Live Play Data

Burnished Hart

· Artifact Creature — Elk · Foundations (FDN)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

830

Decks Running

468

Median Cast Turn

5.0

Drawn → Played

73%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

73% of drawn Burnished Harts are cast before the game ends, and across 797 tracked multiplayer games the Hart lands on the battlefield at a median turn of 5.0.

Burnished Hart is a colorless-identity ramp staple that earns its place in decks that cannot access green's land-fetching suite. Across 797 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, it sits in 468 of the 19725 distinct decks recorded, with an inclusion rate of 2% among live-tracked lists.

The core draw-to-play signal is strong. 73% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends, and the median first-cast turn is 5.0. That mid-game timing fits the card's design: pay 3 to cast, pay 3 more to sacrifice and fetch two basics. The combined six mana investment means early-game hands rarely crack it on the spot, but players commit to it steadily through the midgame.

The commander distribution is notably broad. 413 distinct players have brought Burnished Hart to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of observations, which gives the dataset reasonable spread for a relatively niche card. It shows up most heavily under colorless and red-green commanders who lean on artifact-based ramp as a substitute for green's natural land acceleration.

At a glance

2% of tracked Commander decks include Burnished Hart
73% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
23% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck
413 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=138

11%

15%

13%

16%

28%

T6-9

14%

T10+

Median 5.0 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 17

On curve 29% (21 / 138 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 37%

The "good card" funnel

830 brought · 413 players

Brought to game

830

Ever drawn

190

Reached battlefield

138

Still on board at game end

73%

Of 830 Burnished Harts brought to games, 190 were drawn and 138 of those were cast, with the majority ending in the graveyard after a successful sacrifice for two basics.

≥ -0.6pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=127) , vs 21% when it never left the library (n=530).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 27% (n=47) — 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 +7.2pp; 95% confidence interval -0.6pp to +15.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

212 instances

4.2%

Library

8.5%

Battlefield

61.3%

Graveyard

9.0%

Exile

Most Burnished Harts end in the graveyard, the expected result of a successful sacrifice activation, while only a small fraction stay on the battlefield long enough to appear there at game end.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Bello, Bard of the Brambles 31 decks
2 Zhulodok, Void Gorger 29 decks
3 Kardur, Doomscourge 19 decks
4 Satya, Aetherflux Genius 11 decks
5 Aminatou, Veil Piercer 8 decks
6 Rendmaw, Creaking Nest 8 decks
7 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 8 decks
8 Avacyn, Angel of Hope 6 decks
9 Firkraag, Cunning Instigator 5 decks
10 Kozilek, the Great Distortion 5 decks

The commander list skews toward colorless and non-green color identities, a clear signal that Burnished Hart is serving as a ramp substitute in decks that lack green's land-fetching spells.

Card text

Burnished Hart

Artifact Creature — Elk

, Sacrifice this creature: Search your library for up to two basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.

2 / 2

Foundations (FDN) · Uncommon · Illustrated by Yeong-Hao Han

Frequently Asked

How often is Burnished Hart drawn in a Commander game?

In 797 tracked multiplayer games where Burnished Hart 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 those drawn copies, 73% were cast before the game concluded. The remainder reflects copies drawn late in games that ended before the mana investment was practical.

What turn does Burnished Hart usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 5.0, with the distribution stretching from turn 1 all the way to turn 17 at the extreme. The card's mode is turn 3, which makes sense for opening-hand copies, but most casts cluster between turns 3 and 7. That wide spread reflects the two-phase cost: cast it when you can, activate it when you have six total mana available.

Why does Burnished Hart have such low battlefield stickiness?

Burnished Hart's stickiness of 13% is low by design. The card's payoff is the sacrifice ability. Players cast it to hold the ramp option, then sacrifice it to fetch two basics. Most instances ending in the graveyard represent successful activations rather than removal. A low stickiness number here is a sign the card is working as intended, not a sign it is being disrupted.

Does casting Burnished Hart correlate with winning?

Win rate when cast is 28% across 127 participations, compared to 21% when the card stayed in the library across 530 participations. That is a +7.2 percentage-point gap. With the sample sizes involved, treat this as a directional early signal rather than a settled conclusion. The data is consistent with the Hart pulling its weight, but we are not claiming statistical certainty.

Which commanders run Burnished Hart most often?

Bello, Bard of the Brambles leads the count, followed by Zhulodok, Void Gorger and Kardur, Doomscourge. The spread across colorless and off-green color identities is the telling pattern: Burnished Hart fills a ramp role that red, black, white, and colorless commanders cannot easily cover with sorceries like Cultivate or Kodama's Reach. It is a pragmatic pick rather than a synergy piece for most of these lists.

Is Burnished Hart legal in Commander?

Yes. Burnished Hart is legal in Commander and has no format bans in the major sixty-card formats either. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its uncommon rarity in the tracked Foundations printing. Outside of those rarity-restricted formats, it is broadly playable, though its home is firmly Commander, where singleton deckbuilding and multi-player game lengths give the six-mana ramp investment time to pay off.