of 6, combined with a hand-to-cast median of 1 turn, suggests players are willing to wait for the right moment. Only 38% of drawn copies are cast on the same turn they arrive, meaning most pilots are holding it and looking for a safe window. Stickiness on the battlefield is 48% — about half of cast copies end the game still in play, pointing to a creature that draws removal or gets caught in board wipes.

The commander distribution is notably concentrated: Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads with 22 decks, and the top 10 commanders are all instants-and-sorceries-matters strategies in blue. That clustering is a clean early signal that Archmage Emeritus is a build-around inclusion rather than a generalist staple.

At a glance

5.9% inclusion rate across all tracked Commander decks
57% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn, later than its 4-mana cost suggests
48% battlefield stickiness — roughly half of cast copies survive to game's end
38% cast on the same turn they were drawn, a low slam rate
27 total casts observed across 140 tracked games

First-cast turn

n=30

23%

53%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 12

On curve 3% (1 / 30 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 33%

The "good card" funnel

204 brought

Brought to game

204

Ever drawn

Reached battlefield

Still on board at game end

52%

Of 152 instances brought to games, 37 were drawn and 27 were cast — a 57% draw-to-play rate — but only 13 of those cast copies were still on the battlefield when the game ended, reflecting heavy targeted removal pressure.

-0.7pp

Players who cast this card win 37% of the time (n=30) , vs 37% when it never left the library (n=147).

Final zone distribution

204 instances

72.1%

Library

6.4%

Battlefield

9.8%

Graveyard

3.4%

Exile

106 of 152 Archmage Emeritus instances never left the library — standard for a 5.9%-inclusion singleton, and a reminder that most tracked copies never got a chance to fire.

Top commanders running this card

by deck count

The top 10 commanders all share an instants-and-sorceries-matters identity, with Rootha nearly doubling the second slot's count, signaling a tightly concentrated build-around niche.

Frequently Asked

How often is Archmage Emeritus drawn in a Commander game? ▾

In the 152 deck-participations tracked, Archmage Emeritus was drawn 37 times — a 24% draw rate, consistent with baseline expectations for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those 37 drawn copies, 27 were cast, giving a draw-to-play rate of 57%. That 57% is directionally below the ~71% you see for format staples, suggesting some copies get stranded in hand or arrive too late to matter.

What turn does Archmage Emeritus usually get cast? ▾

The median first-cast turn is 6, with the 25th percentile at turn 5 and the 75th at turn 8. For a 4-mana card, that late median reflects the way the card tends to be held until a safe opening rather than played the moment mana is available. The hand-to-cast median is 1 turn — so once players decide to cast it, they act quickly — but only 38% cast it on the same turn it was drawn, compared to over 80% for high-urgency staples.

Does casting Archmage Emeritus actually improve your win rate? ▾

The early data is not conclusive. Win rate when cast is 37%, versus 38% when it stays in the library all game. The cast-vs-library delta is -0.7 percentage points. Both sample sizes are small enough — 27 casts, 106 library instances — that this should be read as directional only, not a verdict on the card's power. A baseline win rate in a 4-player pod is 25%, so both groups are winning above baseline, likely driven by the deck quality of the spellslinger builds running this card.

Why is the battlefield stickiness so low compared to other creatures? ▾

Archmage Emeritus has no built-in protection and immediately advertises its value: every instant or sorcery you cast draws a card. Opponents recognize the threat and prioritize removal. A stickiness rate of 48% means roughly half of all cast copies end the game on the battlefield, while the other half get exiled, killed, or bounced. That 48% is notably lower than resilient creatures or utility artifacts, which often land above 70-80% stickiness in the same dataset.

Which commanders most often run Archmage Emeritus? ▾

Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads with 22 decks, followed by Y'shtola, Night's Blessed at 14 and Fire Lord Azula at 11. Every commander in the top 10 is built around casting instants and sorceries at volume, which is the exact engine Archmage Emeritus needs to generate consistent card draw. The concentration at the top of that list is a strong early signal that this card rewards dedicated spellslinger builds far more than general blue value decks.

Is Archmage Emeritus legal in Commander? ▾

Yes. Archmage Emeritus is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, Brawl, Gladiator, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. Its mono-blue color identity means it slots into any Commander deck running a blue commander.