Live Play Data

Reliquary Tower

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

29%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

2313

Decks Running

1413

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

78%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Reliquary Tower sits in 29% of tracked Commander decks, and 78% 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 1590 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, it appears in 1413 of 4852 distinct decks, an inclusion rate of 29%.

When the Tower does reach a player's hand, 78% 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: 796 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
78% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn
93% battlefield stickiness, lands rarely leave play
796 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game
519 total casts logged across tracked games

First-cast turn

n=519

11%

12%

13%

11%

13%

34%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 54%

The "good card" funnel

2332 brought · 796 players

Brought to game

2332

Ever drawn

667

Reached battlefield

519

Still on board at game end

482

78%

Of 2332 Reliquary Towers brought to games, 667 were drawn, 519 of those were played, and the large majority remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ -1.0pp

Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=518) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=1516).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 26% (n=142) — 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 +2.9pp; 95% confidence interval -1.0pp to +6.9pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

729 instances

2.1%

Library

66.1%

Battlefield

12.2%

Graveyard

4.7%

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 1590 tracked games where Reliquary Tower was in the deck, it was drawn 29% of the time. That is consistent with what you would expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 667 instances that reached a player's hand, 78% 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 54% 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 518 participations. The win rate when the Tower stayed in the library is 24% across 1516 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 796 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.