Live Play Data

Temple of Malady

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

19%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

818

Decks Running

462

Median Cast Turn

4.5

Drawn → Played

80%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

80% of drawn Temple of Malady copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.5 across 779 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live.

Temple of Malady sits in 19% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks on Playgroup Live, appearing in 462 of the 2387 distinct decks that have played a recorded game. That puts it squarely in the conversation for Golgari mana bases, even amid stiff competition from shock lands and fetch lands.

When players draw this land, 80% of those copies end up on the battlefield before the game concludes. The scry 1 trigger on entry adds a layer of value that sets the Temple cycle apart from plain tapped duals: you trade tempo for filtering, and most players make that trade willingly. Median first-cast turn lands on turn 4.5, reflecting a mix of opening-hand keeps and late-game topdecks.

The commander distribution is notably broad. No single commander commands the data. Dina, Essence Brewer leads in raw deck count, but the card spreads across black-green, black-green-white, black-green-blue, and five-color shells alike. Any deck with access to both black and green mana is a potential home.

At a glance

19% of tracked Commander decks include Temple of Malady
80% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.5 median first-cast turn across multiplayer games
93% battlefield stickiness once the land enters play
406 distinct players have brought Temple of Malady to a tracked game
25% win rate in games where the land reached the battlefield

First-cast turn

n=170

24%

12%

32%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.5 P25 2 · P75 7 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 65%

The "good card" funnel

818 brought · 406 players

Brought to game

818

Ever drawn

213

Reached battlefield

170

Still on board at game end

158

80%

Of 818 Temple of Malady copies brought to tracked games, 213 were drawn, 170 of those reached the battlefield, and the overwhelming majority stayed in play through the end of the game.

≥ +0.5pp

Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=163) , vs 18% when it never left the library (n=527).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 25% (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 +7.2pp; 95% confidence interval +0.5pp to +13.9pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

237 instances

3.0%

Library

66.7%

Battlefield

16.5%

Graveyard

1.3%

Exile

The vast majority of Temple of Malady copies never leave the library, a structural reality of 100-card singleton decks rather than a reflection on the card's usefulness. Of the copies that were observed, most finished on the battlefield.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Dina, Essence Brewer 65 decks
2 Felothar the Steadfast 32 decks
3 Teval, the Balanced Scale 31 decks
4 The Wise Mothman 27 decks
5 Hazel of the Rootbloom 26 decks
6 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 15 decks
7 Ulalek, Fused Atrocity 14 decks
8 Ygra, Eater of All 12 decks
9 Blech, Loafing Pest 9 decks
10 Shelob, Child of Ungoliant 9 decks

Dina, Essence Brewer leads the commander list by a clear margin, but the spread across black-green, three-color, and five-color commanders shows Temple of Malady is a format-wide mana-fixing choice rather than a build-specific one.

Frequently Asked

How often is Temple of Malady drawn in a Commander game?

Across 779 tracked multiplayer games where Temple of Malady was in the deck, the draw rate is 26%. That is consistent with what you would expect from a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of 213 instances that reached a player's hand, 80% were played before the game ended. The remainder mostly reflects games that ended before the player had a chance to deploy it, not a deliberate choice to hold it.

What turn does Temple of Malady typically enter the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 4.5 in multiplayer games. The distribution skews early: the most common single turn is turn 1, driven by opening-hand keeps. From there, casts spread broadly across the mid-game. The mean is higher than the median, pulled up by copies drawn in the late game. In two-player duel games tracked separately, the median is lower at turn 2, reflecting shorter overall game lengths.

Does casting Temple of Malady correlate with winning?

In multiplayer games, the win rate when the land reached the battlefield is 25%, compared to 18% when it stayed in the library. That is a +7.2 percentage-point difference. The sample has 163 cast observations and 527 library observations, which gives us reasonable confidence this is a real directional signal rather than noise. A land that fixes mana and scries tends to appear in decks running smoothly, which likely accounts for much of the lift.

Is Temple of Malady legal in Commander?

Yes. Temple of Malady is legal in Commander and in most other major formats including Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, and Standard. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its rare printing. Its black-green color identity means it can only appear in decks whose commander has both black and green in their color identity.

How concentrated is this card among specific players?

The data is well spread. 406 distinct players have brought Temple of Malady to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all instances. That level of spread across the player base means the statistics are not inflated by one prolific pilot and reflect broad real-world usage.

Why do players choose Temple of Malady over other Golgari dual lands?

Temple of Malady always enters tapped, which costs a tempo. The compensation is scry 1 on entry, letting players filter the top of their library immediately. In Commander, where games tend to run long and consistency matters more than raw speed, that filtering can be worth the one-turn delay. Budget is also a factor: the Temple cycle is widely available at a fraction of the cost of shock lands or fetch lands, making it a common mana-fixing choice across casual and mid-power tables alike.