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Illusionist's Gambit

· Instant · Commander 2013 (C13)

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Times Brought

286

Decks Running

143

In Decks

—

Decklist Inclusion

—

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Showing 1v1 (duel) data only. 1v1 is a different format from multiplayer Commander, so these numbers are not comparable.

Card text

Illusionist's Gambit

Instant

Cast this spell only during the declare blockers step on an opponent's turn. Remove all attacking creatures from combat and untap them. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Each of those creatures attacks that combat if able. They can't attack you or planeswalkers you control that combat.

Commander 2013 (C13) · Rare · Illustrated by Zoltan Boros

Final zone distribution

70 instances

2.9%

Library

4.3%

Battlefield

30.0%

Graveyard

1.4%

Exile

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Ms. Bumbleflower 73 decks
2 Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor 13 decks
3 Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge 9 decks
4 Nekusar, the Mindrazer 4 decks
5 Alela, Cunning Conqueror 3 decks
6 Whtz, the Bibliophile 3 decks
7 Firkraag, Cunning Instigator 2 decks
8 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen 2 decks
9 Talion, the Kindly Lord 2 decks
10 Alandra, Sky Dreamer 1 decks

The "good card" funnel

286 brought · 138 players

Brought to game

286

Ever drawn

Reached battlefield

Still on board at game end

≥ -14.3pp

Players who cast this card win 24% of the time (n=17) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=158).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 22% (n=37).

Read this as correlation, not as the card's contribution. Casting a card means you lived long enough to cast it, so this gap widens with mana value across every card we track.

Observed gap -1.5pp; 95% confidence interval -14.3pp to +11.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

First-cast turn

n=20

10%

65%

T6-9

25%

T10+

Median 8.0 P25 7 · P75 10 · max 12

On curve 0% (0 / 20 cast on T4) Cast same turn as drawn 15%

Frequently Asked

Why isn't there more data on this card?

Playgroup Live collects per-card gameplay data from real Commander games. Play counts appear once a card reaches 100 tracked games, and the full charts need a sample of at least 25 observed games that is not dominated by a single pilot. Until this card clears those bars you're seeing only the basic counts. Stats refresh nightly.

How is Playgroup Live card data collected?

Players using Playgroup Live import their decklists before a game and log card actions as they play. Each cast, zone change, and resolution is recorded as a real game event. Stats on this site are computed from those events, not from decklist scrapes or theorycrafting. Playgroup has recorded 750,000+ Commander games overall, and this card-level play data comes from the Playgroup Live seats playing virtual cards, a subset of that corpus.