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Basalt Monolith card art
Live Play Data

Basalt Monolith

{3} · Artifact · Double Masters (2XM)
2%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
822
Decks Running
415
Median Cast Turn
4.0
Drawn → Played
76%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

38% of multiplayer games where Basalt Monolith resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +12.8 percentage-point lift over the 25% baseline when it stayed in the library.

Basalt Monolith sits in 2% of Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, a niche but consistent role as a colorless mana engine for big-spell and artifact-synergy strategies. Across 780 tracked games, the card appeared in 415 of 17176 distinct decks.

The win-rate signal is the most striking number here. Games in which Basalt Monolith reached the battlefield produced a 38% normalized win rate, against 25% in participations where it never left the library. That +12.8 percentage-point gap has a lower confidence bound of roughly 10 points, so the direction is consistent, though the sample is still growing. When drawn, 76% of copies were cast before the game ended, and the median first cast lands on turn 4.0.

The commander spread tells its own story. Colorless-identity commanders like Zhulodok, Void Gorger and Eldrazi-focused builds lead the table, followed by artifact-centric commanders like Urza, Lord High Artificer and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. Basalt Monolith's ability to produce three colorless mana and reset itself for 3 mana makes it a natural fit anywhere that wants a big mana burst or a combo pivot.

At a glance
  • 2% of tracked Commander decks include Basalt Monolith
  • 76% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
  • T4.0 median first-cast turn
  • 38% win rate in games where Basalt Monolith resolved
  • 78% battlefield stickiness once cast
  • 332 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=162
2%
T1
13%
T2
14%
T3
23%
T4
14%
T5
28%
T6-9
6%
T10+
Median 4.0 P25 3 · P75 6 · max 13
On curve 29% (23 / 162 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 45%

The "good card" funnel

822 brought · 332 players
Brought to game
822
Ever drawn
214
Reached battlefield
162
Still on board at game end
126
76%

Of 822 Basalt Monoliths brought to games, 214 were drawn, 162 of those were cast, and 78% of cast copies were still on the battlefield at game's end.

≥ +5.2pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=152) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=514).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 20% (n=46) — 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 +12.8pp; 95% confidence interval +5.2pp to +20.5pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

238 instances
3.8%
Library
52.9%
Battlefield
20.2%
Graveyard
4.2%
Exile

Most singleton cards never leave the library in any given game; the share of Basalt Monolith copies that reached the battlefield reflects real table presence for a niche inclusion.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans colorless, artifact, and five-color builds, showing Basalt Monolith earns its slot across a range of archetypes rather than being locked to one niche.

Card text
Basalt Monolith card

Basalt Monolith

{3}
Artifact
This artifact doesn't untap during your untap step. {T}: Add {C}{C}{C}. {3}: Untap this artifact.
Double Masters (2XM) · Uncommon · Illustrated by Yeong-Hao Han

Frequently Asked

How often is Basalt Monolith drawn in a Commander game?
Across 780 tracked games where Basalt Monolith was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is consistent with a 100-card singleton. Of the 214 copies that reached a hand, 76% were cast before the game ended. The remainder mostly reflects games that concluded before the player found a window to cast it.
What turn does Basalt Monolith typically land on the battlefield?
Median first-cast turn is 4.0. The distribution runs from turn 1 (ramp or opening-hand luck) through turn 8 at the 90th percentile, with the bulk of casts clustered in the turn 3–6 window. At 3 mana, only 29% of casts landed exactly on curve, with most arriving later after players drew it mid-game.
Does casting Basalt Monolith actually improve your odds of winning?
The data shows a +12.8 percentage-point lift: 38% win rate when cast versus 25% when it stayed in the library (n = 152 and 514 respectively). The lower confidence bound on this delta is still positive, so the direction is consistent across our sample. Call it a strong early signal rather than a definitive proof; the dataset will sharpen this number as more games are tracked.
Is Basalt Monolith banned in any format?
Basalt Monolith is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Oathbreaker, and PreDH. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Historic, Pauper, or any of the Brawl variants. The card has historically been a combo piece (most notably with Rings of Brighthearth for infinite colorless mana), which keeps it under occasional watch, but it remains unrestricted in Commander.
Which commanders most commonly run Basalt Monolith?
On Playgroup Live, Sauron, Lord of the Rings leads by raw deck count, followed by Zhulodok, Void Gorger and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. The pattern reflects two core use-cases: colorless-identity commanders that need any mana fixing, and artifact-synergy commanders that value the tap ability directly. Urza, Lord High Artificer and Brago, King Eternal also appear, the latter exploiting Basalt Monolith's reset trigger with flicker effects.
How concentrated is this data among a small number of players?
The data here is well-spread. 332 distinct players have brought Basalt Monolith to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 26% of all instances. That breadth adds confidence that the play patterns we observe are not driven by one prolific pilot.