Live Play Data

Temple of the False God

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

13%

Deck Inclusion

Games Tracked

264

Decks Running

226

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

79%

Temple of the False God appears in 12.6% of tracked Commander decks. When drawn, it reaches the battlefield 79% of the time, with a median first-cast turn of 6.

Temple of the False God sits in 12.6% of the 1,797 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. That makes it a deliberate inclusion rather than a reflex one: players who slot it in tend to have a plan for it.

The draw-to-play rate tells the clearest story. 79% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends, the highest rate you'd expect from a land with a hard activation requirement. The card does demand five lands in play before it produces mana, but that threshold is typically crossed by turn 4 to 6 in most Commander games, and the median first-cast turn of 6 confirms players are not sitting on it long. When drawn, they cast it with a median hand-delay of just 1 turn.

The win-rate delta between games where the card was cast (38.4%) versus games where it sat in the library all game (36.6%) is a slim +1.8 points. With both sample sizes above 70, that is a directional signal at best. The card is unlikely to be the deciding factor in a win, but it correlates with the kind of mana-dense game states that produce wins.

At a glance

12.6% inclusion rate across tracked Commander decks
79% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn
89% battlefield stickiness once it enters play
+1.8pt win-rate delta when cast versus sitting in the library
1 turn median hand delay before casting

First-cast turn

n=73

18%

16%

41%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 15

Cast same turn as drawn 42%

The "good card" funnel

313 brought

Brought to game

313

Ever drawn

Cast when drawn

Still on board at game end

79%

Of 313 copies brought to games, 85 were drawn, 73 of those were cast, and 65 were still on the battlefield at game end, a clean funnel with an 89% stickiness rate once Temple hits play.

+1.8pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (28/73) , vs 37% when it never left the library (83/227).

Final zone distribution

313 instances

72.5%

Library

20.8%

Battlefield

1.9%

Graveyard

4.8%

Hand

227 of 313 brought copies end up in the library, the structural reality of a 100-card singleton deck, but 65 copies reached the battlefield, a solid conversion rate for a conditional land.

Top commanders running this card

by deck count

The top ten commanders span at least eight distinct color combinations, so Temple of the False God is not a tribal or archetype staple but a broadly distributed mid-game mana tool.

Frequently Asked

How often is Temple of the False God drawn in a Commander game? ▾

Temple of the False God was drawn in 27.2% of deck-participations where it was included. That is consistent with the expected draw rate for a singleton in a 100-card deck across a typical Commander game length. Of the 85 instances that reached a player's hand, 73 were cast, a draw-to-play rate of 79%.

What turn does Temple of the False God usually get played? ▾

The median first-cast turn is 6, with a mean of 5.99. The interquartile range runs from turn 4 to turn 8. A small cluster of 7 casts happened on turns 1 through 3, which likely reflects land-ramping strategies that hit five lands unusually fast. The distribution is fairly spread, reflecting the card's dependency on board state rather than hand contents alone.

Does casting Temple of the False God actually help you win? ▾

The win rate in participations where Temple was cast is 38.4% across 73 observations, versus 36.6% in 227 participations where it stayed in the library all game. That +1.8 point delta is a directional early signal only. The sample is real but not large enough to treat the gap as conclusive. Baseline win rate in a four-player pod is roughly 25%, so both cohorts are running above average, which likely reflects deck-quality correlation rather than the land itself.

Why does Temple of the False God have a reputation for being a trap card? ▾

Temple's activation requires five or more lands already in play. In games where you're mana-screwed or land-light, it does nothing and occupies a land slot. The data here show it performs fine in the hands of players who include it intentionally, but the risk is real in decks that don't reliably hit five lands by the mid-game. The median cast turn of 6 suggests most Temple players are reaching that threshold on schedule.

Is Temple of the False God legal in Commander? ▾

Yes. Temple of the False God is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Premodern, Oathbreaker, and TLR. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Historic, Alchemy, Pauper, Brawl, or Timeless. It is unrestricted in Commander.

Which commanders most frequently include Temple of the False God? ▾

In the Playgroup Live dataset, Zimone, Infinite Analyst leads with 26 decks, followed by Rootha, Mastering the Moment with 21. The rest of the top ten span a wide range of color identities, from Esper (Y'shtola) to Rakdos (Valgavoth) to Naya (Pantlaza). The spread across five-plus color combinations suggests Temple is not tied to any single archetype but appears wherever players want extra colorless mana in the mid-game.