Live Play Data

Frantic Search

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

14%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

780

Decks Running

399

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

77%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

77% of drawn Frantic Search copies are cast before the game ends, and the card sits in 399 of 2939 tracked Commander decks at 14% inclusion.

Frantic Search resolves in blue Commander decks as a cheap looting instant that pays for itself: draw two, discard two, untap up to three lands. At 14% inclusion across 2939 tracked decks, it is a niche role-player rather than a universal staple, but the players who run it cast it at a high rate.

When a copy reaches a hand, 77% of those copies get cast before the game ends. Median first-cast turn is 6, landing squarely in the midgame. The land-untap clause means the real mana cost is often closer to zero, which explains why players rarely sit on it once they draw it.

Frantic Search is banned in Legacy and Pauper, where its free-spell potential has historically enabled broken loops. In Commander it is legal and unrestricted, and the data shows it spread across 318 distinct players, a sign of genuine broad adoption rather than one enthusiast skewing the numbers.

At a glance

14% of tracked Commander decks include Frantic Search
77% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn
27% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck
318 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=163

12%

13%

14%

47%

T6-9

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 7 · max 13

On curve 20% (19 / 163 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 38%

The "good card" funnel

790 brought · 318 players

Brought to game

790

Ever drawn

213

Reached battlefield

163

Still on board at game end

77%

Of 790 Frantic Searches brought to tracked games, 213 were drawn, 163 of those were cast, and nearly all resolved straight to the graveyard as the card's rules dictate.

≥ -3.1pp

Players who cast this card win 31% of the time (n=161) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=517).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 43% (n=49) — 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 +4.4pp; 95% confidence interval -3.1pp to +11.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

240 instances

4.6%

Library

2.1%

Battlefield

64.2%

Graveyard

14.2%

Exile

The vast majority of Frantic Search instances end in the graveyard, exactly as expected for an instant that resolves and is placed there immediately. The small battlefield count reflects copies that were somehow put onto the battlefield through unusual effects.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 30 decks
2 Fire Lord Azula 16 decks
3 Ms. Bumbleflower 11 decks
4 Vnwxt, Verbose Host 10 decks
5 Alela, Cunning Conqueror 9 decks
6 Doctor Doom, King of Latveria 9 decks
7 Prismari, the Inspiration 9 decks
8 Quandrix, the Proof 9 decks
9 Vivi Ornitier 9 decks
10 Norman Osborn // Green Goblin 8 decks

The commander list spans Esper, Grixis, Izzet, and Dimir builds, showing Frantic Search is not locked to one archetype but appears wherever blue spellslinging and graveyard synergies overlap.

Frequently Asked

How often is Frantic Search drawn and cast in a Commander game?

Across 706 tracked multiplayer Commander games where Frantic Search was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is in line with what a singleton in a 100-card deck should expect. Of the 213 instances that reached a player's hand, 77% were cast before the game concluded. The median turn between drawing and casting is 1, meaning players typically fire it off the very next turn after drawing it.

What turn does Frantic Search usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 6, with the distribution spread between turns 3 and 9. The on-curve rate is 20%, which is low, but that mostly reflects players drawing it well after the early turns rather than holding it deliberately. The same-turn cast rate of 38% confirms that when players do have it, they usually cast it quickly.

Is Frantic Search banned anywhere?

Yes. Frantic Search is banned in Legacy and Pauper, where its ability to untap three lands effectively makes it a free spell and enables degenerate loops. It is also banned in Historic. In Commander it is legal and unrestricted, and in Vintage it is legal. The bans in other formats are part of why it carries a reputation as a powerful card despite its common rarity.

Does casting Frantic Search actually help you win?

The win rate when cast is 31% across 161 observations, compared to 27% in participations where it stayed in the library across 517 observations. That is a +4.4 percentage-point gap. The lower bound of the confidence interval crosses zero, so treat this as an early directional signal rather than a settled conclusion. More tracked games will tighten the estimate.

Which commanders run Frantic Search most often?

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed leads the raw deck count among tracked commanders, followed by Fire Lord Azula and a cluster of Izzet and Dimir strategies. The common thread is blue-heavy spellslinger or graveyard-matters builds that value cheap looting. The spread across 318 unique players suggests this is not a single-archetype card.

Why is Frantic Search good in Commander specifically?

The land-untap clause is the key. A 3-mana instant that untaps three lands effectively costs nothing if you have the lands available, giving you free card filtering. That efficiency scales well in a singleton format where consistency matters. Its instant speed also lets you hold up interaction mana and convert it into looting at end of turn if no interaction was needed.