Live Play Data

Abrade

· Instant · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

11%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1601

Decks Running

923

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

69%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

11% 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.

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, 11% of tracked decks with red in their color identity include it, and it has appeared in 923 of the 8485 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, 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 235 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. 774 distinct players have brought Abrade to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 1% 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

11% of tracked red Commander decks include Abrade
21% draw rate per game in which it is in the deck
69% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn, consistent with a reactive removal spell
774 distinct players have contributed Abrade data, indicating broad representation
31% win rate in participations where Abrade was cast (normalized to 4-player baseline)

First-cast turn

n=235

11%

16%

45%

T6-9

14%

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 17

On curve 3% (6 / 235 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 31%

The "good card" funnel

1606 brought · 774 players

Brought to game

1606

Ever drawn

339

Reached battlefield

235

Still on board at game end

69%

Of 1606 Abrade copies brought to games, 339 were drawn, 235 of those were cast, and nearly all resolved copies ended in the graveyard as expected for an instant.

≥ +0.5pp

Players who cast this card win 31% of the time (n=203) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=1048).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=91) — 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 +6.8pp; 95% confidence interval +0.5pp to +13.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

373 instances

4.6%

Library

1.3%

Battlefield

62.7%

Graveyard

9.4%

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

1 Krenko, Mob Boss 59 decks
2 Rootha, Mastering the Moment 56 decks
3 Bello, Bard of the Brambles 41 decks
4 Kuja, Genome Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied 24 decks
5 Kardur, Doomscourge 18 decks
6 Jaws, Relentless Predator 16 decks
7 Fire Lord Azula 15 decks
8 Kratos, God of War 15 decks
9 Smaug the Impenetrable 15 decks
10 Clive, Ifrit's Dominant // Ifrit, Warden of Inferno 13 decks

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.

Card text

Abrade

Instant

Choose one — • Abrade deals 3 damage to target creature. • Destroy target artifact.

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Uncommon · Illustrated by Jonas De Ro

Frequently Asked

How often is Abrade drawn and cast in a Commander game?

In 1489 tracked multiplayer games where Abrade was in the deck, it was drawn 21% 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 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 203 participations where Abrade was cast, the win rate was 31% on a normalized 4-player baseline of 25%. In 1048 participations where it stayed in the library, the rate was 24%. The raw delta is +6.8 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 11% inclusion reflects.

How concentrated is the Abrade data across players?

774 distinct players have brought Abrade to at least one tracked game on Playgroup Live. The single heaviest contributor accounts for 1% 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.