Live Play Data

Slayers' Stronghold

Land · Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC)

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

748

Decks Running

338

Median Cast Turn

4.5

Drawn → Played

81%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

81% of drawn Slayers' Stronghold copies are activated before the game ends, making it one of the more reliably executed utility lands in Boros Commander, with a median first-activation turn of 4.5.

Slayers' Stronghold sits in 6% of the 5614 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. That is a focused niche, almost entirely concentrated in Boros ({R}{W}) and Naya ({G}{R}{W}) color identities, which is exactly what the activation cost demands.

The headline number is draw-to-play rate. When a player draws Slayers' Stronghold, they activate its pump ability 81% of the time before the game ends. That is high for a utility land, and it reflects how naturally the card fits into creature-attack strategies: the {R}{W} activation is almost never dead if there is a target on the board. The median first activation lands on turn 4.5, with the distribution spread broadly from turn 1 through turn 10, signaling flexible rather than telegraphed timing.

The data comes from 732 tracked multiplayer Commander games. With 314 unique players contributing observations and the single heaviest contributor accounting for just 2% of all instances, the dataset is well-spread. These are directional signals, not statistically conclusive findings, but the consistency across a large, diverse player pool is encouraging.

At a glance

6% of tracked Commander decks include Slayers' Stronghold
81% of drawn copies are activated before the game ends
T4.5 median first-activation turn
94% battlefield stickiness once the ability resolves
314 unique players in the dataset, indicating well-spread observations
23% draw rate, consistent with a singleton utility land in a 100-card deck

First-cast turn

n=140

13%

12%

11%

14%

33%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 50%

The "good card" funnel

748 brought · 314 players

Brought to game

748

Ever drawn

172

Reached battlefield

140

Still on board at game end

131

81%

Of 748 Slayers' Stronghold copies brought to games, 172 were drawn, and 140 of those were activated, a high conversion rate that reflects how naturally the land fits into its intended combat-oriented strategies.

≥ -3.3pp

Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=129) , vs 21% when it never left the library (n=485).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 11% (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 +4.5pp; 95% confidence interval -3.3pp to +12.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

186 instances

3.2%

Library

70.4%

Battlefield

10.2%

Graveyard

4.3%

Exile

The vast majority of Slayers' Stronghold copies that reach the battlefield stay there through end of game, behaving exactly as an indestructible land should. Most copies never leave the library, which is structural to 100-card singleton rather than a signal about the card's power.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 122 decks
2 Lightning, Army of One 24 decks
3 Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser 15 decks
4 Kaalia of the Vast 8 decks
5 Neyali, Suns' Vanguard 8 decks
6 Feather, the Redeemed 7 decks
7 Tifa, Martial Artist 7 decks
8 Arabella, Abandoned Doll 6 decks
9 Mabel, Heir to Cragflame 6 decks
10 Thorin, King of Durin's Folk 6 decks

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER dominates the top-commander list by raw deck count, but a long tail of Boros ({R}{W}) commanders fills out the rest, confirming the card's role as a Boros staple rather than a single-archetype include.

Card text

Slayers' Stronghold

Land

: Add

: Target creature gets +2/+0 and gains vigilance and haste until end of turn.

Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC) · Rare · Illustrated by Karl Kopinski

Frequently Asked

How often is Slayers' Stronghold drawn in a Commander game?

Across 732 tracked multiplayer games where Slayers' Stronghold was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 172 instances that reached a player's hand, 81% resulted in an activation of the pump ability before the game ended. The remainder is largely a game-length effect: copies drawn very late may simply have no opportunity to be used before the game concludes.

What turn does Slayers' Stronghold usually get activated?

Median first activation lands on turn 4.5. The distribution is notably flat, spanning from turn 1 all the way to turn 10. That spread makes sense for a land: it enters untapped and produces colorless mana immediately, but the {R}{W} pump activation requires specific mana open and a creature worth targeting, so timing varies widely based on board state rather than a fixed curve.

Does casting Slayers' Stronghold correlate with winning?

In 129 participations where Slayers' Stronghold was activated, the win rate is 25%. In 485 participations where it stayed in the library, the win rate is 21%. The raw delta is +4.5 percentage points. Both sample sizes are well above 15, but the confidence interval on this delta crosses zero, so treat it as a directional early signal rather than proof of impact. The card likely matters most as one piece of a larger combat-synergy package.

Where does Slayers' Stronghold see the most Commander play?

The top commander pairing by raw deck count is Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER (Naya), followed by Lightning, Army of One and Neyali, Suns' Vanguard (both Boros). The pattern is consistent: commanders that attack frequently and benefit from haste or vigilance on a key creature. The card is almost absent from decks outside Boros and Naya color identities, which is structurally enforced by the {R}{W} activation cost.

Is Slayers' Stronghold legal in Commander?

Yes. Slayers' Stronghold is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, Brawl, or Alchemy. In Commander specifically, its color identity is {R}{W}, so it can only be included in decks whose commander has both red and white in their color identity.

How concentrated is the Slayers' Stronghold data across players?

The dataset shows 314 unique players have brought Slayers' Stronghold to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all instances. That is well below the 15% threshold where concentration would be a concern. The observations are genuinely spread across a large, diverse player pool, which strengthens confidence in the directional trends shown here.