Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose card art
Live Play Data

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

{2} {B} · Legendary Creature — Vampire Cleric · Core Set 2021 (M21)
5%
Live Inclusion
Times Brought
655
Decks Running
359
Median Cast Turn
6.0
Drawn → Played
71%
Format

71% of drawn Vito copies reach the battlefield, and decks that cast him show a 33% win rate across 94 tracked participations on Playgroup Live.

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose converts every point of life gained into pressure on an opponent, and 71% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends. Across 626 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, he sits in 359 of 7082 distinct decks.

The cast win rate of 33% sits above the 27% baseline for games where he never left the library, a directional lift of +6.6 percentage points. Both sample sizes are meaningful, but note that the confidence interval crosses zero, so treat this as an early signal rather than a settled conclusion. Median first cast lands on turn 6.0, later than his 3-mana cost would suggest, reflecting how often he enters hand mid-game rather than from an opening grip.

His commander distribution is broad. 327 distinct players have brought him to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of observations, which gives the dataset reasonable spread. Edgar Markov leads the top-commander list by a wide margin, confirming Vito's natural home in Vampire tribal shells, but life-gain commanders across Esper and mono-black round out the field.

At a glance
  • 5% of tracked Commander decks include Vito
  • 71% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
  • T6.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
  • 33% win rate in participations where Vito resolved
  • 52% battlefield stickiness once cast
  • 327 distinct players have brought Vito to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=100
1%
T1
3%
T2
8%
T3
13%
T4
13%
T5
54%
T6-9
8%
T10+
Median 6.0 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 16
On curve 12% (8 / 100 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 34%

The "good card" funnel

656 brought · 327 players
Brought to game
656
Ever drawn
140
Reached battlefield
100
Still on board at game end
63
71%

Of 656 Vito copies brought to tracked games, 140 were drawn, 100 of those were cast, and 52% of cast copies remained on the battlefield at end of game.

≥ -2.9pp

Players who cast this card win 33% of the time (n=94) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=429).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 16% (n=36) — 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 +6.6pp; 95% confidence interval -2.9pp to +16.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

170 instances
1.2%
Library
37.1%
Battlefield
33.5%
Graveyard
7.1%
Exile

Most Vito copies never leave the library in any given game, a structural reality of 100-card singleton, but resolved copies land on the battlefield at a meaningful rate.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Edgar Markov claims the top slot with 53 decks, well ahead of the field, though life-gain commanders across Esper, mono-black, and Abzan archetypes all make the list, showing Vito's range.

Frequently Asked

How often is Vito drawn and cast in a Commander game?
In 626 tracked multiplayer games where Vito was in the deck, he was drawn 21% of the time. That is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 140 copies that reached a hand, 71% were cast before the game ended. When drawn and cast, players held him a median of 1 turn before playing him, and 34% of cast instances went down the same turn he was drawn.
What turn does Vito typically hit the battlefield?
Median first cast is turn 6.0 in multiplayer games. His mana value is 3, but 12% of casts land exactly on curve. Most copies arrive later, typically turns 5 through 8, reflecting that he is frequently drawn mid-game rather than kept in an opening hand. In duel games the median drops to turn 5, consistent with faster game paces in two-player pods.
Does casting Vito actually improve your odds of winning?
Participations where Vito resolved show a 33% win rate versus 27% for games where he stayed in the library, a gap of +6.6 percentage points. The sample covers 94 cast participations and 429 library participations. The confidence interval on this delta currently crosses zero, so the directional signal is positive but not yet conclusive. More tracked games will tighten the picture.
Which commanders run Vito most often on Playgroup Live?
Edgar Markov leads with 53 tracked decks, a large margin over the next tier. Y'shtola, Night's Blessed and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic follow, both in Esper life-gain shells. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Betor, Ancestor's Voice round out the top five. The spread across Vampire tribal, drain-and-gain, and mono-black goodstuff commanders shows Vito fitting multiple archetypes wherever black life-gain is central to the strategy.
How sticky is Vito once he resolves?
52% of resolved Vito copies remain on the battlefield at end of game. That is moderate for a three-mana legendary creature. Opponents have clear incentive to remove him quickly given that his trigger fires on any life-gain event, so survival through a full game is not guaranteed. The graveyard is the most common exit zone for copies that do leave play.
Is Vito legal in formats outside Commander?
Vito is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, and several other formats. He is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Pauper Commander, or Premodern. His Playgroup Live stats cover both multiplayer Commander and Duel Commander tracked games, so the numbers here reflect real table play across both formats.