Live Play Data

Archmage Emeritus

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

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1223

Decks Running

677

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

53%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Archmage Emeritus appears in 8% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks, and games where it resolved show a +14.2 percentage-point win-rate lift over games where it stayed in the library.

Archmage Emeritus sits in 8% of the 8244 distinct Commander decks that have played a tracked game on Playgroup Live. Its Magecraft trigger converts every instant or sorcery into a free card, making it a natural engine piece in spell-heavy blue builds.

The cast win rate of 36% outpaces the library baseline of 22% by +14.2 percentage points across a well-sampled 145-observation window. That gap clears the one-standard-error threshold, so it reads as a meaningful early signal rather than noise. Median first cast lands on turn 6, later than its 4-mana cost would suggest, consistent with players holding it until they have instant or sorcery backup ready to fire.

The commander distribution is wide and R/U-heavy. Spell-copy commanders like Rootha, Mastering the Moment and Izzet-style spellslingers dominate the top slots, but Y'shtola, Night's Blessed leads by raw deck count, hinting that reactive, instant-dense strategies value the Emeritus just as much as pure storm-style decks.

At a glance

8% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Archmage Emeritus
53% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn, well past its 4-mana curve slot
36% win rate in games where Archmage Emeritus resolved
+14.2pp win-rate lift over games where it never left the library
575 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=153

12%

16%

51%

T6-9

14%

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 17

On curve 19% (18 / 153 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 31%

The "good card" funnel

1227 brought · 575 players

Brought to game

1227

Ever drawn

288

Reached battlefield

153

Still on board at game end

53%

Of 1227 copies brought to tracked games, 288 were drawn, 153 of those were cast, and roughly half remained on the battlefield when the game concluded.

≥ +6.6pp

Players who cast this card win 36% of the time (n=145) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=791).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 36% (n=124) — 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 +14.2pp; 95% confidence interval +6.6pp to +21.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

325 instances

1.8%

Library

22.8%

Battlefield

31.7%

Graveyard

9.2%

Exile

Most Archmage Emeritus copies end up in the graveyard or hand rather than the library, a sign this card is actively engaged with rather than buried undrawn in the 100-card singleton structure.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list is R/U-heavy and spell-copy focused, but the spread across ten commanders with meaningful deck counts shows Archmage Emeritus earns its slot in a wide range of instant-and-sorcery builds, not just a single archetype.

Card text

Archmage Emeritus

Creature — Human Wizard

Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, draw a card.

2 / 2

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Caio Monteiro

Frequently Asked

How often is Archmage Emeritus drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1158 tracked multiplayer games where the card was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is a normal draw rate for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 288 copies that reached a hand, 53% were cast before the game ended. The remainder largely reflects games that concluded before the player found a window to cast a 4-mana creature.

Why does Archmage Emeritus land so late, on turn 7 typically?

Its median first-cast turn is 6, and the on-curve rate is 19%. Most casts land behind curve because players rarely draw it in opening hands. The hand-to-cast data also shows a median of 2 turns spent holding the card before casting, suggesting players wait for a moment when they can immediately pair it with a spell to get the first Magecraft trigger right away.

Does casting Archmage Emeritus actually improve your chances of winning?

Games where Archmage Emeritus resolved show a win rate of 36%, compared to 22% for games where it stayed in the library uninteracted with. That is a +14.2 percentage-point gap across 145 cast observations and 791 library observations. The lower-bound confidence estimate still clears zero, so this reads as a directional positive signal. Spell-dense decks likely see the biggest effect.

What commanders run Archmage Emeritus most?

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed leads the tracked dataset by deck count, followed by Rootha, Mastering the Moment and Fire Lord Azula. The common thread across most top commanders is a blue-red or blue-heavy color identity with a heavy instant and sorcery focus, exactly the shell where Magecraft triggers fire most frequently. The spread across 575 unique players and a max single-player share of 53% suggests this is not a one-builder phenomenon.

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, Oathbreaker, and Gladiator. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. There are no known bans or restrictions in Commander.

How sticky is Archmage Emeritus once it hits the battlefield?

48% of resolved copies were still on the battlefield at end of game. That is lower than typical for a blue creature, which reflects the threat level opponents assign to an active Magecraft engine. It draws removal quickly once players start chaining spells through it, so protecting it or casting it into a clear board state matters.