Live Play Data

Mana Vault

· Artifact · Double Masters 2022 (2X2)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

2475

Decks Running

1196

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

81%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

81% of drawn Mana Vaults are cast before the game ends, and decks that resolve it win 37% of the time against a 26% baseline, a +10.7 percentage-point lift across 487 observed castings.

Mana Vault is one of Commander's most efficient mana accelerants, and Playgroup Live's tracked games back that reputation with hard numbers. Across 1760 multiplayer games, decks that cast it won at a 37% rate compared to 26% when the card sat uncast in the library, a +10.7 percentage-point gap on a well-sampled base of 487 castings.

The draw-to-play figure tells the sharper story: 81% of drawn copies reach the battlefield. Players are not sitting on this card. Median first cast lands on turn 3, and roughly a third of all casts happen on turn 1, showing how aggressively players prioritize it in opening hands. Once it resolves, 83% of copies remain on the battlefield at game's end, reflecting that opponents rarely find it worth removing.

Mana Vault is colorless, so it fits every Commander deck regardless of color identity. Its current 6% inclusion rate across tracked Playgroup Live decks reflects a card that rewards high-power tables where front-loading three mana on turn one is a meaningful tempo advantage. It is legal in Commander, restricted in Vintage, and banned in Legacy, Duel Commander, and several other formats.

At a glance

6% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Mana Vault
81% of drawn Mana Vaults are cast before the game ends
T3 median first-cast turn, with mode on turn 1
+10.7pp win-rate lift when cast vs. sitting in library
83% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
650 distinct players have brought Mana Vault to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=543

30%

12%

10%

27%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 17

On curve 30% (163 / 543 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 75%

The "good card" funnel

2475 brought · 650 players

Brought to game

2475

Ever drawn

670

Reached battlefield

543

Still on board at game end

448

81%

Of 2475 Mana Vaults brought to tracked games, 670 were drawn, 543 of those were cast, and 83% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield when the game ended.

≥ +6.4pp

Players who cast this card win 37% of the time (n=487) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=1480).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 27% (n=113) — 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 +10.7pp; 95% confidence interval +6.4pp to +15.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

752 instances

5.1%

Library

59.6%

Battlefield

16.5%

Graveyard

6.5%

Exile

Most Mana Vaults end games on the battlefield, a stronger retention rate than most artifacts, though a meaningful share routes through the graveyard as players accept the 1-damage upkeep rather than pay four mana to untap it.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Zhulodok, Void Gorger 39 decks
2 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy 24 decks
3 The Ur-Dragon 24 decks
4 Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh 19 decks
5 Vivi Ornitier 19 decks
6 Krenko, Mob Boss 18 decks
7 Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness 15 decks
8 Lumra, Bellow of the Woods 15 decks
9 Molecule Man 15 decks
10 Sauron, the Dark Lord 15 decks

The top-commander list spans every color identity from colorless to five-color, confirming that Mana Vault's appeal is universal rather than concentrated in a single archetype or strategy.

Card text

Mana Vault

Artifact

This artifact doesn't untap during your untap step. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay {4}

. If you do, untap this artifact. At the beginning of your draw step, if this artifact is tapped, it deals 1 damage to you. {T}

: Add

Double Masters 2022 (2X2) · Mythic · Illustrated by Christine Choi

Frequently Asked

How often is Mana Vault drawn in a Commander game?

In 1760 tracked multiplayer games where Mana Vault was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That figure is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 670 instances that reached a player's hand, 81% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Mana Vault usually get cast?

Median first cast is turn 3, but the distribution is heavily front-loaded. Turn 1 is the single most common cast turn, capturing all the opening-hand slams. The interquartile range runs from turn 1 through turn 6, so the card sees play across many points in a game, though the bulk of its impact is felt in the earliest turns.

Does casting Mana Vault actually improve your win rate?

The data is directional and the sample is solid. Decks that cast Mana Vault won 37% of participations across 487 castings. Decks where it never left the library won 26% across 1480 participations. The +10.7 percentage-point gap is the cleaner read on the card's contribution, controlling for baseline deck quality. The lower bound of the confidence interval is above zero, giving this lift more statistical weight than most cards in the dataset.

Is Mana Vault banned anywhere?

Yes. Mana Vault is banned in Legacy, Duel Commander, Two-Headed Giant Legacy (TLR), Oathbreaker, and Premodern. It is restricted to one copy in Vintage. In multiplayer Commander, it is fully legal and unrestricted, which is the context for all the stats on this page. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Pauper, Historic, or Alchemy.

How quickly do players cast Mana Vault after drawing it?

Of the instances where Mana Vault was both drawn and cast, 75% were played on the same turn they were drawn. The median delay between drawing and casting is zero turns. That makes it one of the fastest-executed cards in the tracked dataset. Players see it, they play it.

Which commanders run Mana Vault most often?

Zhulodok, Void Gorger leads the multiplayer dataset with the most Mana Vault decks, followed by Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh. The spread across color identities is notable: colorless, Simic, mono-red, five-color, and mono-green commanders all appear in the top ten. Because Mana Vault has no color identity, it is equally available to every Commander deck, and the data reflects that broad adoption.