Live Play Data

Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness

Legendary Creature — Elder Dinosaur // Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Elder Dinosaur · March of the Machine (MOM)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

800

Decks Running

378

Median Cast Turn

6.0

Drawn → Played

83%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

50% of games where Etali, Primal Conqueror resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +23.0 percentage-point lift over decks where it stayed in the library, on 159 observations.

Etali, Primal Conqueror resolves and wins. Across 772 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, 50% of games where Etali reached the battlefield ended in victory for the player who cast it, compared to 27% for games where it never left the library. That +23.0 percentage-point gap is one of the larger win-rate lifts tracked on the platform, and with 159 cast observations backing it, the signal is meaningful rather than incidental.

The card costs 9 mana, yet the median first cast lands on turn 6.0. That reflects how heavily Etali is played in ramp-heavy strategies: 67% of casts are on the card's mana-value turn exactly, while the majority arrive ahead of curve thanks to cost-reduction effects and dedicated ramp packages. Once it hits the stack and resolves, 64% of copies remain on the battlefield at game's end. Removal does find it, but less often than you might expect for a 9-mana threat.

Etali sits in 378 of the 4528 distinct tracked decks, an 8% inclusion rate driven almost entirely by Dinosaur tribal, big-creature-cheat, and Temur stompy strategies. The commander distribution chart below tells that story plainly: Gishath, Pantlaza, and Atla Palani dominate the top slots.

At a glance

50% win rate in games where Etali was cast, on 159 observations
+23.0pp win-rate lift over games where Etali never left the library
T6.0 median first-cast turn despite a 9-mana cost
83% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
64% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
8% inclusion rate across 4528 tracked decks

First-cast turn

n=184

10%

17%

63%

T6-9

T10+

Median 6.0 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 18

On curve 67% (30 / 184 cast on T7) Cast same turn as drawn 39%

The "good card" funnel

802 brought · 331 players

Brought to game

802

Ever drawn

221

Reached battlefield

184

Still on board at game end

143

83%

Of 802 Etalis brought to games, 221 were drawn, 184 of those were cast, and 64% of resolved copies survived to the game's final zone.

≥ +15.0pp

Players who cast this card win 50% of the time (n=159) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=457).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 22% (n=32) — 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 +23.0pp; 95% confidence interval +15.0pp to +31.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

285 instances

2.1%

Library

50.2%

Battlefield

17.9%

Graveyard

10.9%

Exile

The majority of observed Etali copies finish on the battlefield or in the command zone, a sharply different profile from typical high-cost singletons where most copies never leave the library.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Pantlaza, Sun-Favored 56 decks
2 Gishath, Sun's Avatar 52 decks
3 Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness 30 decks
4 Henzie "Toolbox" Torre 27 decks
5 Atla Palani, Nest Tender 26 decks
6 Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers 15 decks
7 Eshki, Temur's Roar 11 decks
8 Maelstrom Wanderer 11 decks
9 Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer 8 decks
10 Eddie Brock // Venom, Lethal Protector 6 decks

Gishath, Pantlaza, and Atla Palani each lead large deck clusters, confirming Etali is above all a Dinosaur-tribal staple, with Gruul and Temur cheat-into-play strategies filling the next tier.

Card text

Etali, Primal Conqueror

Legendary Creature — Elder Dinosaur

Trample When Etali enters, each player exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card. You may cast any number of spells from among the nonland cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs. {9}

: Transform Etali. Activate only as a sorcery.

7 / 7

Etali, Primal Sickness

Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Elder Dinosaur

Trample, indestructible Whenever Etali deals combat damage to a player, they get that many poison counters. (A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.)

11 / 11

March of the Machine (MOM) · Rare · Illustrated by Ryan Pancoast

Frequently Asked

How often is Etali, Primal Conqueror drawn in a Commander game?

Across 772 tracked multiplayer games where Etali was in the deck, it was drawn 28% of the time. That is typical for a high-cost singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 221 drawn copies, 83% were cast before the game concluded. The remainder were largely held in hand while the game ended around them or were never cast due to timing constraints.

What turn does Etali usually get cast?

Median first cast lands on turn 6.0, with a p25 of turn 5 and a p75 of turn 8. For a 9-mana card, that is genuinely early, and it reflects the ramp-heavy and cost-reduction strategies that run Etali. Only 67% of casts land exactly on the mana-value turn, meaning the majority arrive ahead of curve through effects like Selvala's Stampede, Sneak Attack, or general green ramp.

Does casting Etali actually improve your win rate?

The data says yes, with the caveat that both buckets matter. Games where Etali was cast show a 50% win rate across 159 observations. Games where it stayed in the library show 27% across 457 observations. The +23.0 percentage-point delta is a directional signal that resolving this card meaningfully improves your odds, though some of that gap is also explained by the quality of the decks running it.

How sticky is Etali on the battlefield?

64% of Etali copies that reach the battlefield are still there at game's end. Removal does answer it, and a non-trivial share ends up in the graveyard or exile, but the majority of resolutions stick around long enough to generate serious value through repeated attack triggers. For an 11/11 trample body, that durability is consistent with what experienced players expect.

Which commanders run Etali most often?

In the multiplayer data, Gishath, Sun's Avatar leads with the most decks, followed closely by Pantlaza, Sun-Favored and Atla Palani, Nest Tender. All three are Naya Dinosaur commanders who can cheat Etali into play off tribal triggers or egg tokens. Etali itself also appears as a commander, and Henzie and Maelstrom Wanderer round out the top group as non-tribal cheat-into-play strategies.

Is Etali, Primal Conqueror legal in Commander?

Yes. Etali, Primal Conqueror is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, Brawl, and Oathbreaker as of the March of the Machine printing. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. There are no current bans or restrictions in Commander. Note that the March of the Machine version is a transforming double-faced card with a Phyrexian face, Etali, Primal Sickness, though the front face is the one typically used in Commander.