Stroke of Midnight
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Instant
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Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander (TDC)
Stroke of Midnight appears in 4.5% of tracked Commander decks, but when players do draw it, 59% of those copies get cast. median first-cast turn is 6, deep enough in the game that it's almost always answering a real threat.
Stroke of Midnight sits in 89 of the 1,976 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, a 4.5% inclusion rate that reflects its mono-white color restriction rather than any weakness in the effect. A three-mana unconditional "destroy target nonland permanent" that replaces itself with a 1/1 token is one of white's cleanest catch-all answers.
Draw-to-play rate lands at 59%, meaning a little under two in three copies that reach a hand get cast before the game ends. The median first-cast turn of 6 tells the rest of the story: this is reactive removal, held until something dangerous hits the board. Players who drew it held it an average of 2 turns before casting, and only 39% of the time did they slam it on the same turn they drew it. That patience is intentional. You save Stroke for the threat that actually matters.
The battlefield stickiness number is effectively zero, which is expected for a one-shot instant. Once cast, it resolves, the permanent is gone, and a 1/1 Human lands across the table. The game moves on.
- 4.5% inclusion rate across 1,976 tracked Commander decks
- 59% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
- T6 median first-cast turn, reflecting its reactive role
- 2.0 average turns held in hand before casting
- 89 distinct decks running the card in Playgroup Live
- 23 total cast observations across 144 tracked games
First-cast turn
n=25The "good card" funnel
166 broughtOf 155 Stroke of Midnight copies brought to games, 39 were drawn, 23 of those were cast, and just 1 remained on the battlefield at game end. It is a one-shot answer, and the numbers confirm players use it that way.
Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=25) , vs 41% when it never left the library (n=116).
Final zone distribution
166 instances112 of 155 brought copies end the game in the library, the expected outcome for a singleton removal spell that requires a specific target to be worth casting.
Top commanders running this card
by deck count-
1
Ragost, Deft Gastronaut
11 decks
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2
Shorikai, Genesis Engine
10 decks
-
3
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
10 decks
-
4
Dragonlord Ojutai
8 decks
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5
Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser
7 decks
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6
Hamza, Guardian of Arashin
6 decks
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7
Amalia Benavides Aguirre
4 decks
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8
Giada, Font of Hope
4 decks
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9
Lorehold, the Historian
4 decks
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10
Bre of Clan Stoutarm
3 decks
No single commander dominates the list. Stroke is spread across at least eight distinct color identities, all sharing white, which reflects its role as a format-wide removal staple rather than a build-around.
How often is Stroke of Midnight drawn in a Commander game? ▾
Across 154 deck-participations tracked, Stroke of Midnight was drawn 39 times, a 25.2% draw rate. That is exactly in line with what you expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those 39 drawn copies, 23 were cast, yielding a draw-to-play rate of 59%.
What turn does Stroke of Midnight usually get cast? ▾
Median first-cast turn is 6, with the middle 50% of casts falling between turns 5 and 9. Only one cast happened on turn 3, its mana-value turn, so on-curve deployment is rare. This is consistent with how reactive removal works in Commander: players wait for the right target rather than casting it at the first opportunity.
Does casting Stroke of Midnight correlate with winning? ▾
Early signal only, given the small sample. Win rate in participations where Stroke was cast was 30%, compared to 39% in participations where it sat in the library all game. That negative delta of about 9 points likely reflects selection bias: you cast removal when a dangerous threat has resolved, which means you were already in a difficult game state. We would not read this as the card being harmful to cast.
Is Stroke of Midnight banned anywhere? ▾
Stroke of Midnight is legal in Commander, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Standard, Historic, and most other sanctioned formats. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its uncommon rarity, and is not available in Premodern or Old School for set-era reasons.
Why do players hold Stroke of Midnight rather than casting it immediately? ▾
The hand-to-cast data shows players hold it a median of 1 turn and an average of 2 turns before casting, with only 39% cast on the same turn they were drawn. Stroke hits any nonland permanent, so the incentive is to bank it for the most dangerous threat rather than spend it early on something minor. The token given to the opponent is a small but real cost, which adds to the calculus of picking the right target.
Which commanders most often appear alongside Stroke of Midnight? ▾
The top commanders are Shorikai, Genesis Engine and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed with 10 decks each, followed by Ragost, Deft Gastronaut with 8. The spread across Azorius, Esper, Boros, Abzan, and other white-inclusive identities shows that Stroke is not tied to any single strategy. It functions as a generic removal slot in white decks across a wide range of archetypes.