Live Play Data

Scute Swarm

· Creature — Insect · Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander (DSC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

955

Decks Running

514

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

74%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

37% of games where Scute Swarm resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +12.5 percentage-point lift over the 24% baseline when it stays in the library.

Scute Swarm sits in 8% of the 6174 tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, a focused niche that skews hard toward landfall and token strategies. When it resolves, it wins 37% of the time, +12.5 percentage points above the 24% win rate recorded in games where the card never left the library. Both sample sizes are robust enough to treat that gap as a meaningful directional signal.

The card plays slower than its 3-mana cost might suggest. Median first cast lands on turn 5, well past the curve, because the swarm only becomes threatening once you control six or more lands. Players appear to know this: of the 259 copies drawn, 74% reached the battlefield. The median copy spent one turn in hand before being cast, so the delay between drawing and playing is short. Most uncast copies are explained by games that ended before the opportunity arose.

The commander distribution is broad: 436 distinct players have brought Scute Swarm to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small slice of the dataset. That spread gives the numbers here a healthier cross-table character than a card dominated by one or two heavy contributors.

At a glance

8% of tracked Commander decks include Scute Swarm
T5 median first-cast turn, reflecting the six-land threshold for copying
74% of drawn copies reached the battlefield
37% win rate in games where Scute Swarm resolved
+12.5pp win-rate lift over games where it stayed in the library
54% battlefield stickiness once cast

First-cast turn

n=191

16%

13%

18%

38%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 4 · P75 7 · max 14

On curve 23% (31 / 191 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 33%

The "good card" funnel

956 brought · 436 players

Brought to game

956

Ever drawn

259

Reached battlefield

191

Still on board at game end

104

74%

Of 956 Scute Swarms brought to games, 259 were drawn, 191 of those were cast, and 54% of resolved copies survived on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +5.3pp

Players who cast this card win 37% of the time (n=175) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=586).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 40% (n=65) — 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 +12.5pp; 95% confidence interval +5.3pp to +19.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

293 instances

2.4%

Library

35.5%

Battlefield

33.4%

Graveyard

8.2%

Exile

Most Scute Swarm copies end a game on the battlefield or in the graveyard after combat, a sign the card sees active play rather than sitting undrawn in the library for the duration.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top-commander list spans Jund, Naya, Sultai, and mono-green, reflecting how broadly any green landfall or token shell can put Scute Swarm to use.

Frequently Asked

How often is Scute Swarm drawn in a Commander game?

Across 908 tracked multiplayer games where Scute Swarm was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is consistent with what you would expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 259 copies that reached a hand, 74% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Scute Swarm usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 5, with the middle 50% of casts falling between turns 4 and 7. The card's power spike requires six or more lands in play, so players typically hold it until they are positioned to trigger the copy mode quickly. The same-turn cast rate is 33%, meaning most drawn copies sit in hand for at least one turn before being deployed.

Does casting Scute Swarm actually improve your chances of winning?

In 175 participations where Scute Swarm resolved, the caster won 37% of the time. In 586 participations where it stayed in the library, the win rate was 24%. That is a +12.5 percentage-point gap. Both buckets carry solid sample sizes, so this is a consistent directional signal, though Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing and should not be read as a definitive causal claim.

Which commanders most often run Scute Swarm?

On the multiplayer side, Hearthhull the Worldseed, Baylen the Haymaker, Witherbloom the Balancer, and Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait each appear in the top of the commander list. All of them provide ramp, land synergies, or token payoffs that pair naturally with Scute Swarm's landfall trigger. The spread across multiple commanders confirms the card is not a one-archetype specialist.

Is Scute Swarm legal in the formats I play?

Scute Swarm is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, Gladiator, Oathbreaker, and several Brawl variants. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Pauper Commander, or Premodern. Always verify legality on Scryfall before sleeving up, as bans and format lists change.

How concentrated is the Scute Swarm data among a few players?

436 distinct players have brought Scute Swarm to a tracked game on Playgroup Live. The single heaviest contributor accounts for 4% of all instances, well below the threshold where one player's habits would skew the aggregate numbers. That spread adds confidence to the win-rate and draw-rate figures reported here.