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Reliquary Tower card art
Live Play Data

Reliquary Tower

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)
29%
Live Inclusion
Times Brought
3794
Decks Running
2195
Median Cast Turn
5
Drawn → Played
79%
Format

Reliquary Tower sits in 29% of tracked Commander decks, and 79% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 5.

Reliquary Tower is a colorless utility land that removes your maximum hand size while still tapping for mana. Across 2608 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, it appears in 2195 of 7568 distinct decks, an inclusion rate of 29%.

When the Tower does reach a player's hand, 79% of those copies get played before the game ends. That is on the high end for a utility land: players who draw it tend to deploy it. The median first-cast turn is 5, though the distribution is spread wide, with copies landing as early as turn 1 and as late as turn 14 in this dataset. Once it hits the battlefield, it is sticky: 93% of cast copies remain in play at game's end, which makes sense for a land with no built-in sacrifice cost.

The card is colorless, so it fits in any deck's mana base. It earns its slot in decks that draw lots of cards and need to hold large hands, making it especially common alongside commanders that generate card advantage. The data is well-spread across players: 1149 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 1% of all instances, a healthy sign of breadth.

At a glance
  • 29% of tracked Commander decks include Reliquary Tower
  • 79% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
  • T5 median first-cast turn
  • 93% battlefield stickiness, lands rarely leave play
  • 1149 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game
  • 837 total casts logged across tracked games

First-cast turn

n=837
11%
T1
12%
T2
13%
T3
11%
T4
12%
T5
33%
T6-9
7%
T10+
Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 14
Cast same turn as drawn 53%

The "good card" funnel

3813 brought · 1149 players
Brought to game
3813
Ever drawn
1061
Reached battlefield
837
Still on board at game end
776
79%

Of 3813 Reliquary Towers brought to games, 1061 were drawn, 837 of those were played, and the large majority remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ -1.1pp

Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=827) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=2506).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=218) — 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 +2.0pp; 95% confidence interval -1.1pp to +5.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

1164 instances
2.4%
Library
66.7%
Battlefield
11.9%
Graveyard
4.6%
Exile

Most Reliquary Towers finish on the battlefield, which is expected for a land with no sacrifice clause. The small graveyard count reflects board wipes and land destruction rather than any structural weakness.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Draw-heavy commanders dominate the list, led by Zimone, Infinite Analyst. The spread across many different color identities confirms the Tower's role as a colorless staple rather than a deck-specific include.

Frequently Asked

How often is Reliquary Tower drawn in a Commander game?
Across 2608 tracked games where Reliquary Tower was in the deck, it was drawn 28% of the time. That is consistent with what you would expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 1061 instances that reached a player's hand, 79% were played before the game ended.
What turn does Reliquary Tower usually hit the battlefield?
The median first-cast turn is 5 in multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live. The distribution is wide: the 25th percentile falls on turn 3 and the 75th on turn 7, so a meaningful share of copies come down in the early game while others are deployed mid-to-late. Copies drawn in the opening hand tend to be played immediately, with 53% of drawn-and-cast instances landing on the same turn they were drawn.
Does casting Reliquary Tower correlate with winning?
The cast win rate is 27% across 827 participations. The win rate when the Tower stayed in the library is 25% across 2506 participations. The delta is small and the confidence interval overlaps zero on this dataset, so treat it as directional rather than conclusive. Reliquary Tower is infrastructure: it enables strategies rather than winning on its own.
Is Reliquary Tower legal in Commander?
Yes. Reliquary Tower is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and Timeless. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. Its colorless identity means it can slot into any Commander deck regardless of color identity.
Which commanders most often run Reliquary Tower?
In the Playgroup Live dataset, Zimone, Infinite Analyst leads the list, followed by Rootha, Mastering the Moment and Ms. Bumbleflower. All three are draw-heavy commanders where holding a large hand is a consistent game plan. The spread across 1149 unique players and many different commanders signals that the Tower is not a niche pick confined to one archetype.
Why is Reliquary Tower so common in Commander specifically?
Commander games run longer and generate more card advantage than most formats. Effects that say 'draw a card' or 'draw X cards' are common on commanders and spells alike. Without a hand-size removal effect, players who generate large card advantage can be forced to discard down to seven at end of turn. Reliquary Tower solves that problem for zero mana cost at the time of play, and its colorless identity means any deck can include it without warping the mana base.