Live Play Data

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Legendary Land · Theros (THS)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

902

Decks Running

497

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

76%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

34% of games where Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx reached the battlefield ended in a win for its controller, compared to 24% when it stayed in the library. That +9.9-point lift is the clearest signal we have that resolving this land matters.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx sits in 5% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks on Playgroup Live, a niche but deliberate include: players who bring it are committing to mono-color or near-mono strategies built to exploit high devotion.

The win-rate picture is telling. Games where Nykthos reached the battlefield resolved in a win 34% of the time. Games where it stayed buried in the library resolved in a win only 24% of the time. That +9.9-percentage-point gap is directional evidence that the card does real work, though both sample sizes should grow before treating the delta as conclusive. Battlefield stickiness of 95% confirms that once it hits the table, very little can remove it.

The commander distribution is notably diverse. Giada, Font of Hope leads the list, consistent with white weenie's need for explosive mana. Red commanders like Krenko and Clive follow, leaning on token counts to inflate devotion. That spread across colors tells you Nykthos is not a one-archetype card: any mono-color strategy that floods the board with colored pips will consider it.

At a glance

5% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Nykthos
34% win rate in games where Nykthos reached the battlefield
76% of drawn copies were played before the game ended
T4 median first-cast turn
95% battlefield stickiness once the land enters play
359 distinct players have brought Nykthos to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=169

12%

15%

20%

11%

27%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4 P25 3 · P75 6 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 45%

The "good card" funnel

903 brought · 359 players

Brought to game

903

Ever drawn

222

Reached battlefield

169

Still on board at game end

160

76%

Of 903 Nykthos copies brought to games, 222 were drawn, 169 of those were played, and the vast majority remained on the battlefield through game end.

≥ +2.7pp

Players who cast this card win 34% of the time (n=163) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=600).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 31% (n=52) — 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 +9.9pp; 95% confidence interval +2.7pp to +17.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

253 instances

2.0%

Library

63.2%

Battlefield

15.0%

Graveyard

4.7%

Exile

Most Nykthos copies never leave the library, a structural reality of 100-card singleton, but the copies that do land stay on the battlefield at a 95% rate through the end of the game.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Giada, Font of Hope 26 decks
2 Krenko, Mob Boss 15 decks
3 Clive, Ifrit's Dominant // Ifrit, Warden of Inferno 12 decks
4 Ghalta, Primal Hunger 8 decks
5 Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer 7 decks
6 Marrow-Gnawer 7 decks
7 Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern 7 decks
8 Ardyn, the Usurper 6 decks
9 K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth 6 decks
10 The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 6 decks

Giada leads the tracked commander list, but the spread across white, red, green, and black commanders confirms that Nykthos is a devotion tool, not a single-archetype staple.

Frequently Asked

How often is Nykthos drawn in a Commander game?

Across 822 tracked multiplayer games where Nykthos was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That is typical for a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of the 222 copies that reached a hand, 76% were played before the game ended. The median turn for first play is turn 4, though the distribution is wide, with some copies landing as early as turn 1 and others as late as turn 12.

Does casting Nykthos actually improve your odds of winning?

The early signal is yes, but treat it as directional rather than definitive. Games where Nykthos hit the battlefield show a 34% win rate; games where it never left the library show 24%. The +9.9-point gap is meaningful, but the sample is not yet large enough to state a confidence interval. As tracked games accumulate, this delta will stabilize.

What commanders use Nykthos most on Playgroup Live?

Giada, Font of Hope leads with the most tracked decks, followed by Krenko, Mob Boss and Clive, Ifrit's Dominant. The spread across white, red, green, and black commanders reflects the core requirement: a mono-color strategy that runs many permanents with the same colored mana symbols. Any commander that incentivizes flooding the board with same-color pips is a natural home.

Is Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx legal in Commander?

Yes. Nykthos is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Pauper Commander, or Premodern. In Commander it is unrestricted, and its colorless color identity means it can slot into any mono-color or multi-color deck, though it rewards devotion-dense builds almost exclusively.

How sticky is Nykthos once it enters the battlefield?

Very sticky. 95% of Nykthos copies that were cast remained on the battlefield by the end of the game. Lands are harder to remove than most permanents, and targeted land destruction is uncommon at most Commander tables. The rare exceptions that did leave the battlefield ended up in the graveyard or exile, likely from board wipes that hit all permanents.

How concentrated is the Nykthos data across players?

The data is well-spread. 359 distinct players have brought Nykthos to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for only 4% of all instances. That distribution means the stats are not being skewed by one player's consistent results, and the inclusion and win-rate figures reflect a genuinely broad range of playstyles and metas.