Live Play Data

Caves of Koilos

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

31%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1053

Decks Running

597

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

77%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Caves of Koilos appears in 31% of tracked Commander decks that run white or black, and 77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.

Caves of Koilos is one of the original pain lands, trading 1 life for a white or black mana with no other strings attached. Across 954 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, it sits in 31% of eligible decks, a solid foothold for a fixing land that competes with fetch lands, shock lands, and check lands for the same slots.

The play pattern is what you'd expect from a reliable dual: 77% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends, and median first play lands on turn 4.0. Once it hits the battlefield, it sticks: 92% stickiness reflects the reality that opponents rarely spend resources on a basic-seeming land. The small life-payment is almost never a meaningful constraint, which is exactly why pain lands have remained Commander staples for years.

The commander distribution tells a clear story. Killian, Decisive Mentor headlines the list, consistent with that deck's need for both colors on a tight curve. Edgar Markov, Kaalia of the Vast, and Teysa Karlov all appear across Orzhov and Mardu builds, where reliable two-color fixing matters more than arriving untapped. With 480 distinct players contributing data and a single-player ceiling of under 4%, the dataset is well spread across the player base.

At a glance

31% of tracked Commander decks include Caves of Koilos
77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median turn of first play
92% battlefield stickiness once played
480 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
30% normalized win rate in games where the land was played

First-cast turn

n=202

21%

12%

14%

32%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 15

Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

1060 brought · 480 players

Brought to game

1060

Ever drawn

263

Reached battlefield

202

Still on board at game end

186

77%

Of 1060 copies brought to multiplayer games, 263 were drawn, 202 of those were played, and nearly all stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +0.8pp

Players who cast this card win 30% of the time (n=199) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=714).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 24% (n=58) — 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 +7.4pp; 95% confidence interval +0.8pp to +14.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

286 instances

0.7%

Library

65.0%

Battlefield

10.1%

Graveyard

6.6%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Caves of Koilos copies finish the game on the battlefield, reflecting how rarely opponents interact with a pain land once it resolves. Most library copies simply were never drawn in the 100-card singleton format.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Killian, Decisive Mentor 62 decks
2 Edgar Markov 20 decks
3 Teysa Karlov 17 decks
4 Ulalek, Fused Atrocity 16 decks
5 Betor, Ancestor's Voice 15 decks
6 Kaalia of the Vast 14 decks
7 Mr. House, President and CEO 14 decks
8 Zurgo Stormrender 14 decks
9 Isshin, Two Heavens as One 13 decks
10 Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima 13 decks

Killian, Decisive Mentor leads with the most tracked decks, but the list spans Orzhov, Mardu, Esper, and five-color commanders, showing that Caves of Koilos earns its slot across a wide range of strategies rather than concentrating in a single archetype.

Frequently Asked

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

In 954 tracked multiplayer games where Caves of Koilos was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That rate is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those 263 drawn instances, 77% were played before the game concluded. The remainder largely reflects copies drawn in the late game when the match ended before they could be deployed.

What turn does Caves of Koilos typically hit the battlefield?

Median first play is turn 4.0 in multiplayer games. The distribution has a notable cluster in turns 1 and 2 from players who kept it in their opening hand, with the bulk of remaining casts spread across turns 4 through 6. That early cluster is the most impactful deployment window, since fixing mana on turn 1 or 2 lets players cast their commanders and two-color spells without stumbling.

Does casting Caves of Koilos correlate with winning?

In games where Caves of Koilos was played, the normalized win rate is 30% across 199 observations. In games where the card stayed in the library, the rate is 23%. The delta is +7.4 percentage points. The sample is large enough to treat this as a directional signal, though Caves of Koilos is better understood as a consistency tool than a win condition. Decks that include it tend to be well-built two-color or multi-color lists, which introduces selection effects.

How concentrated is the Caves of Koilos data across players?

The data is well spread. 480 distinct players have brought Caves of Koilos to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for under 4% of all instances. That coverage reduces the risk that one prolific player's results are skewing the aggregate numbers, making the draw and win-rate figures more representative of the broader player base.

Is Caves of Koilos legal in Commander?

Yes. Caves of Koilos is legal in Commander and has never been on the format's banned list. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander due to its rarity. Its color identity of white and black means it can only slot into Commander decks whose commander shares both of those colors, or a superset of them.

Why do Orzhov and Mardu commanders run Caves of Koilos over other dual lands?

Caves of Koilos enters the battlefield untapped with no additional cost beyond 1 life, giving it a practical edge over tap lands in curve-sensitive builds. Unlike check lands, it produces colored mana even without basic lands already in play, which matters in games with aggressive mulligans. The 1 life payment is largely irrelevant in Commander's 40-life format, and the land is inexpensive to acquire compared to original dual lands or fetch-shock combinations. Those factors explain its presence across Killian, Decisive Mentor, Edgar Markov, Teysa Karlov, and Kaalia of the Vast builds in our tracked data.