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Live Play Data

Teferi's Protection

· Instant · Double Masters 2022 (2X2)

17%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

3400

Decks Running

1622

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

57%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

17% of tracked Commander decks run Teferi's Protection, and when a copy resolves, the win rate climbs +7.8 percentage points above the baseline, an early signal that the protection is doing real work.

Teferi's Protection sits in 17% of the 9506 distinct decks tracked on Playgroup Live, making it one of the most consistent white staples across the multiplayer Commander meta. Its role is narrow but decisive: buy a full round of time when the table threatens lethal, then continue with your board intact.

The median first-cast turn is 8, which tells you almost everything about how this card operates. It rarely shows up on curve. Players hold it specifically for high-stakes moments, and the hand-to-cast data backs that up: the median drawn copy sits in hand for 3 turns before firing. Only 16% of cast instances were played on the same turn they were drawn, the lowest same-turn rate you will see among three-mana staples. That patience reflects the card's function as a reactive spell, not a proactive one.

The commander distribution is wide. Teferi's Protection appears across five-color piles, mono-white beatdown, and tribal shells alike. The single largest contributor accounts for just 1011 unique players in the dataset, and no single player drives an outsized share of the data, so the signal is well-spread rather than concentrated in one playgroup.

At a glance

17% of tracked Commander decks include Teferi's Protection
T8 median first-cast turn, reflecting its use as a reactive hold
57% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
16% same-turn cast rate, one of the lowest among 3-mana staples
+7.8pp win-rate lift above baseline when the spell resolves
1011 unique players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=439

63%

T6-9

24%

T10+

Median 8 P25 6 · P75 9 · max 20

On curve 1% (5 / 439 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 16%

The "good card" funnel

3403 brought · 1011 players

Brought to game

3403

Ever drawn

772

Reached battlefield

439

Still on board at game end

57%

Of 3403 copies brought to tracked games, 772 were drawn, 439 of those were cast, and given its nature as an instant that exiles itself, nearly all resolved copies end the game in exile or the graveyard rather than on the battlefield.

≥ +3.3pp

Players who cast this card win 33% of the time (n=409) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=2251).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=290) — 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 +7.8pp; 95% confidence interval +3.3pp to +12.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

860 instances

4.3%

Library

5.6%

Battlefield

33.1%

Graveyard

21.9%

Exile

Most Teferi's Protection copies finish the game exiled or in the graveyard after resolving, as expected for an instant that protects you for one round and then exits. The relatively small library residual reflects how reliably it gets drawn and cast when included.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 The Ur-Dragon 57 decks
2 Giada, Font of Hope 40 decks
3 Edgar Markov 38 decks
4 Kaalia of the Vast 36 decks
5 Gishath, Sun's Avatar 29 decks
6 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 29 decks
7 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 26 decks
8 Baylen, the Haymaker 21 decks
9 Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge 20 decks
10 Isshin, Two Heavens as One 20 decks

The top-commanders list spans mono-white, Mardu, Naya, five-color, and Abzan shells, signaling that Teferi's Protection is a broadly adopted white staple rather than a card tied to any single archetype or strategy.

Card text

Teferi's Protection

Instant

Until your next turn, your life total can't change and you gain protection from everything. All permanents you control phase out. (While they're phased out, they're treated as though they don't exist. They phase in before you untap during your untap step.) Exile Teferi's Protection.

Double Masters 2022 (2X2) · Rare · Illustrated by Chase Stone

Frequently Asked

How often is Teferi's Protection drawn in a Commander game?

Across 2821 tracked multiplayer games where Teferi's Protection was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those 772 drawn copies, 57% were cast before the game concluded. The remainder reflects copies drawn too late to find a meaningful window, or games that ended before the player needed the protection.

What turn does Teferi's Protection usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 8, with the 25th percentile at turn 6 and the 75th at turn 9. The distribution clusters heavily in turns 6 through 9, consistent with players holding it through the early and mid game and firing it in response to a developed board threat. Only a handful of casts appear on turns 1 through 3, likely from very fast games or ramp-heavy pods.

Does casting Teferi's Protection actually improve your chances of winning?

In 409 tracked participations where Teferi's Protection resolved, the normalized win rate was 33%. Participations where the card never left the library showed a win rate of 26%. The delta is +7.8 percentage points. Both sample sizes are large enough to treat this as a directional signal rather than noise, though it is worth noting that players who cast this card may already be in stronger board positions on average.

Is Teferi's Protection banned anywhere?

Teferi's Protection is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Oathbreaker, Gladiator, and several other formats. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. PreDH also excludes it. Check the card's legalities panel for the full list, as rule updates can shift this over time.

Why do players hold Teferi's Protection in hand so long before casting it?

Teferi's Protection is a reactive spell. Its value comes from responding to a specific threat: a Wrath, a combat step that would kill you, an infinite combo on the stack. Casting it proactively wastes the timing advantage. The median copy sits in hand for 3 turns before being cast, and only 16% of casts happen on the same turn it was drawn. This restraint is deliberate, not a sign that the card underperforms.

Which commanders most often run Teferi's Protection?

The Ur-Dragon leads the top-commanders chart, followed by Giada, Font of Hope, Kaalia of the Vast, Edgar Markov, and Gishath, Sun's Avatar. The common thread is white in the color identity and a board presence worth protecting. Five-color commanders top the list partly because their decks tend to run white and partly because a wide board of expensive permanents is exactly what Teferi's Protection is designed to preserve through an opponent's Wrath effect.