Live Play Data

Big Score

· Instant · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

14%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

574

Decks Running

340

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

74%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

74% of drawn Big Scores are cast before the game ends, with a median first-cast turn of 6, signaling players treat it as a mid-game refuel rather than an early play.

Big Score sits in 14% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, a firm niche for a common red instant that asks you to discard a card, draw two, and bank two Treasure tokens in one motion.

The draw-to-play number tells the clearest story: 74% of copies that reach a player's hand are cast before the game closes out. Median first cast lands on turn 6, well past the curve for a 4-mana spell, which reflects how players use it: as mid-to-late-game card advantage rather than an early tempo play. Only 23% of casts land exactly on turn 4, and players hold it an average of two turns after drawing it before pulling the trigger.

The card's strongest home is in spell-copy and Izzet-style shells. Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads all commanders by a wide margin in raw deck count, pointing to a natural pairing with spells that reward casting or copying instants at scale.

At a glance

14% of tracked Commander decks include Big Score
T6 median first-cast turn, mid-game timing for a 4-mana spell
74% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
23% on-curve rate, most casts arrive well after turn 4
257 distinct players have brought Big Score to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=109

15%

20%

52%

T6-9

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 7 · max 13

On curve 23% (16 / 109 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 29%

The "good card" funnel

579 brought · 257 players

Brought to game

579

Ever drawn

148

Reached battlefield

109

Still on board at game end

74%

Of 579 Big Scores brought to games, 148 were drawn, 109 of those were cast, and nearly all resolved copies ended up in the graveyard as the spell completed its effect.

≥ -10.4pp

Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=109) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=393).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=39) — 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 -1.8pp; 95% confidence interval -10.4pp to +6.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

168 instances

3.6%

Library

3.0%

Battlefield

65.5%

Graveyard

10.7%

Exile

The graveyard is the overwhelming destination for resolved Big Scores, exactly as expected for an instant that draws cards and exits at resolution. Only a handful reach other zones, reinforcing that the card does its work the moment it resolves.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Rootha, Mastering the Moment 27 decks
2 Fire Lord Azula 12 decks
3 Terra, Herald of Hope 11 decks
4 Lorehold, the Historian 10 decks
5 Bello, Bard of the Brambles 9 decks
6 Kuja, Genome Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied 7 decks
7 Magar of the Magic Strings 6 decks
8 Prismari, the Inspiration 6 decks
9 Ashling, Rekindled // Ashling, Rimebound 5 decks
10 Iroh, Grand Lotus 5 decks

Rootha, Mastering the Moment commands the largest share of Big Score decks by a clear margin, with the remaining commanders spread across Izzet, Mardu, Gruul, and Rakdos builds, reflecting the card's broad splash across red shells.

Frequently Asked

How often is Big Score drawn in a Commander game?

Across 524 tracked games where Big Score was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That's consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 148 total drawn copies, 74% were cast before the game ended. The rest were most often held when the game closed out or the discard cost proved too steep in the moment.

What turn does Big Score usually get cast?

Median first cast is turn 6, with the 25th percentile at turn 5 and the 75th at turn 8. The mode is turn 5. Only 23% of casts land exactly on turn 4 (the card's mana value), and players hold it a median of 2 turns after drawing it before casting. The pattern is consistent with players waiting for the right discard target rather than slamming it immediately.

Does casting Big Score actually help you win?

Win rate when cast is 25% across 109 observations, versus 27% when the card stayed in the library across 393 observations. The delta is -1.8 percentage points. With the cast bucket at 109 games, this is an early directional signal, not a conclusive finding. The sample does not yet support a strong claim that casting Big Score moves your win probability.

What commanders run Big Score most?

Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads by a wide margin in raw deck count among tracked games. That makes intuitive sense: Rootha copies instants, and Big Score's discard-draw-plus-Treasures is a high-value target to copy. Fire Lord Azula and Lorehold, the Historian follow. The spread across 257 unique players with a single-player maximum of 26% of all instances means the data is not dominated by any one contributor.

Is Big Score legal in Commander?

Yes. Big Score is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Brawl, Pauper Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Alchemy, or Pauper (the non-Commander version). Its common rarity means it sees cross-format play, but the Playgroup Live numbers here reflect Commander and multiplayer pods specifically.

Why does Big Score appear in so many different color identities?

Big Score is a mono-red card (color identity R), so it slots into any deck whose commander includes red in its color identity. That opens it up to Izzet (UR), Mardu (WBR), Gruul (RG), Jeskai, and other red-inclusive commanders. The top commanders list spans five different color pairs and combinations, which reflects how broadly red instants can be adopted rather than a narrow archetype lock.