Solemn Simulacrum card art
Live Play Data

Solemn Simulacrum

{4} · Artifact Creature — Golem · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)
10%
Live Inclusion
Times Brought
749
Decks Running
497
Median Cast Turn
5
Drawn → Played
65%
Format

10% of tracked Commander decks run Solemn Simulacrum. When drawn, it reaches the battlefield 65% of the time, with a median first-cast turn of 5.

Solemn Simulacrum sits in 10% of the 4852 Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, appearing in 497 distinct lists. Its colorless identity makes it a genuine format-wide card: the top-commander list spans Izzet, Rakdos, Mardu, Grixis, and even colorless shells.

The card's value proposition is structural. A 4-mana 2/2 that ramps a basic land on entry and replaces itself on death offers two separate triggers to extract value from. That design shows up in the stickiness number: 32% of cast copies end the game on the battlefield, which is low for an artifact creature and reflects how often opponents choose to remove it, trade into it, or sacrifice it deliberately to draw the card. Most tracked copies end their game in the graveyard or in hand, not in play.

The draw-to-play figure, 65%, reflects how often a drawn Simulacrum is cast before the game ends. Median cast turn is 5, consistent with a 4-mana spell drawn from the opening hand or picked up in the early-to-mid game. The data comes from 367 distinct players with a single-player cap of 3% of all instances, so concentration risk is minimal and the early signal is well-spread.

At a glance
  • 10% of tracked Commander decks include Solemn Simulacrum
  • 65% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
  • T5 median first-cast turn, matching its 4-mana cost
  • 32% battlefield stickiness once cast, reflecting how often it trades or triggers its death draw
  • 367 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
  • 35% of casts landed exactly on curve at turn 4

First-cast turn

n=133
1%
T1
6%
T2
10%
T3
19%
T4
16%
T5
41%
T6-9
8%
T10+
Median 5 P25 4 · P75 7 · max 12
On curve 35% (25 / 133 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 34%

The "good card" funnel

756 brought · 367 players
Brought to game
756
Ever drawn
205
Reached battlefield
133
Still on board at game end
42
65%

Of 756 Solemn Simulacrums brought to games, 205 were drawn, 133 were cast, and only 32% of those cast copies ended the game on the battlefield.

≥ -1.9pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=133) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=502).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 24% (n=68) — 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 +6.4pp; 95% confidence interval -1.9pp to +14.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

221 instances
1.8%
Library
19.0%
Battlefield
43.0%
Graveyard
12.2%
Exile

The graveyard is the most common final zone for a cast Simulacrum, which makes sense: opponents remove it to deny the death trigger, and pilots sacrifice it deliberately in the right builds.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans five distinct color pairs and includes colorless commanders, consistent with Solemn Simulacrum's format-wide reach rather than concentration in any single archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Solemn Simulacrum drawn in a Commander game?
Across 665 tracked games where the card was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 205 instances that reached a player's hand, 65% were cast before the game ended. The remainder were mostly copies drawn late with no opportunity to cast before the game concluded.
What turn does Solemn Simulacrum usually get cast?
Median first-cast turn is 5, which lands squarely on its mana value of 4. The distribution clusters between turns 4 and 7, with the p25 at turn 4 and the p75 at turn 7. Only 35% of casts hit exactly on curve, with most landing behind it. That pattern is consistent with a card players often draw mid-game rather than in the opening hand. Same-turn cast rate is 34%, meaning players frequently hold it a turn or two before casting.
Does casting Solemn Simulacrum actually improve your win rate?
In 133 tracked participations where the card was cast, the normalized win rate is 32%. In 502 participations where it stayed in the library, the win rate is 26%. That is a +6.4 percentage-point delta. Both sample sizes are above 15, but the confidence interval on this delta still crosses zero in our data, so treat it as a directional signal that resolving the card correlates with better outcomes rather than a proven causal link.
Why does Solemn Simulacrum appear in so many different commander decks?
The card's colorless identity means any commander can run it. Ramp plus card draw packed into a single artifact creature fills two generic needs every deck has. The top-commanders chart on Playgroup Live shows it showing up across Izzet, Rakdos, Mardu, Grixis, and colorless lists simultaneously. That breadth is the clearest signal of its format role: it is infrastructure, not a combo piece.
Why is battlefield stickiness low for an artifact creature?
Solemn Simulacrum has a death trigger that draws a card. Opponents often choose to remove it precisely to deny that draw, and pilots in sacrifice or flicker strategies may cash it in deliberately. 32% stickiness means roughly one in four cast copies stays on the battlefield through end of game. The majority end up in the graveyard, which is expected and often desirable for the controller.
Is Solemn Simulacrum legal in Commander?
Yes. Solemn Simulacrum is legal in Commander with no restrictions. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Standard, Alchemy, Brawl, and most other constructed formats. It is not legal in Pauper (rare rarity) or Old School. The most recent printing is in the Marvel Super Heroes Commander set.