Live Play Data

Blood Crypt

Land — Swamp Mountain · Star Trek (TRK)

36%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

2785

Decks Running

1359

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

79%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

36% of tracked Commander decks with black and red in their color identity run Blood Crypt, and when it's drawn, 79% of copies reach play, with a median land drop on turn 3.

Blood Crypt is one of the ten original Ravnica shocklands, and Playgroup Live's data confirms its near-automatic status in Rakdos and allied-color Commander decks. It sits in 36% of the 3798 tracked decks, a strong adoption rate for a dual land that asks 2 life for the privilege of entering untapped.

The draw-to-play figure of 79% is among the highest of any land in the dataset. That makes sense: players almost never hold a fetchable dual land in hand when they could be using the mana. The median first play lands on turn 3, but turn 1 is the most common single turn, reflecting opening-hand keeps built around the land. Battlefield stickiness sits at 91%, which is expected, since lands face removal far less often than spells.

The cast-vs-library win-rate delta is +6.3 percentage points, with a lower-bound confidence interval above zero, making this one of the cleaner correlations in the dataset. Decks that resolve Blood Crypt win more often. That likely reflects deck-quality selection as much as the card itself, but the direction is consistent and the sample is large enough to trust the signal.

At a glance

36% of tracked BR-identity Commander decks include Blood Crypt
79% of drawn copies reach play before the game ends
T3 median turn of first land drop, with turn 1 as the single most common
91% battlefield stickiness once played, lands rarely face removal
+6.3pp win-rate lift when Blood Crypt resolves versus sitting in the library
964 distinct players have brought Blood Crypt to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=633

29%

13%

11%

10%

11%

22%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 13

Cast same turn as drawn 59%

The "good card" funnel

2788 brought · 964 players

Brought to game

2788

Ever drawn

803

Reached battlefield

633

Still on board at game end

574

79%

Of 2788 Blood Crypts brought to games, 803 were drawn, 633 of those reached play, and the overwhelming majority remained on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +2.5pp

Players who cast this card win 31% of the time (n=593) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=1714).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=151) — 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 +6.3pp; 95% confidence interval +2.5pp to +10.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

874 instances

3.5%

Library

65.7%

Battlefield

14.3%

Graveyard

4.2%

Exile

Most observed Blood Crypts end the game on the battlefield, a natural outcome for a land that enters early and faces almost no removal in Commander. The library bucket is small because lands played from the opening hand rarely go unseen.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Edgar Markov 50 decks
2 The Ur-Dragon 45 decks
3 Sauron, the Dark Lord 39 decks
4 Mr. House, President and CEO 37 decks
5 Kaalia of the Vast 36 decks
6 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls 32 decks
7 Nekusar, the Mindrazer 30 decks
8 Henzie "Toolbox" Torre 26 decks
9 Kuja, Genome Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied 25 decks
10 Hearthhull, the Worldseed 23 decks

The top-10 commander list spans at least six distinct color combinations, showing that Blood Crypt is not a niche pick but a staple pulled into any deck that touches black and red, from focused Rakdos builds to five-color goodstuff.

Frequently Asked

How often is Blood Crypt drawn in a Commander game?

Across 2384 tracked games where Blood Crypt was in the deck, it was drawn 29% of the time. That is in line with typical singleton draw rates in a 100-card deck. Of 803 copies that reached a player's hand, 79% were played before the game ended. The remainder were mostly held in hands at the end of games that concluded before the mana was needed.

What turn does Blood Crypt usually hit play?

The median first-play turn is 3, but the distribution is front-loaded. Turn 1 is the mode, reflecting players who kept opening hands with the land. The 25th percentile is turn 1 and the 75th is turn 5, so half of all Blood Crypt plays happen in the first five turns of the game. Late-game drops exist but are uncommon.

Is Blood Crypt worth the 2-life payment?

In almost all Commander games, yes. The format starts players at 40 life, so 2 life is a small price for an untapped dual land on turn 1 or 2. The 91% stickiness number confirms that players who play it keep it: lands are rarely removed in Commander, so the resource is nearly permanent once it enters. The +6.3-percentage-point win-rate lift for games where it resolves is a consistent directional signal across a well-sampled dataset.

Which commanders use Blood Crypt most?

Edgar Markov leads the tracked dataset, followed by Mr. House, President and CEO and The Ur-Dragon. The top-10 commanders span Mardu (BR/W), Grixis (BR/U), Jund (BR/G), and five-color shells, as well as pure Rakdos commanders like Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls and Kuja, Genome Sorcerer. Any commander with black and red in its color identity is a potential home.

Is Blood Crypt legal in Commander?

Yes. Blood Crypt is legal in Commander and in every other tracked format on Playgroup Live except Pauper and Pauper Commander, where it is not legal due to its rare rarity. It is also legal in Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, and Standard at time of writing. Check current legality listings for the most up-to-date status.

How concentrated is the Blood Crypt data across players?

The data is well-spread. 964 distinct players have brought Blood Crypt to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 29% of all instances. That breadth means the statistics reflect broad community play rather than a single player's repeated games, which strengthens the reliability of the trends we observe.