Live Play Data

Mana Drain

· Instant · Double Masters 2022 (2X2)

13%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

2276

Decks Running

1092

Median Cast Turn

6.0

Drawn → Played

57%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Mana Drain resolves and wins 38% of those games on Playgroup Live, a +11.2 percentage-point lift over decks where it sat uncast, making it one of the clearest positive signals in the tracked dataset.

Mana Drain sits in 13% of decks in the Playgroup Live multiplayer dataset, a figure that reflects its steep mana cost in color-identity terms and its mythic rarity, not any doubt about its power. Casting it correlates with a +11.2 percentage-point win-rate lift over participations where it never left the library, and that lower-bound confidence interval clears zero, giving this the strongest directional signal in the tracked card set.

The card is fundamentally a tempo play that doubles as ramp. Countering a four-mana spell and then adding four colorless mana to your next main phase lets you chain into a follow-up threat on the same turn cycle. That sequencing pressure is why the cast-turn distribution clusters between turns 5 and 8: players are waiting for an opponent to commit something meaningful before pulling the trigger. Median first cast lands on turn 6.0, and only 3% of casts land exactly on curve, which reflects deliberate timing rather than inability to cast it.

Mana Drain is legal in Commander and Vintage, banned in Legacy, Duel Commander, and Historic, and not legal in most other formats. In Commander it functions as a premium interaction piece for any blue deck willing to run double-blue mana requirements.

At a glance

13% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Mana Drain
57% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6.0 median first-cast turn, reflecting deliberate timing for maximum mana payoff
38% win rate in games where Mana Drain resolved
+11.2pp win-rate lift over participations where it sat in the library all game
694 distinct players have brought Mana Drain to a tracked game, indicating broad spread across the player base

First-cast turn

n=358

13%

56%

T6-9

13%

T10+

Median 6.0 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 23

On curve 3% (9 / 358 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 23%

The "good card" funnel

2278 brought · 694 players

Brought to game

2278

Ever drawn

623

Reached battlefield

358

Still on board at game end

57%

Of 2278 Mana Drains brought to games, 623 were drawn, 358 of those were cast, and the card's timing-sensitive nature means more than three-quarters of drawn copies wait at least a turn in hand before being deployed.

≥ +6.0pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=332) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=1397).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 40% (n=235) — 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 +11.2pp; 95% confidence interval +6.0pp to +16.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

687 instances

4.1%

Library

6.6%

Battlefield

47.0%

Graveyard

9.2%

Exile

The majority of Mana Drain instances never leave the library, the expected structural result for any singleton in a 100-card deck. Among the copies that were interacted with, most finished in the graveyard after resolving, as expected for an instant.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top-commander list spans mono-blue, Dimir, Azorius, Jeskai, Sultai, and five-color commanders, showing that Mana Drain earns its slot across a broad range of blue-identity strategies rather than concentrating in one archetype.

Card text

Mana Drain

Instant

Counter target spell. At the beginning of your next main phase, add an amount of {C}

equal to that spell's mana value.

Double Masters 2022 (2X2) · Mythic · Illustrated by Raymond Swanland

Frequently Asked

How often is Mana Drain drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1939 tracked multiplayer games where Mana Drain was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is slightly above the baseline expectation for a singleton in a 100-card deck, consistent with blue decks deploying card-draw effects that increase the chances of finding key pieces. Of 623 drawn copies, 57% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Mana Drain typically get cast?

Median first cast is turn 6.0, with the bulk of casts landing between turns 5 and 8. Only 3% of casts happen on turn 2, the card's mana value. That low on-curve rate is intentional: Mana Drain players are waiting for an opponent to cast a high-value spell before spending the counterspell, because the mana-refund clause scales with the countered spell's mana value.

Does casting Mana Drain actually improve your chances of winning?

The data shows a +11.2 percentage-point win-rate lift for participations where Mana Drain resolved versus participations where it stayed in the library all game. The lower bound of the confidence interval for this delta clears zero, which is a stronger directional signal than most cards in the dataset achieve. Both sample sizes are well above 15 observations, so the effect is meaningful, though the overall game count is still modest and should be read as an early signal rather than a definitive conclusion.

Is Mana Drain banned in Commander?

No. Mana Drain is legal and unrestricted in Commander as of the data collection date. It is banned in Legacy, Duel Commander, Historic, and Gladiator, and is not legal in Modern, Standard, Pioneer, or most other constructed formats. In Vintage it is legal without restriction.

How long does Mana Drain sit in hand before being cast?

Among drawn-and-cast instances, the median wait is 2 turns in hand before casting, with an average of about 2.3 turns. Only 23% of drawn copies are cast on the same turn they are drawn. That deliberate holding pattern aligns with the mid-game cast-turn distribution: players are actively choosing when to deploy the counterspell rather than slamming it at the first opportunity.

Which commanders most commonly run Mana Drain?

In the multiplayer dataset, The Ur-Dragon, Oloro Ageless Ascetic, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed lead the top-commander list by raw deck count. The spread across commanders is wide: 694 distinct players have brought Mana Drain to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than 27% of instances, indicating that the card's presence is not being driven by one or two heavy contributors.