Live Play Data

Caves of Koilos

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

28%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

2369

Decks Running

1214

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

74%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Caves of Koilos appears in 28% of tracked Commander decks and, when drawn, reaches the battlefield 74% of the time. Its median first-cast turn lands on turn 4.0.

Caves of Koilos is one of the format's most reliable Orzhov dual lands, and Playgroup Live's multiplayer data backs that reputation: it sits at 28% inclusion across the 4306 tracked Commander decks, appearing in 1214 of them.

The functional story is straightforward. Caves of Koilos taps for either colorless, white, or black mana. Choosing a color costs 1 life, a price most Commander players pay without hesitation when the alternative is a tap-land entering tapped. 74% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends, and once it resolves, 92% stickiness means it almost never leaves play. Median first-cast turn is 4.0, consistent with a land played early to fix colors.

The commander distribution is broad: Killian, Decisive Mentor leads all tracked builds, followed by Edgar Markov and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed. The data is well-spread across 944 unique players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for just 2% of all instances. That spread makes the numbers more representative than a single pilot inflating the figures.

At a glance

28% of tracked Commander decks include Caves of Koilos
25% draw rate per game, typical for a singleton land in a 100-card deck
74% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn
92% battlefield stickiness once it enters play
944 unique players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=436

14%

16%

13%

29%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 15

Cast same turn as drawn 47%

The "good card" funnel

2376 brought · 944 players

Brought to game

2376

Ever drawn

587

Reached battlefield

436

Still on board at game end

403

74%

Of 2376 Caves of Koilos brought to tracked games, 587 were drawn, 436 of those were cast, and the vast majority remained on the battlefield at game end.

≥ -0.7pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=404) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=1540).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=140) — 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 +3.8pp; 95% confidence interval -0.7pp to +8.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

646 instances

1.4%

Library

62.4%

Battlefield

13.0%

Graveyard

6.3%

Exile

Most copies of Caves of Koilos end games on the battlefield, an unusually high share for any card in a 100-card singleton deck, reflecting how early and reliably it enters play.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Killian, Decisive Mentor 85 decks
2 Edgar Markov 46 decks
3 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 43 decks
4 Ulalek, Fused Atrocity 36 decks
5 Teysa Karlov 35 decks
6 Aminatou, Veil Piercer 32 decks
7 Betor, Ancestor's Voice 29 decks
8 Kaalia of the Vast 29 decks
9 Isshin, Two Heavens as One 28 decks
10 Mr. House, President and CEO 28 decks

The commander spread covers Orzhov, Mardu, Esper, and five-color builds, showing that Caves of Koilos functions as a broad color-fixer rather than a card tied to any single commander's strategy.

Card text

Caves of Koilos

Land

: Add

: Add

. This land deals 1 damage to you.

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Julian Kok Joon Wen

Frequently Asked

How often is Caves of Koilos drawn in a Commander game?

Across 2157 tracked multiplayer games where Caves of Koilos was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That rate is normal for a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of 587 instances that reached a player's hand, 74% were played before the game ended.

What turn does Caves of Koilos typically enter the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 4.0 in multiplayer games tracked on Playgroup Live. The distribution is front-loaded: a large cluster enters on turns 1 through 3, which reflects it being kept in opening hands as a color-fixer. The mean is higher than the median, pulled up by copies drawn later in the game.

Does casting Caves of Koilos correlate with winning?

In 404 participations where Caves of Koilos reached the battlefield, the win rate is 28% normalized to a 4-player baseline. In 1540 participations where it stayed in the library the whole game, the win rate is 24%. The +3.8 percentage-point gap is a directional signal, not a conclusive one. The confidence interval on this dataset just grazes zero, so treat it as early evidence rather than settled fact.

Is Caves of Koilos legal in Commander?

Yes. Caves of Koilos is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and most other Constructed formats tracked on Playgroup Live. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Old School. In Commander its white-black color identity restricts it to decks whose commander includes at least one of those colors.

Why does Caves of Koilos see play despite the life-loss drawback?

Commander starts at 40 life, so paying 1 life to fix colors is a minor cost. More importantly, Caves of Koilos enters the battlefield untapped every time, which is the key advantage over tap-lands like Scoured Barrens. In a format where turns 1 through 3 often determine how far ahead or behind a player falls on mana, untapped dual lands command a premium. The 92% stickiness in tracked games confirms that once it's in play, it stays.

Which commanders most commonly run Caves of Koilos?

Among tracked multiplayer decks, Killian, Decisive Mentor leads with the most Caves of Koilos builds, followed by Edgar Markov and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed. The spread covers Orzhov, Mardu, Esper, and five-color commanders, which reflects the card's role as a generic Orzhov color-fixer rather than a synergy piece tied to any one strategy.