Live Play Data

Simic Ascendancy

· Enchantment · The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander (LCC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

649

Decks Running

297

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

73%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

6% of tracked Commander decks run Simic Ascendancy. When drawn, 73% of copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 6.

Simic Ascendancy sits in 6% of the Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, appearing in 297 of the 4588 distinct decks that have played a tracked game. For a niche enchantment that demands a counter-heavy shell, that footprint is a clear signal of format fit.

The draw-to-play rate of 73% tells you that when the card arrives in hand, it almost always gets cast. Median first cast lands on turn 6, well past its 2-mana cost. The on-curve rate of 11% reflects a card players often dig for rather than deploy the moment they see it. Of cast copies, 66% survive to game's end, a number consistent with enchantment removal being relatively rare but spells and board wipes still claiming a meaningful slice.

The commander list is a tight cluster of Simic and Bant counter strategies. Ms. Bumbleflower leads in raw deck count, while The Astonishing Ant-Man shows the highest proportional inclusion among the tracked commander pools. Simic Ascendancy is a build-around, not an auto-include, and the data reflects exactly that.

At a glance

6% of tracked Commander decks include Simic Ascendancy
73% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T6 median first-cast turn, despite a 2-mana cost
66% battlefield stickiness once cast
11% on-curve cast rate, most copies land well after turn 2
275 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=119

14%

12%

45%

T6-9

13%

T10+

Median 6 P25 4 · P75 8 · max 14

On curve 11% (10 / 119 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 30%

The "good card" funnel

649 brought · 275 players

Brought to game

649

Ever drawn

163

Reached battlefield

119

Still on board at game end

73%

Of 649 Simic Ascendancy copies brought to games, 163 were drawn, 119 of those were cast, and 66% of resolved copies were still on the battlefield at game's end.

≥ -1.9pp

Players who cast this card win 33% of the time (n=110) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=423).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 20% (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 +7.3pp; 95% confidence interval -1.9pp to +16.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

171 instances

2.9%

Library

45.6%

Battlefield

22.2%

Graveyard

7.6%

Exile

Most Simic Ascendancy copies that were observed ended the game on the battlefield or in the graveyard, with very few stranded in the library. That stands out for a singleton enchantment and reflects how targeted the decks running it tend to be.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list is anchored by Simic and Bant counter engines. Ms. Bumbleflower tops raw deck count, but the spread across a dozen different commanders shows that Simic Ascendancy fits into any strategy that reliably distributes +1/+1 counters.

Card text

Simic Ascendancy

Enchantment

: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on a creature you control, put that many growth counters on this enchantment. At the beginning of your upkeep, if this enchantment has twenty or more growth counters on it, you win the game.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander (LCC) · Rare · Illustrated by Izzy

Frequently Asked

How often is Simic Ascendancy drawn and cast in a Commander game?

Across 634 tracked games where Simic Ascendancy was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That's consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 163 copies that reached a hand, 73% were cast before the game concluded. The remainder were mostly games that ended before the player found the right window.

What turn does Simic Ascendancy typically hit the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 6, with the middle 50% of casts falling between turns 4 and 7. Despite costing only 2 mana, the on-curve cast rate is 11%, meaning most copies are drawn mid-game rather than in the opening hand. Players holding it in hand averaged nearly 2 turns before casting, so this is a card that tends to wait for the right moment in the game arc.

Does casting Simic Ascendancy actually improve your win rate?

In 110 tracked participations where Simic Ascendancy was cast, the normalized win rate was 33%. In participations where it stayed in the library, the rate was 25%. The delta is +7.3 percentage points. Both sample sizes are meaningful, but this is best read as a directional signal rather than a definitive finding. The cast-win-rate figure also includes games where the card contributed to the win condition directly.

Is Simic Ascendancy legal in Commander?

Yes. Simic Ascendancy is legal in Commander with no restrictions. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and Timeless. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. Its color identity is Green and Blue, so it fits in any Commander deck whose commander includes both those colors.

Which commanders most commonly run Simic Ascendancy?

Ms. Bumbleflower leads in raw deck count among tracked decks, followed by Hakbal of the Surging Soul and The Astonishing Ant-Man. The pattern is consistent: commanders that naturally distribute +1/+1 counters across multiple creatures each turn can pile growth counters on the Ascendancy quickly, making the 20-counter win condition realistic rather than aspirational.

How concentrated is the data across players?

275 distinct players have brought Simic Ascendancy to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for 6% of all tracked instances. That spread is healthy for a niche card. The data is not dominated by a single pilot, which adds weight to the directional conclusions we draw from it.