Live Play Data

Ophiomancer

· Creature — Human Shaman · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

869

Decks Running

448

Median Cast Turn

5.0

Drawn → Played

75%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

75% of drawn Ophiomancers are cast before the game ends, with a median first-cast turn of 5.0 across 841 tracked Commander games on Playgroup Live.

Ophiomancer is a black value engine that rewards patient sequencing: nearly 75% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, a strong signal that players treat it as a high-priority threat across 841 tracked multiplayer games.

The card's appeal is structural. Its upkeep trigger asks only that you control no Snakes, which means tokens eaten by attackers, sacrificed to altars, or traded away in combat all refresh the engine at the start of your next turn. That recursive token production is why it shows up in sacrifice shells, token doublers, and drain-per-creature strategies far beyond any pure Snake theme. The top commanders by raw deck count are Dina, Essence Brewer and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, both of whom want a steady supply of low-cost bodies.

Concentration is notably healthy: 399 distinct players have brought Ophiomancer to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small slice of the data. The dataset is directional rather than definitive, but it is unusually well-spread for a card that sits outside the top inclusion tiers.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include Ophiomancer
75% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5.0 median first-cast turn, landing right on curve
48% battlefield stickiness once Ophiomancer resolves
399 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, a well-spread sample

First-cast turn

n=158

20%

16%

11%

36%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5.0 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 14

On curve 28% (32 / 158 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 26%

The "good card" funnel

875 brought · 399 players

Brought to game

875

Ever drawn

212

Reached battlefield

158

Still on board at game end

75%

Of 875 Ophiomancers brought to games, 212 were drawn, 158 of those were cast, and 48% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield at the end of the game.

≥ -4.3pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=151) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=574).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 26% (n=50) — 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 +3.4pp; 95% confidence interval -4.3pp to +11.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

231 instances

2.2%

Library

32.9%

Battlefield

34.6%

Graveyard

11.7%

Exile

Most Ophiomancers never leave the library, the inevitable result of 100-card singleton, but the cards that do surface split meaningfully between battlefield and graveyard, with a modest exile count reflecting targeted removal.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Dina, Essence Brewer 86 decks
2 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 47 decks
3 Zurgo Stormrender 19 decks
4 Silverquill, the Disputant 18 decks
5 Teysa Karlov 16 decks
6 The Serpent Society 16 decks
7 Witherbloom, the Balancer 9 decks
8 Ayara, First of Locthwain 7 decks
9 Caesar, Legion's Emperor 7 decks
10 Marneus Calgar 7 decks

Dina, Essence Brewer holds a dominant lead in raw deck count, but the list spans at least five different color combinations, showing that Ophiomancer's token engine fits well beyond any single archetype.

Card text

Ophiomancer

Creature — Human Shaman

At the beginning of each upkeep, if you control no Snakes, create a 1/1 black Snake creature token with deathtouch.

2 / 2

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Flavio Greco Paglia

Frequently Asked

How often is Ophiomancer drawn in a Commander game?

In 841 tracked games where Ophiomancer was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That rate is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck with no built-in card selection. Of 212 instances that reached a hand, 75% were cast before the game ended. The remainder reflects games that ended before a player found a good window, not a deliberate decision to hold it.

What turn does Ophiomancer usually land on the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 5.0, which is right at its mana cost of 3. The distribution skews later than turn 3 for most copies because many are drawn mid-game rather than from the opening hand. The p25-p75 band runs turns 3 through 7, meaning roughly half of all casts land in that window. Players who draw it in the opening hand tend to deploy it on turn 3 without hesitation.

How sticky is Ophiomancer once it hits the battlefield?

48% of resolved Ophiomancers are still on the battlefield when the game reaches a final-zone snapshot. That is a moderate stickiness score. A 2/2 body with no built-in protection is a fair target for spot removal, and the number reflects that. What the stickiness metric does not capture is how many upkeep triggers fired before the creature was removed, which is where most of its value lives.

Is Ophiomancer legal in Commander?

Yes. Ophiomancer is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, Brawl, Gladiator, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. It originated in Commander 2013 and has been reprinted multiple times, including in Secrets of Strixhaven Commander.

Which commanders most commonly run Ophiomancer?

By raw deck count in the tracked dataset, Dina, Essence Brewer leads by a wide margin, followed by Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER. Both want a steady, low-cost body to sacrifice or drain from. The commander list is notably diverse across Golgari, Orzhov, Rakdos, and Esper shells, which reflects Ophiomancer's flexibility as a generic token producer rather than a narrow tribal piece.

Does casting Ophiomancer actually improve your win rate?

The current data shows a small and uncertain gap between games where Ophiomancer was cast versus games where it sat in the library. The sample sizes on both sides give the delta a wide confidence interval, so we treat this as a directional reading rather than a firm conclusion. What the data does show clearly is that players consistently prioritize casting it when they draw it, which is its own signal about the card's perceived value in the pod.