Live Play Data

Breeding Pool

Land — Forest Island · Star Trek (TRK)

38%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1536

Decks Running

765

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

83%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Breeding Pool sits in 38% of tracked Commander decks and reaches the battlefield in 90% of casts, with 83% of drawn copies played before the game ends.

Breeding Pool is among the most-played dual lands in Commander. Across 1316 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, it appears in 765 of 2011 distinct decks, a 38% inclusion rate that reflects its status as a default include in any Green-Blue strategy.

When a copy reaches a player's hand, 83% of those instances are played before the game concludes. The median first-cast turn is 4.0, though the mode is turn 1, consistent with players keeping opening hands that contain it and playing it immediately. 90% of cast copies finish the game on the battlefield, typical for a land with no built-in sacrifice effect.

The commander distribution is notably broad. 546 distinct players have brought Breeding Pool to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 3% of all instances. That spread reinforces that this is a staple across archetypes, not a signal skewed by one or two prolific players.

At a glance

38% of tracked Commander decks include Breeding Pool
83% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn (mode is turn 1)
90% battlefield stickiness once played
546 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game
29% win rate in games where Breeding Pool reached the battlefield

First-cast turn

n=462

23%

14%

12%

11%

26%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 61%

The "good card" funnel

1537 brought · 546 players

Brought to game

1537

Ever drawn

560

Reached battlefield

462

Still on board at game end

419

83%

Of 1537 Breeding Pools brought to games, 560 were drawn, 462 of those were played, and 90% of played copies remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +0.7pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=448) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=876).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 37% (n=97) — 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 +5.3pp; 95% confidence interval +0.7pp to +9.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

598 instances

2.3%

Library

70.1%

Battlefield

11.7%

Graveyard

3.8%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Breeding Pool instances that were observed finished the game on the battlefield, which is expected for a land with no sacrifice clause. The small library count reflects copies that entered the observed set via opening-hand reveals rather than ever being played.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top-commander list spans five-color builds, Temur shells, and dedicated Simic commanders, confirming that Breeding Pool is spread evenly across archetypes rather than concentrated in a single strategy.

Frequently Asked

How often is Breeding Pool drawn in a Commander game?

In 1316 tracked multiplayer games where Breeding Pool was in the deck, the draw rate was 36%. That figure is normal for a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of 560 instances that reached a player's hand, 83% were played before the game ended. The remainder largely reflects copies drawn late in long games rather than deliberate choices to hold the land.

What turn does Breeding Pool usually enter the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 4.0, but the distribution is front-loaded. The single most common turn is turn 1, which reflects players who keep opening hands containing it and drop it immediately. The interquartile range runs from turn 2 to turn 6, so a meaningful share of copies do come down in the mid-game when they're drawn off the top.

Is Breeding Pool legal in Commander?

Yes. Breeding Pool is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Standard, Historic, and most other constructed formats. It is not legal in Pauper (rare is above that format's rarity ceiling) or in Old School. Its color identity is Green-Blue, so it can only appear in Commander decks whose commander's color identity includes both Green and Blue.

Does casting Breeding Pool actually improve your win rate?

The cast-vs-library delta is a directional signal: games where Breeding Pool reached the battlefield show a 29% normalized win rate, compared to 24% in games where it never left the library. With 448 observations in the cast bucket and 876 in the library bucket, the sample is large enough to be suggestive, though Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing. The delta is consistent with the card doing its job of enabling smooth mana rather than being a decisive win condition in its own right.

Is it worth paying 2 life to have Breeding Pool enter untapped?

The life cost is almost always correct in Commander, where players start at 40 life and the tempo of an untapped dual land on turn 1 or 2 is worth considerably more than 2 life. The data reflects this: the median hand-to-cast delay is 0 turns, meaning players who draw Breeding Pool tend to play it the same turn it enters their hand. 61% of drawn-and-cast instances were played the same turn they were drawn, consistent with players treating it as a land they drop immediately rather than one they hold.

Which commanders most often pair with Breeding Pool?

The top commanders in Playgroup Live's tracked games include five-color and Gruul-plus-Blue commanders that contain Green-Blue in their identity: The Ur-Dragon leads the multiplayer list with 14 decks, followed by Ms. Bumbleflower (11) and a cluster at 9 decks each including Aragorn the Uniter, Flubs the Fool, Jodah the Unifier, Kinnan Bonder Prodigy, and Zimone Infinite Analyst. The spread across both five-color goodstuff builds and dedicated Simic commanders is consistent with Breeding Pool being an automatic inclusion wherever its color identity fits.