Live Play Data

Grave Pact

· Enchantment · Commander Masters (CMM)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

859

Decks Running

464

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

70%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

36% of games where Grave Pact resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +12.7 percentage-point lift over the 23% baseline when it never left the library.

Grave Pact sits in 5% of the 9766 Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, a focused but committed player base spread across 398 distinct players. When it resolves, casters win 36% of the time, compared to 23% when the card never sees play. That +12.7 percentage-point gap is the clearest signal in its numbers.

The card costs 4 mana and lands on the battlefield on turn 6 at the median, which is later than its mana value alone might suggest. Only 23% of casts hit exactly on curve. Most copies are drawn after the early turns have passed, and 37% of drawn copies that do get cast go down the same turn they are drawn. Players do not tend to hold it once they have the mana and the board state to support it.

The commander distribution skews heavily mono-black and sacrifice-themed. Sephiroth, Marrow-Gnawer, and Teysa Karlov lead the field, all strategies that generate a steady stream of dying creatures to trigger Grave Pact repeatedly. 64% of resolved copies survive to the final game state, a reasonable retention rate for a four-mana enchantment that paints a target on the caster immediately.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include Grave Pact
T6 median first-cast turn, typically after the board is established
36% win rate in games where Grave Pact reached the battlefield
70% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
64% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
398 distinct players have brought Grave Pact to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=129

15%

10%

55%

T6-9

12%

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 15

On curve 23% (19 / 129 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 37%

The "good card" funnel

861 brought · 398 players

Brought to game

861

Ever drawn

184

Reached battlefield

129

Still on board at game end

70%

Of 861 Grave Pacts brought to games, 184 were drawn, 129 of those were cast, and 64% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield at game's end.

≥ +4.2pp

Players who cast this card win 36% of the time (n=115) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=556).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 16% (n=52) — 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 +12.7pp; 95% confidence interval +4.2pp to +21.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

207 instances

2.9%

Library

39.6%

Battlefield

23.7%

Graveyard

9.2%

Exile

Most Grave Pacts in a tracked game never leave the library, a structural reality of 100-card singleton decks rather than a reflection of the card's power when it does resolve.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 43 decks
2 Marrow-Gnawer 24 decks
3 Teysa Karlov 23 decks
4 The Serpent Society 18 decks
5 Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver 17 decks
6 Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern 13 decks
7 Rat King, Verminister 12 decks
8 Vren, the Relentless 10 decks
9 Athreos, God of Passage 9 decks
10 Meren of Clan Nel Toth 9 decks

The top commander list is dominated by mono-black sacrifice strategies, with Sephiroth, Marrow-Gnawer, and Teysa Karlov leading, showing how tightly Grave Pact clusters around decks built around creature death.

Card text

Grave Pact

Enchantment

Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature of their choice.

Commander Masters (CMM) · Mythic · Illustrated by Billy Christian

Frequently Asked

How often is Grave Pact drawn in a Commander game?

Across 837 tracked multiplayer Commander games where Grave Pact was in the deck, it was drawn 21% of the time. That is in line with expectations for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 184 drawn copies, 70% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Grave Pact usually hit the battlefield?

Median first cast lands on turn 6, with the middle half of casts falling between turns 4 and 7. Only 23% of casts land exactly on curve for a 4-mana card. This is largely a draw-timing effect: most copies are not in the opening hand and arrive after the critical early turns. When a copy is drawn and does get cast, 37% of the time it goes down on the same turn it enters hand.

Does casting Grave Pact actually improve your win rate?

Directionally, yes. In 115 participations where Grave Pact resolved, the normalized win rate was 36%. In 556 participations where it never left the library, that rate was 23%. The +12.7 point gap is a meaningful early signal, and the sample sizes in both buckets are large enough to take it seriously, though we stop short of calling it definitive given the overall dataset size.

Which commanders run Grave Pact most often?

The top slot belongs to Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, followed by Marrow-Gnawer and Teysa Karlov. All three are mono-black or black-inclusive sacrifice strategies that generate consistent creature death triggers. The pattern is clear: Grave Pact fits best where dying creatures are a resource, not a setback.

Is Grave Pact legal in Commander?

Yes. Grave Pact is legal and unrestricted in Commander as well as Legacy, Vintage, Modern, Historic, Timeless, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. It carries a black color identity, so it is restricted to decks with a mono-black or black-inclusive commander.

How sticky is Grave Pact once it resolves?

64% of resolved Grave Pacts are still on the battlefield at the end of the game. For a card that immediately threatens every opponent's creature base, that retention rate reflects how difficult enchantment removal is in Commander rather than any inherent protection on the card itself. Opponents who lack dedicated enchantment answers often cannot answer it before it generates multiple forced sacrifice triggers.