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Painful Quandary

· Enchantment · Foundations (FDN)

Decklist Inclusion

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Times Brought

180

Decks Running

100

In Decks

799

Decklist Inclusion

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Final zone distribution

54 instances

3.7%

Library

20.4%

Battlefield

42.6%

Graveyard

3.7%

Exile

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls 10 decks
2 The Lord of Pain 8 decks
3 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 7 decks
4 Tinybones, Bauble Burglar 5 decks
5 Aminatou, Veil Piercer 3 decks
6 Anikthea, Hand of Erebos 3 decks
7 Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern 3 decks
8 Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos 3 decks
9 Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin 2 decks
10 Liesa, Shroud of Dusk 2 decks

The "good card" funnel

182 brought · 92 players

Brought to game

182

Ever drawn

Reached battlefield

Still on board at game end

Once cast, 52% of this card is still on the battlefield at game end. This reflects how often it survives removal, not just whether it's a permanent.

≥ -15.9pp

Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=20) , vs 28% when it never left the library (n=115).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 16% (n=23) — 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 +2.3pp; 95% confidence interval -15.9pp to +20.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

First-cast turn

n=21

10%

19%

52%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 6 P25 5 · P75 7 · max 12

On curve 38% (4 / 21 cast on T5) Cast same turn as drawn 29%

21 of 100 times cast 21%

Full analysis unlocks as more games are tracked. Stats refresh nightly.

Frequently Asked

Why isn't there more data on this card?

Playgroup Live collects per-card gameplay data from real Commander games. Basic play counts appear once a card reaches 100 tracked games; the full deep-dive page needs a larger, more diverse sample (at least 300 tracked games played by 10 or more different pilots, with no single pilot over 40 percent of the copies). 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.