Commander

Kess, Dissident Mage

Global commander stats

All Grixis commanders

539 Wins

1008 Losses

Overview

Summary

Kess, Dissident Mage is a Magic: The Gathering commander tracked across 1,559 recorded Playgroup games, winning 34% of them (539–1008) at an Elo of 1,496, ranking #3913 globally.

Wins average 8 turns, with 114 damage dealt and 0.59 player kills per game on average.

Last full refresh 12 Nov 2026

Sources Scryfall · EDHREC · JSON API

Frequently Asked

What is Kess, Dissident Mage's win rate?

Kess, Dissident Mage has a 34% win rate across 1559 recorded Playgroup games (539 wins, 1008 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: 16 days.

How many decks use Kess, Dissident Mage?

664 decks list Kess, Dissident Mage as their commander on Playgroup, of which 341 have played at least one recorded game.

Kess, Dissident Mage Magic: The Gathering commander card art

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Global rank

3913

Wins by turn (avg.)

Elo rating

1496

Trend

Global Elo trend

Trend

Commander popularity trend

Averages

Misc. stats

Average damage per game 114

Average commander damage per game 3

Average poison counters given per game 2

Average kills per game 0.59

Average turn length 2 minutes

No. decks for this commander 664

No. decks with at least one game for this commander 341

No. games played with this commander 1559

Total hours played 16 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, 33.74% of wins come via non combat damage across tracked games with a recorded win condition.

Non Combat Damage

33.74%

Combo

24.92%

Combat

24.01%

Alternative

9.73%

Mill

5.47%

Poison

1.22%

Commander Damage

0.91%

Avg win turn 8.5 based on 550 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.

+11.2 pp

Top card: Watery Grave

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
1	Watery Grave 67 games	+11.2 pp	67
2	Entomb Signature build 53 games · Signature build	+8.3 pp	53
3	Training Center Signature build 50 games · Signature build	+7.0 pp	50
4	Blood Crypt Signature build 53 games · Signature build	+6.6 pp	53
5	Luxury Suite 54 games	+6.3 pp	54
6	Cabal Ritual Signature build 47 games · Signature build	+4.9 pp	47
7	Polluted Delta 54 games	+4.8 pp	54
8	Reanimate Signature build 57 games · Signature build	+4.5 pp	57
9	Steam Vents 65 games	+3.9 pp	65
10	An Offer You Can't Refuse 76 games	+3.4 pp	76

Show 5 more (ranks 11-15)

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
11	Scalding Tarn 56 games	+3.2 pp	56
12	Bloodstained Mire 56 games	+3.2 pp	56
13	Mystical Tutor Signature build 70 games · Signature build	+2.9 pp	70
14	Cyclonic Rift Signature build 72 games · Signature build	+2.5 pp	72
15	Windfall Signature build 56 games · Signature build	+1.0 pp	56

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 41.75% of games from position 1 and 0.0% from position 6 across tracked games.

Seat 1

41.75% n=485

Seat 2

35.54% n=484

Seat 3

30.09% n=324

Seat 4

26.09% n=207

Seat 5

15.63% n=32

Seat 6

0.0% n=7

Opening hands

Do mulligans hurt this commander?

Across tracked games, Kess, Dissident Mage wins 35.15% after 0 mulligans and 0.0% after 5 mulligans.

0 mulligans

35.15% n=724

1 mulligan

35.1% n=245

2 mulligans

36.67% n=120

3 mulligans

48.39% n=31

4 mulligans

66.67% n=9

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 942 self-reports.

3.76 / 5

🧂

Opponent salt

When Kess, Dissident Mage wins, opponents flag the game as salty 29.1% of the time across 553 tracked wins.

29.1 \%

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.