Playgroup.gg logo
Playgroup.gg EDH Tracker
collections_bookmark Part of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate
Manifold Key card art
Live Play Data

Manifold Key

{1} · Artifact · Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (CLB)
2%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
764
Decks Running
327
Median Cast Turn
4
Drawn → Played
80%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

80% of drawn Manifold Keys are cast before the game ends, and when cast, it wins 38% of the time compared to 28% when it never leaves the library, a +9.7 percentage-point lift across 147 tracked casts.

Manifold Key sits in 2% of Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. A specialist card rather than a universal staple, it lands most heavily in artifact-dense builds where its untap ability combines with mana rocks, vehicles, or equipment to generate outsized value from a single mana.

When a copy reaches a player's hand, 80% of those instances are cast before the game ends. Players cast it quickly: the median first cast lands on turn 4, and 69% of drawn-and-cast instances hit the stack on the same turn they were drawn. That speed is consistent with a cheap accelerant players want on the board early. Once it resolves, 85% of copies stay on the battlefield through the end of the game, a signal that opponents rarely prioritize removing a 1-mana utility artifact.

The commander distribution is broad. Zhulodok, Shorikai, and Urza top the list, but Manifold Key appears across colorless, blue, and even green-red builds, reflecting how format-agnostic its colorless identity makes it. Data comes from 739 tracked multiplayer games and represents an early directional signal rather than a settled consensus.

At a glance
  • 2% of tracked Commander decks include Manifold Key
  • 80% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
  • T4 median first-cast turn
  • 69% of drawn-and-cast copies hit the stack the same turn they were drawn
  • 85% battlefield stickiness once cast
  • +9.7pp win-rate lift when cast versus when it never leaves the library

First-cast turn

n=159
25%
T1
9%
T2
9%
T3
9%
T4
8%
T5
28%
T6-9
11%
T10+
Median 4 P25 1 · P75 7 · max 16
On curve 25% (40 / 159 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 69%

The "good card" funnel

764 brought · 276 players
Brought to game
764
Ever drawn
199
Reached battlefield
159
Still on board at game end
135
80%

Of 764 Manifold Keys brought to tracked games, 199 were drawn, 159 of those were cast, and 85% of resolved copies stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +1.6pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=147) , vs 28% when it never left the library (n=488).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=39) — 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 +9.7pp; 95% confidence interval +1.6pp to +17.9pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

215 instances
3.3%
Library
62.8%
Battlefield
14.9%
Graveyard
3.3%
Exile

Most Manifold Key copies finish on the battlefield rather than buried in the library, which is notable for a singleton: it reflects both a decent draw rate and the fact that once players cast it, opponents rarely bother removing a 1-mana artifact.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list skews heavily toward colorless and blue artifact builds, led by Zhulodok, Shorikai, and Urza, though the spread across 276 distinct players shows this is not a one-archetype card.

Card text
Manifold Key card

Manifold Key

{1}
Artifact
{1}, {T}: Untap another target artifact. {3}, {T}: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (CLB) · Uncommon · Illustrated by Gabor Szikszai

Frequently Asked

How often is Manifold Key drawn in a Commander game?
Across 739 tracked multiplayer games, Manifold Key was drawn 26% of the time when it was in the deck. That is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 199 instances that reached a player's hand, 80% were cast before the game ended. The remainder reflects copies drawn late in games that concluded before a cast opportunity arrived.
What turn does Manifold Key typically get cast?
Median first cast is turn 4. The distribution has a strong early cluster: the most common single turn is turn 1, consistent with players keeping opening hands that include a 1-mana artifact. From there the spread is wide, with casts recorded as late as turn 16. The interquartile range runs from turn 1 to turn 7, so roughly half of all casts happen in that window.
Does casting Manifold Key actually improve your win rate?
In 147 participations where Manifold Key reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate is 38%. In 488 participations where it stayed in the library the whole game, the rate is 28%. That is a +9.7 percentage-point delta. The lower bound of the confidence interval sits above zero, which gives this lift more credibility than a purely directional reading, but the sample is still modest. Treat it as a consistent early signal rather than a definitive conclusion.
Which commanders run Manifold Key most often?
Zhulodok, Void Gorger leads the list with the most decks tracked, followed by Shorikai, Genesis Engine and Urza, Lord High Artificer. The pattern is predictable: colorless and blue artifact commanders get the most mileage from the untap ability, which can recur mana rocks or tap-for-effect artifacts on the same turn. That said, the card appears across a wide range of color identities, which reflects its colorless cost and the broad utility of its unblockability mode.
Is Manifold Key legal in Commander?
Yes. Manifold Key is legal in Commander and Oathbreaker, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and several other constructed formats. It is not legal in Pauper Commander, Standard, or Pauper, and is tagged not_legal in PreDH.
How concentrated is the Manifold Key data across players?
The data is reasonably well spread. 276 distinct players have brought Manifold Key to a tracked game on Playgroup Live. The single heaviest contributor accounts for roughly 13%% of all tracked instances, which is below the threshold where one player's preferences would meaningfully skew the aggregate numbers. That spread adds some confidence to the directional trends visible in the stats.