Live Play Data

Cavern of Souls

Land · The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

635

Decks Running

369

Median Cast Turn

3.0

Drawn → Played

81%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

81% of drawn Cavern of Souls copies are played before the game ends, with a median first-cast turn of 3.0 across 561 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live.

Cavern of Souls resolves and stays. Across 561 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, 81% of drawn copies reached play, and the land sat on the battlefield at game's end 96% of the time it was cast.

The card's core function, naming a creature type and making that tribe's spells uncounterable, makes it a surgical tool rather than a generalist staple. That shows in the inclusion number: 7% of tracked decks run it, concentrated tightly around tribal commanders. The counterplay protection it provides is irreplaceable in those shells, which is why players play it the turn they draw it 64% of the time.

Cavern of Souls is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and most other Constructed formats. It is banned in Duel Commander, where its combination of free colored mana and counterspell immunity proved too strong in the more constrained two-player context. The data on Playgroup Live reflects the multiplayer Commander format unless otherwise noted.

At a glance

7% of tracked Commander decks include Cavern of Souls
T3.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
81% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
96% battlefield stickiness once the land enters play
64% of drawn-and-played copies were played the same turn they were drawn
274 distinct players have brought Cavern of Souls to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=136

26%

15%

11%

24%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.0 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 16

Cast same turn as drawn 64%

The "good card" funnel

635 brought · 274 players

Brought to game

635

Ever drawn

167

Reached battlefield

136

Still on board at game end

131

81%

Of 635 Cavern of Souls copies brought to tracked games, 167 were drawn, 136 of those were played, and nearly all stayed on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ -4.7pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=136) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=439).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 38% (n=32) — 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 +2.7pp; 95% confidence interval -4.7pp to +10.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

178 instances

3.4%

Library

73.6%

Battlefield

7.3%

Graveyard

2.8%

Exile

Lands rarely leave the battlefield once they enter, and Cavern of Souls is no exception: the overwhelming majority of observed copies finished games in play rather than the library, graveyard, or exile.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top commander list reads like a tribal hall of fame, with Dragons, Angels, Dinosaurs, Slivers, and Rats all represented, confirming that Cavern's home is squarely in creature-type-matters strategies.

Frequently Asked

How often is Cavern of Souls drawn in a Commander game?

In 561 tracked multiplayer games where Cavern of Souls was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is a normal draw rate for a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of the 167 copies that reached a player's hand, 81% were played before the game ended. A median first-cast turn of 3.0 means it arrives early, often on the opening hand's back.

Does casting Cavern of Souls correlate with winning?

Early directional data shows a 29% win rate in participations where Cavern of Souls was cast, versus 26% when the card stayed in the library. The raw delta is small and the confidence interval overlaps zero, so treat this as a consistent early signal rather than a proven edge. The card's value is structural: it protects key threats from interaction rather than directly ending games.

Why is Cavern of Souls so popular in tribal Commander decks?

Cavern of Souls enters play tapped only when using the colorless mana mode. The colored mana mode costs nothing beyond naming a creature type, and the payoff is hard immunity to counterspells for every creature of that type you cast. In Commander, where a single counterspell can stop a game-winning creature, that immunity is a meaningful edge. Tribal commanders like The Ur-Dragon, Giada, and Gishath sit at the top of its commander distribution precisely because their strategies live and die by resolving key creatures.

What commanders are most associated with Cavern of Souls in the data?

The Ur-Dragon leads the tracked distribution with the most associated decks, followed by Giada, Font of Hope and Gishath, Sun's Avatar in a cluster. The First Sliver, Marrow-Gnawer, Pantlaza, and Voja, Jaws of the Conclave round out the top tier. The spread across Dragon, Angel, Dinosaur, Sliver, and Rat commanders illustrates that Cavern's value is format-agnostic across tribal archetypes.

Is Cavern of Souls banned anywhere?

Cavern of Souls is banned in Duel Commander, the two-player variant of the format. It is legal in multiplayer Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and most other Constructed formats. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its mythic rarity.

How concentrated is the Cavern of Souls data among specific players?

The data is well-spread. 274 distinct players have brought Cavern of Souls to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of all instances. That breadth means the draw rates and play patterns reflect genuine community behavior rather than one prolific contributor skewing the numbers.