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Jeska's Will card art
Live Play Data

Jeska's Will

{2} {R} · Sorcery · Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC)
12%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
843
Decks Running
463
Median Cast Turn
6
Drawn → Played
73%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

39% of multiplayer games where Jeska's Will resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +12.4 percentage-point lift over the 26% baseline when the card never left the library.

Jeska's Will sits in 12% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, appearing across 463 of the 3876 distinct lists that have played a live game. That penetration is concentrated almost entirely in red and red-adjacent commanders, which is the only color identity that can run it.

The win-rate signal is the sharpest number on this page. Games where Jeska's Will resolved show a +12.4 percentage-point lift over games where it never left the library. The lower bound of that confidence interval sits above zero, which is a stronger early signal than most cards produce at this sample size. Still, 147 casts is a limited window; treat this as a consistent directional finding rather than a settled conclusion.

As a sorcery, Jeska's Will resolves and moves straight to the graveyard. Its value comes entirely from the mana it generates or the three exiled cards it lets you play, both of which require a commander in play to access simultaneously. That constraint explains why the card clusters so heavily in dedicated red commander builds rather than appearing as a general-purpose spell.

At a glance
  • 12% of tracked Commander decks include Jeska's Will
  • 73% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
  • T6 median first-cast turn across tracked games
  • 39% win rate in games where Jeska's Will resolved
  • +12.4pp win-rate lift versus games where the card stayed in the library
  • 335 distinct players have brought Jeska's Will to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=151
1%
T1
5%
T2
11%
T3
14%
T4
17%
T5
47%
T6-9
5%
T10+
Median 6 P25 4 · P75 7 · max 15
On curve 17% (16 / 151 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 36%

The "good card" funnel

844 brought · 335 players
Brought to game
844
Ever drawn
208
Reached battlefield
151
Still on board at game end
8
73%

Of 844 copies brought to games, 208 were drawn, and 151 of those were cast, reflecting a card that players move on quickly once it reaches their hand.

≥ +4.5pp

Players who cast this card win 39% of the time (n=147) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=573).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 23% (n=55) — 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 +4.5pp to +20.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

230 instances
4.3%
Library
3.5%
Battlefield
65.2%
Graveyard
7.4%
Exile

Most Jeska's Will copies end up in the graveyard after resolving, which is expected for a sorcery. The small number finishing in exile or the library reflects games that ended before the spell was cast or played.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans a wide range of archetypes and color identities, all sharing red. No single commander dominates, which points to Jeska's Will being a broadly adopted red staple rather than a build-around piece.

Frequently Asked

How often is Jeska's Will drawn in a Commander game?
Across 750 tracked multiplayer games where Jeska's Will was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That is in line with what you would expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 208 instances that reached a player's hand, 73% were cast before the game ended.
What turn does Jeska's Will typically get cast?
The median first-cast turn is 6. The mana cost is 3, so most casts land after the on-curve window: 17% of casts were on-curve, with the majority arriving later in the game. A high same-turn cast rate of 36% suggests that when players do draw it, they cast it quickly rather than sitting on it.
Does casting Jeska's Will actually help you win?
Games where Jeska's Will resolved show a win rate of 39%, compared to 26% when the card never left the library. That is a +12.4 percentage-point lift. The lower bound of the confidence interval is above zero, which is an encouraging early signal. With 147 cast observations, this is a directional finding. The card likely contributes to winning, but the dataset is not large enough to call it definitive.
Is Jeska's Will banned in Commander?
No. Jeska's Will is legal in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Brawl, and Gladiator. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper. There is no current ban discussion at the Commander Rules Committee level that is reflected in the card's legality data.
Which commanders most often run Jeska's Will?
The top commanders by raw deck count in the multiplayer dataset include Kuja, Genome Sorcerer; Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls; Krenko, Mob Boss; and Lightning, Army of One. The spread across 335 unique players and no single player exceeding 25% of all instances suggests the data is not being skewed by one heavy contributor. Red and Rakdos commanders dominate the list because Jeska's Will is a mono-red card.
Why is Jeska's Will so popular in Commander specifically?
Commander's singleton 100-card format means players frequently hit mana barriers around turns 4 to 7. Jeska's Will answers two problems at once: it can generate a burst of red mana equal to an opponent's hand size, and it can exile and let you play three cards off the top of your library. When you control a commander, you get both modes simultaneously for 3 mana. That combination of ramp and card advantage in a single spell slot is difficult to replicate in mono-red, which has historically struggled with both resources.