Live Play Data

Rakdos Signet

· Artifact · Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander (DSC)

21%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1267

Decks Running

721

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

76%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

21% of tracked Black-Red Commander decks run Rakdos Signet, and 76% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first cast on turn 4.0.

Rakdos Signet is the go-to two-mana rock for any Commander deck running Black and Red. Across 1180 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, it appears in 721 of 3391 distinct decks, good for an inclusion rate of 21% among all tracked builds in those colors.

The draw-to-play rate of 76% tells a clear story: when players find this card, they cast it. The median first cast lands on turn 4.0, though the distribution is front-loaded, with a meaningful cluster of casts on turns 1 and 2, suggesting many copies come down from opening hands or early draws. The data here is well-spread, with 600 distinct players contributing to the sample and no single contributor accounting for more than about 2% of instances.

As a two-mana mana rock that taps for two colored mana, Rakdos Signet fills a structural role in Commander: it accelerates toward a three-mana commander on turn two and shores up Black-Red's historically thin ramp suite. That utility explains its broad adoption across aggressive, midrange, and combo strategies alike.

At a glance

21% of tracked Commander decks include Rakdos Signet
76% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
82% battlefield stickiness once cast
600 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
36% of casts land exactly on curve (turn 2 for a 2-mana card)

First-cast turn

n=224

11%

25%

12%

10%

28%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 17

On curve 36% (56 / 224 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

1269 brought · 600 players

Brought to game

1269

Ever drawn

294

Reached battlefield

224

Still on board at game end

184

76%

Of 1269 Rakdos Signets brought to tracked games, 294 were drawn, 224 of those were cast, and 82% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -0.3pp

Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=205) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=824).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 32% (n=61) — 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 +6.2pp; 95% confidence interval -0.3pp to +12.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

325 instances

3.4%

Library

56.6%

Battlefield

20.9%

Graveyard

4.0%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Rakdos Signets never leave the library in a given game, a direct consequence of 100-card singleton variance rather than any weakness in the card itself.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls 67 decks
2 Kaalia of the Vast 39 decks
3 Edgar Markov 23 decks
4 Nekusar, the Mindrazer 23 decks
5 Sauron, the Dark Lord 23 decks
6 Kuja, Genome Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied 20 decks
7 Admiral Brass, Unsinkable 18 decks
8 Kardur, Doomscourge 18 decks
9 Fire Lord Azula 17 decks
10 Deadpool, Trading Card 16 decks

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls leads with 37 decks, but the list spans ten distinct commanders across Rakdos and Grixis builds, signaling broad format adoption rather than concentration in one archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Rakdos Signet drawn in a Commander game?

In 1180 tracked multiplayer games where Rakdos Signet was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That figure is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 294 copies that reached a hand, 76% were cast before the game ended. The remainder are mostly a game-length effect: copies drawn in the final turns of a game often never resolve.

What turn does Rakdos Signet typically hit the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 4.0, with the distribution skewing early. A notable cluster appears at turns 1 and 2, which reflects copies kept in opening hands and cast as soon as the mana is available. The activation cost of {1} means players generally cast and activate in the same turn when possible, rather than playing it ahead of schedule.

Does casting Rakdos Signet actually correlate with winning?

The current data shows a cast win rate of 30% versus a library win rate of 24%, for a delta of +6.2 percentage points. With 205 observations in the cast bucket and 824 in the library bucket, both samples are reasonably sized, but the delta is within statistical noise for this dataset. Treat it as an early directional signal rather than a conclusion.

How sticky is Rakdos Signet once it resolves?

82% of cast copies finish the game on the battlefield. As a non-threatening artifact without an enters-the-battlefield effect that draws removal, Rakdos Signet tends to sit and produce mana until the game ends. The graveyard is the next most common final zone, accounting for most of the non-battlefield outcomes.

Which commanders most commonly run Rakdos Signet?

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls leads the tracked deck list, followed by Kaalia of the Vast, Sauron the Dark Lord, and a broad spread of Rakdos and Grixis commanders. The top entry at 37 decks is a meaningful plurality but not a dominant concentration. The commander list is notably diverse, reinforcing that Rakdos Signet is a format staple rather than a narrow deck-specific pick.

Is Rakdos Signet legal in all Commander formats?

Rakdos Signet is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Pauper Commander, Oathbreaker, and most other Eternal formats including Legacy and Vintage. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, or Alchemy. It is not banned in any format where it is legal, making it freely available to any deck that can run it.