Live Play Data

Viscera Seer

· Creature — Vampire Wizard · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1211

Decks Running

662

Median Cast Turn

5.5

Drawn → Played

83%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

83% of drawn Viscera Seers are cast before the game ends, and the card appears in 662 of 8285 tracked Commander decks, spread across 555 distinct players.

Viscera Seer is a one-mana common that punches well above its rarity. Across 1160 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, 83% of drawn copies reached the battlefield, one of the higher draw-to-play rates we record for any creature in the format.

The card earns its slot as a free sacrifice outlet that pays you back with library control. Once on the battlefield, it sticks at a 41% rate, reflecting how often opponents prioritize removing a 1/1 versus more immediate threats. Its median first-cast turn lands on turn 5.5, later than its single mana cost might suggest: most copies are held until there is something worth sacrificing, not jammed out on turn one as ramp.

The commander distribution tells the clearest story: Dina, Essence Brewer and Edgar Markov lead the pack, confirming that Viscera Seer slots into life-gain-payoff and token-sacrifice strategies rather than generic black goodstuff. Data spans 555 unique players with no single contributor exceeding a small share of the total, giving the numbers solid breadth for a dataset of this size.

At a glance

8% of tracked Commander decks include Viscera Seer
83% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5.5 median first-cast turn across all tracked games
41% battlefield stickiness once the Seer resolves
555 distinct players have brought Viscera Seer to a tracked game
662 decks in the Playgroup Live dataset run the card

First-cast turn

n=216

15%

12%

37%

T6-9

13%

T10+

Median 5.5 P25 3 · P75 8 · max 14

On curve 15% (32 / 216 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 50%

The "good card" funnel

1216 brought · 555 players

Brought to game

1216

Ever drawn

260

Reached battlefield

216

Still on board at game end

83%

Of 1216 Viscera Seers brought to games, 260 were drawn, and 216 of those were cast, with the majority landing on the battlefield before eventually moving to the graveyard through sacrifice.

≥ -0.6pp

Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=190) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=792).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 23% (n=43) — 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 +6.1pp; 95% confidence interval -0.6pp to +12.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

292 instances

0.7%

Library

30.1%

Battlefield

47.3%

Graveyard

7.9%

Exile

Most tracked Viscera Seers end up in the graveyard, consistent with a creature that is often sacrificed as part of the engine it enables rather than destroyed by opponents.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Dina, Essence Brewer 80 decks
2 Edgar Markov 52 decks
3 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 37 decks
4 Teysa Karlov 32 decks
5 Meren of Clan Nel Toth 23 decks
6 Zurgo Stormrender 23 decks
7 Ygra, Eater of All 14 decks
8 Clavileño, First of the Blessed 13 decks
9 Henzie "Toolbox" Torre 13 decks
10 Marchesa, the Black Rose 11 decks

Dina, Essence Brewer sits well clear of the rest of the list, confirming that life-drain and aristocrats archetypes are the primary homes for Viscera Seer in tracked play.

Card text

Viscera Seer

Creature — Vampire Wizard

Sacrifice a creature: Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)

1 / 1

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Common · Illustrated by John Stanko

Frequently Asked

How often is Viscera Seer drawn in a Commander game?

In 1160 tracked multiplayer games where Viscera Seer was in the deck, it was drawn 21% of the time. That is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 260 instances that reached a player's hand, 83% were cast before the game ended. The remainder is largely a game-length effect: copies drawn in the late game may not resolve before the table closes out.

What turn does Viscera Seer usually hit the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 5.5, with the mode landing on turn 1 for players who keep it in their opening hand. The distribution is broad: a cluster of early casts for players who drew it in hand, and most of the rest spread across turns 4 through 9. The hand-to-cast data shows a median hold time of 0 turns, meaning players who have it in hand often cast it the same turn, but 15% of casts landed on the card's mana-value turn exactly, reflecting how many copies come down well after the early game.

Does casting Viscera Seer actually improve your win rate?

Games where Viscera Seer was cast show a win rate of 30%, versus 24% in games where it stayed in the library. That is a +6.1 percentage-point directional lift across 190 cast observations and 792 library observations. The confidence interval on this delta crosses zero in the current dataset, so treat it as an early signal rather than a conclusive finding. The card's role as a sacrifice outlet means it often enables combos that independently drive wins.

Which commanders most often run Viscera Seer?

Dina, Essence Brewer leads by a wide margin in the Playgroup Live dataset, followed by Edgar Markov and Teysa Karlov. That grouping reflects the card's core use case: free sacrifice outlets are essential in life-drain, token-sacrifice, and aristocrats-style strategies. The commander spread across 555 unique players means no single archetype is skewing the numbers heavily.

Is Viscera Seer legal in Commander?

Yes. Viscera Seer is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pauper, Vintage, Oathbreaker, and Pauper Commander. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Alchemy, Historic, or Brawl. Its common rarity and mono-black identity make it accessible in nearly every format where it is legal.

Why does Viscera Seer see play despite being a 1/1 with no ETB?

The value is in the repeatable, free activation. Most sacrifice outlets cost mana or have a ceiling on how many times they can be used per turn. Viscera Seer converts any sacrifice into a Scry 1, which lets players chain through their deck, set up draws, or dump dead cards to the bottom. In combo lines that sacrifice the same creature multiple times through recursion loops, that scry accumulates quickly. The one-mana cost means it comes down before most interaction, and at 41% stickiness, opponents frequently let it sit.