Pitiless Plunderer
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Creature — Human Pirate
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The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander (LCC)
9% of tracked Commander decks run Pitiless Plunderer. When drawn, 59% of copies reach the battlefield, with a median first cast landing on turn 6.0.
Pitiless Plunderer converts creature deaths into Treasure tokens, and death-matters Commander decks have embraced it broadly. Across 1071 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, the card appears in 587 of 6787 distinct decks, an 9% inclusion rate that reflects its reach across black-based aristocrats, token, and sacrifice strategies alike.
The cast funnel tells a consistent story. Of 1147 times the card was brought to a game, 253 copies were drawn, and 59% of those drawn copies were cast. Median first cast lands on turn 6.0, later than its 4-mana cost might suggest. That reflects a card players often hold until creatures are already on the board and the Treasure engine is ready to pay off. Once it resolves, 63% of cast copies remain on the battlefield at game end, a solid stickiness figure for a non-hexproof creature in a removal-rich format.
The top-commander list spans a wide range of archetypes. Terra, Herald of Hope leads by deck count, followed by Teysa Karlov, Sephiroth, Caesar, and Chatterfang. That spread across Mardu, mono-black, Orzhov, and Golgari commanders confirms the card's role as a flexible engine piece rather than a build-around exclusive. Data is drawn from 498 unique players, with the single largest contributor accounting for 2% of tracked instances, so the sample is well-distributed.
- 9% of tracked Commander decks include Pitiless Plunderer
- 59% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
- T6.0 median first-cast turn, typically when a creature board is already present
- 63% of cast copies remained on the battlefield at game end
- 498 unique players have brought Pitiless Plunderer to a tracked game
- 35% normalized win rate in games where Pitiless Plunderer resolved
First-cast turn
n=150The "good card" funnel
1147 brought · 498 playersOf 1147 copies brought to games, 253 were drawn, 150 of those were cast, and 63% of resolved copies were still on the battlefield when the game ended.
Players who cast this card win 35% of the time (n=147) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=764).
When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 24% (n=91) — 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 +7.7pp; 95% confidence interval +0.0pp to +15.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.
Final zone distribution
289 instancesMost tracked copies of Pitiless Plunderer finish in the graveyard or on the battlefield, consistent with a creature that enters play and either dies to removal or survives to game end. Very few copies remain in the library at game end, meaning drawn copies almost always see some form of action.
Commanders that played this card
in tracked games-
1
Terra, Herald of Hope
36 decks
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2
Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel
35 decks
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3
Caesar, Legion's Emperor
29 decks
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4
Chatterfang, Squirrel General
29 decks
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5
Teysa Karlov
23 decks
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6
Shadow the Hedgehog
16 decks
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7
Dina, Essence Brewer
15 decks
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8
Mr. House, President and CEO
15 decks
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9
Silverquill, the Disputant
15 decks
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10
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable
14 decks
The top-commander list is notably spread across five distinct color identities and multiple archetypes, from aristocrats to tokens to sacrifice, signaling that Pitiless Plunderer earns its slot in any black deck that expects its creatures to die regularly.