Live Play Data

Faerie Mastermind

· Creature — Faerie Rogue · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1241

Decks Running

607

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

70%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

38% of games where Faerie Mastermind resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +12.4 percentage-point lift over the 26% baseline when the card stayed in the library.

Faerie Mastermind sits in 7% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks on Playgroup Live, appearing across 607 of the 8244 distinct decks that have played a recorded game. That places it firmly in the niche-but-consistent tier: not a universal staple, but a focused piece that shows up in decks built to exploit group draw.

The win-rate signal is the headline. Games in which Faerie Mastermind reached the battlefield showed a 38% normalized win rate across 235 observations, compared to 26% in games where it never left the library. That +12.4 percentage-point gap clears its own standard error, making it one of the more durable early signals in the dataset. Median first cast lands on turn 6, later than its 2-mana cost might suggest, consistent with players holding it until opponent draw engines come online.

The flash body shapes how it plays differently from most 2-mana blue creatures. Players cast it at a median of 6 turns after drawing it, and only 32% of drawn copies were cast on the same turn they arrived in hand. That patience makes sense: Faerie Mastermind rewards timing, not speed.

At a glance

7% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Faerie Mastermind
38% win rate in games where Faerie Mastermind resolved
+12.4pp win-rate lift over the library baseline, directionally robust at this sample size
T6 median first-cast turn, reflecting deliberate timing over speed
70% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
48% battlefield stickiness once cast, moderate for a 2-toughness creature

First-cast turn

n=249

11%

10%

15%

42%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 19

On curve 14% (28 / 249 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 32%

The "good card" funnel

1241 brought · 510 players

Brought to game

1241

Ever drawn

357

Reached battlefield

249

Still on board at game end

120

70%

Of 1241 Faerie Masterminds brought to multiplayer games, 357 were drawn, 249 of those were cast, and 48% of cast copies survived to end of game on the battlefield.

≥ +6.0pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=235) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=721).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 47% (n=91) — 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 +12.4pp; 95% confidence interval +6.0pp to +18.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

399 instances

4.8%

Library

30.1%

Battlefield

35.1%

Graveyard

10.8%

Exile

Most singleton cards never leave the library in a given game, so the proportion of Faerie Mastermind copies finishing on the battlefield or in the graveyard represents the active share of games where it genuinely shaped play.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans Izzet spell-copy, Simic creature synergy, and group-draw strategies, reflecting that Faerie Mastermind slots into any blue shell that expects opponents to draw multiple cards per turn.

Card text

Faerie Mastermind

Creature — Faerie Rogue

Flash Flying Whenever an opponent draws their second card each turn, you draw a card. {3}

: Each player draws a card.

2 / 1

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Kai Carpenter

Frequently Asked

How often is Faerie Mastermind drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1165 tracked multiplayer games where Faerie Mastermind was in the deck, it was drawn 29% of the time. That is above the rough baseline for a singleton in a 100-card deck, reflecting that many of these decks build around draw synergies that accelerate digging. Of 357 drawn copies, 70% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Faerie Mastermind usually get cast?

Median first cast is turn 6, with the middle 50% of casts falling between turns 3 and 8. That spread is wide, which aligns with the card's flash ability. Players can hold it and react to an opponent's draw trigger rather than deploying it proactively on curve. Only 14% of casts landed on-curve (turn 2), consistent with deliberate late deployment rather than a lack of opportunity.

Does casting Faerie Mastermind actually help you win?

The data shows a +12.4 percentage-point win-rate lift when comparing games where the card was cast (38%, n=235) to games where it stayed in the library (26%, n=721). The lower bound of that confidence interval is positive at this sample size, which is a stronger-than-usual early signal in the Playgroup Live dataset. Read it as directional rather than definitive, but the direction is consistent.

Is Faerie Mastermind legal in Commander?

Yes. Faerie Mastermind is legal and unrestricted in Commander as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and Brawl formats. It is not legal in Standard or Pauper Commander. Its color identity is mono-blue, so it fits into any Commander deck running a blue commander.

Which commanders most often run Faerie Mastermind?

Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads the tracked dataset, followed by Ms. Bumbleflower and Sonic the Hedgehog. The spread across commanders is broad: 510 distinct players have brought the card to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for only 29% of instances, indicating the data is not dominated by one pilot's results. Blue-heavy draw-matters and spell-copy strategies appear most consistently.

How sticky is Faerie Mastermind once it hits the battlefield?

48% of cast copies were still on the battlefield at the end of the game. That is moderate for a 2-toughness flying creature in Commander, where removal pressure is high and combat is frequent. A meaningful share ended in the graveyard, consistent with the card trading with attackers or drawing targeted removal once its draw trigger becomes relevant.