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Abrade card art
Live Play Data

Abrade

{1} {R} · Instant · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)
10%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
975
Decks Running
588
Median Cast Turn
6.0
Drawn → Played
69%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

10% of red Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live run Abrade. When drawn, 69% of copies get cast, with a median first-cast turn of 6.0.

Abrade earns its slot in red Commander decks by doing two jobs on one card: it kills creatures and destroys artifacts, collapsing two common removal needs into a single 2-mana instant. On Playgroup Live, 10% of tracked decks with red in their color identity include it, and it has appeared in 588 of the 5761 distinct decks that have played a tracked game.

The draw-to-play rate sits at 69%, meaning roughly two in three drawn copies reach the stack before the game ends. Median first-cast turn is 6.0, which reflects Abrade's nature as a reactive spell: players hold it until a relevant target appears rather than slamming it the moment they can afford the mana. The hand-to-cast data backs that up. Of 156 casts with timing tracked, only 31% were cast on the same turn the card was drawn.

The concentration numbers are a genuine strength of this dataset. 509 distinct players have brought Abrade to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all instances. That spread means the numbers are not a one-player artifact. Read them as a broad, directional signal across a wide range of red strategies.

At a glance
  • 10% of tracked red Commander decks include Abrade
  • 23% draw rate per game in which it is in the deck
  • 69% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
  • T6.0 median first-cast turn, consistent with a reactive removal spell
  • 509 distinct players have contributed Abrade data, indicating broad representation
  • 35% win rate in participations where Abrade was cast (normalized to 4-player baseline)

First-cast turn

n=156
1%
T1
3%
T2
10%
T3
12%
T4
15%
T5
49%
T6-9
10%
T10+
Median 6.0 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 17
On curve 4% (4 / 156 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 31%

The "good card" funnel

980 brought · 509 players
Brought to game
980
Ever drawn
227
Reached battlefield
156
Still on board at game end
2
69%

Of 980 Abrade copies brought to games, 227 were drawn, 156 of those were cast, and nearly all resolved copies ended in the graveyard as expected for an instant.

≥ +1.3pp

Players who cast this card win 35% of the time (n=149) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=668).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 29% (n=67) — 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 +8.8pp; 95% confidence interval +1.3pp to +16.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

245 instances
5.3%
Library
0.8%
Battlefield
66.5%
Graveyard
8.2%
Exile

Most Abrade copies that never leave the library simply were not drawn in time. As an instant held for the right target, the graveyard is the dominant final zone for resolved copies, which is exactly what you expect from a modal removal spell.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads the list with a significant margin, reflecting Abrade's natural fit in spell-heavy Izzet strategies. The spread across mono-red, Gruul, Rakdos, and three-color commanders shows Abrade is not a single-archetype card.

Frequently Asked

How often is Abrade drawn and cast in a Commander game?
In 912 tracked multiplayer games where Abrade was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is consistent with the baseline expectation for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those drawn copies, 69% were cast before the game ended. The remainder reflects games that ended before a target appeared or before the player found the right window, not necessarily a choice to hold the card.
What turn does Abrade typically get cast?
Median first-cast turn is 6.0 in multiplayer games. The distribution runs from turn 1 through turn 17, with the bulk of casts landing between turns 4 and 7. This is later than Abrade's 2-mana cost would suggest, because the card is reactive. Players wait for a creature or artifact worth targeting rather than casting it on curve. Only 31% of tracked casts happened on the same turn the card was drawn.
Does casting Abrade correlate with winning?
In 149 participations where Abrade was cast, the win rate was 35% on a normalized 4-player baseline of 25%. In 668 participations where it stayed in the library, the rate was 26%. The raw delta is +8.8 percentage points. Both buckets have enough observations to call this a consistent early signal, though Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing and we stop short of calling it a proven causal effect.
Is Abrade legal in Commander?
Yes. Abrade is legal in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Pauper, Vintage, and most other constructed formats. It is not legal in Penny Dreadful or Pre-Modern. There are no restrictions or bans in any format where it is legal.
Why does Abrade see play over single-mode red removal?
The modal design is the core reason. Against a creature-heavy pod, it functions as a 3-damage removal spell. Against artifact-centric strategies, it becomes a hard answer to rocks, equipment, or combo pieces. A card that covers two threat types without losing power on either mode is structurally valuable in a format where you cannot predict what you will face across a 4-player table. That flexibility is what 10% inclusion reflects.
How concentrated is the Abrade data across players?
509 distinct players have brought Abrade to at least one tracked game on Playgroup Live. The single heaviest contributor accounts for 2% of all instances, well below the 15% threshold where concentration becomes a concern. This is one of the more well-spread datasets for any single card on the platform, which gives the directional numbers here a stronger foundation than a thinly-held card would have.