Live Play Data

Research Thief

· Artifact Creature — Moonfolk Wizard · Neon Dynasty Commander (NEC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

177

Decks Running

104

Median Cast Turn

8.0

Drawn → Played

49%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

First-cast turn

n=24

17%

46%

T6-9

29%

T10+

Median 8.0 P25 7 · P75 10 · max 17

On curve 25% (4 / 24 cast on T5) Cast same turn as drawn 35%

The "good card" funnel

177 brought · 103 players

Brought to game

177

Ever drawn

Reached battlefield

Still on board at game end

Once cast, 58% 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.

≥ -5.8pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=22) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=110).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 22% (n=22).

Read this as correlation, not as the card's contribution. Casting a card means you lived long enough to cast it, so this gap widens with mana value across every card we track.

Observed gap +15.3pp; 95% confidence interval -5.8pp to +36.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

52 instances

1.9%

Library

26.9%

Battlefield

23.1%

Graveyard

5.8%

Exile

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Sai, Master Thopterist 25 decks
2 Mendicant Core, Guidelight 17 decks
3 Shorikai, Genesis Engine 11 decks
4 Aloy, Savior of Meridian 5 decks
5 Optimus Prime, Hero // Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader 5 decks
6 Kotori, Pilot Prodigy 4 decks
7 Animar, Soul of Elements 3 decks
8 Breya, Etherium Shaper 3 decks
9 Urza, Chief Artificer 3 decks
10 Inspirit, Flagship Vessel 2 decks

Card text

Research Thief

Artifact Creature — Moonfolk Wizard

Flash Flying Whenever an artifact creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.

3 / 3

Neon Dynasty Commander (NEC) · Rare · Illustrated by Cristi Balanescu

Frequently Asked

Why isn't there more data on this card?

Playgroup Live collects per-card gameplay data from real Commander games. Play counts appear once a card reaches 100 tracked games, and the full charts need a sample of at least 25 observed games that is not dominated by a single pilot. 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. Playgroup has recorded 700,000+ Commander games overall, and this card-level play data comes from the Playgroup Live seats playing virtual cards, a subset of that corpus.