Live Play Data

Pongify

· Instant · Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander (TDC)

10%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1534

Decks Running

802

Median Cast Turn

6.0

Drawn → Played

71%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Pongify sits in 10% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live. Of drawn copies, 71% reach the stack, with a median first-cast turn of 6.0.

Pongify is one of blue's sharpest answers to a problem it is not supposed to solve: destroying creatures. For just 1 mana, it removes any creature unconditionally and leaves behind a 3/3 Ape token as compensation for the target's controller. On Playgroup Live it appears in 10% of tracked Commander decks, spread across 802 of the 7783 distinct decks that have played a recorded game.

The draw-to-play rate of 71% tells a clean story for an instant: when a player draws Pongify, they almost always find a moment to cast it before the game ends. The median first-cast turn of 6.0 is later than the card's 1-mana cost might suggest. Instants are held in hand until a threat demands an answer, so the number reflects threat timing in real pods rather than any hesitation on the caster's part.

The concentration picture is healthy. 618 distinct players have brought Pongify to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all instances. The data is well-spread across the player base, which gives the numbers here more directional stability than a card dominated by one prolific pilot.

At a glance

10% of tracked Commander decks include Pongify
71% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6.0 median first-cast turn, reflecting when threats appear rather than caster hesitation
27% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck
618 distinct players have brought Pongify to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=296

11%

17%

51%

T6-9

12%

T10+

Median 6.0 P25 5 · P75 8 · max 17

On curve 0% (1 / 296 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 31%

The "good card" funnel

1539 brought · 618 players

Brought to game

1539

Ever drawn

418

Reached battlefield

296

Still on board at game end

71%

Of 1539 Pongify copies brought to games, 418 were drawn, and 296 of those reached the stack as the caster found a creature worth targeting.

≥ +2.6pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=285) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=977).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 39% (n=110) — 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 +8.1pp; 95% confidence interval +2.6pp to +13.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

453 instances

2.9%

Library

2.6%

Battlefield

64.2%

Graveyard

8.4%

Exile

The vast majority of Pongify copies end the game in the graveyard after resolving, with a small number stranded in hand. Most copies that never leave the library simply were not drawn in the 100-card singleton format.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top commanders are spread across a wide range of blue archetypes, from spell-slinger builds to tempo and combo strategies. No single commander dominates the list, which signals broad format adoption rather than a niche home.

Frequently Asked

How often is Pongify drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1407 tracked games where Pongify was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is a typical draw rate for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 418 copies that reached a player's hand, 71% were cast before the game concluded. Instants can sit in hand until the right threat appears, so an uncast copy does not necessarily mean the player chose to hold it indefinitely.

What turn does Pongify typically get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 6.0, with the interquartile range running from turn 5 to turn 8. Pongify costs only 1 mana, so the late median is almost entirely a function of threat timing. Players hold it as a reactive answer and fire it when an opposing creature demands removal, not on the earliest possible turn.

Does casting Pongify correlate with winning?

In 285 participations where Pongify was cast, the normalized win rate was 32%, compared to 24% in participations where it stayed in the library. The +8.1 percentage-point gap is a directional positive signal, but both sample sizes put this in early-signal territory rather than a statistically conclusive finding.

Is Pongify legal in Commander?

Yes. Pongify is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Brawl, Oathbreaker, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, Penny Dreadful, or Pauper Commander.

Why does Pongify see play in blue Commander decks?

Blue has very limited access to unconditional creature removal. Pongify destroys any creature for a single blue mana, no questions asked, and the 3/3 Ape token it gives the opponent is a known, manageable downside. That combination of low cost, color flexibility within blue decks, and reliable targeting makes it a compact answer in formats where threats vary wildly in size and ability.

How concentrated is the Pongify data across players?

618 unique players have brought Pongify to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single most active contributor accounts for 2% of all instances. That is well below the threshold where one pilot could meaningfully skew the aggregate numbers, so the dataset reflects broad, real-table play rather than a single prolific deck builder.