Live Play Data

Blood Artist

· Creature — Vampire · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

11%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

2131

Decks Running

1096

Median Cast Turn

5.0

Drawn → Played

78%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

11% of tracked Commander decks run Blood Artist, and when players draw it, 78% of copies reach the battlefield with a median first-cast turn of 5.0.

Blood Artist is a 2-mana black staple that punishes every creature death at the table. Across 1990 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, it appears in 1096 of 9766 distinct decks, an 11% inclusion rate that reflects how broadly the card fits into black-based strategies beyond pure Vampire tribal.

The draw-to-play rate of 78% tells a clear story: when Blood Artist reaches a player's hand, it almost always ends up on the battlefield. Median first cast lands on turn 5.0, later than the card's mana value would suggest, which is a consequence of it often being drawn mid-game rather than held from the opening hand. Of cast copies, 46% survive to end of game, a relatively low stickiness figure that reflects how frequently opponents answer a card that punishes every death.

The data spans 889 distinct players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for just 1% of all instances. That spread strengthens confidence in the directional signals here. Blood Artist sits at the intersection of Vampire tribal, sacrifice, and token strategies, appearing most often under commanders like Edgar Markov and Dina, Essence Brewer.

At a glance

11% of tracked Commander decks include Blood Artist
78% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T5.0 median first-cast turn across observed games
46% battlefield stickiness once cast, reflecting frequent removal pressure
889 distinct players have brought Blood Artist to a tracked game
31% win rate in games where Blood Artist resolved

First-cast turn

n=378

14%

12%

37%

T6-9

12%

T10+

Median 5.0 P25 3 · P75 8 · max 16

On curve 19% (54 / 378 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 38%

The "good card" funnel

2139 brought · 889 players

Brought to game

2139

Ever drawn

484

Reached battlefield

378

Still on board at game end

175

78%

Of 2139 copies brought to games, 484 were drawn, 378 of those were cast, and 46% of resolved copies stayed on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +0.3pp

Players who cast this card win 31% of the time (n=349) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=1404).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 19% (n=97) — 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 +5.3pp; 95% confidence interval +0.3pp to +10.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

528 instances

1.3%

Library

33.1%

Battlefield

36.6%

Graveyard

10.2%

Exile

Most tracked instances finish in the graveyard or on the battlefield rather than the library, a strong signal that Blood Artist is actively engaged in the vast majority of games where it is brought to the table.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Dina, Essence Brewer 92 decks
2 Edgar Markov 92 decks
3 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls 80 decks
4 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 43 decks
5 Teysa Karlov 38 decks
6 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 24 decks
7 Meren of Clan Nel Toth 19 decks
8 Ygra, Eater of All 17 decks
9 Athreos, God of Passage 15 decks
10 Strefan, Maurer Progenitor 15 decks

The commander list spans Vampire tribal, sacrifice, and token archetypes across at least six distinct color combinations, showing Blood Artist's reach well beyond any single strategy.

Card text

Blood Artist

Creature — Vampire

Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

0 / 1

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Uncommon · Illustrated by L.A. Draws

Frequently Asked

How often is Blood Artist drawn in a Commander game?

In 1990 tracked multiplayer games where Blood Artist was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is consistent with what you would expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 484 copies that reached a player's hand, 78% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Blood Artist typically hit the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 5.0, with a mode of turn 2 in the distribution, meaning the opening-hand copies go down early. The spread is wide: p25 is turn 3 and p75 is turn 8, so a substantial portion of casts happen well into the mid-game when the card is drawn off the top rather than kept in the opening hand.

Does casting Blood Artist correlate with winning?

Games where Blood Artist resolved show a 31% win rate versus 25% in games where it stayed in the library, a +5.3 percentage-point difference. The lower confidence bound on this delta is positive, so the directional signal is consistent, though the dataset is not large enough to treat this as a definitive causal claim. Read it as an early, encouraging indicator.

Why is Blood Artist's battlefield stickiness relatively low?

Blood Artist ends up in the graveyard in a large share of observed games. That is not surprising: a 2-mana creature that drains life on every creature death is a threat opponents feel and answer. It is not a card that sits uncontested. The 46% stickiness figure is below what you see for artifacts or non-threatening utility creatures, and that gap is almost entirely explained by targeted removal and board wipes.

Which commanders most commonly run Blood Artist?

Edgar Markov leads the list by raw deck count, followed closely by Dina, Essence Brewer and Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls. The spread across the top ten is wide, ranging from Vampire tribal to sacrifice engines to token strategies. That breadth confirms Blood Artist's role as a cross-archetype payoff rather than a narrow synergy piece.

Is Blood Artist legal in Commander?

Yes. Blood Artist is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Timeless, Gladiator, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Historic, Pauper, or Brawl. There are no bans or restrictions in any format where it is currently legal.