Commander

Saruman, the White Hand

Global commander stats

All Grixis commanders Featured in Tales of Middle-earth

887 Wins

2371 Losses

Overview

Summary

Saruman, the White Hand is a Magic: The Gathering commander tracked across 3,299 recorded Playgroup games, winning 26% of them (887–2371) at an Elo of 1,468, ranking #4374 globally.

Wins average 9 turns, with 3753 damage dealt and 0.59 player kills per game on average.

Last full refresh 28 Oct 2026

Sources Scryfall · EDHREC · JSON API

Frequently Asked

What is Saruman, the White Hand's win rate?

Saruman, the White Hand has a 26% win rate across 3299 recorded Playgroup games (887 wins, 2371 losses).

How long do winning games with Saruman, the White Hand take?

Wins with Saruman, the White Hand take on average 9 turns. Total tracked play time: about 1 month.

How many decks use Saruman, the White Hand?

1,097 decks list Saruman, the White Hand as their commander on Playgroup, of which 697 have played at least one recorded game.

Saruman, the White Hand Magic: The Gathering commander card art

Buy on TCGplayer

Global rank

4374

Wins by turn (avg.)

Elo rating

1468

Trend

Global Elo trend

Trend

Commander popularity trend

Averages

Misc. stats

Average damage per game 3753

Average commander damage per game 3

Average poison counters given per game 5

Average kills per game 0.59

Average turn length 2 minutes

No. decks for this commander 1097

No. decks with at least one game for this commander 697

No. games played with this commander 3299

Total hours played about 1 month

Community

Top 5 public decks

Rank	Elo	User	Games	Wins	Winrate
1	1671	TonyBaishall	19	10	53 %
2	1587	Passl	39	13	33 %
3	1555	jack black belt	8	3	38 %
4	1546	SylvanLibrary	3	2	67 %
5	1545	Andrew Webb	4	2	50 %

Outcomes

How does this commander win?

When Saruman, the White Hand wins, 64.8% of wins come via combat across tracked games with a recorded win condition.

Combat

64.8%

Non Combat Damage

24.52%

Combo

4.38%

Alternative

3.33%

Commander Damage

1.75%

Mill

0.88%

Poison

0.35%

Avg win turn 9.1 based on 900 wins with recorded turn counts

Measured

Staples that win games for Saruman, the White Hand

Cards that raise this deck's measured win rate the most, compared with Saruman, the White Hand decks that leave them out.

+8.7 pp

Top card: Arcane Signet

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
1	Arcane Signet 380 games	+8.7 pp	380
2	Stormcarved Coast 105 games	+8.2 pp	105
3	Fellwar Stone 172 games	+8.2 pp	172
4	Counterspell 120 games	+7.1 pp	120
5	Cascade Bluffs Signature build 34 games · Signature build	+6.3 pp	34
6	Chandra's Ignition 259 games	+4.7 pp	259
7	Archmage Emeritus 124 games	+4.4 pp	124
8	Shipwreck Marsh 100 games	+3.1 pp	100
9	Flame of Anor 267 games	+3.1 pp	267
10	Negate 97 games	+3.0 pp	97

Show 5 more (ranks 11-15)

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
11	Mizzix's Mastery 67 games	+2.4 pp	67
12	Shivan Reef 165 games	+1.6 pp	165
13	Mystic Sanctuary Signature build 60 games · Signature build	+0.7 pp	60
14	Blood Crypt 130 games	+0.7 pp	130
15	Sulfur Falls 353 games	+0.7 pp	353

Measured win-rate lift against decks on the same commander without the card, ranked by the 95% lower bound. How this is measured

Table position

Does seating order matter?

Saruman, the White Hand wins 33.68% of games from position 1 and 12.96% from position 5 across tracked games.

Seat 1

33.68% n=910

Seat 2

28.74% n=976

Seat 3

20.16% n=739

Seat 4

20.34% n=413

Seat 5

12.96% n=54

Seat 6

20.0% n=10

Opening hands

Do mulligans hurt this commander?

Across tracked games, Saruman, the White Hand wins 27.57% after 0 mulligans and 0.0% after 5 mulligans.

0 mulligans

27.57% n=1380

1 mulligan

28.26% n=506

2 mulligans

29.53% n=149

3 mulligans

18.18% n=44

4 mulligans

33.33% n=6

5 mulligans

0.0% n=1

Player reports

How do players rate games with this commander?

Pilot rating

Pilots rate their own games with Saruman, the White Hand 3.69/5 on average, across 2233 self-reports.

3.69 / 5

🧂

Opponent salt

When Saruman, the White Hand wins, opponents flag the game as salty 36.6% of the time across 908 tracked wins.

36.6 \%

Head to head

Best and worst matchups

Opposing commanders with at least ten tracked games against Saruman, the White Hand. Pairs with fewer than 25 games are shown in italics; treat those as suggestive, not statistical.