Live Play Data

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods

Land · Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

689

Decks Running

329

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

80%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

80% of drawn Shrine of the Forsaken Gods copies are played before the game ends, the clearest signal that colorless mana players want this land on the table the moment it arrives.

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is a niche but committed card: in 671 tracked multiplayer Commander games, 80% of drawn copies reached the battlefield, one of the higher draw-to-play rates we see for any land in the format.

The card's appeal is narrow and structural. It taps for one colorless mana unconditionally, then doubles to two the moment a player controls seven or more lands. That threshold lines up naturally with the late-game turn sequence of Eldrazi and colorless artifact decks, which is exactly where the top-commander distribution lands. Ulalek, Zhulodok, Ultron, and Kozilek commanders dominate the list. Shrine is almost never a generalist inclusion. It is a specialist tool, and the players who run it use it.

At 2% of tracked decks, Shrine is a low-volume card with a high commitment rate. The data is directional, not definitive, but the pattern is consistent across 671 games: when players build for it, they cast it.

At a glance

2% of tracked Commander decks include Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
80% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn, aligning with mid-game land development
93% battlefield stickiness once the Shrine resolves
295 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game, spreading the data well
26% draw rate across games where it was in the deck

First-cast turn

n=146

16%

11%

10%

14%

12%

32%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 7 · max 17

Cast same turn as drawn 48%

The "good card" funnel

689 brought · 295 players

Brought to game

689

Ever drawn

182

Reached battlefield

146

Still on board at game end

136

80%

Of 689 Shrines brought to games, 182 were drawn and 146 were cast, with 93% remaining on the battlefield through end of game once resolved.

≥ -4.7pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=131) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=425).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 26% (n=31) — 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 +3.1pp; 95% confidence interval -4.7pp to +10.9pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

200 instances

4.0%

Library

68.0%

Battlefield

9.0%

Graveyard

6.0%

Exile

Most Shrine copies never leave the library, a direct consequence of 2% inclusion in a 100-card singleton format. The copies that do escape the library land overwhelmingly on the battlefield and stay there.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Zhulodok, Void Gorger 59 decks
2 Ulalek, Fused Atrocity 57 decks
3 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 27 decks
4 Molecule Man 20 decks
5 Ultima, Origin of Oblivion 15 decks
6 Azlask, the Swelling Scourge 10 decks
7 Karn, Legacy Reforged 10 decks
8 Kozilek, the Great Distortion 9 decks
9 Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought 7 decks
10 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog 7 decks

The commander list is dominated by colorless and Eldrazi strategies. Ulalek and Zhulodok lead by deck count, confirming Shrine is a specialist card with a predictable and focused home.

Card text

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods

Land

: Add

: Add

. Spend this mana only to cast colorless spells. Activate only if you control seven or more lands.

Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC) · Rare · Illustrated by Daniel Ljunggren

Frequently Asked

How often is Shrine of the Forsaken Gods drawn in a Commander game?

Across 671 tracked games where Shrine was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is a normal rate for a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of 182 instances that reached a player's hand, 80% were played before the game ended. The median hand-to-cast delay is 1 turn, meaning players often play it the turn after drawing it rather than holding it.

What turn does Shrine of the Forsaken Gods typically hit the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 4.0. The distribution is broad, with the interquartile range spanning turns 2 through 7. An early cluster reflects players who drew it in their opening hand and played it as soon as possible. The later tail reflects draws in the mid-game when the seven-land threshold may already be in reach.

Is Shrine of the Forsaken Gods legal in Commander?

Yes. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is legal in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Pioneer, Modern, Vintage, and Duel Commander. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Brawl, or Alchemy. Its empty color identity makes it eligible as a land in any Commander deck regardless of commander color.

Which commanders most often run Shrine of the Forsaken Gods?

The top commanders in our dataset are Ulalek, Fused Atrocity and Zhulodok, Void Gorger, followed by Ultron, Artificial Malevolence, Molecule Man, and Ultima, Origin of Oblivion. The pattern is clear: colorless Eldrazi and artifact commanders dominate. Shrine's conditional double-mana ability rewards decks that are already reaching for seven or more lands, which these strategies naturally do.

Does casting Shrine of the Forsaken Gods correlate with winning?

Win rate when cast is 28% across 131 observations, compared to 25% in games where it stayed in the library. The raw delta is +3.1 percentage points, but the confidence interval crosses zero on this sample size. Treat it as an early directional signal rather than a proven edge. The card is an enabler, not a win condition, so its contribution likely flows through the large payoffs it helps cast.

How sticky is Shrine of the Forsaken Gods once it enters the battlefield?

93% of cast copies are still on the battlefield at end of game. That is high, and expected. Lands face far fewer removal vectors than other permanent types in Commander. Once Shrine is down, opponents rarely have a clean answer, which means the mana it generates compounds over multiple turns in the games where it matters most.