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Command Tower card art
Live Play Data

Command Tower

Land · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)
77%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
16646
Decks Running
8998
Median Cast Turn
4
Drawn → Played
85%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

77% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live run Command Tower. When drawn, 85% of copies reach the battlefield, and it stays there 93% of the time once it does.

Command Tower sits in 77% of the 11714 decks that have played a tracked multiplayer game on Playgroup Live. That figure mirrors its reputation as the closest thing Commander has to a mandatory land slot for any deck running two or more colors.

The draw-to-play rate tells the clearest story: 85% of drawn copies are played before the game ends. That is one of the highest rates for any land in the dataset, consistent with players treating it as an immediate, unconditional play. Median first cast lands on turn 4, pulled forward by a dense cluster of opening-hand casts on turn 1. Once on the battlefield, it stays there 93% of the time, reflecting how rarely opponents choose to interact with a basic-style land that produces no immediate threat.

The concentration numbers reinforce the breadth of Command Tower's reach. Data spans 3099 unique players, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 1% of all tracked instances. That level of spread makes the inclusion figure one of the most reliable signals in the dataset.

At a glance
  • 77% of tracked Commander decks include Command Tower
  • 85% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
  • T4 median first-cast turn
  • 93% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
  • 3099 distinct players contributed data, one of the broadest spreads in the dataset
  • 16683 total instances brought to tracked games

First-cast turn

n=3723
25%
T1
13%
T2
10%
T3
8%
T4
8%
T5
27%
T6-9
8%
T10+
Median 4 P25 1 · P75 7 · max 24
Cast same turn as drawn 67%

The "good card" funnel

16683 brought · 3099 players
Brought to game
16683
Ever drawn
4404
Reached battlefield
3723
Still on board at game end
3460
85%

Of 16683 Command Towers brought to games, 4404 were drawn, 3723 of those were played, and 93% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +3.8pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=3594) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=10831).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 29% (n=632) — 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 +3.8pp to +6.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

4888 instances
2.3%
Library
70.8%
Battlefield
12.4%
Graveyard
3.8%
Exile

The overwhelming majority of Command Tower instances end the game on the battlefield rather than in the library, a sharp contrast to most singleton cards and a direct reflection of how quickly players cast it once drawn.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top-commander list spans mono-color through five-color identities, showing Command Tower's inclusion is driven by multicolor demand rather than any single archetype or commander.

Frequently Asked

How often is Command Tower drawn in a Commander game?
Across 6171 tracked multiplayer games, Command Tower was drawn 26% of the time when it was in the deck. That is a normal draw rate for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 4404 drawn copies, 85% were played before the game ended. The remainder is largely a game-length effect: copies drawn deep into a long game can go unplayed simply because the game ends first.
Does casting Command Tower actually help you win?
Games where Command Tower reached the battlefield show a 28% normalized win rate, compared to 23% in games where it stayed in the library. That is a +5.3 percentage-point lift. Both sample sizes are large, so this is a consistent directional signal rather than noise. Bear in mind this reflects deck quality correlation as much as the card's direct impact: decks that draw and play their mana early tend to be better-built decks.
What turn does Command Tower typically get played?
Median first-cast turn is 4, but the distribution is heavily front-loaded. The single most common cast turn is turn 1, driven by players who keep Command Tower in their opening hand. The interquartile range runs from turn 1 to turn 7, meaning the card is played across all phases of the game depending on when it is drawn.
Is Command Tower legal everywhere?
Command Tower is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Pauper Commander, Brawl, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Pauper, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Premodern, or Old School. It was originally printed as a Commander staple and has since been reprinted extensively, including in the Marvel Super Heroes Commander set.
Why does Command Tower see such high inclusion if it is useless in mono-color decks?
Command Tower produces mana only matching your commander's color identity, so it is a blank in a mono-color deck: tapping it adds nothing. Its 77% inclusion rate on Playgroup Live already accounts for that reality. The true rate among two-or-more-color decks is higher still. Commanders across the top-10 list span a wide range of color identities, from two-color pairs to full five-color, illustrating that multicolor decks treat it as a near-automatic include.
How reliable is the Playgroup Live data for Command Tower?
Command Tower has one of the strongest data footprints in the dataset. It spans 3099 distinct players, and the single largest contributor accounts for just 1% of all instances. That low concentration means the stats reflect a genuine cross-section of play rather than one prolific player's habits. At 16683 instances brought to games across 6171 tracked games, the headline numbers are stable directional signals, though Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing and all figures should be read as early-signal rather than exhaustive.