Live Play Data

Ripples of Undeath

· Enchantment · Modern Horizons 3 (MH3)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

586

Decks Running

331

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

68%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Found in 4% of tracked Commander decks, Ripples of Undeath is cast 68% of the time when drawn, with a median first-cast turn of 3.

Ripples of Undeath shows up in 4% of Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. At 2 mana, it lands early and starts filling the graveyard immediately, making it a consistent engine piece in self-mill and graveyard-value strategies.

When a copy reaches a player's hand, it is cast 68% of the time before the game ends. That is a solid execution rate for a non-interactive enchantment. The median first-cast turn is 3, though the distribution stretches as late as turn 12, reflecting that late-drawn copies can go uncast if the game closes out. Once on the battlefield, stickiness sits at 72%, which is consistent with a low-threat enchantment that opponents often choose not to prioritize removing.

The commander distribution is broad. Data from 285 distinct players keeps the signal well-spread. Teval, the Balanced Scale and Betor, Ancestor's Voice lead the count-by-deck list, pointing to graveyard-synergy strategies in Sultai and Abzan color identities as the primary homes. The card is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and several other formats, though its home on Playgroup Live is firmly in Commander pods.

At a glance

4% of tracked Commander decks include Ripples of Undeath
68% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T3 median first-cast turn across observed games
72% battlefield stickiness once the enchantment resolves
285 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game, a well-spread dataset

First-cast turn

n=101

10%

26%

15%

11%

25%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3 P25 2 · P75 7 · max 12

On curve 36% (26 / 101 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

589 brought · 285 players

Brought to game

589

Ever drawn

148

Reached battlefield

101

Still on board at game end

68%

Of 589 copies brought to games, 148 were drawn, 101 were cast, and 72% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ -5.0pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=97) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=328).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 35% (n=42) — 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 +4.4pp; 95% confidence interval -5.0pp to +13.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

207 instances

1.4%

Library

35.3%

Battlefield

36.7%

Graveyard

10.6%

Exile

Most of the library-zone instances reflect copies that were never drawn in 572 tracked games, a structural reality of 100-card singleton rather than a statement about the card's power level.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Teval and Betor lead the count, but the list spans ten commanders across at least five color combinations, showing Ripples of Undeath fits a wide range of graveyard strategies rather than a single archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Ripples of Undeath drawn in a Commander game?

Across 572 tracked games where Ripples of Undeath was in a deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That figure is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 148 instances that reached a player's hand, 68% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Ripples of Undeath usually land?

The median first-cast turn is 3. The mode of the distribution is turn 2, reflecting copies drawn in opening hands and slammed immediately. The interquartile range runs from turn 2 to turn 7, so there is meaningful variance. A small tail extends to turn 12, those are late-drawn copies that sometimes never resolve before the game ends.

Does casting Ripples of Undeath correlate with winning?

In 97 participations where Ripples of Undeath reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate was 29%. In 328 participations where it stayed in the library, the rate was 25%. The delta is +4.5 percentage points. The confidence interval crosses zero at this sample size, so treat this as an early directional signal rather than a conclusive finding.

How quickly do players cast it after drawing it?

Among the 101 observed casts, 43% were cast on the same turn the card was drawn. The median delay in hand is 1 turn. That pattern suggests players value early deployment but are willing to wait one turn when mana is committed elsewhere or when setting up a better window to trigger the mill-and-retrieve effect.

Which commanders most often run Ripples of Undeath?

Teval, the Balanced Scale and Betor, Ancestor's Voice lead the top-commander list by raw deck count. Both lean into graveyard value in multicolor black identities. The spread across commanders is broad, indicating the card is not locked into one archetype. Graveyard-matters, self-mill, and enchantress strategies across Sultai, Abzan, Mardu, and mono-black shells all appear in the data.

Is Ripples of Undeath legal in Commander?

Yes. Ripples of Undeath from Modern Horizons 3 is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. There are no known bans or restrictions in any format where it is currently legal.