Idol of Oblivion
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Artifact
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Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander (TDC)
Idol of Oblivion sits in 5.8% of tracked Commander decks, but when it lands, players win 40% of those games — a +4.2-point edge over games where it stays buried in the library.
Idol of Oblivion is a niche staple: present in just 5.8% of the 1,783 Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, it is purpose-built for token strategies and shows up almost exclusively in them. The 103 decks that do run it treat it as a draw engine first and a late-game Eldrazi factory second.
When the card hits a player's hand, they cast it 72% of the time before the game ends — a healthy conversion rate that reflects how smoothly it slots into active token decks. The median first-cast turn is 4, though the distribution is notably wide: 6 of 35 casts landed on turn 1 (opening-hand keeps) while 9 casts happened on turn 8 or later, suggesting some players wait for the token engine to be online before tapping out for a 2-mana artifact. Half of drawn copies are cast on a different turn from when they were drawn, with a median hand-to-cast delay of 1 turn — a small but real signal that pilots think before slamming it.
The colorless identity gives Idol access to every Commander archetype, and the top-commanders list reflects that: token-go-wide builds in Rakdos, Mardu, and Boros all appear, alongside clue-and-treasure strategies like Lonis and the five-color Eldrazi shell of Ulalek. Idol is not a card you jam in every deck — it is a card that rewards you for building around it.
- 5.8% inclusion rate across 1,783 tracked Commander decks
- 72% of drawn Idols are cast before the game ends
- 40% win rate in games where Idol hits the battlefield
- T4 median first-cast turn, with a wide spread from T1 to T11
- 77% battlefield stickiness once cast
- +4.2pt win-rate edge in cast games versus library games
First-cast turn
n=38The "good card" funnel
183 brought168 Idols were brought to games, 47 were drawn, 35 of those were cast, and 27 were still on the battlefield when the game ended — a tight chain from hand to board.
Players who cast this card win 39% of the time (n=38) , vs 36% when it never left the library (n=134).
Final zone distribution
183 instances123 of 168 Idol of Oblivion instances never left the library — the structural reality of a 100-card singleton, not a verdict on the card's power in the games where it was actually found.
Top commanders running this card
by deck count-
1
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar
13 decks
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2
Ragost, Deft Gastronaut
8 decks
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3
Kambal, Profiteering Mayor
7 decks
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4
Olivia, Opulent Outlaw
7 decks
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5
Ulalek, Fused Atrocity
7 decks
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6
Mr. House, President and CEO
6 decks
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7
Lonis, Cryptozoologist
5 decks
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8
Neyali, Suns' Vanguard
5 decks
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9
Rin and Seri, Inseparable
5 decks
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10
The Jolly Balloon Man
5 decks
The top 10 commanders span five different color combinations but share a common thread: every one of them generates tokens consistently, exactly the condition Idol of Oblivion requires to activate.
How often is Idol of Oblivion drawn in a Commander game? ▾
Across 168 deck-participations tracked on Playgroup Live, Idol of Oblivion was drawn in 47 instances, giving it a 28% draw rate. That is slightly above the structural baseline for a singleton in a 100-card deck, partly because token decks tend to run additional draw effects that accelerate through the library. Of those 47 drawn instances, 35 were cast — a 72% draw-to-play rate.
What does the +4.2-point win-rate delta actually mean? ▾
Games where Idol of Oblivion was cast had a 40% win rate across 35 observations. Games where it sat in the library the whole time had a 35.8% win rate across 123 observations. The 4.2-point gap is a directional signal — it suggests the card contributes to winning rather than just riding the coattails of already-strong decks — but with 35 cast games it is early-signal territory, not a statistically conclusive finding.
What turn does Idol of Oblivion usually get cast? ▾
The median first-cast turn is 4, with the middle 50% of casts falling between turns 2 and 8. Six of 35 casts happened on turn 1, almost certainly from opening-hand keeps. Nine casts landed on turn 8 or later, which likely reflects draws that arrived after the board state was already developed. The wide interquartile range tells you this card gets deployed opportunistically rather than on a fixed gameplan turn.
Is Idol of Oblivion good in Commander? ▾
What we see so far on Playgroup Live is consistent with its reputation as a strong engine in token strategies. The 72% draw-to-play rate means players almost always want to cast it when they find it, and the 77% battlefield stickiness means it tends to stick around once it resolves. The 10/10 Eldrazi token mode is rarely activated — it costs 8 mana plus the card itself — but its presence as a threat ceiling matters.
Which commanders most often include Idol of Oblivion? ▾
In our tracked dataset, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar leads with 13 decks, followed by Olivia Opulent Outlaw (7), Mr. House President and CEO (6), Ragost Deft Gastronaut (6), and Ulalek Fused Atrocity (6). The list skews toward token-generating Rakdos, Mardu, and Boros commanders, which aligns with Idol's draw condition requiring a token created each turn. The colorless identity means it can fit any color combination that generates tokens.
Is Idol of Oblivion legal in Commander? ▾
Yes. Idol of Oblivion is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Oathbreaker, and Duel Commander. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Pauper, or Brawl. Its colorless color identity means it has no restrictions on which Commander decks can include it — any token strategy regardless of color combination can run it.