Live Play Data

Solemn Simulacrum

· Artifact Creature — Golem · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

12%

Deck Inclusion

Games Tracked

319

Decks Running

257

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

69%

Solemn Simulacrum appears in 11% of tracked Commander decks, and when drawn it's cast 67% of the time. Players hold it an average of 1.5 turns before casting, a sign they're timing it deliberately.

Solemn Simulacrum sits in 11% of the 1,673 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. That number is lower than its reputation might suggest, but it reflects the card's true position: a format-legal, colorless staple that earns its slot most reliably in decks that lack green's native ramp.

When Sad Robot enters a hand, players cast it 67% of the time. The 33% gap is largely a timing story. With a mana value of 4, players are drawing it at all stages of the game, and late draws that arrive after the board has stabilized often go uncast before the game ends. The median first-cast turn is 5, one turn behind the theoretical curve, and only 20% of casts land exactly on turn 4. Nine of the 45 tracked casts came ahead of curve, suggesting some players are accelerating into it.

The stickiness number tells Solemn Simulacrum's real story. Only 29% of cast copies are still on the battlefield at game's end. Most die to combat or removal and fire their draw trigger on the way out. That churn is a feature, not a bug. The card is designed to trade itself for a card and a land, so a low stickiness reading is precisely the expected pattern in live play.

At a glance

11% inclusion rate across 1,673 tracked Commander decks
67% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn, one behind the 4-mana curve
29% battlefield stickiness — most copies die and draw a card as designed
1.5T average turns held in hand before being cast
20% of casts land exactly on curve at turn 4

First-cast turn

n=61

15%

16%

43%

T6-9

11%

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 7 · max 21

On curve 15% (9 / 61 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 46%

The "good card" funnel

379 brought · 191 players

Brought to game

379

Ever drawn

Reached battlefield

Still on board at game end

69%

Of 273 Solemn Simulacrum copies brought to games, 63 were drawn, 45 of those were cast, and just 13 were still on the battlefield at game's end, exactly the churn-and-draw pattern the card is built for.

-5.0pp

Players who cast this card win 26% of the time (n=61) , vs 31% when it never left the library (n=281).

Final zone distribution

379 instances

74.4%

Library

5.0%

Battlefield

11.6%

Graveyard

3.4%

Exile

199 of 273 brought copies ended the game in the library, the expected outcome for a singleton in a 100-card deck, but 37 of the 45 cast copies reached the graveyard and likely triggered the death draw.

Top commanders running this card

by deck count

The commander list spans six distinct color pairings, confirming that colorless inclusion is driven by what a deck lacks rather than any single archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Solemn Simulacrum drawn in a Commander game? ▾

Across 272 deck-participations tracked on Playgroup Live, Solemn Simulacrum was drawn in 23% of instances. That aligns with the structural baseline for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 63 instances that reached a player's hand, 45 were eventually cast, giving a draw-to-play rate of 67%.

What turn does Solemn Simulacrum typically get cast? ▾

The median first-cast turn is 5, with the middle 50% of casts falling between turns 4 and 7. The distribution shows 9 casts on turn 4 (exactly on curve), 8 on turn 5, and 6 each on turns 6 and 7. Two casts landed as early as turn 1, likely from ramp or cost reduction. One outlier reached turn 21, showing how long some games run.

Why is Solemn Simulacrum's battlefield stickiness so low? ▾

Only 29% of cast copies are still on the battlefield at game's end. That is not a weakness. Solemn Simulacrum is built to die: when it does, players draw a card. The graveyard is the intended final destination. Of 45 cast copies, 37 ended up in the graveyard, which means most players are getting the full value from both enters-the-battlefield and death triggers.

Does casting Solemn Simulacrum actually help you win? ▾

In 45 observed casts, the win rate was 35.6%. In the 199 participations where the copy sat in the library all game, the win rate was 39.7%. The delta is -4.1 percentage points, meaning decks that cast it did not outperform decks that never drew it in this early sample. Both buckets exceed the 25% baseline for a 4-player pod, so these are competitive decks overall. With 45 cast observations this signal is directional rather than conclusive.

Which commanders most often run Solemn Simulacrum? ▾

Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads the tracked sample with 19 decks, followed by Shorikai, Genesis Engine at 13. The spread across Izzet, Azorius, Boros, Gruul, Esper, and mono-colored commanders confirms the colorless nature of the card. Decks that lack access to green ramp or that benefit from flicker and reanimation effects recur most frequently at the top of the list.

Is Solemn Simulacrum legal in Commander? ▾

Yes. Solemn Simulacrum is legal in Commander with no restrictions. Its color identity is colorless, making it eligible for every deck regardless of commander color identity. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Standard, Historic, Alchemy, Brawl, Gladiator, Timeless, and Oathbreaker as of the most recent legality data.