Live Play Data

Night's Whisper

· Sorcery · The Hobbit Eternal (HOC)

12%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1854

Decks Running

1031

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

68%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Night's Whisper sits in 12% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, resolving a median turn 5 and reaching a hand 24% of the time it's brought to a game.

Night's Whisper is one of black's most reliable two-mana draw spells, and the Playgroup Live data reflects that reputation. Found in 1031 of the 8560 tracked Commander decks, it carries an inclusion rate of 12% across 1696 logged games.

The card resolves at a median turn of 5, with the interquartile range spanning turns 3 to 7. That spread is normal for a proactive draw spell: some players snap it off in the early turns to refuel, others hold it until a critical hand-size window opens. Of drawn copies, 68% were cast before the game ended. The remaining fraction is mostly a game-length effect rather than a deliberate hold. Concentration is strong: 848 distinct players have brought Night's Whisper to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small slice of the data, which gives the numbers solid breadth.

Commander is a 40-life format, which blunts the sting of losing 2 life to draw 2. That math is why Night's Whisper has been a staple in black Commander shells since the format's early days, competing alongside Phyrexian Arena and Sign in Blood for the same two-mana draw slot.

At a glance

12% of tracked Commander decks include Night's Whisper
24% draw rate per game it's brought to
68% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
T5 median first-cast turn
27% win rate in games where Night's Whisper resolved
848 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=303

14%

10%

14%

33%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 18

On curve 19% (42 / 303 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 38%

The "good card" funnel

1861 brought · 848 players

Brought to game

1861

Ever drawn

447

Reached battlefield

303

Still on board at game end

68%

Of 1861 copies brought to games, 447 were drawn and 303 of those resolved, a cast rate of 68% of all drawn copies reaching the stack.

≥ +0.5pp

Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=280) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=1191).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 24% (n=131) — 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 +5.6pp; 95% confidence interval +0.5pp to +10.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

492 instances

2.4%

Library

1.6%

Battlefield

70.3%

Graveyard

9.3%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Night's Whisper copies end the game in the graveyard, which is exactly right for a resolved sorcery. The few copies finishing in hand or exile reflect games that ended before the spell could be cast.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Doctor Doom, King of Latveria 97 decks
2 Dina, Essence Brewer 72 decks
3 Auntie Ool, Cursewretch 46 decks
4 Hearthhull, the Worldseed 46 decks
5 Terra, Herald of Hope 37 decks
6 Kuja, Genome Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied 32 decks
7 Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit 30 decks
8 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 22 decks
9 Kaalia of the Vast 20 decks
10 Edgar Markov 19 decks

The commander list spans at least five distinct color identities and multiple archetypes, signaling that Night's Whisper is a broad black staple rather than a card propped up by a single dominant strategy.

Card text

Night's Whisper

Sorcery

You draw two cards and lose 2 life.

The Hobbit Eternal (HOC) · Common · Illustrated by Miranda Meeks

Frequently Asked

How often is Night's Whisper drawn in a Commander game?

In 1696 tracked games where Night's Whisper was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That is consistent with what you'd expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 447 copies that reached a player's hand, 68% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Night's Whisper usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 5, with the middle 50% of casts landing between turns 3 and 7. A small cluster resolves on turns 1 and 2, likely from opening-hand keeps with early ramp or a fast curve. The distribution extends as late as turn 18 in longer games, which reflects that this card is a fine topdeck at any stage.

Does casting Night's Whisper actually improve your win rate?

Across 280 participations where Night's Whisper resolved, the normalized win rate is 27%. In participations where it stayed in the library, the rate is 22%. That is a +5.7 percentage-point gap. Both buckets are well-sampled, and the lower confidence bound is above zero, so this is a consistent directional signal that resolving it correlates with better outcomes. It is not proof of causation: stronger decks naturally draw and cast their spells more often.

Why does Night's Whisper see so much Commander play when other formats ignore it?

Night's Whisper is not legal in Pioneer or Standard, and it sees only fringe Legacy play. Commander is the format where it thrives because the 40-life starting total makes the 2-life cost nearly irrelevant in the early turns, and 100-card singleton decks are hungry for redundant cheap draw. Two cards for two mana at sorcery speed is a clean rate, and black decks in Commander are often the ones most willing to pay life as a resource.

Is Night's Whisper legal in Commander?

Yes. Night's Whisper is legal and unrestricted in Commander, Duel Commander, Pauper Commander, Brawl, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Alchemy, or Penny Dreadful.

Which commanders most often run Night's Whisper?

By raw deck count in Playgroup Live data, Doctor Doom, King of Latveria leads the top-commanders list, followed by Dina, Essence Brewer and Auntie Ool, Cursewretch. The spread across commanders is broad: the list includes Mardu, Golgari, Jund, Rakdos, and mono-black builds, reflecting that any commander with black in its color identity is a potential home for a two-mana draw-two spell.