Live Play Data

Urza's Saga

Enchantment Land — Urza's Saga · Modern Horizons 2 (MH2)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1266

Decks Running

667

Median Cast Turn

3.0

Drawn → Played

79%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

79% of drawn Urza's Sagas are played, and games where it resolves show a +6.4 percentage-point win-rate lift over games where it stays buried, across 258 tracked cast instances.

Urza's Saga sits in 7% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, a deliberately narrow slice that reflects its demand for an artifact-dense shell rather than any lack of raw power. When a copy does reach the battlefield, it delivers three distinct effects before sacrificing itself: colorless mana, a potentially enormous Construct token, and a free tutor for any zero- or one-mana artifact.

The clearest performance signal is the cast-vs-library win-rate gap. Games where Urza's Saga was cast show a +6.4 percentage-point lift over the 28% baseline in games where it never left the library. With 258 cast instances and 827 library instances in the dataset, that gap clears its standard error, making it a meaningful directional signal rather than noise. The draw-to-play rate of 79% confirms that when players find the Saga, they move on it quickly. Median first cast lands on turn 3.0, and the mode is turn 1, a pattern driven by opening-hand keeps.

The commander distribution is genuinely broad. 430 distinct players have brought Urza's Saga to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of instances, so the data is not skewed by one prolific contributor. Artifact commanders such as Urza, Lord High Artificer and Zhulodok, Void Gorger anchor the top of the list, but the Saga also appears across Gruul, Mardu, and colorless shells willing to run zero-cost artifacts as payoffs.

At a glance

7% of tracked Commander decks include Urza's Saga
79% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
T3.0 median first-cast turn, with mode at turn 1
+6.4pp win-rate lift in games where the Saga resolves vs. stays buried
430 distinct players have brought Urza's Saga to a tracked game
34% win rate in participations where Urza's Saga reached the battlefield

First-cast turn

n=264

27%

13%

11%

10%

26%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.0 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 64%

The "good card" funnel

1267 brought · 430 players

Brought to game

1267

Ever drawn

336

Reached battlefield

264

Still on board at game end

79%

Of 1267 Sagas brought to tracked games, 336 were drawn, 264 of those were cast, and the majority moved to the graveyard on resolution as designed.

≥ +0.5pp

Players who cast this card win 34% of the time (n=258) , vs 28% when it never left the library (n=827).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 39% (n=69) — 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 +6.4pp; 95% confidence interval +0.5pp to +12.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

372 instances

2.2%

Library

16.9%

Battlefield

57.0%

Graveyard

9.7%

Exile

Graveyard is the dominant final zone for Urza's Saga, exactly as the card intends: it sacrifices itself after chapter III, so most resolved copies end there rather than on the battlefield.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 14 decks
2 Urza, Lord High Artificer 12 decks
3 Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man 10 decks
4 Toph, the First Metalbender 10 decks
5 Lorehold, the Historian 9 decks
6 Mr. House, President and CEO 9 decks
7 Zhulodok, Void Gorger 9 decks
8 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 7 decks
9 Hearthhull, the Worldseed 7 decks
10 Lumra, Bellow of the Woods 7 decks

Artifact commanders anchor the top of the list, but the spread across colorless, Gruul, Mardu, and blue shells shows the Saga fits any deck stocked with zero- and one-mana artifacts to tutor.

Frequently Asked

How often is Urza's Saga drawn in a Commander game?

In the 1049 multiplayer games tracked on Playgroup Live where a deck included Urza's Saga, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 336 copies that reached a player's hand, 79% were played before the game ended.

What turn does Urza's Saga typically enter the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 3.0, but the distribution is front-loaded: turn 1 is the single most common cast turn, driven by opening-hand keeps. From there the distribution spreads across turns 2 through 9, reflecting how often players find it through draws rather than the opener. The hand-to-cast data shows 64% of drawn copies are played on the same turn they are drawn, confirming players rarely sit on it.

Does casting Urza's Saga actually improve your chances of winning?

The data is directional and consistent, though the sample is still growing. Games where Urza's Saga resolved show a win rate of 34% across 258 cast instances. Games where it stayed in the library all game show 28% across 827 participations. The +6.4 percentage-point gap clears its standard error in the current dataset, but treat it as an early signal rather than a definitive verdict.

Why does Urza's Saga have low battlefield stickiness?

Urza's Saga is designed to sacrifice itself after its third chapter. That is not removal or disruption: it is the card working exactly as printed. A stickiness reading below 30% is expected and correct for a Saga. The graveyard is the intended final zone for the vast majority of resolved copies, so low stickiness here reflects the card's rules text rather than opponent interaction.

Which commanders most commonly run Urza's Saga?

On Playgroup Live, artifact-focused commanders lead the list. Urza, Lord High Artificer and Zhulodok, Void Gorger each appear near the top, which tracks with the Saga's synergy with zero- and one-mana artifacts and colorless mana production. Molecule Man, Tony Stark, and Ultron shells also appear, reflecting a wave of artifact-themed commanders released in recent sets. The spread across more than a dozen distinct commanders suggests the Saga is not locked to a single archetype.

Is Urza's Saga legal in Commander? What about other formats?

Urza's Saga is legal and unrestricted in Commander and Oathbreaker. It is legal in Legacy and Modern, where it sees significant competitive play tutoring for Mox Opal, Springleaf Drum, and similar zero-cost artifacts. It is restricted to one copy in Vintage. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Historic, Pauper, or Brawl.