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Erode card art
Live Play Data

Erode

{W} · Instant · Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS)
3%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
571
Decks Running
256
Median Cast Turn
6.0
Drawn → Played
74%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

Erode is drawn 74% of the time it reaches a hand, and games where it resolves show a +9.3 percentage-point win-rate lift over games where it stayed in the library, an early directional signal across 91 observations.

Erode is a 1-mana white instant that destroys any creature or planeswalker while giving the opponent a basic land. In 545 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, 256 of 7801 distinct decks brought it to the table, a 3% inclusion rate that reflects its niche but growing presence in white removal suites.

The key performance signal is conversion: once a copy reaches a player's hand, 74% of those copies are cast before the game ends. Median first cast lands on turn 6.0, which is late by ramp-spell standards but makes sense for reactive removal held in response to the right threat. Players hold it a median of 2 turns after drawing before casting, suggesting deliberate timing rather than immediate deployment.

Erode sits in white's strong removal tradition alongside Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares. The land-grant drawback is real but manageable, and the card's spread across 217 distinct players in this dataset is a sign the numbers aren't driven by a single outlier pod.

At a glance
  • 3% of tracked Commander decks include Erode
  • 74% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
  • T6.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
  • 37% win rate in games where Erode resolved
  • 217 distinct players have brought Erode to a tracked game
  • +9.3pp win-rate lift when cast versus left in library (directional, early sample)

First-cast turn

n=102
1%
T1
1%
T2
7%
T3
10%
T4
16%
T5
53%
T6-9
13%
T10+
Median 6.0 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 12
On curve 1% (1 / 102 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 30%

The "good card" funnel

572 brought · 217 players
Brought to game
572
Ever drawn
138
Reached battlefield
102
Still on board at game end
1
74%

Of 572 Erode copies brought to games, 138 were drawn, and 102 of those were cast, a conversion chain that reflects deliberate, reactive deployment of a single-target removal spell.

≥ -0.3pp

Players who cast this card win 37% of the time (n=91) , vs 28% when it never left the library (n=364).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 36% (n=32) — 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 +9.3pp; 95% confidence interval -0.3pp to +18.9pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

148 instances
1.4%
Library
0.7%
Battlefield
66.9%
Graveyard
8.8%
Exile

The overwhelming majority of Erode copies finish in the graveyard, as expected for an instant that resolves and is immediately discarded. The tiny library residual represents copies in decks that participated but were never reached during the game.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans mono-white through three-color identities, with Silverquill, the Disputant leading at 12 decks. No single commander dominates, which points to Erode being adopted as a format-wide white removal option rather than a build-around piece.

Card text
Erode card

Erode

{W}
Instant
Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS) · Rare · Illustrated by Florian Herold

Frequently Asked

How often is Erode drawn in a Commander game?
In 545 tracked multiplayer games where Erode was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That rate is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 138 instances that reached a hand, 74% were cast before the game ended, with a median hold time of 2 turns after drawing.
What turn does Erode typically get cast?
Median first-cast turn is 6.0. The distribution clusters in the 5-7 turn range, which fits the pattern of reactive removal held for the right target rather than played out immediately. The earliest observed cast was turn 1, and the latest was turn 12, showing the full range of when a dangerous threat finally appears.
Does casting Erode actually help you win?
Games where Erode resolved show a win rate of 37% across 91 observations, compared to 28% in games where it never left the library. That is a +9.3 percentage-point directional lift. With the current sample size, treat this as an early signal rather than a definitive result. The confidence interval does include zero at its lower bound.
Which commanders run Erode most often?
Silverquill, the Disputant leads the multiplayer list with 12 decks, followed by Aziza, Mage Tower Captain with 7. The spread across color identities is broad, from mono-white commanders like Cloud, Midgar Mercenary to three-color pairings like Toph, the First Metalbender. That range suggests Erode is being picked up as a general-purpose removal piece in any white shell, not just one archetype.
Is Erode legal in Commander?
Yes. Erode is legal in Commander, as well as Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Brawl, and several other formats. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander, since it is a rare. It has no bans on the Commander rules committee list.
How reliable is this data given the sample size?
The multiplayer dataset covers 545 tracked games, 102 casts, and 217 distinct players. The single heaviest contributor accounts for under 6% of all instances, so concentration is low and the data is well-spread. Win-rate deltas are directional at this sample size; inclusion and draw-to-play rates are the more reliable headline figures to cite.