Live Play Data

Sensei's Divining Top

· Artifact · Double Masters 2022 (2X2)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

676

Decks Running

384

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

83%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

83% of drawn Sensei's Divining Tops are cast before the game ends, and the median first cast lands on turn 4 across 621 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live.

Sensei's Divining Top converts at an unusually high rate: 83% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first cast on turn 4. Players are not sitting on this card once they find it.

The dataset spans 621 tracked multiplayer games. The card sits in 384 of 9600 distinct decks, giving an inclusion rate of 4%. That modest headline share reflects the Top's real footprint: it fits any color identity, but players running it tend to be deliberate about its slot. The 277 unique players who brought it to tracked games are spread evenly, with no single contributor representing an outsized portion of the data, which strengthens the directional signals we can draw from it.

A 1-mana artifact with no color requirement, the Top has a long reputation as one of the best card-selection pieces ever printed. It is banned in Legacy and Duel Commander. In multiplayer Commander it remains legal and widely respected, especially in artifact-matters and topdeck-manipulation strategies.

At a glance

4% of tracked Commander decks include Sensei's Divining Top
83% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T4 median first-cast turn across multiplayer games
52% battlefield stickiness once the Top resolves
35% normalized win rate in games where the Top was cast
277 unique players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=139

32%

10%

28%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 14

On curve 32% (44 / 139 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 71%

The "good card" funnel

676 brought · 277 players

Brought to game

676

Ever drawn

167

Reached battlefield

139

Still on board at game end

83%

Of 676 copies brought to multiplayer games, 167 were drawn, 139 of those were cast, and just under half of resolved copies were still on the battlefield when the game ended.

≥ +1.6pp

Players who cast this card win 35% of the time (n=136) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=452).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 41% (n=26) — 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 +9.6pp; 95% confidence interval +1.6pp to +17.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

186 instances

16.1%

Library

38.7%

Battlefield

20.4%

Graveyard

8.1%

Exile

Many copies end in the library by design, since the Top's own tap ability puts it back on top. The graveyard and exile counts reflect genuine removal pressure, not misuse.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Lorehold, the Historian 13 decks
2 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow 13 decks
3 Molecule Man 10 decks
4 Aminatou, Veil Piercer 9 decks
5 Flubs, the Fool 8 decks
6 Zhulodok, Void Gorger 8 decks
7 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 7 decks
8 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 7 decks
9 Urza, Lord High Artificer 7 decks
10 K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth 6 decks

The list spans at least five different color identities, consistent with a colorless artifact that fits any archetype seeking topdeck control.

Frequently Asked

How often is Sensei's Divining Top drawn in a Commander game?

In 621 tracked multiplayer games where the Top was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 167 instances that reached a player's hand, 83% were cast before the game concluded. The median delay between drawing and casting is zero turns, meaning players typically cast it the same turn they draw it.

What turn does Sensei's Divining Top typically hit the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 4 in multiplayer games. The distribution clusters heavily at turn 1 (when drawn in the opening hand) with a second spread across turns 4-6. The mode is turn 1, reflecting how often the Top shows up in opening hands and gets slammed immediately. The same-turn cast rate of 71% confirms players rarely wait once they find it.

Does casting the Top actually improve your win rate?

In games where the Top was cast, the normalized win rate is 35%, compared to 25% in games where it stayed in the library. That is a +9.6 percentage-point lift. Both sample sizes are well above 15 observations, so this is a meaningful directional signal, though Playgroup Live's overall dataset is still growing and should not be read as a statistically definitive conclusion.

Is Sensei's Divining Top banned anywhere?

Yes. The Top is banned in Legacy, Modern, and Duel Commander. It is legal in multiplayer Commander, Vintage, Oathbreaker, and Premodern. In Legacy it was banned in 2008 primarily for enabling slow, repetitive game states in combination with Counterbalance. Multiplayer Commander plays by different rules and the card has remained unrestricted there.

How sticky is the Top once it resolves?

52% of cast copies end the game on the battlefield. That number is lower than many artifacts because the Top's own tap ability returns it to the top of its owner's library by design. A copy found in the library at game's end is not destruction; it is the card doing its job. Read the stickiness figure alongside the final-zone chart rather than in isolation.

Which commanders most often run Sensei's Divining Top in tracked games?

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow leads the multiplayer list with 13 decks, followed by Lorehold, the Historian with 10, and Aminatou, Veil Piercer with 8. The spread across Dimir, Azorius, and colorless commanders reflects the Top's color-identity neutrality: it slots into any deck that wants consistent library manipulation, regardless of color.