Live Play Data

Puresteel Paladin

· Creature — Human Knight · Commander Masters (CMM)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

849

Decks Running

404

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

72%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Puresteel Paladin appears in 6% of tracked Commander decks and is cast 72% of the time it's drawn, with a median first-cast turn of 5.

Puresteel Paladin sits in 6% of the 6444 Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, a niche but deliberate slice of the format concentrated almost entirely in Equipment-focused strategies.

When the Paladin reaches a player's hand, it converts to a cast 72% of the time. That conversion rate is strong for a 2-mana creature that demands a specific deck context. Median first cast lands on turn 5, consistent with a card players prefer to develop early rather than sit on. The same-turn cast rate of 33% tells a more honest story: players do not always slam it immediately, often waiting for artifacts to already be on board before committing the mana.

The commander distribution is notably spread. 364 distinct players have brought Puresteel Paladin to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small slice of the data. That breadth, across Equipment-matter commanders from Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER to Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer, reflects genuine format demand rather than one prolific player skewing the numbers. Battlefield stickiness of 51% is a real limitation: Puresteel is a creature in a format full of removal, and roughly half the time it resolves, it doesn't survive to end of game.

At a glance

6% of tracked Commander decks include Puresteel Paladin
72% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn
51% battlefield stickiness once cast
364 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game
14% of casts landed exactly on curve at turn 2

First-cast turn

n=131

11%

14%

35%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 19

On curve 14% (15 / 131 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 33%

The "good card" funnel

849 brought · 364 players

Brought to game

849

Ever drawn

181

Reached battlefield

131

Still on board at game end

72%

Of 849 Puresteel Paladins brought to games, 181 were drawn, 131 of those were cast, and 51% of resolved copies survived to the game's final zone on the battlefield.

≥ -2.2pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=122) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=574).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=44) — 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 +6.1pp; 95% confidence interval -2.2pp to +14.5pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

201 instances

3.5%

Library

33.3%

Battlefield

30.3%

Graveyard

9.0%

Exile

Most Puresteel Paladins never leave the library in a given game, a structural reality of 100-card singleton rather than a statement about the card's power. Of the copies that do resolve, a meaningful share end up in the graveyard, reflecting the removal pressure Equipment creatures attract.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 99 decks
2 Lightning, Army of One 27 decks
3 Dogmeat, Ever Loyal 23 decks
4 Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer 21 decks
5 Captain America, First Avenger 21 decks
6 Cloud, Midgar Mercenary 20 decks
7 Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima 16 decks
8 Galea, Kindler of Hope 9 decks
9 Amy Rose 8 decks
10 Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain 8 decks

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER leads by a wide margin, but the list spreads across a diverse set of Equipment-matter and Voltron commanders spanning multiple color identities, suggesting Puresteel Paladin earns inclusion on its own merits across the archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Puresteel Paladin drawn in a Commander game?

In 803 tracked multiplayer games where Puresteel Paladin was in the deck, it was drawn 21% of the time. That is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 181 instances that reached a player's hand, 72% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Puresteel Paladin usually get cast?

Median first cast lands on turn 5. The distribution spreads fairly evenly from turns 2 through 7, which reflects how often the Paladin is drawn in the opening hand versus mid-game. The on-curve rate of 14% is low for a 2-mana card, but that mostly signals players drew it after turn 2 rather than chose to hold it.

How sticky is Puresteel Paladin on the battlefield?

51% of resolved Puresteel Paladins survive to the game's end zone. That is below average for a meaningful threat, and it makes sense: the Paladin is a high-priority removal target in Equipment decks. Its value is often extracted immediately through draw triggers and free equips before it gets answered.

Which commanders most commonly run Puresteel Paladin?

The top commander by raw deck count is Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, an Equipment-centric Naya commander. Lightning, Army of One, Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, and Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer also show strong representation. The spread across 364 unique players and multiple commander archetypes is a directional signal that the card earns its slot on merit rather than being a single-pilot artifact.

Is Puresteel Paladin legal in Commander?

Yes. Puresteel Paladin is legal and unrestricted in Commander. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, and Vintage. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Brawl formats.

Does casting Puresteel Paladin correlate with winning?

In 122 participations where Puresteel Paladin was cast, the normalized win rate was 32%, compared to 26% in 574 participations where it stayed in the library. The delta is a small positive signal, but the cast sample is large enough to treat this as directional. It is consistent with the Paladin performing a real function without being a game-winning card on its own.