Commander

Kess, Dissident Mage

Global commander stats

All Grixis commanders

424 Wins

891 Losses

Overview

Summary

Kess, Dissident Mage is a Magic: The Gathering commander tracked across 1,341 recorded Playgroup games, winning 31% of them (424–891) at an Elo of 1,560, ranking #1010 globally.

Wins average 8 turns, with 126 damage dealt and 0.61 player kills per game on average.

Last full refresh 28 Oct 2026

Sources Scryfall · EDHREC · JSON API

Frequently Asked

What is Kess, Dissident Mage's win rate?

Kess, Dissident Mage has a 31% win rate across 1341 recorded Playgroup games (424 wins, 891 losses).

How long do winning games with Kess, Dissident Mage take?

Wins with Kess, Dissident Mage take on average 8 turns. Total tracked play time: 15 days.

How many decks use Kess, Dissident Mage?

639 decks list Kess, Dissident Mage as their commander on Playgroup, of which 329 have played at least one recorded game.

Kess, Dissident Mage Magic: The Gathering commander card art

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Global rank

1010

Wins by turn (avg.)

Elo rating

1560

Trend

Global Elo trend

Trend

Commander popularity trend

Averages

Misc. stats

Average damage per game 126

Average commander damage per game 3

Average poison counters given per game 2

Average kills per game 0.61

Average turn length 2 minutes

No. decks for this commander 639

No. decks with at least one game for this commander 329

No. games played with this commander 1341

Total hours played 15 days

Community

Top 5 public decks

Rank	Elo	User	Games	Wins	Winrate
1	1711	MisguidedGh0st	14	12	86 %
2	1653	eli.lamborn	12	7	58 %
3	1627	Skullblade	25	18	72 %
4	1577	lenny	9	5	56 %
5	1558	John Naffziger	7	3	43 %

Outcomes

How does this commander win?

When Kess, Dissident Mage wins, 33.94% of wins come via non combat damage across tracked games with a recorded win condition.

Non Combat Damage

33.94%

Combo

24.46%

Combat

24.16%

Alternative

9.79%

Mill

5.5%

Poison

1.22%

Commander Damage

0.92%

Avg win turn 8.4 based on 435 wins with recorded turn counts

Measured

Staples that win games for Kess, Dissident Mage

Cards that raise this deck's measured win rate the most, compared with Kess, Dissident Mage decks that leave them out.

+12.7 pp

Top card: Watery Grave

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
1	Watery Grave 64 games	+12.7 pp	64
2	Entomb Signature build 51 games · Signature build	+8.6 pp	51
3	Training Center Signature build 49 games · Signature build	+6.8 pp	49
4	Blood Crypt Signature build 52 games · Signature build	+6.8 pp	52
5	Luxury Suite 54 games	+4.8 pp	54
6	Steam Vents 63 games	+4.7 pp	63
7	Polluted Delta Signature build 53 games · Signature build	+4.4 pp	53
8	Reanimate Signature build 56 games · Signature build	+3.9 pp	56
9	Mystical Tutor Signature build 67 games · Signature build	+3.5 pp	67
10	An Offer You Can't Refuse 74 games	+3.3 pp	74

Show 5 more (ranks 11-15)

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
11	Cyclonic Rift Signature build 70 games · Signature build	+3.1 pp	70
12	Faithless Looting 96 games	+2.9 pp	96
13	Scalding Tarn 55 games	+2.7 pp	55
14	Bloodstained Mire 55 games	+2.7 pp	55
15	Windfall Signature build 55 games · Signature build	+0.4 pp	55

Measured win-rate lift against decks on the same commander without the card, ranked by the 95% lower bound. How this is measured

Table position

Does seating order matter?

Kess, Dissident Mage wins 37.17% of games from position 1 and 0.0% from position 6 across tracked games.

Seat 1

37.17% n=382

Seat 2

30.79% n=380

Seat 3

30.7% n=316

Seat 4

26.34% n=205

Seat 5

16.13% n=31

Seat 6

0.0% n=7

Opening hands

Do mulligans hurt this commander?

Across tracked games, Kess, Dissident Mage wins 33.17% after 0 mulligans and 0.0% after 5 mulligans.

0 mulligans

33.17% n=624

1 mulligan

27.75% n=191

2 mulligans

28.41% n=88

3 mulligans

31.58% n=19

4 mulligans

83.33% n=6

5 mulligans

0.0% n=2

Player reports

How do players rate games with this commander?

Pilot rating

Pilots rate their own games with Kess, Dissident Mage 3.76/5 on average, across 936 self-reports.

3.76 / 5

🧂

Opponent salt

When Kess, Dissident Mage wins, opponents flag the game as salty 36.8% of the time across 438 tracked wins.

36.8 \%

Head to head

Best and worst matchups

Opposing commanders with at least ten tracked games against Kess, Dissident Mage. Pairs with fewer than 25 games are shown in italics; treat those as suggestive, not statistical.