Live Play Data

Promise of Loyalty

· Sorcery · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

955

Decks Running

478

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

54%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

6% of tracked Commander decks run Promise of Loyalty, and when it reaches a player's hand, 54% of those copies are cast at a median first-cast turn of 8.

Promise of Loyalty sits in 6% of the 7460 tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live. It has been brought to 909 games across 478 distinct decks, making it a niche but deliberate include rather than a reflex staple.

The card costs 5 mana and plays like it: median first cast lands on turn 8, with the bulk of casts bunched between turns 6 and 9. Of 256 drawn copies, 54% were cast before the game ended. As a sorcery that clears the board down to one creature per player and stitches a non-aggression clause onto the survivors, Promise of Loyalty is a selective sweeper that rewards players who can present one threatening creature while stranding opponents with their least dangerous one.

The commander spread is wide, but Orzhov and Bant shells dominate the top slots. That pattern tracks with the card's design: white-based decks that go wide want a reset that punishes opposing boards without nuking their own key piece.

At a glance

6% of tracked Commander decks include Promise of Loyalty
27% draw rate across tracked games
54% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T8 median first-cast turn, consistent with its 5-mana cost
425 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game, a well-spread dataset
27% normalized win rate in games where Promise of Loyalty resolved

First-cast turn

n=139

12%

68%

T6-9

18%

T10+

Median 8 P25 6 · P75 9 · max 13

On curve 14% (16 / 139 cast on T5) Cast same turn as drawn 34%

The "good card" funnel

955 brought · 425 players

Brought to game

955

Ever drawn

256

Reached battlefield

139

Still on board at game end

54%

Of 955 copies brought to tracked games, 256 were drawn and 139 of those were cast, a draw-to-play rate of 54% that reflects both the card's late game timing and games that ended before players could deploy it.

≥ -2.1pp

Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=125) , vs 21% when it never left the library (n=596).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 29% (n=109) — 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 +5.7pp; 95% confidence interval -2.1pp to +13.5pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

274 instances

4.0%

Library

3.6%

Battlefield

53.6%

Graveyard

2.9%

Exile

Promise of Loyalty is a sorcery and goes to the graveyard on resolution: the graveyard is its dominant final zone, which is entirely expected for a spell that does its work on the stack.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Ms. Bumbleflower 79 decks
2 Killian, Decisive Mentor 71 decks
3 Tidus, Yuna's Guardian 48 decks
4 Mister Fantastic 22 decks
5 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 16 decks
6 Gluntch, the Bestower 15 decks
7 Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser 14 decks
8 Breena, the Demagogue 13 decks
9 Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir 12 decks
10 Commodore Guff 11 decks

Killian, Decisive Mentor and Ms. Bumbleflower lead by deck count, but the distribution is spread across more than a dozen commanders, suggesting the card fits multiple white-based archetypes rather than one dominant shell.

Frequently Asked

How often is Promise of Loyalty drawn in a Commander game?

Across 909 tracked games where the card was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is consistent with singleton odds in a 100-card deck. Of 256 copies that reached a hand, 54% were eventually cast. The remainder reflects games that ended before the opportunity arose, not players choosing to hold the card.

What turn does Promise of Loyalty typically resolve?

Median first cast is turn 8. The interquartile range runs from turn 6 to turn 9, so nearly half of all casts fall in that window. The earliest recorded cast was turn 4 via ramp, and the distribution trails out to turn 13. At 5 mana this is expected behaviour: players are casting it when they can afford it and when the board state justifies a partial wipe.

Does casting Promise of Loyalty actually improve your win rate?

The early signal is directional but not conclusive on the current sample. The normalized win rate in games where it resolved is 27%, compared to 21% in games where it never left the library. The cast-vs-library delta sits at +5.7 percentage points. Both sample sizes are within range, but the confidence interval for this delta crosses zero, so read it as a trend to watch rather than a proven edge.

What commanders run Promise of Loyalty most?

Among Playgroup Live tracked decks, Killian, Decisive Mentor and Ms. Bumbleflower lead by raw deck count, followed by Tidus, Yuna's Guardian and Mister Fantastic. The common thread is white-based shells that benefit from selective board resets. The data is well-spread across 425 distinct players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for just 4% of instances, so the commander pattern reflects genuine format preference rather than one prolific player.

Is Promise of Loyalty legal in Commander?

Yes. Promise of Loyalty from the Marvel Super Heroes Commander set is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Pauper, or most other formats.

How does Promise of Loyalty compare to other board wipes?

Promise of Loyalty occupies a narrower niche than unconditional sweepers like Wrath of God or Farewell. At 5 mana it costs the same as Wrath but leaves one creature per player alive, and the vow counter effect means those survivors cannot attack you or your planeswalkers. That trade-off rewards decks that can choose which creature survives on their side while leaving opponents with an awkward, attack-restricted board.