Live Play Data

Pest Infestation

· Sorcery · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

984

Decks Running

481

Median Cast Turn

7.0

Drawn → Played

63%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

38% of games where Pest Infestation resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +12.0 percentage-point lift over the 26% baseline when the card stayed in the library, across 129 cast observations.

Pest Infestation resolves in 38% of tracked games that end in a win for the caster. That is a +12.0 percentage-point lift over the 26% win rate recorded when the card never left the library, a directional signal that casting the spell correlates with better outcomes.

The card is a scalable sorcery that demands meaningful mana: median first cast lands on turn 7.0, and the interquartile range sits between turns 5 and 8. Players who draw it rarely rush it out. Of drawn copies, 63% reached the stack before the game ended, and when it does resolve it generates two Pest tokens per artifact or enchantment destroyed, giving the caster both a board presence and a life buffer. Because it is a sorcery, it resolves to the graveyard immediately and has no battlefield persistence to measure.

Pest Infestation is a green-only spell, so it concentrates in Golgari and Jund token strategies. The data backs that up: Dina, Essence Brewer and Witherbloom, the Balancer sit at the top of the commander distribution. It is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and Oathbreaker, and is not currently banned in any tracked format.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include Pest Infestation
T7.0 median first-cast turn, reflecting its high mana investment
63% of drawn copies reached the stack before the game ended
38% win rate in games where Pest Infestation was cast
+12.0pp win-rate lift versus games where the card stayed in the library
425 distinct players have brought Pest Infestation to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=140

19%

55%

T6-9

15%

T10+

Median 7.0 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 34%

The "good card" funnel

984 brought · 425 players

Brought to game

984

Ever drawn

222

Reached battlefield

140

Still on board at game end

63%

Of 984 copies brought to tracked games, 222 were drawn, and 140 of those reached the stack, a chain that shows the card performs consistently when players can access it.

≥ +3.8pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=129) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=654).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 20% (n=75) — 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 +12.0pp; 95% confidence interval +3.8pp to +20.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

235 instances

2.1%

Library

4.3%

Battlefield

61.7%

Graveyard

4.3%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Pest Infestation copies finish in the graveyard, exactly as expected for a sorcery that resolves immediately. The tiny library count reflects instances that were in the deck but never drawn or interacted with during the tracked game.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Dina, Essence Brewer 97 decks
2 Hearthhull, the Worldseed 59 decks
3 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice 49 decks
4 Witherbloom, the Balancer 49 decks
5 Blech, Loafing Pest 34 decks
6 Zimone, Infinite Analyst 20 decks
7 Ygra, Eater of All 16 decks
8 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 14 decks
9 Dina, Soul Steeper 11 decks
10 Baylen, the Haymaker 7 decks

Golgari and Golgari-adjacent commanders dominate the list, with Dina, Essence Brewer leading by a wide margin. The spread across ten distinct commanders signals broad appeal rather than a single-deck concentration.

Card text

Pest Infestation

Sorcery

Destroy up to X target artifacts and/or enchantments. Create twice X 1/1 black and green Pest creature tokens with "When this token dies, you gain 1 life."

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Brian Valeza

Frequently Asked

How often is Pest Infestation drawn in a Commander game?

Across 946 tracked multiplayer games where the card was in the deck, Pest Infestation was drawn 23% of the time. That is in line with what a 100-card singleton deck produces. Of 222 instances that reached a player's hand, 63% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Pest Infestation typically get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 7.0, with the middle 50% of casts landing between turns 5 and 8. The distribution reflects the card's mana-variable cost: most players wait until they can pay a meaningful X value, with the mode at turn 5. Rare late-game casts stretch out to turn 14 in the current dataset.

Does casting Pest Infestation actually improve your win rate?

In 129 observations where Pest Infestation resolved, the caster's normalized win rate was 38%, compared to 26% in games where the card never left the library. That is a +12.0 percentage-point gap. Both sample sizes are solid, and the lower bound of the confidence interval is positive, making this a consistent early signal rather than noise. It does not prove causation, but the direction is clear across the current dataset.

Which commanders run Pest Infestation most often?

Dina, Essence Brewer leads the tracked commander list, followed by Witherbloom, the Balancer and Blech, Loafing Pest. The pattern is nearly all Golgari (Black-Green) or Golgari-adjacent commanders that care about tokens dying and life gain, which maps directly to what Pest Infestation produces: Pest tokens that trigger life gain on death.

Is Pest Infestation banned anywhere?

Pest Infestation is legal and unrestricted in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. No current ban applies to any of the formats where it is otherwise legal.

How concentrated is the Pest Infestation data across players?

425 distinct players have brought Pest Infestation to a tracked game on Playgroup Live. The single heaviest contributor accounts for just 23% of all instances, well under 5%, which means the dataset is spread broadly and is not driven by any one prolific pilot. That breadth strengthens confidence in the directional signals the numbers show.