Live Play Data

Sheltered by Ghosts

· Enchantment — Aura · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

489

Decks Running

255

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

85%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

85% of drawn Sheltered by Ghosts copies reach the battlefield, making it one of the more consistently executed Auras in Playgroup Live's tracked Commander games, with a median first cast landing on turn 6.

Sheltered by Ghosts earns its slot. Across 477 tracked multiplayer Commander games, 85% of copies that reached a player's hand were cast before the game ended, a notably high conversion rate for a 2-mana Aura competing for attention in a 100-card deck.

The card does three things at once: it exiles a problematic nonland permanent on entry, grants the enchanted creature lifelink and ward {2}, and provides a +1/+0 pump. That density of function explains why players cast it quickly. The median first cast falls on turn 6, and 38% of drawn copies are cast on the same turn they're drawn. Players are not holding this card speculatively; they play it when they see it.

Sheltered by Ghosts sits at 3% inclusion across the 8036 distinct decks tracked on Playgroup Live. That's a niche card by raw share, but the commander distribution tells a sharper story: it clusters heavily around Aura-synergy and Orzhov commanders, particularly Killian, Decisive Mentor, where cost-reduction makes this a turn-3 tempo play or earlier.

At a glance

3% of tracked Commander decks include Sheltered by Ghosts
85% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn across tracked games
38% of drawn copies are cast on the same turn they're drawn
48% battlefield stickiness once cast
241 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=109

22%

51%

T6-9

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 19

On curve 1% (1 / 109 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 38%

The "good card" funnel

489 brought · 241 players

Brought to game

489

Ever drawn

128

Reached battlefield

109

Still on board at game end

85%

Of 489 copies brought to games, 128 were drawn, 109 of those were cast, and 48% of cast copies remained on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -4.2pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=103) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=319).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 33% (n=16) — 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 +4.7pp; 95% confidence interval -4.2pp to +13.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

137 instances

2.9%

Library

38.0%

Battlefield

39.4%

Graveyard

8.0%

Exile

Most tracked copies of Sheltered by Ghosts end the game in the graveyard or on the battlefield, with very few stranded in the library. That's a meaningful contrast to the average singleton, and reflects how aggressively players sequence and protect this Aura once it resolves.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Killian, Decisive Mentor leads the commander distribution by a large margin, reflecting Sheltered by Ghosts' deep fit in dedicated Aura-cost-reduction strategies. The remaining commanders are spread thinly, confirming this is a build-around card rather than a generalist white staple.

Card text

Sheltered by Ghosts

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature you control When this Aura enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until this Aura leaves the battlefield. Enchanted creature gets +1/+0 and has lifelink and ward {2}

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Uncommon · Illustrated by Mirko Failoni

Frequently Asked

How often is Sheltered by Ghosts drawn in a Commander game?

In 477 tracked multiplayer games where the card was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is consistent with what you'd expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 128 instances that reached a player's hand, 85% were cast before the game ended. The high cast-through rate is the headline: players rarely hold this card once they have it.

What turn does Sheltered by Ghosts typically get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 6 in multiplayer games tracked on Playgroup Live. The distribution is spread across turns 3 through 9, with the bulk of casts landing in the turns 5-8 window. That late-game skew is partly structural: Aura decks often need a creature on board first, so the Aura follows rather than leads. Players do cast it the same turn they draw it 38% of the time, which signals they are not holding it as a reactive tool.

Does casting Sheltered by Ghosts actually help you win?

The win rate when cast is 28% versus 23% when the card stays in the library, a delta of +4.7 percentage points. Both sample sizes are meaningful: 103 cast observations and 319 library observations. The confidence interval on the delta does cross zero in this dataset, so treat the lift as a directional early signal rather than a firm conclusion. What is clear is that decks running this card are performing at or above the 25% normalized baseline.

Is Sheltered by Ghosts legal in Commander?

Yes. Sheltered by Ghosts is legal in Commander, as well as in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Alchemy, Brawl, and Duel Commander. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its uncommon rarity from a Commander precon set, which does not appear in regular booster packs.

Which commanders most often run Sheltered by Ghosts?

Killian, Decisive Mentor dominates the top-commander list by a wide margin, appearing in 255 decks that have played tracked games. Killian's ability to reduce Aura costs by 2 makes Sheltered by Ghosts effectively a 0-mana removal spell plus a buff, which is a substantial tempo swing. Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice and Eriette of the Charmed Apple also appear in the top commanders, reinforcing that this card lives in dedicated Aura strategies rather than as casual white splash value.

How sticky is Sheltered by Ghosts once it lands?

48% of cast copies remained on the battlefield through the end of the game in which they were cast. For an Aura, this is a moderate result. Auras are inherently fragile because removal that hits the enchanted creature also removes the Aura. The ward {2} on the enchanted creature raises the cost of spot removal, but it does not stop board wipes. The graveyard is the most common non-battlefield final zone, which reflects creature removal more than targeted Aura removal.