Live Play Data

Talisman of Hierarchy

· Artifact · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

29%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

828

Decks Running

504

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

79%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Talisman of Hierarchy lands in 29% of tracked Commander decks, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0 and 79% of drawn copies reaching the battlefield.

Talisman of Hierarchy appears in 29% of the 1714 distinct Commander decks that have played a tracked game on Playgroup Live. That puts it firmly in the ramp-staple tier for any deck running both White and Black.

When a copy reaches a player's hand, 79% of the time it reaches the battlefield before the game ends. Median first cast lands on turn 4.0, consistent with players prioritizing it in the early game to establish mana. Once it resolves, 81% of cast copies survive to end of game, reflecting how rarely opponents spend removal on a two-mana rock.

The commander spread is wide and well-populated. Killian, Decisive Mentor and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed lead the top-commander list at 756 games tracked, but the data spans 419 distinct players with no single contributor dominating the sample. That breadth makes the inclusion signal reliable as a directional read on Orzhov and allied-color ramp habits.

At a glance

29% of tracked Commander decks include Talisman of Hierarchy
79% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn, early ramp territory
81% battlefield stickiness once cast
419 distinct players contribute to the dataset, a well-spread sample
25% draw rate per game, typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck

First-cast turn

n=166

23%

17%

28%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 7 · max 15

On curve 31% (38 / 166 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

834 brought · 419 players

Brought to game

834

Ever drawn

210

Reached battlefield

166

Still on board at game end

134

79%

Of 834 Talismans brought to games, 210 were drawn, 166 of those were cast, and 81% of resolved copies were still on the battlefield at game's end.

≥ -7.4pp

Players who cast this card win 24% of the time (n=163) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=575).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=40) — 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 -0.5pp; 95% confidence interval -7.4pp to +6.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

227 instances

0.4%

Library

59.0%

Battlefield

19.8%

Graveyard

5.7%

Exile

The vast majority of Talisman of Hierarchy copies never leave the library, a structural reality of 100-card singleton rather than a signal about the card's power level. Of the copies that did move, most finished the game on the battlefield.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Killian, Decisive Mentor and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed lead the list, but the commander distribution is broad, spanning Orzhov, Esper, and Mardu builds, reflecting the Talisman's value anywhere Black and White mana are both needed.

Frequently Asked

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

Across 756 tracked games where it was in the deck, Talisman of Hierarchy was drawn 25% of the time. That figure is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 210 instances that reached a player's hand, 79% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Talisman of Hierarchy typically get cast?

The median first-cast turn is 4.0, with the distribution spread from turn 1 through mid-game. The mode in this dataset is turn 2, the card's mana-value turn, meaning players who open with it tend to cast it immediately. The on-curve rate is 31%, which is partly a function of how often it shows up in the opening hand versus being drawn later.

Does casting Talisman of Hierarchy improve your win rate?

The cast win rate is 24% versus 24% when the card sits unseen in the library. That is a small negative delta in the current data, and with the standard error of the estimate the direction is not reliable. What the data does not capture is that decks bringing Talisman tend to play longer, more interactive games. Read it as directional, not conclusive.

Is Talisman of Hierarchy legal in Commander?

Yes. Talisman of Hierarchy is legal in Commander with no restrictions. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, and Timeless. It is not legal in Pioneer, Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander, and it is not legal in PreDH.

Which commanders most commonly run Talisman of Hierarchy?

On Playgroup Live the heaviest adopters are Killian, Decisive Mentor and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, each appearing in the top-commander list with meaningful deck counts. The spread extends across straight Orzhov (Black-White) commanders, three-color Esper (Blue-Black-White) shells, and Mardu (Black-Red-White) builds, reflecting that the Talisman fits any archetype touching both White and Black mana.

How sticky is Talisman of Hierarchy once it resolves?

81% of cast copies finish the game on the battlefield. That is consistent with the general pattern for cheap mana rocks: opponents rarely devote targeted removal to a two-mana artifact when higher-priority threats are on the table. The graveyard slice of the final-zone distribution captures copies that were destroyed or sacrificed, but those are a clear minority of resolutions in the tracked data.