Live Play Data

The Meathook Massacre

· Legendary Enchantment · Innistrad Remastered (INR)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

861

Decks Running

460

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

55%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

39% of games where The Meathook Massacre resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +11.4 percentage-point lift over games where it stayed in the library, across 95 observed casts on Playgroup Live.

The Meathook Massacre resolves and wins. Across 95 tracked casts on Playgroup Live, the caster won 39% of those games, compared to 28% in games where the card never left the library. That +11.4 percentage-point gap is a directional signal worth paying attention to, even if the sample size keeps it from being conclusive.

The card sits in 460 of the 9139 distinct decks tracked across 823 multiplayer Commander games. Inclusion is selective: at 5% of tracked decks, it is not a universal staple, but a deliberate choice. When drawn, 55% of copies are cast before the game ends. Median first cast lands on turn 7, reflecting the time players need to hold mana open for a meaningful X value. Once it resolves, 69% of cast copies remain on the battlefield at game end, making it one of the stickier permanents in black.

The commander spread is broad. 388 distinct players have brought The Meathook Massacre to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for only 3% of all instances. Creature-heavy black commanders dominate the top slots, from Sephiroth and Wilhelt to Edgar Markov and Teysa Karlov, all strategies that either weaponize the death triggers or need the board wipe to stabilize against aggressive boards.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include The Meathook Massacre
T7 median first-cast turn, reflecting the need to hold mana for a meaningful X
55% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
69% battlefield stickiness once cast
39% win rate in games where The Meathook Massacre resolved
388 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=101

12%

63%

T6-9

15%

T10+

Median 7 P25 6 · P75 9 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 33%

The "good card" funnel

863 brought · 388 players

Brought to game

863

Ever drawn

185

Reached battlefield

101

Still on board at game end

55%

Of 863 copies brought to games, 185 were drawn, 101 of those were cast, and 69% of cast copies remained on the battlefield at game end, a strong completion rate for a sorcery-speed permanent costing {X}{B}{B}.

≥ +1.1pp

Players who cast this card win 39% of the time (n=95) , vs 28% when it never left the library (n=567).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 31% (n=79) — 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 +11.4pp; 95% confidence interval +1.1pp to +21.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

219 instances

2.7%

Library

32.0%

Battlefield

24.7%

Graveyard

9.1%

Exile

Most tracked copies of The Meathook Massacre end games on the battlefield or in hand, with only a small fraction exiled or destroyed. That reflects both its stickiness once it resolves and the frequency with which drawn copies are never cast before the game ends.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 31 decks
2 Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver 15 decks
3 Teysa Karlov 14 decks
4 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 11 decks
5 Edgar Markov 11 decks
6 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 9 decks
7 Marrow-Gnawer 8 decks
8 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 8 decks
9 Teval, the Balanced Scale 7 decks
10 Caesar, Legion's Emperor 6 decks

The commander list skews heavily toward black creature-token strategies. Sephiroth leads by raw deck count, but the spread across death-trigger commanders from Wilhelt to Edgar Markov shows the card earns its slot across multiple archetypes rather than concentrating in one.

Card text

The Meathook Massacre

Legendary Enchantment

When The Meathook Massacre enters, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life. Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you gain 1 life.

Innistrad Remastered (INR) · Mythic · Illustrated by Chris Seaman

Frequently Asked

How often is The Meathook Massacre drawn and cast in a Commander game?

Across 823 tracked multiplayer games, The Meathook Massacre was drawn 21% of the time when it was in a deck. Of those drawn copies, 55% were cast before the game ended. That draw-to-play figure is moderate: some gap between drawn and cast copies is expected, as players often wait to accumulate enough mana for X to matter, and some copies are drawn too late to cast before the game concludes.

What turn does The Meathook Massacre typically hit the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 7, with the middle half of casts falling between turns 6 and 9. The late timing is structural: The Meathook Massacre costs {X}{B}{B}, so players who want X to be 3 or higher need to wait until they have five or more mana available. Early casts at X=1 or X=2 do appear in the distribution, but they are the minority.

Does casting The Meathook Massacre actually improve your odds of winning?

What we see so far is directional. Games where the card resolved ended in a win 39% of the time, versus 28% in games where it never left the library. That is a +11.4 percentage-point gap across 95 casts and 567 library instances. The confidence interval for this dataset's sample size does touch zero on the low end, so call it an early signal rather than a proven edge.

How sticky is The Meathook Massacre once it resolves?

69% of cast copies are still on the battlefield at end of game. That is high for a non-creature permanent. The Meathook Massacre does not have hexproof or indestructible, but opponents have to prioritize removing it specifically. The passive drain triggers accumulate pressure every time any creature dies, which often makes it not worth leaving in play for opponents who cannot answer it immediately.

Is The Meathook Massacre banned anywhere?

The Meathook Massacre is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, and several other formats. It was banned in Standard when it was legal in that format, a testament to how warping the life-drain engine is in shorter games. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its mythic rarity.

Which commanders most often run The Meathook Massacre?

Among tracked decks on Playgroup Live, Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER leads the count, followed by Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, Teysa Karlov, Chatterfang, Squirrel General, and Edgar Markov. The pattern is consistent: commanders that generate many creature tokens or care about death triggers get the most value from both the board-wipe mode and the passive drain. The spread across 388 distinct players means this distribution reflects genuine play patterns rather than a single prolific deck builder.