Live Play Data

Welcoming Vampire

· Creature — Vampire · Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander (TDC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

803

Decks Running

443

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

74%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

74% of drawn Welcoming Vampires are cast before the game ends, and the card appears in 443 of 7460 tracked Commander decks, landing on the battlefield most often on turn 5.

Welcoming Vampire sits in 6% of Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, converting its 3-mana cost into a steady draw engine for creature-flood strategies. When players do draw it, 74% of those copies reach the battlefield, one of the stronger cast rates we see for a three-drop that requires a supporting board to fire.

The card's strength is structural. White historically struggles to refuel in Commander, and Welcoming Vampire patches that hole in any deck that regularly deploys 1- or 2-power creatures. Edgar Markov token builds, Arabella go-wide strategies, and Felothar the Steadfast creature swarms all lean on it for exactly this reason. The commander distribution reflects that niche clearly: the top slots are dominated by token and creature-tribal commanders across black, red, and white.

The data here covers 782 tracked multiplayer games. With 398 distinct players contributing instances, concentration is very low. No single player accounts for more than a small fraction of the sample, which makes the observed patterns more reliable as a directional signal for the broader meta.

At a glance

6% of tracked Commander decks include Welcoming Vampire
74% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn, typically turn 3 at the earliest
43% battlefield stickiness once cast
398 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
29% of casts land exactly on curve at three mana

First-cast turn

n=139

20%

19%

17%

27%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 21

On curve 29% (28 / 139 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 27%

The "good card" funnel

803 brought · 398 players

Brought to game

803

Ever drawn

187

Reached battlefield

139

Still on board at game end

74%

Of 803 copies brought to games, 187 were drawn, 139 of those were cast, making the draw-to-cast conversion rate one of the stronger signals this card earns its slot when players see it.

≥ -10.2pp

Players who cast this card win 20% of the time (n=134) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=526).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (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 -3.0pp; 95% confidence interval -10.2pp to +4.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

209 instances

3.8%

Library

28.7%

Battlefield

40.7%

Graveyard

12.4%

Exile

Most Welcoming Vampires never leave the library, which is expected for any singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the copies that did move, the battlefield and graveyard are the two dominant destinations, reflecting a card that resolves and sticks until answered.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Edgar Markov 71 decks
2 Felothar the Steadfast 38 decks
3 Arabella, Abandoned Doll 24 decks
4 Zinnia, Valley's Voice 15 decks
5 Clavileño, First of the Blessed 12 decks
6 Kambal, Profiteering Mayor 9 decks
7 Darien, King of Kjeldor 8 decks
8 Silverquill, the Disputant 8 decks
9 Doran, Besieged by Time 7 decks
10 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines 7 decks

Edgar Markov alone accounts for 42 of the tracked decks running this card, nearly double the next commander. The list skews heavily toward token-generating and creature-tribal commanders, confirming that Welcoming Vampire is a role-player rather than a broadly played staple.

Frequently Asked

How often is Welcoming Vampire drawn in a Commander game?

Across 782 tracked multiplayer games where Welcoming Vampire was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 187 instances that reached a hand, 74% were cast before the game ended. The remainder largely reflects games that concluded before the player found a window to cast it.

What turn does Welcoming Vampire typically hit the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 5. The distribution shows a mode at turn 3, which is exactly on curve for a 3-mana card, but the bulk of casts spread through turns 4-8, reflecting how often players draw it after the opening hand rather than leading with it. The on-curve rate of 29% is directionally low, consistent with a card drawn mid-game rather than mulliganed into.

Which commanders use Welcoming Vampire most?

Edgar Markov leads by a large margin in the tracked dataset, followed by Felothar the Steadfast, Arabella Abandoned Doll, and Zinnia Valley's Voice. The pattern is consistent: commanders that generate multiple small creatures every turn gain the most from a once-per-turn draw trigger on a power-2-or-less clause. Vampire tribal, token swarm, and go-wide creature decks are the natural homes.

How sticky is Welcoming Vampire once it resolves?

43% of cast copies are still on the battlefield at end of game. That is a moderate figure for a creature without innate protection. Flying helps it survive combat incidentally, but the card is a removal target in pods where opponents recognize the card advantage it generates. Compared to a pure utility artifact, creature-based draw engines like this carry more interaction risk.

Is there any win-rate signal attached to casting Welcoming Vampire?

The current data shows a cast-vs-library delta that is small and straddles zero within the standard error, so we treat it as inconclusive rather than meaningful. The sample of 134 cast participations is sufficient to note the direction, but not sufficient to claim the card meaningfully shifts win probability on its own. What we can say is that the decks running it are playing a draw-engine role, and card advantage effects often pay off in ways a single stat does not cleanly capture.

Is Welcoming Vampire legal in Commander?

Yes. Welcoming Vampire is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. Its white color identity means it can only be included in Commander decks whose commander has white in its color identity.