Live Play Data

Temple of Mystery

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

19%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

571

Decks Running

315

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

73%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

19% of tracked Commander decks in the Simic color pair run Temple of Mystery, and 73% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 3.

Temple of Mystery sits in 19% of the Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, appearing in 315 of 1650 distinct decks that have played a recorded game. For a tapped dual that competes with fetchlands, shocklands, and a deep pool of green-blue fixing, that presence is a real endorsement from active players.

The behavioral story is simple: players deploy this land as soon as they can. 73% of drawn copies are played before the game ends, and the median first-cast turn lands at 3. The scry 1 trigger on entry converts an inherent tempo loss into a small but consistent deck-smoothing effect, which is why the card earns its slot even when cheaper untapped options exist.

The commander distribution is broad. 281 distinct players have brought Temple of Mystery to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than 28% of observations, giving the dataset healthy spread across the green-blue and three-color Simic-adjacent meta. Zimone, Infinite Analyst heads the commander list by a wide margin, followed by Ms. Bumbleflower and Tidus, Yuna's Guardian.

At a glance

19% of tracked Commander decks include Temple of Mystery
73% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T3 median turn of first play
97% battlefield stickiness once played
281 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
28% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck

First-cast turn

n=115

33%

10%

24%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 17

Cast same turn as drawn 64%

The "good card" funnel

574 brought · 281 players

Brought to game

574

Ever drawn

158

Reached battlefield

115

Still on board at game end

112

73%

Of 574 Temple of Mystery copies brought to tracked games, 158 were drawn, 115 of those were played onto the battlefield, and the vast majority stayed there through the end of the game.

≥ +1.8pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=114) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=383).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=42) — 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 +10.4pp; 95% confidence interval +1.8pp to +19.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

174 instances

0.6%

Library

64.4%

Battlefield

17.8%

Graveyard

2.9%

Exile

Nearly all Temple of Mystery copies that were never interacted with simply stayed in the library, which is the structural reality for most singletons in a 100-card deck. The cards that did surface were overwhelmingly still on the battlefield at game end.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Zimone, Infinite Analyst holds a clear lead at the top of the commander list, but the spread across Simic, Bant, and Temur commanders confirms Temple of Mystery earns its slot across a wide range of GU-inclusive strategies rather than being tied to one build.

Frequently Asked

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

Across 540 tracked games where Temple of Mystery was in the deck, it was drawn 28% of the time. That is in line with the expected singleton draw rate for a 100-card Commander deck. Of the 158 copies that reached a player's hand, 73% were eventually played before the game concluded.

What turn does Temple of Mystery typically hit the battlefield?

Median first play lands on turn 3. The distribution skews early: the most common single turn is turn 1, reflecting copies kept in opening hands and deployed immediately despite the enters-tapped drawback. The interquartile range runs from turn 1 to turn 6, so timing varies widely depending on whether the land was in the opening grip or drawn mid-game.

Does casting Temple of Mystery correlate with winning?

In Playgroup Live's multiplayer data, the win rate when Temple of Mystery was cast is 32%, compared to 22% for games where it stayed in the library. That is a +10.4 percentage-point directional lift. Both sample sizes are meaningful, so this is an early positive signal rather than a settled conclusion. The lift likely reflects deck-quality correlation as much as the card's direct impact.

Is Temple of Mystery legal in Commander?

Yes, Temple of Mystery is legal in Commander (and in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Vintage, Historic, and several other formats). It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its rare rarity. There are no bans or restrictions on this card in any format where it is currently legal.

How sticky is Temple of Mystery once it resolves?

Lands are rarely removed, and the data reflects that. Temple of Mystery has 97% battlefield stickiness in tracked games, meaning virtually every copy that enters the battlefield is still there at game end. This is expected for a non-basic land without a sacrifice clause, but it does confirm the card is not a removal target in typical pods.

Which commanders most commonly run Temple of Mystery?

Among Playgroup Live's tracked decks, Zimone, Infinite Analyst leads the list with the highest deck count, followed by Ms. Bumbleflower and Tidus, Yuna's Guardian. The distribution is spread across pure Simic (GU), Bant (GUW), and Temur (GUR) color identities. Any commander whose identity includes both green and blue can run it, which opens the card to a large portion of the Commander format's most popular two- and three-color pairings.