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Mystic Remora card art
Live Play Data

Mystic Remora

{U} · Enchantment · Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
13%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
1973
Decks Running
1031
Median Cast Turn
4.0
Drawn → Played
72%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

Mystic Remora appears in 13% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0 and 72% of drawn copies reaching the battlefield.

Mystic Remora sits in 13% of the 8244 distinct Commander decks that have played a tracked game on Playgroup Live. That figure is drawn from 1031 decks across 1697 games, representing one of the most-played blue enchantments in the dataset.

The cast funnel tells the Remora story clearly. Of 1978 copies brought to games, 509 were drawn and 364 were cast. The 72% draw-to-play rate reflects both how eagerly players commit to the cumulative upkeep and how often late draws go uncast before the game ends. Median first cast lands on turn 4.0, with a mode of turn 1, confirming that when players open with it, they play it immediately.

Battlefield stickiness of 27% is low by artifact standards, but that is by design. Cumulative upkeep means Remora is intended to be sacrificed once the tax becomes prohibitive. The graveyard is the expected final destination, and the stat reflects that reality rather than any weakness. Mystic Remora is banned in Pauper Commander but legal and unrestricted in multiplayer Commander.

At a glance
  • 13% of tracked Commander decks include Mystic Remora
  • T4.0 median first-cast turn, with a mode of turn 1 for opening-hand copies
  • 72% of drawn Remoras reach the battlefield before the game ends
  • 27% battlefield stickiness, low by design due to cumulative upkeep
  • 699 unique players have brought Mystic Remora to a tracked game, a well-spread sample

First-cast turn

n=364
22%
T1
13%
T2
9%
T3
11%
T4
12%
T5
30%
T6-9
4%
T10+
Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 14
On curve 22% (79 / 364 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 59%

The "good card" funnel

1978 brought · 699 players
Brought to game
1978
Ever drawn
509
Reached battlefield
364
Still on board at game end
99
72%

Of 1978 Mystic Remoras brought to games, 509 were drawn, 364 were cast, and a 27% stickiness rate reflects the card's cumulative upkeep design rather than removal pressure.

≥ +1.4pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=327) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=1202).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 38% (n=141) — 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 +6.5pp; 95% confidence interval +1.4pp to +11.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

574 instances
4.0%
Library
17.2%
Battlefield
48.3%
Graveyard
12.2%
Exile

Most Mystic Remoras end in the graveyard rather than the library, a deliberate outcome of cumulative upkeep. Players cast it, extract value, and sacrifice it on their own terms.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list skews heavily toward blue-heavy and artifact-focused shells, with no single commander dominating. Remora slots into any strategy that wants free card draw against spell-heavy opponents.

Card text
Mystic Remora card

Mystic Remora

{U}
Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep {1} (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.) Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays {4}.
Dominaria Remastered (DMR) · Rare · Illustrated by Jesper Ejsing

Frequently Asked

How often is Mystic Remora drawn in a Commander game?
Across 1697 tracked games where Mystic Remora was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 509 copies that reached a hand, 72% were subsequently cast before the game ended.
What turn does Mystic Remora typically get cast?
Median first-cast turn is 4.0, but the distribution is notably bimodal. The most common single turn is turn 1, accounting for a meaningful cluster of casts drawn in the opening hand. Beyond that, casts spread across turns 2 through 8. The 22% on-curve rate reflects that most copies are drawn after turn 1 rather than held deliberately.
Why is Mystic Remora's battlefield stickiness so low?
Mystic Remora carries cumulative upkeep {1}, meaning the cost to keep it grows by one mana each turn. Players routinely cast it early, draw several cards, then let it go to the graveyard once the upkeep becomes unsustainable. A 27% stickiness is expected behavior, not a sign of removal pressure. The graveyard is the card's natural endpoint in the vast majority of games.
Is Mystic Remora banned in any formats?
Yes. Mystic Remora is banned in Pauper Commander, where its one-mana draw engine is considered too dominant in that lower-power environment. It is legal in multiplayer Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, Historic, Timeless, and several other formats. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Alchemy.
How concentrated is the Mystic Remora data among a small group of players?
The data is well-spread. 699 distinct players have brought Mystic Remora to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than 26% of all instances. That breadth adds confidence to the directional signals in the stats, though the overall sample of 1697 games means we still treat conclusions as early signal rather than definitive.
Which commanders most often pair with Mystic Remora?
The top commanders in the dataset are Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Urza, Lord High Artificer (10 decks each), followed by Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, Kenrith the Returned King, and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. Blue-heavy and artifact-focused shells dominate, which aligns with Remora's strength in controlling, spell-dense metas where opponents cast frequent noncreature spells.