Live Play Data

Counterspell

· Instant · Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander (DSC)

39%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1604

Decks Running

911

Median Cast Turn

7.0

Drawn → Played

54%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

39% of tracked Commander decks run Counterspell, and when a copy reaches a player's hand it takes a median of 2 turns before they fire it off, with a first-cast landing on turn 7.0 at the midpoint.

Counterspell sits in 39% of the 2338 tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, drawn from 585 distinct players. That breadth across the player pool is a meaningful sign the data is not skewed by a single heavy contributor: the top single player accounts for just 2% of all instances.

As an instant, Counterspell never stays on the battlefield, so the relevant question is timing and draw-to-cast conversion. Players hold it a median of 2 turns before casting, and the median first-cast turn is 7.0. That delay is expected: reactive permission sits in hand until the right threat appears. 54% of drawn copies reach resolution before the game ends, a figure that reflects both player choice and game length.

Blue is the only color that can run Counterspell, which naturally constrains the commander distribution. The top commanders by deck count span Dimir, Grixis, Esper, and five-color lists, confirming that any blue-inclusive identity treats this as a strong inclusion candidate.

At a glance

39% of tracked Commander decks include Counterspell
26% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck
54% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
T7.0 median first-cast turn, reflecting mid-game reactive use
585 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=224

17%

59%

T6-9

14%

T10+

Median 7.0 P25 5 · P75 9 · max 14

On curve 0% (1 / 224 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 15%

The "good card" funnel

1615 brought · 585 players

Brought to game

1615

Ever drawn

416

Reached battlefield

224

Still on board at game end

54%

Of 1615 Counterspells brought to games, 416 were drawn and 224 of those were cast, with the gap between drawn and cast reflecting cards still held when a game ended.

≥ +4.2pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=223) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=1085).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=190) — 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 +10.1pp; 95% confidence interval +4.2pp to +16.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

467 instances

2.1%

Library

1.9%

Battlefield

51.8%

Graveyard

8.6%

Exile

Most Counterspells never leave the library, the structural reality of a singleton in a 100-card deck. Copies that do leave resolve to the graveyard, as expected for a spell that counters and then goes to the yard.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 14 decks
2 Fire Lord Azula 12 decks
3 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 11 decks
4 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow 10 decks
5 Jodah, the Unifier 9 decks
6 Jon Irenicus, Shattered One 9 decks
7 Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin 9 decks
8 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy 9 decks
9 Vnwxt, Verbose Host 9 decks
10 Vren, the Relentless 9 decks

The top commanders by deck count span at least five different color identities, all sharing blue, which confirms Counterspell is a broad staple rather than a card concentrated in one archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Counterspell drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1202 tracked games where Counterspell was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is in line with the structural expectation for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 416 instances that reached a player's hand, 54% were cast before the game ended. The remainder reflects games that concluded while the card was still being held.

What turn does Counterspell typically get cast?

The median first-cast turn is 7.0, with the distribution concentrated between turns 5 and 9. That mid-game cluster makes sense for a reactive spell: players are unlikely to counter a turn-1 ramp spell and would rather hold interaction for higher-stakes threats. The same-turn cast rate is 15%, meaning the vast majority of players hold Counterspell at least one turn after drawing it before firing.

Does casting Counterspell correlate with winning?

In 223 participations where Counterspell was cast, the caster won 32% of the time on a 4-player normalized basis. In 1085 participations where it remained in the library, the win rate was 22%. The delta is +10.1 percentage points. Both sample sizes are large enough to call this directional, though Playgroup Live's overall dataset size means caution is still warranted before drawing firm conclusions.

Is Counterspell legal in Commander?

Yes. Counterspell is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pauper, Vintage, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, or Alchemy. Its broad Commander legality is a key reason it shows up across so many blue-inclusive decks in this dataset.

Why is Counterspell held for so many turns before being cast?

Counterspell is a reactive spell. Players keep mana open and wait for a high-value target rather than casting it on the first available opportunity. The median hold time of 2 turns after drawing, combined with a same-turn cast rate of 15%, confirms that deliberate timing rather than immediate execution is the default play pattern for this card.

How well-distributed is this card's data across players?

The 585 distinct players who have brought Counterspell to a tracked game make this one of the broader samples on Playgroup Live. The single largest contributor accounts for just 2% of all instances, well below the threshold where individual player habits would meaningfully skew the aggregate numbers. That spread adds confidence to the directional signals in the data.