Live Play Data

Talisman of Curiosity

· Artifact · Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC)

10%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

726

Decks Running

373

Median Cast Turn

3.0

Drawn → Played

78%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Talisman of Curiosity is in 10% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live. When drawn, 78% of copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 3.0.

Talisman of Curiosity turns up in 10% of the 3818 distinct Commander decks that have played a tracked game on Playgroup Live. That puts it firmly in the rotation of Simic-adjacent builds looking for early colored mana acceleration alongside a colorless option.

The draw-to-play rate of 78% is the key efficiency signal. Of the 166 copies that reached a player's hand, the large majority were cast before the game ended. The median first cast lands on turn 3.0, consistent with players picking it up in opening hands or early draws and deploying it promptly. The card's stickiness of 84% once resolved confirms that interaction against a 2-mana rock is rarely a priority for opponents.

The commander spread is broad. The top slot is The Wise Mothman at 45 decks, but the list fans out quickly across Ulalek, Kinnan, Atraxa, and a range of Simic and five-color builds. Talisman of Curiosity's green-blue color identity means it slots into any deck that touches either color, and that breadth shows in the data.

At a glance

10% of tracked Commander decks include Talisman of Curiosity
78% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T3.0 median first-cast turn, consistent with early ramp deployment
84% battlefield stickiness once the Talisman resolves
342 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=130

12%

25%

18%

11%

22%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.0 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 17

On curve 37% (32 / 130 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

727 brought · 342 players

Brought to game

727

Ever drawn

166

Reached battlefield

130

Still on board at game end

109

78%

Of 727 Talismans brought to games, 166 were drawn, 130 of those were cast, and 84% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield at game's end.

≥ -4.1pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=119) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=468).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 44% (n=34) — 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 +4.4pp; 95% confidence interval -4.1pp to +12.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

188 instances

1.6%

Library

58.0%

Battlefield

17.6%

Graveyard

8.0%

Exile

Most Talisman of Curiosity instances that were actively observed ended on the battlefield, a strong result for a 2-mana permanent; the few copies in the library bucket represent games where the card simply never came up.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The Wise Mothman leads with 45 decks but the list spreads quickly across Ulalek, Kinnan, Atraxa, and a mix of Simic and multicolor builds, reflecting the Talisman's broad color-identity eligibility.

Card text

Talisman of Curiosity

Artifact

: Add

: Add

. This artifact deals 1 damage to you.

Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC) · Uncommon · Illustrated by Lindsey Look

Frequently Asked

How often is Talisman of Curiosity drawn in a Commander game?

Across 695 tracked games where the Talisman was in a deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That figure is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 166 copies that reached a hand, 78% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Talisman of Curiosity usually hit the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 3.0. The mode is turn 2, reflecting copies drawn in opening hands and cast on the earliest legal opportunity. The distribution has a long tail stretching to turn 17, pulling the mean above the median. Players who draw it early deploy it fast; copies drawn mid-to-late game sometimes never resolve before the game ends.

Does casting Talisman of Curiosity correlate with winning?

In 119 participations where the Talisman reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate was 29%. The baseline win rate when it stayed in the library was 25%, a delta of +4.4 percentage points. Both sample sizes are meaningful, but the confidence interval is wide enough that this signal is directional rather than conclusive. Early ramp is generally understood to help in Commander; the data does not contradict that.

Is Talisman of Curiosity legal in Commander?

Yes. Talisman of Curiosity is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Brawl, Oathbreaker, and Gladiator. Its green-blue color identity restricts it to decks whose commander has at least one of those two colors, which still covers a wide portion of the Commander meta.

How concentrated is the Talisman data among a few players?

The dataset is well-spread. 342 distinct players have brought Talisman of Curiosity to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for only 3% of all instances. That breadth adds confidence to the aggregate numbers, even within Playgroup Live's smaller-than-average sample relative to large decklist databases.

How does Talisman of Curiosity compare to other 2-mana mana rocks in Commander?

Talisman of Curiosity sits in the same functional tier as Arcane Signet and the other Talisman cycle cards. It produces both colored mana and colorless, at the cost of 1 life per colored activation. Its 10% inclusion rate on Playgroup Live reflects its color-identity constraint: only green-blue and broader-color-identity decks can run it, so the ceiling is lower than an unrestricted artifact like Sol Ring. Within eligible decks, it is a reliable early accelerant.