Live Play Data

Idol of Oblivion

· Artifact · Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander (TDC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

892

Decks Running

483

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

74%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

74% of drawn Idol of Oblivion copies are cast before the game ends, and decks that resolve it win 30% of the time versus 24% when it never leaves the library.

Idol of Oblivion is a colorless, 2-mana artifact staple for token strategies, and the live-play numbers bear that out. Across 843 tracked multiplayer Commander games, 74% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, one of the higher conversion rates among conditional draw engines in the format.

The win-rate signal is directional but worth noting with appropriate caution: games where Idol resolves end in a win for the caster 30% of the time, compared to 24% when the card never leaves the library. That is a +6.7 percentage-point lift on a sample of 150 cast instances. The effect is consistent with what you would expect from a card that generates card advantage in a deck already built to trigger it, but the sample is not large enough to call it conclusive.

At a 2-mana cost with no color requirement, Idol fits into any token commander's 99. The top commanders list skews heavily toward go-wide strategies across multiple color identities, which confirms its role as a format-agnostic draw engine for creature-token decks.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include Idol of Oblivion
74% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn
71% battlefield stickiness once cast
388 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game, showing broad adoption
30% win rate in games where Idol of Oblivion resolved

First-cast turn

n=153

10%

16%

12%

10%

37%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 2 · P75 7 · max 17

On curve 27% (25 / 153 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 44%

The "good card" funnel

892 brought · 388 players

Brought to game

892

Ever drawn

207

Reached battlefield

153

Still on board at game end

108

74%

Of 892 Idol of Oblivion copies brought to games, 207 were drawn, 153 were cast, and 71% of those resolved copies remained on the battlefield through the end of game, a solid retention rate for a conditional draw engine.

≥ -0.7pp

Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=150) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=619).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 32% (n=53) — 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 +6.7pp; 95% confidence interval -0.7pp to +14.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

223 instances

6.3%

Library

48.4%

Battlefield

27.4%

Graveyard

2.7%

Exile

Most Idol of Oblivion copies that were meaningfully observed ended on the battlefield or in the graveyard after being sacrificed, with only a small fraction stranded in hand or exiled, suggesting the card gets used when it's drawn.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Mr. House, President and CEO 25 decks
2 Hazel of the Rootbloom 23 decks
3 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 14 decks
4 Shroofus Sproutsire 13 decks
5 Zurgo Stormrender 13 decks
6 Krenko, Mob Boss 12 decks
7 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 12 decks
8 Zada, Hedron Grinder 12 decks
9 Rendmaw, Creaking Nest 10 decks
10 Morska, Undersea Sleuth 9 decks

The top-commander list spans at least five different color combinations, from mono-red Krenko to Golgari Hazel and Mardu Mr. House, confirming Idol of Oblivion as a colorless staple distributed evenly across go-wide token archetypes rather than concentrated in any one strategy.

Frequently Asked

How often is Idol of Oblivion drawn in a Commander game?

In 843 tracked multiplayer games where Idol of Oblivion was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 207 instances that reached a player's hand, 74% were cast before the game concluded. The median first-cast turn is 5, meaning players who draw it early tend to deploy it quickly once token generation is online.

What is the win-rate impact of casting Idol of Oblivion?

Games where Idol of Oblivion resolved show a 30% win rate across 150 observed instances, versus 24% when it remained in the library. The +6.7 percentage-point gap is a directional early signal. With 150 cast-instance observations, treat this as a consistent pattern rather than a definitive finding. The lift aligns with what you would expect from a repeatable, low-cost draw engine in a deck built around token production.

What turn does Idol of Oblivion usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 5, but the distribution is spread wide. The interquartile range runs from turn 2 to turn 7, reflecting that Idol is only castable once a player has made a token that turn. Early casts cluster around turns 1-2 when players draw it in the opener and have a turn-1 token source. Later casts reflect draws after the deck's engine is already running. Median hand-hold before casting is 1 turn, so players are not sitting on it for long once they draw it.

Is Idol of Oblivion legal in Commander?

Yes. Idol of Oblivion is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Duel Commander, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Historic, Pauper, or Brawl. Its colorless identity means it can slot into any Commander deck, regardless of the commander's color identity, which is a significant reason for its broad adoption across token strategies of every color combination.

Which commanders most often run Idol of Oblivion?

The top commanders on Playgroup Live are all token generators: Hazel of the Rootbloom, Mr. House President and CEO, Zurgo Stormrender, and Chatterfang Squirrel General lead the list. The spread across Golgari, Mardu, and mono-red commanders confirms that Idol's value is entirely conditional on token production, not on any specific color. No single commander dominates the list disproportionately, which reflects the card's broad format-agnostic appeal.

How concentrated is the Idol of Oblivion data across players?

The dataset is well distributed. 388 distinct players have brought Idol of Oblivion to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for 4% of all instances. That is well below the threshold where one player's habits would skew the aggregate numbers, so the stats reflect a genuine cross-section of Commander players running token strategies.