Live Play Data

Propaganda

· Enchantment · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

17%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1058

Decks Running

629

Median Cast Turn

5.5

Drawn → Played

76%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Propaganda lands in 17% of tracked Commander decks and, once drawn, reaches the battlefield 76% of the time, with a median first-cast turn of 5.5.

Propaganda sits in 17% of the 3699 distinct Commander decks that have played a tracked game on Playgroup Live, appearing in 629 lists across 947 tracked games. That puts it squarely in the "blue staple" tier for decks that need to survive long enough to execute a control or combo plan.

The cast numbers are consistent with a card players value highly when they see it. 76% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended. Median first cast is turn 5.5, slightly later than its 3-mana cost would predict, which is common for a defensive enchantment: players often sequence mana development first and drop Propaganda once they feel pressure building. The 73% stickiness figure shows that, once it resolves, it usually stays.

Decks running blue-based control or pillowfort strategies across Esper, Dimir, and mono-blue commanders account for the heaviest share of inclusions. The concentration data is healthy: 494 distinct players have brought Propaganda to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of instances, so the stats reflect a broad cross-section of the player base.

At a glance

17% of tracked Commander decks include Propaganda
76% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5.5 median first-cast turn, slightly behind its 3-mana cost
73% battlefield stickiness once Propaganda resolves
494 distinct players have brought Propaganda to a tracked game
28% normalized win rate in games where Propaganda was cast

First-cast turn

n=228

14%

39%

T6-9

11%

T10+

Median 5.5 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 24

On curve 23% (33 / 228 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 45%

The "good card" funnel

1064 brought · 494 players

Brought to game

1064

Ever drawn

301

Reached battlefield

228

Still on board at game end

167

76%

Of 1064 Propaganda copies brought to games, 301 were drawn, 228 of those were cast, and the majority remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +1.6pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=219) , vs 20% when it never left the library (n=689).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 34% (n=72) — 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 +7.7pp; 95% confidence interval +1.6pp to +13.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

333 instances

2.7%

Library

50.2%

Battlefield

22.5%

Graveyard

7.2%

Exile

Most Propaganda copies that finish outside the library end up on the battlefield or in the graveyard, a sign that it resolves frequently and eventually gets answered rather than sitting uncast.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 73 decks
2 Doctor Doom, King of Latveria 39 decks
3 Jon Irenicus, Shattered One 12 decks
4 Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor 11 decks
5 Aminatou, Veil Piercer 9 decks
6 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV 9 decks
7 Hope Estheim 9 decks
8 Ms. Bumbleflower 9 decks
9 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 9 decks
10 Zedruu the Greathearted 9 decks

The commander list spreads across Esper, Dimir, Grixis, and mono-blue strategies, with Y'shtola and Doctor Doom leading by deck count, showing Propaganda's reach well beyond classic pillowfort commanders.

Frequently Asked

How often is Propaganda drawn in a Commander game?

Across 947 tracked games where Propaganda was in the deck, it was drawn 28% of the time. That is a normal range for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 301 copies that reached a hand, 76% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Propaganda typically hit the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 5.5, with a mode of 3 (its exact mana cost). The distribution is broad: the 25th percentile is turn 4 and the 75th is turn 8, meaning a meaningful portion of casts happen well into the midgame. Players who draw it in the opening hand tend to develop mana first and drop Propaganda once opponents start presenting threats.

Does casting Propaganda correlate with winning?

There is a directional positive signal. The normalized win rate in participations where Propaganda was cast is 28%, compared to 20% in participations where it stayed in the library the entire game. That is a +7.7 percentage-point gap. Both sample sizes are well above 15 observations, so this is a consistent early signal, though not a causal proof.

How sticky is Propaganda once it resolves?

73% of cast copies finished the game on the battlefield. Enchantments without built-in protection are typically vulnerable to Disenchant effects, but Propaganda's stickiness number suggests opponents often find it more efficient to pay the tax than to spend a removal spell on it, at least in the pods tracked so far.

Which commanders run Propaganda most often?

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed leads the tracked data with the highest raw deck count, followed by Doctor Doom, King of Latveria. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic also appear near the top, consistent with their well-known control and pillowfort reputations. Mono-blue commanders such as Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom round out the list, reflecting Propaganda's restriction to blue color identity.

Is Propaganda legal in Commander, and what formats allow it?

Propaganda is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Pauper, Brawl, or Historic. In Commander it is unrestricted, which is why it accumulates such broad inclusion across control-oriented blue builds.