Blood Crypt
Blood Crypt sits in 37% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, with 81% of drawn copies reaching the battlefield and a median first-play turn of 3.0.
Blood Crypt is the premier black-red dual land in Commander, and the Playgroup Live numbers reflect that status. Found in 347 of 945 tracked decks, its 37% 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: 81% 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 3.0, reflecting the spread of copies drawn in the mid-game. Once it resolves, 92% 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: 260 distinct players have brought Blood Crypt to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 4% of all instances.
- 37% of tracked Commander decks include Blood Crypt
- 81% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
- T3.0 median first-play turn, with mode on turn 1
- 92% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
- 260 distinct players have brought Blood Crypt to a tracked game
- 30% draw rate, typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck
First-cast turn
n=154The "good card" funnel
628 brought · 260 playersOf 628 Blood Crypts brought to games, 191 were drawn, 154 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=154) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=405).
When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=36) — 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.
95% confidence interval -4.5pp to +10.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.
Final zone distribution
205 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
Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid
10 decks
-
2
Mr. House, President and CEO
10 decks
-
3
Edgar Markov
9 decks
-
4
Hearthhull, the Worldseed
9 decks
-
5
Henzie "Toolbox" Torre
9 decks
-
6
The Ur-Dragon
9 decks
-
7
Isshin, Two Heavens as One
6 decks
-
8
Sauron, the Dark Lord
6 decks
-
9
Tom Bombadil
6 decks
-
10
Ashling, the Limitless
5 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.
How often is Blood Crypt drawn in a Commander game? ▾
Across 521 tracked multiplayer games where Blood Crypt was in the deck, it was drawn 30% of the time. That is consistent with expectations for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 191 instances that reached a hand, 81% were played before the game ended.
What turn does Blood Crypt usually enter the battlefield? ▾
The median first-play turn is 3.0, but the mode is turn 1. Players who open with Blood Crypt nearly always play it on their first turn, accepting the 2-life payment to have it enter untapped. Copies drawn in the mid-game account for the tail that pushes the median to turn 3.0. The p25-p75 range runs from turn 1 to turn 5.
Is Blood Crypt legal in Commander? ▾
Yes. Blood Crypt is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and most other sanctioned formats. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander, where only common-rarity cards are permitted. It is also not legal in Old School or Premodern, which restrict card pools to older sets.
Why is Blood Crypt so widely played in Commander? ▾
Commander is a singleton format where mana consistency matters enormously. Blood Crypt is one of a small number of dual lands that produces both black and red mana, enters untapped at the cost of just 2 life, and counts as both a Swamp and a Mountain for basic land tutors. Those properties make it a near-automatic inclusion in any deck with black and red in its color identity.
How does Blood Crypt's win rate break down in the tracked data? ▾
In 154 participations where Blood Crypt reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate is 29%. In 405 participations where it stayed in the library, the rate is 26%. The delta is a directional early signal on this dataset size; it is consistent with Blood Crypt contributing to functional mana bases rather than being a win condition on its own.
How concentrated is the Blood Crypt data across players? ▾
The dataset is well-spread. 260 distinct players have brought Blood Crypt to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single most active contributor accounts for 4% of all instances. That low concentration means the stats are not skewed by one heavy user's results, which adds confidence to the directional picture.