Commander

Karlov of the Ghost Council

Global commander stats

All Orzhov commanders

555 Wins

947 Losses

Playtest a community deck

Overview

Summary

Karlov of the Ghost Council is a Magic: The Gathering commander tracked across 1,503 recorded Playgroup games, winning 36% of them (555–947) at an Elo of 1,540, ranking #1273 globally.

Wins average 9 turns, with 4 damage dealt and 0.72 player kills per game on average.

Last full refresh 15 Aug 2026

Sources Scryfall · EDHREC · JSON API

Frequently Asked

What is Karlov of the Ghost Council's win rate?

Karlov of the Ghost Council has a 36% win rate across 1503 recorded Playgroup games (555 wins, 947 losses).

How long do winning games with Karlov of the Ghost Council take?

Wins with Karlov of the Ghost Council take on average 9 turns. Total tracked play time: 8 months.

How many decks use Karlov of the Ghost Council?

501 decks list Karlov of the Ghost Council as their commander on Playgroup, of which 297 have played at least one recorded game.

Karlov of the Ghost Council Magic: The Gathering commander card art

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Global rank

1273

Wins by turn (avg.)

Elo rating

1540

Trend

Global Elo trend

Trend

Commander popularity trend

Averages

Misc. stats

Average damage per game 4

Average commander damage per game 10

Average poison counters given per game 3

Average kills per game 0.72

Average turn length 29 minutes

No. decks for this commander 501

No. decks with at least one game for this commander 297

No. games played with this commander 1503

Total hours played 8 months

Community

Top 5 public decks

Rank	Elo	User	Games	Wins	Winrate
1	1647	cl3v3rtr3vor	9	7	78 %
2	1558	Eric	6	4	67 %
3	1556	Gask	2	2	100 %
4	1555	Goombill	2	2	100 %
5	1548	Thalioden	16	7	44 %

Outcomes

How does this commander win?

When Karlov of the Ghost Council wins, 40.0% of wins come via commander damage across tracked games with a recorded win condition.

Commander Damage

40.0%

Combat

28.25%

Non Combat Damage

17.5%

Alternative

9.25%

Combo

5.0%

Avg win turn 8.7 based on 565 wins with recorded turn counts

Measured

Staples that win games for Karlov of the Ghost Council

Cards that raise this deck's measured win rate the most, compared with Karlov of the Ghost Council decks that leave them out.

+8.2 pp

Top card: Pristine Talisman

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
1	Pristine Talisman 89 games	+8.2 pp	89
2	Lurrus of the Dream-Den Signature build 65 games · Signature build	+6.6 pp	65
3	Blind Obedience 95 games	+4.4 pp	95
4	Swiftfoot Boots 103 games	+3.4 pp	103
5	Voice of the Blessed 90 games	+0.0 pp	90

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?

Karlov of the Ghost Council wins 44.49% of games from position 1 and 13.89% from position 5 across tracked games.

Seat 1

44.49% n=454

Seat 2

41.61% n=459

Seat 3

29.74% n=343

Seat 4

25.0% n=196

Seat 5

13.89% n=36

Seat 6

25.0% n=8

Opening hands

Do mulligans hurt this commander?

Across tracked games, Karlov of the Ghost Council wins 37.05% after 0 mulligans and 0.0% after 5 mulligans.

0 mulligans

37.05% n=772

1 mulligan

36.36% n=220

2 mulligans

45.0% n=60

3 mulligans

18.75% n=16

4 mulligans

33.33% n=3

5 mulligans

0.0% n=1

Player reports

How do players rate games with this commander?

Pilot rating

Pilots rate their own games with Karlov of the Ghost Council 3.72/5 on average, across 993 self-reports.

3.72 / 5

🧂

Opponent salt

When Karlov of the Ghost Council wins, opponents flag the game as salty 62.9% of the time across 568 tracked wins.

62.9 \%

Head to head

Best and worst matchups

Opposing commanders with at least ten tracked games against Karlov of the Ghost Council. Pairs with fewer than 25 games are shown in italics; treat those as suggestive, not statistical.