Live Play Data

Exquisite Blood

· Enchantment · The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander (LCC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1082

Decks Running

530

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

71%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

39% of games where Exquisite Blood resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +15.8 percentage-point lift over games where it stayed in the library, across 175 tracked casts.

Exquisite Blood sits in 5% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks on Playgroup Live. Its five-mana cost restricts it to dedicated life-gain and drain strategies, but within those shells the card pulls real weight: 39% of games where it hit the battlefield ended in a win for the player who cast it, compared to 23% when it never left the library. That +15.8 pp gap is statistically meaningful, with a lower confidence bound above zero, though it should still be read as directional given the dataset size.

The casting pattern reflects how the card actually plays. Median first cast lands on turn 7, well after the curve, and players hold it an average of two turns in hand before casting. Only 36% of drawn copies are slammed on the same turn they are drawn. That patience is sensible: at five mana, Exquisite Blood competes with other high-priority spells in the mid-game and rewards waiting for the right moment.

Black enchantment synergy commanders dominate the top slots. Edgar Markov, Oloro Ageless Ascetic, and Y'shtola Night's Blessed lead the list, reflecting the card's natural home in lifegain-matters and aristocrats strategies. The data is spread across 449 unique players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for under 5% of all tracked instances, a healthy distribution that adds confidence to the aggregate picture.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include Exquisite Blood
39% win rate when Exquisite Blood resolves, vs 23% when it stays in the library
T7 median first-cast turn, deep in the mid-game
71% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
74% battlefield stickiness once resolved
36% of drawn copies cast on the same turn they were drawn

First-cast turn

n=191

10%

17%

52%

T6-9

17%

T10+

Median 7 P25 5 · P75 9 · max 14

On curve 30% (33 / 191 cast on T5) Cast same turn as drawn 36%

The "good card" funnel

1084 brought · 449 players

Brought to game

1084

Ever drawn

269

Reached battlefield

191

Still on board at game end

142

71%

Of 1084 copies brought to games, 269 were drawn, 191 of those were cast, and 74% stayed on the battlefield through the end of game.

≥ +8.6pp

Players who cast this card win 39% of the time (n=175) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=663).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 21% (n=64) — 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 +15.8pp; 95% confidence interval +8.6pp to +23.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

302 instances

3.3%

Library

47.0%

Battlefield

18.9%

Graveyard

6.3%

Exile

Most resolved Exquisite Bloods end on the battlefield, a high retention rate for a five-mana enchantment and a sign that opponents struggle to remove it before it generates value.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Edgar Markov 61 decks
2 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 38 decks
3 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 33 decks
4 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls 23 decks
5 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 15 decks
6 Clavileño, First of the Blessed 13 decks
7 Liesa, Shroud of Dusk 11 decks
8 K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth 9 decks
9 Astarion, the Decadent 8 decks
10 Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit 8 decks

Edgar Markov leads the list by a wide margin, but the distribution fans out across ten distinct commanders spanning Orzhov, Esper, Rakdos, and mono-black, showing the card's reach across all black-inclusive lifegain strategies.

Card text

Exquisite Blood

Enchantment

Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander (LCC) · Rare · Illustrated by Cynthia Sheppard

Frequently Asked

How often does Exquisite Blood get drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1045 tracked multiplayer games where the card was in the deck, Exquisite Blood was drawn 25% of the time. That figure is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 269 copies that reached a player's hand, 71% were cast before the game ended. The remainder were drawn late or went uncast as the game closed out.

What does the win-rate lift actually mean?

39% of participations where Exquisite Blood was cast ended in a win, versus 23% when it never moved from the library. The +15.8 pp delta has a lower confidence bound above zero across 175 cast observations and 663 library observations, making it one of the more reliable lift signals in the dataset. Still directional on this sample size, but the direction is consistent.

What turn does Exquisite Blood usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 7, with the interquartile range running from turn 5 to turn 8. The distribution is spread across the mid-game rather than spiking at any single turn, which makes sense for a five-mana enchantment that competes with other high-priority plays. Players also hold it roughly two turns in hand before casting on average, so drawing it early does not guarantee an early cast.

Is Exquisite Blood banned anywhere relevant?

Exquisite Blood is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, Oathbreaker, and Brawl. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. It has no ban or watch-list status in Commander as of the last update to Scryfall legalities.

Which commanders most commonly run Exquisite Blood?

Edgar Markov, Oloro Ageless Ascetic, and Y'shtola Night's Blessed lead the multiplayer top-commanders list by deck count. The card fits any black-inclusive commander that cares about life drain, lifegain triggers, or aristocrats loops. Notably, Exquisite Blood pairs with Sanguine Bond to form an infinite loop, which drives much of its inclusion in dedicated combo-lifegain shells.

How concentrated is the Exquisite Blood data across players?

449 unique players have brought Exquisite Blood to a tracked game, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for under 5% of all instances. That spread is strong for a card of this inclusion rate and adds confidence that the aggregate stats reflect the broader playgroup rather than one prolific pilot's results.