Live Play Data

Darksteel Citadel

Artifact Land · Commander 2021 (C21)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

676

Decks Running

353

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

77%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

77% of drawn Darksteel Citadels are played before the game ends, and decks that resolve it win at a 34% rate compared to 21% when it stays in the library.

Darksteel Citadel is a zero-cost artifact land that taps for colorless mana and is indestructible, making it a natural fit for any Commander deck that counts artifacts or wants a land immune to Shatter effects. Across 647 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, it appears in 353 of 9600 tracked decks, an inclusion rate of 4%. That reflects a clearly specialized card: players who choose it are building around it.

The play pattern is direct. 77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, a high rate for a land in a format where mana floods and game endings regularly strand cards in hand. Median first cast lands on turn 4.0, and once it resolves, 89% of copies are still in play at game's end, a figure driven by indestructibility making it genuinely difficult to remove. The cast-vs-library win-rate gap is +12.8 percentage points, a directional signal that decks built to leverage this card benefit when it comes down.

The commander distribution tells the clearest story about who wants this card. Artifact-centric commanders such as Tony Stark, Ultron, Urza, and Mendicant Core dominate the top slots, confirming that Darksteel Citadel earns its place specifically in decks that treat every artifact on the battlefield as a resource rather than just a tool.

At a glance

4% of tracked Commander decks include Darksteel Citadel
77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median turn of first cast
89% battlefield stickiness, buoyed by indestructibility
+12.8pp win-rate lift when cast vs. when it stays in the library
295 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=118

19%

13%

16%

27%

T6-9

11%

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 8 · max 17

Cast same turn as drawn 58%

The "good card" funnel

676 brought · 295 players

Brought to game

676

Ever drawn

153

Reached battlefield

118

Still on board at game end

105

77%

Of 676 Darksteel Citadels brought to tracked games, 153 were drawn, 118 of those were played, and 89% of resolved copies stayed on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +3.8pp

Players who cast this card win 34% of the time (n=114) , vs 21% when it never left the library (n=471).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 23% (n=31) — 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 +3.8pp to +21.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

177 instances

2.8%

Library

59.3%

Battlefield

19.2%

Graveyard

4.5%

Exile

Most Darksteel Citadels finish on the battlefield rather than in the library, the reverse of what you see for most singleton cards, a direct consequence of indestructibility keeping it in play once it resolves.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man 15 decks
2 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 14 decks
3 Toph, the First Metalbender 12 decks
4 Mendicant Core, Guidelight 11 decks
5 Rendmaw, Creaking Nest 11 decks
6 Shadow the Hedgehog 10 decks
7 Urza, Chief Artificer 9 decks
8 Aloy, Savior of Meridian 8 decks
9 Iron Man, Titan of Innovation 7 decks
10 Ragost, Deft Gastronaut 7 decks

The commander list is spread across 295 distinct players, but the thematic clustering is tight: artifact commanders and colorless commanders account for the overwhelming majority of decks running this card.

Frequently Asked

How often is Darksteel Citadel drawn in a Commander game?

Across 647 tracked multiplayer games, Darksteel Citadel was drawn 23% of the time when it was in the deck. That is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 153 instances that reached a player's hand, 77% were played before the game concluded. The remainder were mostly stranded by game endings rather than held deliberately.

What turn does Darksteel Citadel usually come down?

Median first-cast turn is 4.0. The distribution has a meaningful early cluster: 16 instances landed on turn 1, reflecting opening-hand keeps where a free land is always welcome. The spread runs all the way to turn 17 at the tail, which is typical for a card that has no urgency to play on any specific turn.

How sticky is Darksteel Citadel once it hits the battlefield?

89% of resolved Darksteel Citadels are still on the battlefield at game's end. Indestructibility is the direct reason. Mass land destruction that says 'destroy' does nothing to it, and it survives nearly all board wipes that catch artifacts. The small fraction that do leave are mostly accounted for by exile-based removal and sacrifice effects.

Does casting Darksteel Citadel actually help you win?

In 114 participations where it resolved, the win rate is 34%. In 471 participations where it stayed in the library, the win rate is 21%. The delta is +12.8 percentage points. Both sample sizes are reasonable, and the lower-bound confidence estimate is still positive, so this is a credible directional signal. It likely reflects deck-quality correlation as much as the card's direct impact: players who built around artifact synergies and included this land tend to have cohesive, well-tuned decks.

Which commanders most commonly play Darksteel Citadel?

Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man leads the top-commanders list with 12 decks, followed by Rendmaw, Creaking Nest at 11, and Mendicant Core, Guidelight and Toph, the First Metalbender at 9 each. The pattern is consistent: commanders that care about artifact count or artifact synergies. Ultron, Artificial Malevolence has the highest inclusion rate among eligible commanders at over 50% of tracked Ultron decks. Colorless commanders such as Ultron and Zhulodok also feature prominently because Darksteel Citadel's colorless identity fits any deck.

Is Darksteel Citadel legal in Commander?

Yes. Darksteel Citadel is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and most other sanctioned formats. It is not legal in Standard, Alchemy, or Premodern. It carries no color identity, so it slots into any Commander deck regardless of color requirements.