Live Play Data

Foundry Inspector

· Artifact Creature — Construct · Commander Masters (CMM)

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1556

Decks Running

784

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

78%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

78% of drawn Foundry Inspectors are cast before the game ends, and decks that resolve it win at a 33% rate vs. 20% when it stays buried, an early signal of real impact in artifact-heavy pods.

Foundry Inspector shows up in 4% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live. That modest headline number reflects its niche identity: it belongs in artifact-dense shells and rarely wanders outside them. Across 1467 tracked games, it has been brought to a pod 1556 times and cast 293 times.

The cast-vs-library win-rate gap is +12.2 percentage points in favor of games where the card resolved. With 278 observations on the cast side and 1029 on the library side, this is a directional signal rather than a settled conclusion, but the direction is consistent: getting Foundry Inspector onto the table correlates with winning more often. Median first cast lands on turn 5, one turn ahead of its printed mana cost, which reflects the ramp-heavy artifact decks that run it.

Colorless identity makes Foundry Inspector a clean fit for any artifact commander regardless of color. The top-commander list is anchored by artifact-tribal and artifact-synergy strategies, confirming it is doing exactly the work its oracle text promises.

At a glance

4% of tracked Commander decks include Foundry Inspector
78% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn, one ahead of its 3-mana cost
58% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
+12.2pp win-rate lift when cast vs. when it stays in the library
620 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=293

10%

22%

14%

12%

33%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 17

On curve 32% (63 / 293 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 38%

The "good card" funnel

1556 brought · 620 players

Brought to game

1556

Ever drawn

378

Reached battlefield

293

Still on board at game end

169

78%

Of 1556 Foundry Inspectors brought to games, 378 were drawn, 293 of those were cast, and 58% of resolved copies stayed on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +6.6pp

Players who cast this card win 33% of the time (n=278) , vs 20% when it never left the library (n=1029).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 19% (n=80) — 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 +12.2pp; 95% confidence interval +6.6pp to +17.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

418 instances

2.2%

Library

40.4%

Battlefield

33.5%

Graveyard

8.1%

Exile

Most Foundry Inspectors never leave the library, a natural result of singleton construction in 100-card decks, but among observed copies the battlefield is the single most common final destination.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 33 decks
2 Mendicant Core, Guidelight 28 decks
3 Dr. Eggman 26 decks
4 Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man 25 decks
5 Ragost, Deft Gastronaut 22 decks
6 Shorikai, Genesis Engine 21 decks
7 Urza, Lord High Artificer 20 decks
8 Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch 19 decks
9 Aloy, Savior of Meridian 16 decks
10 Imotekh the Stormlord 15 decks

The top-commander list skews heavily artifact-tribal, with Mendicant Core and Tony Stark leading, confirming Foundry Inspector is concentrated in dedicated artifact strategies rather than spread broadly across the meta.

Card text

Foundry Inspector

Artifact Creature — Construct

Artifact spells you cast cost {1}

less to cast.

3 / 2

Commander Masters (CMM) · Common · Illustrated by Jason A. Engle

Frequently Asked

How often is Foundry Inspector drawn and cast in a Commander game?

In 1467 tracked games where Foundry Inspector was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time, consistent with singleton odds in a 100-card deck. Of the 378 copies that reached a hand, 78% were cast before the game ended. Median first cast is turn 5.

Does casting Foundry Inspector actually improve your win rate?

Directionally, yes. Decks that resolved Foundry Inspector won at 33% (278 observations), compared to 20% in games where it never left the library (1029 observations). The gap is +12.2 percentage points. Both sample sizes exceed 15, so this is a meaningful early signal, though the dataset is not large enough to call it conclusive.

What turn does Foundry Inspector usually hit the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 5, with the distribution mode at turn 3, matching its printed mana cost. The 25th percentile is turn 3 and the 75th is turn 7, so the bulk of casts cluster in the early-to-mid game. Seeing it land on turn 2 happens occasionally, likely via mana rocks or cost-reduction effects already in play.

Which commanders run Foundry Inspector most often?

The top commanders in the tracked dataset are heavily artifact-focused: Mendicant Core, Guidelight leads the list, followed by Tony Stark, Ultron, and classic artifact commanders like Urza. Colorless identity means Foundry Inspector fits any of them without restricting color choices, which is a large part of its appeal in the format.

Is Foundry Inspector legal in Commander?

Yes. Foundry Inspector is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Pauper Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Alchemy, or Penny Dreadful. Its common rarity also makes it a staple in Pauper Commander lists.

How sticky is Foundry Inspector once it resolves?

58% of cast copies remain on the battlefield at end of game. That is moderate stickiness for a 3-mana creature with no built-in protection. It ends up in the graveyard more often than a pure utility artifact would, which reflects the removal pressure it attracts in competitive artifact pods where opponents recognize the cost-reduction threat immediately.