Live Play Data

Reanimate

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

19%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

3919

Decks Running

1979

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

61%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Reanimate is in 19% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, and games where it resolves show a +10.4 percentage-point win-rate lift over games where it stays buried, on a sample large enough to treat as a genuine signal.

Reanimate earns its reputation as one of black's best one-mana spells. Across 3324 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, 19% of decks bring it to the table, placing it in 1979 of the 10261 distinct decks in the dataset.

The win-rate picture is the most interesting data point. Games where a player casts Reanimate show a 33% normalized win rate, compared to 22% when it never leaves the library. That +10.4-point gap is a consistent, directional signal on a well-sampled base of 491 cast observations and 2415 library observations. It clears its own confidence interval lower bound, which is an early indicator that the card is genuinely pulling weight rather than just riding deck-quality coattails.

Reanimate is a mono-black sorcery, so it slots naturally into any black shell regardless of commander. The top commanders by raw deck count skew toward Grixis and Mardu strategies that stockpile threats in the graveyard, but the card is broadly distributed across 1285 unique players with no single contributor accounting for more than 1% of instances. That spread gives the data reasonable credibility.

At a glance

19% of tracked Commander decks include Reanimate
61% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn, well past its 1-mana cost
+10.4pp win-rate lift when cast vs. when it stays in the library
1285 unique players have brought Reanimate to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=543

17%

58%

T6-9

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 26

On curve 1% (4 / 543 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 31%

The "good card" funnel

3929 brought · 1285 players

Brought to game

3929

Ever drawn

897

Reached battlefield

543

Still on board at game end

61%

Of 3929 Reanimates brought to games, 897 were drawn, 543 of those were cast, and because it is a sorcery the vast majority resolved directly into the graveyard rather than sitting on a battlefield.

≥ +6.2pp

Players who cast this card win 33% of the time (n=491) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=2415).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 24% (n=305) — 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 +10.4pp; 95% confidence interval +6.2pp to +14.5pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

1084 instances

3.6%

Library

2.1%

Battlefield

59.2%

Graveyard

10.0%

Exile

Most Reanimate copies end up in the graveyard after resolving, as expected for a sorcery that resolves and moves to the graveyard itself. The small library count reflects copies that were tracked but never interacted with during a game.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Sauron, the Dark Lord 89 decks
2 Terra, Herald of Hope 79 decks
3 Sauron, Lord of the Rings 47 decks
4 Kaalia of the Vast 41 decks
5 Doctor Doom, King of Latveria 35 decks
6 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 32 decks
7 Teval, the Balanced Scale 32 decks
8 Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin 25 decks
9 Captain N'ghathrod 24 decks
10 K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth 24 decks

Sauron, the Dark Lord leads by deck count, but the top-ten list spans Grixis, Mardu, mono-black, and Sultai shells, showing that Reanimate's appeal is broad rather than locked to one archetype.

Card text

Reanimate

Sorcery

Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. You lose life equal to that card's mana value.

Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander (DSC) · Rare · Illustrated by Johann Bodin

Frequently Asked

How often is Reanimate drawn in a Commander game?

In 3324 tracked games where Reanimate was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That figure is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 897 instances that reached a hand, 61% were cast before the game ended. The remainder reflects games that ended before the player found a good target or enough mana, not necessarily player hesitation.

What turn does Reanimate typically resolve?

Median first cast lands on turn 6, with the 25th percentile at turn 5 and the 75th at turn 8. That delay makes sense for a reanimation spell: the card costs only 1 mana, but players need a high-value creature in a graveyard first. Very few casts (4 of 543) happen on turn 1, which confirms the setup requirement dominates the timing.

Does casting Reanimate actually improve your odds of winning?

The data is directional, not definitive, but it points clearly in one direction. Games where Reanimate resolved show a 33% normalized win rate across 491 observations. Games where it sat in the library the entire game show 22% across 2415 observations. The +10.4-point gap clears its own lower confidence bound, which is an encouraging early signal that the card is adding real value rather than simply appearing in stronger decks.

Is Reanimate legal in Commander?

Yes. Reanimate is legal and unrestricted in Commander. It is banned in Duel Commander, where its power level on a shorter clock with fewer opponents is considered format-warping. It is also banned in Historic and Gladiator on Arena. In Legacy and Vintage it is legal, where it anchors dedicated Reanimator combo strategies.

Which commanders most often run Reanimate?

By raw deck count in the Playgroup Live dataset, Sauron, the Dark Lord leads, followed by Terra, Herald of Hope, Sauron, Lord of the Rings, and Kaalia of the Vast. These are all Mardu or Grixis commanders that either fill the graveyard quickly or want large creatures in play ahead of curve. The list spans several color identities, but every commander on it includes black, consistent with Reanimate's mono-black color identity.

How concentrated is the Reanimate data among a few players?

The data is well-spread. 1285 distinct players have brought Reanimate to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than 1% of all instances. That low concentration is a strength of the dataset and means the stats are unlikely to be skewed by one prolific contributor.