Live Play Data

Ghostly Prison

· Enchantment · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

13%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1240

Decks Running

676

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

79%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

13% of tracked Commander decks run Ghostly Prison, and 79% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 6.

Ghostly Prison sits in 13% of the 5373 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, appearing in 676 lists across 1146 observed games. That places it firmly in the "white staple" tier for any deck that wants to stay alive against creature-heavy tables.

The draw-to-play rate of 79% is the clearest signal here: when players find a copy, it reaches the battlefield at a high rate. Median first cast lands on turn 6, which is two full turns after the card's mana cost of 3 would technically allow it. The spread is wide, turn 2 through turn 10+, reflecting how often Ghostly Prison is a mid-game stabilizer rather than an opener.

The commander distribution is notably diverse. Killian, Decisive Mentor leads the pack, but the card shows up across enchantment-matters, control, and life-gain shells alike. White's limited removal options make a tax effect like this broadly useful regardless of strategy.

At a glance

13% of tracked Commander decks include Ghostly Prison
79% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
T6 median first-cast turn, two turns later than mana cost would allow
67% battlefield stickiness once resolved
526 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, spread across the dataset
27% draw rate per game, typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck

First-cast turn

n=265

15%

13%

15%

37%

T6-9

14%

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 16

On curve 21% (41 / 265 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 36%

The "good card" funnel

1240 brought · 526 players

Brought to game

1240

Ever drawn

335

Reached battlefield

265

Still on board at game end

177

79%

Of 1240 Ghostly Prisons brought to games, 335 were drawn, 265 of those were cast, and 67% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield at game end.

≥ -4.7pp

Players who cast this card win 23% of the time (n=255) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=801).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 27% (n=66) — 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 +0.8pp; 95% confidence interval -4.7pp to +6.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

369 instances

2.7%

Library

48.0%

Battlefield

24.4%

Graveyard

7.6%

Exile

Most Ghostly Prisons never leave the library, a structural feature of 100-card singleton rather than a sign the card underperforms. Of those that did move, the majority finished the game on the battlefield.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Killian, Decisive Mentor 63 decks
2 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 38 decks
3 Ms. Bumbleflower 20 decks
4 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 16 decks
5 Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima 13 decks
6 Queen Marchesa 13 decks
7 Go-Shintai of Life's Origin 12 decks
8 Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser 12 decks
9 Aminatou, Veil Piercer 11 decks
10 Breena, the Demagogue 11 decks

Killian, Decisive Mentor leads the list, but the spread across enchantment, control, and lifegain commanders is wide, confirming Ghostly Prison as a broadly useful white piece rather than a build-around.

Frequently Asked

How often is Ghostly Prison drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1146 tracked games where Ghostly Prison was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That's consistent with most singletons in a 100-card deck. Of the 335 copies that reached a hand, 79% were cast before the game ended. The remainder largely reflects games that concluded before the player found a window to cast it.

What turn does Ghostly Prison usually land?

Median first cast is turn 6, with the middle 50% of casts falling between turns 4 and 8. Only a small fraction of casts happen on turn 3 or earlier, meaning most players aren't casting it on curve. The hand-to-cast delay averages around 1.6 turns, so players tend to hold it briefly before committing rather than slamming it the turn they draw it.

Does casting Ghostly Prison actually improve your win rate?

The cast-vs-library delta in this dataset is essentially zero: 23% win rate when cast versus 22% when it stayed in the library. With a standard error larger than the delta itself, this is not a meaningful signal either way. Ghostly Prison's value is defensive and hard to capture cleanly in raw win-rate terms. Read these numbers as 'no detectable win-rate lift in a small sample' rather than evidence the card is weak.

Which commanders run Ghostly Prison most?

Killian, Decisive Mentor leads with the most decks in the tracked dataset, followed by Y'shtola, Night's Blessed and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. The list spans Orzhov, Esper, and Azorius shells, reflecting that Ghostly Prison is a format-wide tax piece rather than a combo component. The top commander accounts for a modest share of total instances, so the data is reasonably well spread.

How sticky is Ghostly Prison once it resolves?

67% of resolved Ghostly Prisons are still on the battlefield at game end. Enchantments in Commander face fewer targeted answers than artifacts, and opponents often choose to pay the tax rather than spend removal. That said, roughly a third of resolved copies do leave play before the game ends, usually through board wipes that hit enchantments.

Is Ghostly Prison legal in formats besides Commander?

Yes. Ghostly Prison is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Duel Commander, Brawl, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. In Modern it sees occasional sideboard play against aggressive creature strategies, though its home remains Commander, where multi-opponent combat math makes the {2}-per-attacker tax far more punishing.