Bayou
Bayou appears in 12% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, and 91% of drawn copies are played before the game ends, the highest land-execution rate in the Golgari mana base.
Bayou is a Dual Land that taps for Black or Green without entering the battlefield tapped, making it a foundational mana piece for any deck running both colors. Across 641 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, it sits in 337 of 2930 distinct decks at a 12% inclusion rate. That rate reflects its cost and scarcity as an original Revised-era dual land rather than a lack of demand.
The standout figure is draw-to-play: 91% of drawn Bayous are played before the game ends. Because lands enter without being cast as spells, Bayou is nearly always deployed the same turn it enters a hand. The median first-play turn is 3, and 72% of instances are played on the same turn they are drawn. That speed is exactly what untapped dual lands are in the format for.
The data is spread across 251 unique players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for 4% of tracked instances. That breadth gives the numbers reasonable directional weight even given Playgroup Live's current sample size.
- 12% of tracked Commander decks include Bayou
- 91% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
- T3 median first-play turn
- 72% of Bayous are played the same turn they are drawn
- 92% battlefield stickiness once played
- 251 unique players have brought Bayou to a tracked game
First-cast turn
n=265The "good card" funnel
735 brought · 251 playersOf 735 Bayous brought to tracked games, 292 were drawn, 265 of those were played, and 92% remained on the battlefield through end of game.
Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=237) , vs 21% when it never left the library (n=383).
When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 43% (n=20) — 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 +8.3pp; 95% confidence interval +1.9pp to +14.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.
Final zone distribution
308 instancesMost Bayous that enter a game end up on the battlefield at game end, a direct result of it being an untapped land that players deploy immediately rather than holding.
Commanders that played this card
in tracked games-
1
The Ur-Dragon
29 decks
-
2
Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge
14 decks
-
3
Henzie "Toolbox" Torre
10 decks
-
4
Kenrith, the Returned King
9 decks
-
5
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
8 decks
-
6
Teval, the Balanced Scale
8 decks
-
7
Chatterfang, Squirrel General
7 decks
-
8
Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid
7 decks
-
9
Jodah, the Unifier
6 decks
-
10
Kotis, the Fangkeeper
6 decks
Five-color good-stuff commanders dominate the list, but dedicated Golgari commanders like The Gitrog Monster confirm that Bayou earns its slot across both broad and focused archetypes.