May 2026
The Commander metagame across 27,366 casual games tracked on Playgroup.gg. Win rates, movers, community sentiment, and diversity metrics across 2,366 unique commanders.
27,366 games tracked on Playgroup in May, up 12.5% from April. That is the largest month-over-month volume jump in the dataset's recent history and means the numbers this month carry more weight than usual. The Meta Diversity Index ticked down slightly to 85.1, rated "Healthy," and 151 distinct commanders were needed to account for half of all games played. No single commander is running away with the format.
The commander landscape is wide. 2,366 unique commanders appeared across May's games, up 2.6% from April. The top 10 commanders combined for just 10.4% of total plays, a low concentration figure. Killian, Decisive Mentor led all commanders with 1,380 games but posted a 23.8% win rate, right at the expected baseline for a 4-player pod. Zimone, Infinite Analyst and Dina, Essence Brewer followed in volume with similar win rates. The actual overperformers by win rate are clustered in commanders with smaller but qualifying samples: Ashling, Rekindled leads the win rate table at 41.56% across 80 games, followed by Maelstrom Wanderer at 39.14% across 76. Both cleared the 75-game threshold, but interpret those figures as early signals rather than settled dominance. Quintorius, History Chaser stands out as a high-volume outlier with 1,022 games and a 35.5% win rate, the clearest case of a popular commander that is also winning at an above-average clip.
54.7% of wins came through combat damage, essentially unchanged from April. The typical game ran about 53 minutes and averaged 8.9 rounds, both up modestly from last month (median duration up 0.6%, rounds up 1.1%). Combo is the fastest path to a win at 7.0 average rounds versus 9.2 for combat. First-seat advantage persists: the first player to act wins 28.9% of games against an expected 25%, while the fourth seat wins just 21.5%. Community sentiment stayed flat, with fun at 3.73 and salt at 1.44 on their respective scales.
June will test whether Najeela's +14.64-point jump is a lasting shift or a short-term spike. Nicol Bolas, the Ravager and Sythis, Harvest's Hand both entered the ranked pool with win rates above 32%; larger samples will clarify whether they belong at the top of the table. The MDI has stayed in the 85.1-85.9 band for every month of 2026 so far. Watch whether that stability holds as new sets continue to push fresh commanders into the pool.
Top 100 most-played commanders sized by play count.
Win rate change vs the previous month. Commanders need 100+ games in both months to qualify.
Sythis, Harvest's Hand
Dina, Soul Steeper
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen
Hazezon, Shaper of Sand
Tuvasa the Sunlit
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is the headline mover in May, surging +14.64 percentage points to a 37.87% win rate across 134 games. That is the largest single-month gain among any commander clearing the minimum threshold this period. Five-color builds tend to benefit from refined mana bases and tuned synergies, and the data suggests Najeela pilots have found a consistent line. Treat this as a strong signal given the sample, though it is worth watching whether the rate stabilizes in June. Ghalta, Primal Hunger also climbed meaningfully, up +9.27 points to 32.56% across 129 games. Mono-Green Ghalta's rise in a combat-heavy meta is coherent. On the other side, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin dropped the most sharply, falling 9.97 points to 32.19% across 146 games. Admiral Brass, Unsinkable slid nearly as far, down 9.28 points to 22.43%. Kenrith, the Returned King, despite holding 202 games, fell 7.15 points to sit at 25.12%. Among new arrivals, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager enters the ranked pool at 35.24% across 83 games, and Sythis, Harvest's Hand debuts at 32.65% across 85 games. Both are worth watching as their samples grow.
The average fun rating held at 3.73 out of 5 in May, unchanged from April. Average salt was equally flat at 1.44 on the 1-to-3 scale. At 1.44, the typical losing player rates the experience close to the low end of the scale, indicating most games feel fine regardless of outcome. The share of games with ratings submitted reached 68.4%, up 2.5 percentage points month over month, which gives the pulse numbers meaningful coverage. Vivi Ornitier drew the most salt this month, averaging 1.75 across 81 rated games. That is above the field average but still well below the midpoint of the scale. Primo, the Unbounded, a Simic (GU) commander, earned the highest fun score at 4.01 out of 5 across 90 games, placing it noticeably above the format average.
How games ended in May 2026 across 27,366 tracked games.
Combat remains the dominant path to victory at 54.7%, barely changed from April's 54.5%. Non-combat damage holds at 21.0%. Commander damage ticked down from 9.3% to 8.7%. Combo and alternative win conditions each moved from 6.0% to 6.2%. The infinite combo rate sits at 5.1% of all games. Mill increased slightly from 1.7% to 1.9%. Poison held flat at 1.3%. The overall distribution is stable; no single category shifted more than 0.6 percentage points from the prior month.
An MDI of 85 reflects a healthy meta where most commanders see balanced play, with 151 commanders needed to cover half of all games.
| May 2026 | Apr 2026 | Mar 2026 | Feb 2026 | Jan 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85.1 | 85.9 | 85.6 | 85.1 | 85.6 |
This report covers all finished multiplayer games tracked through the Playgroup.gg app during May 2026. Win rates are normalized to a 4-player baseline (25% expected) so pod size differences are weighted fairly. A commander needs at least 75 games to appear in ranked lists.
Salt ratings are measured from losing players and attributed to the winning commander. The scale runs 1 (no salt) to 3 (very salty). A Playgroup.gg editor reviews all content before publication.
How is the Playgroup.gg metagame report calculated?
Every finished multiplayer game tracked through the Playgroup app during the calendar month is included. Win rates are normalized to a 4-player baseline (25% expected) so pod size differences are weighted fairly. A commander needs at least 75 games to appear in ranked lists.
What is the Meta Diversity Index?
The Meta Diversity Index (MDI) uses Shannon entropy to measure how evenly commanders are distributed across games. A score of 100 means every commander is played equally. Below 70 indicates a few commanders dominate the meta. We normalize to a 0-100 scale so scores are comparable across months with different commander counts.
How is the salt rating calculated?
Salt ratings are collected from losing players after each game and attributed to the winning commander. The scale runs 1 (no salt) to 3 (very salty). This measures how opponents feel about losing to a particular commander, not how the winner feels. A rating of 1.4 means most games feel fine.
How is this different from EDHREC or EDHTop16?
EDHREC ranks by deck registration popularity. EDHTop16 tracks competitive tournament results. Playgroup.gg tracks actual casual game outcomes, including win rates, game length, community sentiment, and win conditions. This report covers 27,366 real games, not decklists or tournament finishes.
How many games does this report cover?
May 2026's report covers 27,366 games tracked on Playgroup across the full calendar month. That total is up 12.5% from April, making it one of the higher-volume months in the dataset. Games are logged through the Playgroup life counter app, Playgroup Live, and the Playgroup website. The majority come from the life counter app.
How are win rates normalized?
Win rates are normalized to a 4-player baseline, where 25% represents an exactly average commander. A win rate above 25% means that commander wins more often than expected given a standard 4-player pod. The normalization accounts for pod size variation, so commanders played in smaller or larger pods are adjusted to a common baseline before comparison.
What sample size thresholds are used for commander rankings?
Every commander on the ranked leaderboards cleared a minimum of 75 games and at least 10 distinct pilots. No single pilot could account for more than 40% of a commander's recorded games. For the movers lists, the bar is higher: commanders needed at least 100 games in both the current and prior month. These floors mean the numbers you see reflect a real spread of players, not one person's repeated results.
Does first-seat advantage actually matter in these games?
The data shows a consistent first-seat edge. Across May's games, the player in seat 1 won 28.9% of games against an expected 25% baseline, while seat 4 won just 21.5%. The gradient is steady across all four seats. This is a pattern in casual Commander that the Playgroup dataset reproduces month after month, driven by the cumulative advantage of taking the first land drop, first mana rock, and first combat step.