Live Play Data

Withering Torment

· Instant · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1142

Decks Running

622

Median Cast Turn

7.0

Drawn → Played

62%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Withering Torment sits in 8% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, resolving 172 times across 1080 games, with a median first-cast turn of 7.0.

Withering Torment is a mono-black instant from the Marvel Super Heroes Commander set, trading 2 life for unconditional removal of any creature or enchantment. It appears in 8% of Commander decks in the Playgroup Live dataset, spanning 622 of the 7668 distinct tracked decks.

The draw-to-play rate sits at 62%: of the 277 times the card entered a player's hand, roughly two-thirds reached the stack before the game ended. Median first cast lands on turn 7.0, reflecting its reactive nature. Players hold it a median of 2 turns before deploying it, consistent with waiting for the right target to appear. Being an instant, it resolves and moves directly to the graveyard rather than the battlefield, which is exactly expected for removal spells.

The data comes from 498 distinct players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for 5%% of tracked instances. That spread supports treating the numbers as a genuine cross-meta signal rather than one pilot's preference, though the dataset is still early-stage and directional rather than conclusive.

At a glance

8% of tracked Commander decks include Withering Torment
24% draw rate across participations where the card was in the deck
62% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
T7.0 median first-cast turn, consistent with reactive removal
172 total casts recorded across 1080 tracked games
498 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=172

58%

T6-9

19%

T10+

Median 7.0 P25 6 · P75 9 · max 15

On curve 9% (10 / 172 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 32%

The "good card" funnel

1150 brought · 498 players

Brought to game

1150

Ever drawn

277

Reached battlefield

172

Still on board at game end

62%

Of 1150 copies brought to tracked games, 277 were drawn, 172 of those were cast, and the vast majority resolved straight to the graveyard as expected for an instant-speed removal spell.

≥ -5.2pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=153) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=687).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 27% (n=93) — 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 +2.0pp; 95% confidence interval -5.2pp to +9.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

319 instances

2.2%

Library

4.4%

Battlefield

63.3%

Graveyard

8.8%

Exile

Withering Torment is an instant, so the graveyard is its expected home after resolution. The small number of copies finishing in other zones reflects exiling effects or games ending before the card could be cast.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Doctor Doom, King of Latveria 106 decks
2 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel 25 decks
3 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls 15 decks
4 Deadpool, Trading Card 12 decks
5 Kuja, Genome Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied 12 decks
6 Loki, the Deceiver 10 decks
7 K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth 9 decks
8 Nekusar, the Mindrazer 9 decks
9 Captain N'ghathrod 8 decks
10 Zenos yae Galvus // Shinryu, Transcendent Rival 8 decks

Doctor Doom, King of Latveria dominates the list by deck count, with the remaining commanders spread more evenly. The distribution reflects general format popularity as much as specific synergy with this removal spell.

Frequently Asked

How often is Withering Torment drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1080 tracked games where Withering Torment was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That is consistent with what you would expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 277 copies that reached a hand, 62% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Withering Torment typically get cast?

Median first cast falls on turn 7.0, with the distribution spread between turns 3 and 10. The card costs 3 mana but almost never resolves on turn 3, which makes sense: reactive removal is held for a meaningful target rather than slammed at the first opportunity. Players sit on it for a median of 2 turns after drawing it before casting.

Does casting Withering Torment correlate with winning?

In the current dataset, the cast-vs-library win-rate delta is small and the confidence interval crosses zero, so no reliable lift is detectable yet. Both buckets have enough observations to track, but the signal is not strong enough to draw conclusions. Treat it as early-stage data. The win rate when cast is 28% on 153 participations, versus 26% when the card never left the library.

Is Withering Torment legal in Commander?

Yes. Withering Torment is legal in Commander, as well as Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Alchemy, Brawl, and several other formats. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander, as it is an uncommon. It is also not legal in Premodern or Old School, given its recent release in the Marvel Super Heroes Commander set.

Which commanders most commonly run Withering Torment?

Doctor Doom, King of Latveria leads by a wide margin in the tracked data, appearing in far more decks than any other commander on the list. Below him the distribution spreads across a range of black-inclusive commanders including Sephiroth, Valgavoth, and Kuja. The top-commander chart reflects the broader popularity of those commanders in the dataset as much as any special synergy with this specific removal spell.

How concentrated is the Withering Torment data among players?

498 distinct players have brought Withering Torment to at least one tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for a small share of all instances. That spread is a positive indicator: the numbers reflect broad adoption rather than one or two pilots skewing the sample. Still, with 1080 games tracked overall, treat all figures as directional rather than definitive.