Live Play Data

Phyrexian Tower

Legendary Land · Modern Horizons 3 (MH3)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1247

Decks Running

704

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

82%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Phyrexian Tower appears in 9% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks, and when it reaches a player's hand, 82% of those copies are played before the game ends, with a median first-play turn of 4.

Phyrexian Tower sits in 9% of the 8082 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, making it a meaningful signal within black's land suite rather than a universal staple. It has been brought to 1248 tracked game participations across 1162 games, and 317 of those copies were drawn.

Of the drawn copies, 82% reached the battlefield. That is a strong conversion rate for a land, reflecting how reliably players slot it into their mana base and deploy it when they see it. Median first play lands on turn 4, consistent with the usual pattern of playing lands early and then finding moments to activate the sacrifice ability as the game develops.

The commander distribution is notably broad. 545 distinct players have brought Phyrexian Tower to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all instances. That spread gives the data meaningful texture: this is a card played across a wide range of black-touching strategies, not a pet card of a handful of regulars.

At a glance

9% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Phyrexian Tower
25% draw rate per game participation, expected for a singleton land
82% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
T4 median first-play turn
92% battlefield stickiness once the Tower hits play
545 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=259

14%

15%

12%

17%

13%

27%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 13

Cast same turn as drawn 46%

The "good card" funnel

1248 brought · 545 players

Brought to game

1248

Ever drawn

317

Reached battlefield

259

Still on board at game end

237

82%

Of 1248 copies brought to tracked games, 317 were drawn, 259 were played, and the large majority stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -2.4pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=243) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=795).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 29% (n=53) — 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 +3.6pp; 95% confidence interval -2.4pp to +9.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

360 instances

0.8%

Library

65.8%

Battlefield

17.2%

Graveyard

4.4%

Exile

The vast majority of Phyrexian Towers end a game on the battlefield, a direct reflection of how reliably players deploy it early and how rarely opponents bother to remove a land, even one this powerful.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Edgar Markov 28 decks
2 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 28 decks
3 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 16 decks
4 Teval, the Balanced Scale 14 decks
5 The Serpent Society 14 decks
6 Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver 14 decks
7 Sauron, the Dark Lord 13 decks
8 Teysa Karlov 13 decks
9 K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth 12 decks
10 Silverquill, the Disputant 11 decks

The commander list spans sacrifice-value, token, and black-good-stuff strategies with no single commander pulling far ahead, showing how broadly the Tower's sacrifice outlet applies across the black portion of the meta.

Frequently Asked

How often is Phyrexian Tower drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1162 tracked multiplayer games where Phyrexian Tower was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That is consistent with what you would expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 317 drawn copies, 82% were played before the game ended. The remainder is mostly a game-length effect: lands drawn very late often never hit the table before someone wins.

What turn does Phyrexian Tower typically enter the battlefield?

Median first-play turn is 4 in our multiplayer dataset. The distribution is relatively flat across early turns, with a cluster at turns 1 through 3 for copies kept in opening hands and a long tail stretching into double digits for later draws. The interquartile range runs from turn 2 to turn 6, so most copies that do see play go down in the first half of the game.

Is Phyrexian Tower legal in Commander?

Yes. Phyrexian Tower is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Alchemy. Its black color identity restricts it to Commander decks that include black.

Which commanders most often run Phyrexian Tower?

In our multiplayer tracked data, the top commander pairings include Sephiroth, Edgar Markov, Silverquill the Disputant, and Teysa Karlov among others. The spread across sacrifice-synergy, token, and black-good-stuff strategies reflects how broadly the Tower's {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Add {B}{B} ability applies. No single commander dominates the list, which is consistent with the card's wide adoption across black-touching archetypes.

Does casting Phyrexian Tower actually help you win?

Our multiplayer data shows a cast win rate of 29% versus a library win rate of 26%, a delta of +3.6 percentage points. The sample size for cast observations is 243 and the confidence interval crosses zero, so this is best treated as directional rather than conclusive. What the data does confirm is that the Tower does not appear to drag results down, and it stays on the battlefield 92% of the time once it resolves.

How concentrated is Phyrexian Tower data among a small group of players?

The data is well-spread. 545 distinct players have brought Phyrexian Tower to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single most frequent contributor accounts for only 2% of all instances. That is well below the threshold where individual player bias would skew the aggregate numbers meaningfully.