Live Play Data

Buried Alive

· Sorcery · Modern Horizons 3 (MH3)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

813

Decks Running

438

Median Cast Turn

5.0

Drawn → Played

63%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Buried Alive sits in 6% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks, and 63% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends, with a median first-cast turn of 5.0.

Buried Alive is one of black's most efficient graveyard-setup spells: three mana to tutor up to three creatures directly into the graveyard, no questions asked. On Playgroup Live, it appears in 438 of 7881 tracked Commander decks, an inclusion rate of 6%. The data spans 363 distinct players, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 5% of all instances, so the numbers reflect a genuinely broad slice of the player base.

When a copy reaches a player's hand, it is cast 63% of the time. The remainder largely reflects games that ended before the opportunity arose, not deliberate holding. Median first cast lands on turn 5.0, consistent with a card that functions as a mid-game combo assembler rather than an opener. 22% of casts hit exactly on the 3-mana curve turn, and the hand-to-cast data shows a median wait of one turn between drawing it and firing it off.

The commander distribution tells the real story of where Buried Alive earns its keep. Reanimator strategies, aristocrats, and graveyard-value commanders dominate the top-slots list, from K'rrik and Meren to The Scarab God and Muldrotha. It is a format staple specifically because its payoff is front-loaded: the setup happens the moment it resolves, regardless of whether those creatures ever come back.

At a glance

6% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Buried Alive
26% draw rate across game participations
63% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5.0 median first-cast turn, consistent with mid-game combo assembly
22% of casts land exactly on the 3-mana curve turn
363 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=130

16%

20%

12%

40%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5.0 P25 4 · P75 7 · max 13

On curve 22% (21 / 130 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 30%

The "good card" funnel

814 brought · 363 players

Brought to game

814

Ever drawn

208

Reached battlefield

130

Still on board at game end

63%

Of 814 copies brought to tracked games, 208 were drawn, 130 of those were cast, and virtually none remained on the battlefield afterward, as expected for a sorcery whose value is fully front-loaded on resolution.

≥ -0.4pp

Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=114) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=473).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 29% (n=72) — 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 +8.0pp; 95% confidence interval -0.4pp to +16.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

259 instances

3.1%

Library

1.9%

Battlefield

59.1%

Graveyard

13.5%

Exile

Buried Alive resolves straight to the graveyard every time it is cast, so the graveyard dominates the final-zone chart. Exiled copies reflect hate that swept the card after resolution. The tiny battlefield count represents zero meaningful stickiness, as expected for a sorcery.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans mono-black reanimator, Sultai value, and Mardu aristocrats, showing that Buried Alive slots into any strategy that treats the graveyard as a second hand rather than a discard pile. No single commander dominates the count, which signals genuine cross-archetype demand.

Frequently Asked

How often is Buried Alive drawn in a Commander game?

Across 771 tracked multiplayer Commander games where Buried Alive was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 208 instances that reached a player's hand, 63% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Buried Alive usually get cast?

The median first-cast turn is 5.0, with the middle 50% of casts landing between turns 4 and 7. Only 22% of casts hit exactly on the 3-mana turn, which is typical for a card players are unlikely to have in their opening hand and tend to cast as soon as they draw it mid-game. The hand-to-cast median is one turn, and 30% of casts happen on the same turn the card was drawn.

Does casting Buried Alive actually improve your win rate?

In 114 participations where Buried Alive was cast, the normalized win rate was 30%, compared to 22% in 473 participations where it stayed in the library. That is a directional positive gap, but the confidence interval on this sample crosses zero, so treat it as an early signal rather than a settled result. As a sorcery that resolves and goes to the graveyard, its value is entirely in what it sets up, not in staying on the battlefield.

Where does Buried Alive end up at the end of a game?

Buried Alive is a sorcery, so it moves to the graveyard on resolution. The final-zone distribution confirms this: the graveyard is by far the most common end state. A small number of copies are exiled, most likely by graveyard-hate effects that also hit the spell itself. Almost none remain in library by game's end, which reflects how actively players seek to cast it when they draw it.

Which commanders most commonly run Buried Alive?

In the Playgroup Live dataset, Terra, Herald of Hope leads with 438 total decks in the data, followed by K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth and a cluster of well-known graveyard commanders: Disa the Restless, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, The Scarab God, and Muldrotha, the Gravetide. The pattern is consistent: Buried Alive earns its slot in decks that want specific creatures in the graveyard as a resource, not just as a destination.

Is Buried Alive legal in Commander and other formats?

Buried Alive is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, Alchemy, or Pauper Commander. It has never been banned in Commander, where its power is considered fair given the setup cost and the requirement to have a graveyard payoff in the same deck.