Live Play Data

Beast Within

· Instant · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

32%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1238

Decks Running

694

Median Cast Turn

7.0

Drawn → Played

64%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

32% of tracked Commander decks run Beast Within. When drawn, 64% of copies are cast, with a median first-cast turn of 7.0.

Beast Within sits in 32% of the 2180 Commander decks that have played a tracked game on Playgroup Live. That makes it the format's most broadly adopted piece of unconditional green removal: three mana to destroy any permanent, at instant speed, regardless of type.

The trade-off is the 3/3 Beast token handed to your opponent. In practice, players treat that downside as acceptable. 64% of drawn copies reach resolution before the game ends, and the median first cast lands on turn 7.0. The hand-to-cast data tells a deliberate story: players hold it an average of roughly two turns after drawing it, waiting for the right target rather than slamming it on the first available opportunity.

Data is spread across 497 distinct players, with no single contributor accounting for more than a small slice of the dataset. That breadth makes the usage patterns here a reasonable signal of real community behavior, though the dataset is still early-stage and all trends should be read as directional.

At a glance

32% of tracked Commander decks include Beast Within
25% draw rate per game, expected for a singleton in a 100-card deck
64% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T7.0 median first-cast turn across 202 observed casts
497 distinct players have brought Beast Within to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=202

13%

60%

T6-9

16%

T10+

Median 7.0 P25 6 · P75 9 · max 17

On curve 3% (2 / 202 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 27%

The "good card" funnel

1246 brought · 497 players

Brought to game

1246

Ever drawn

317

Reached battlefield

202

Still on board at game end

64%

Of 1246 Beast Withins brought to games, 317 were drawn, 202 of those were cast, and nearly all resolved straight to the graveyard as expected for an instant-speed removal spell.

≥ -5.0pp

Players who cast this card win 24% of the time (n=202) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=843).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 21% (n=115) — 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 +1.0pp; 95% confidence interval -5.0pp to +7.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

354 instances

3.1%

Library

2.3%

Battlefield

58.8%

Graveyard

7.3%

Exile

Most Beast Within instances never leave the library, the expected outcome for any singleton reactive spell in a 100-card deck. Of the copies that were observed, the graveyard is the dominant final zone: resolution, not board presence, is the point.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Zimone, Infinite Analyst leads by deck count, but the list spans at least five different color combinations. Beast Within's usefulness is not tied to one strategy. Any green deck that needs an answer to non-creature permanents is a potential home.

Frequently Asked

How often is Beast Within drawn and cast in a Commander game?

Across 1022 tracked multiplayer games, Beast Within was drawn 25% of the time when it was in the deck. Of 317 instances that reached a player's hand, 64% were cast before the game ended. The remainder were mostly held at end of game or left uncast as the game concluded. Median first cast lands on turn 7.0.

Does casting Beast Within actually improve your win rate?

In 202 participations where Beast Within was cast, the win rate is 24% (normalized to a 4-player baseline). In 843 participations where the card stayed in the library, it is 23%. The difference is small and the confidence interval spans zero, so read this as a directional signal at best. Beast Within is removal, not an engine. Its value is in keeping you alive, not in directly boosting your win probability.

What turn does Beast Within typically get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 7.0, with the distribution clustering between turns 5 and 8. The on-curve rate is low: Beast Within is a reactive spell held for the right moment rather than tapped out on turn 3 as soon as it is castable. Hand-to-cast data shows players hold it a median of two turns after drawing before firing it, consistent with waiting for a high-value target.

Is Beast Within legal in all Commander variants?

Beast Within is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Historic, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Gladiator. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, Pauper Commander, or Penny Dreadful. It has no Commander-specific bans or restrictions.

Which commanders most often run Beast Within?

Zimone, Infinite Analyst leads the top-commanders list with the highest deck count among tracked games. The spread across multiple Simic, Gruul, and Naya commanders reflects Beast Within's value in any green shell: it answers enchantments, planeswalkers, and indestructible permanents that green otherwise struggles to remove cleanly.

How concentrated is the Beast Within data across players?

497 distinct players have brought Beast Within to at least one tracked game. The single most active contributor accounts for just 25% of instances. That breadth is a meaningful strength of this dataset. When one player does not dominate the sample, usage and timing patterns are more likely to reflect community norms than individual playstyle.