Live Play Data

Feed the Swarm

· Sorcery · Avatar: The Last Airbender Eternal (TLE)

16%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

2438

Decks Running

1279

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

60%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Feed the Swarm sits in 16% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, drawn 23% of the time and cast on a median turn 6, making it Black's most-played answer to enchantments in the dataset.

Feed the Swarm fills a gap Black has historically lacked: the ability to destroy enchantments. It appears in 1279 of the 7881 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, an inclusion rate of 16%. That rate reflects genuine utility demand, not clustering around a single archetype or player group. Data spans 938 unique players, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for under 2% of all tracked instances.

The card resolves to the graveyard, so the mechanical story is straightforward: a 2-mana sorcery that trades card parity for targeted permanent removal, with a life-loss rider equal to the target's mana value. Players cast it on median turn 6, well past the on-curve window, which is expected for a reactive spell held until an appropriate target appears. Of the 567 times it reached a hand, 60% of those copies were cast before the game ended.

Because Black's enchantment removal options in Commander are genuinely narrow, Feed the Swarm competes with a very short list of alternatives. Its common rarity and broad legality across formats mean it reaches tables at every power level, from precon upgrades to tuned builds.

At a glance

16% of tracked Commander decks include Feed the Swarm
23% draw rate across tracked game participations
60% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
T6 median first-cast turn, consistent with holding for the right target
938 unique players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=339

18%

54%

T6-9

13%

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 13

On curve 2% (5 / 339 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 23%

The "good card" funnel

2447 brought · 938 players

Brought to game

2447

Ever drawn

567

Reached battlefield

339

Still on board at game end

60%

Of 2447 copies brought to games, 567 were drawn and 339 of those were cast, a funnel consistent with a reactive spell held until the right threat appears.

≥ -4.1pp

Players who cast this card win 23% of the time (n=320) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=1572).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=204) — 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 +0.6pp; 95% confidence interval -4.1pp to +5.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

659 instances

2.4%

Library

2.0%

Battlefield

59.9%

Graveyard

10.9%

Exile

The graveyard is the expected destination for a sorcery: the overwhelming majority of cast copies end there, with a small share exiled by opponents and almost none remaining on the battlefield or in hand by game's end.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls 64 decks
2 Sauron, the Dark Lord 49 decks
3 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 37 decks
4 Felothar the Steadfast 36 decks
5 Sauron, Lord of the Rings 35 decks
6 Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver 28 decks
7 Captain N'ghathrod 25 decks
8 Admiral Brass, Unsinkable 22 decks
9 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 20 decks
10 Kardur, Doomscourge 18 decks

The top ten commanders span Grixis, Rakdos, Abzan, mono-Black, and Dimir builds, showing Feed the Swarm earns its slot across a wide slice of the Black-inclusive meta rather than clustering in one archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Feed the Swarm drawn in a Commander game?

Across 2174 tracked multiplayer Commander games where Feed the Swarm was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is a normal range for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 567 instances that reached a player's hand, 60% were eventually cast. The remainder largely reflects copies drawn late in games that ended before the spell resolved.

What turn does Feed the Swarm typically get cast?

Median first cast lands on turn 6, with the 25th percentile at turn 5 and the 75th at turn 8. The distribution clusters heavily between turns 5 and 8, which lines up with players holding the card until a high-value creature or enchantment target emerges. Only a small handful of casts land on turn 2, when the card is on-curve, because drawing it in an opening hand opposite an immediate enchantment threat is a relatively rare scenario.

Why does Black need Feed the Swarm specifically?

Black's removal toolkit in Commander is deep on creatures but historically has almost no native enchantment answers. Feed the Swarm is one of the very few Black-only spells that can destroy an enchantment outright, making it nearly irreplaceable in mono-Black or Black-primary decks that want to answer permanents like Propaganda, Rhystic Study, or Solemnity without dipping into other colors. The life-loss rider is a real cost, but for most black strategies it is manageable.

Is Feed the Swarm legal in Commander and other formats?

Yes. Feed the Swarm is legal in Commander, as well as Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, Pauper Commander, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Brawl, and Oathbreaker, among others. It is not legal in Old School or Premodern. Given its common rarity, it is also a Pauper-legal card, which is notable because Pauper Commander is increasingly popular and Black enchantment removal at common rarity is especially scarce.

Does casting Feed the Swarm improve your chances of winning?

The cast-vs-library win-rate delta is very small in this dataset and sits well within the margin of error, so no directional claim is warranted. Win rate when cast is 23% across 320 observed participations, while win rate when the card stays in the library is 23% across 1572 participations. The gap is not a reliable signal at this sample size. Read Feed the Swarm as a safety valve against problem permanents rather than a win-rate accelerant.

Which commanders most commonly run Feed the Swarm?

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls leads the tracked dataset by deck count, followed by Sauron, the Dark Lord and Felothar the Steadfast. The spread across the top ten commanders is relatively even, with no single commander dominating. That breadth confirms Feed the Swarm is filling a format-wide utility role in Black-inclusive decks rather than serving as a build-around piece for any one strategy.