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Dark Ritual card art
Live Play Data

Dark Ritual

{B} · Instant · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)
23%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
3459
Decks Running
1831
Median Cast Turn
4.0
Drawn → Played
73%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

23% of tracked Commander decks run Dark Ritual, and when it reaches a hand, 73% of those copies get cast, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.

Dark Ritual sits in 23% of the 7881 tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live. That figure reflects a format where the instant competes against a vast card pool, yet still finds a home in roughly one in five black decks willing to trade a card slot for a burst of early mana.

The draw-to-play rate of 73% tells a clean story: players who draw Dark Ritual nearly always find a use for it before the game ends. Median first cast lands on turn 4.0, but the distribution skews early, with a meaningful cluster of turn-1 and turn-2 casts representing opening-hand slam decisions. The card resolves to the graveyard the moment it produces mana, so it never accumulates on the battlefield. What matters is the mana advantage it creates in the first few turns.

Dark Ritual is legal in Commander and spreads across 1182 distinct players in this dataset, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for just 2%% of instances. That breadth means the numbers reflect a genuine cross-section of the black Commander community rather than one prolific player's results.

At a glance
  • 23% of tracked Commander decks run Dark Ritual
  • 73% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
  • T4.0 median first-cast turn
  • 25% draw rate per game, normal for a 100-card singleton
  • 1182 distinct players have brought Dark Ritual to a tracked game
  • 624 total casts recorded across all tracked games

First-cast turn

n=624
11%
T1
10%
T2
15%
T3
14%
T4
10%
T5
31%
T6-9
8%
T10+
Median 4.0 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 22
On curve 11% (71 / 624 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

3468 brought · 1182 players
Brought to game
3468
Ever drawn
858
Reached battlefield
624
Still on board at game end
22
73%

Of 3468 Dark Rituals brought to games, 858 were drawn, 624 of those were cast, and nearly all resolved directly to the graveyard as intended for a one-shot mana ritual.

≥ +1.6pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=579) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=2197).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 25% (n=207) — 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 +5.3pp; 95% confidence interval +1.6pp to +9.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

969 instances
3.4%
Library
2.3%
Battlefield
65.0%
Graveyard
10.8%
Exile

The graveyard is the expected final home for an instant, and the vast majority of cast Dark Rituals end there. The small library figure represents copies never interacted with across the sampled games.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans mono-black aggro, aristocrats, and multicolor combo shells, showing Dark Ritual is not locked into a single archetype. No single commander dominates the count.

Frequently Asked

How often is Dark Ritual drawn and cast in a Commander game?
Across 2874 tracked games where Dark Ritual was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That is consistent with what you would expect for any singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those drawn copies, 73% were cast before the game concluded. Players who find it generally use it.
What turn does Dark Ritual typically get cast?
The median first-cast turn is 4.0. The distribution is wide, ranging from turn 1 (opening-hand drops) all the way to turn 19 at the extreme tail. The 25th percentile sits at turn 3 and the 75th at turn 7, meaning half of all casts happen in that window. Early casts skew toward mana-ramp openers; later casts often represent a topdecked ritual that fuels a mid-game combo or finisher.
Does casting Dark Ritual actually correlate with winning?
The cast win rate is 28% versus 23% when it stayed in the library, a directional gap of +5.3 percentage points. With 579 cast observations and 2197 library observations, the sample is large enough to take seriously, though the data is drawn from Playgroup Live's specific player community rather than a fully representative universe. Treat it as a meaningful signal, not a definitive proof.
Is Dark Ritual banned anywhere relevant to Commander players?
Dark Ritual is legal in Commander and Duel Commander historically, but it is currently banned in Duel Commander (1v1 French rules). It is also banned in Oathbreaker. It is legal in Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, Premodern, and Timeless. Modern, Pioneer, Standard, and Alchemy do not have access to it at all. Commander players can include it freely in any black deck.
Why does Dark Ritual see play in Commander when it's card disadvantage?
Dark Ritual converts one black mana into three black mana for a net gain of two mana on the turn it is cast. In a format where turns 1 through 3 set up the rest of the game, that burst enables an early commander, a key piece of an engine, or a combo ahead of schedule. The card disadvantage is real, but the tempo gain in the early game often compensates. Commanders like K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth and Marrow-Gnawer are among the top homes in this dataset, both of which reward explosive early mana.
How concentrated is the Dark Ritual data among specific players?
The dataset covers 1182 distinct players who have brought Dark Ritual to a tracked game on Playgroup Live. The single most active contributor accounts for just 2%% of all instances, which is well below any concentration threshold worth flagging. The data reflects a broad cross-section of players rather than being skewed by a small number of heavy users.