Blood Crypt
Blood Crypt sits in 35% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, with 79% of drawn copies reaching the battlefield and a median first-play turn of 3.
Blood Crypt is the premier black-red dual land in Commander, and the Playgroup Live numbers reflect that status. Found in 764 of 2193 tracked decks, its 35% inclusion rate covers every archetype that touches black and red, from aggressive vampire builds to five-color good-stuff piles.
As a land, Blood Crypt is almost never "cast" in the traditional sense, but the play data is clear: 79% of drawn copies end up on the battlefield before the game ends. The mode first-play turn is 1, meaning players who open with it nearly always drop it immediately. The median lands on turn 3, reflecting the spread of copies drawn in the mid-game. Once it resolves, 90% stickiness confirms that lands almost never leave play once they hit.
The commander spread is wide and color-appropriate. Rakdos, Mardu, Jund, and five-color commanders all appear in the top slots, which is exactly what you expect from the format's most-played non-green dual. No single commander dominates, and no single player drives the dataset: 538 distinct players have brought Blood Crypt to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 3% of all instances.
- 35% of tracked Commander decks include Blood Crypt
- 79% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
- T3 median first-play turn, with mode on turn 1
- 90% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
- 538 distinct players have brought Blood Crypt to a tracked game
- 29% draw rate, typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck
First-cast turn
n=333The "good card" funnel
1460 brought · 538 playersOf 1460 Blood Crypts brought to games, 420 were drawn, 333 of those were played, and 90% remained on the battlefield through end of game.
Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=330) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=939).
When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=80) — 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 +5.5pp; 95% confidence interval +0.4pp to +10.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.
Final zone distribution
458 instancesThe large majority of Blood Crypt instances end the game on the battlefield, reflecting its role as a foundational mana source that hits play early and never leaves. The small library count confirms this card is almost never stranded unseen.
Commanders that played this card
in tracked games-
1
Mr. House, President and CEO
28 decks
-
2
Edgar Markov
26 decks
-
3
The Ur-Dragon
24 decks
-
4
Henzie "Toolbox" Torre
18 decks
-
5
Sauron, the Dark Lord
17 decks
-
6
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
17 decks
-
7
Kaalia of the Vast
16 decks
-
8
Kuja, Genome Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied
16 decks
-
9
Hearthhull, the Worldseed
15 decks
-
10
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
15 decks
The top-commander list spans Rakdos, Mardu, Jund, and five-color builds, illustrating that Blood Crypt is a color-identity staple rather than the property of any single archetype or deck style.