Live Play Data

Cultivate

· Sorcery · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

42%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

6573

Decks Running

3280

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

69%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Cultivate sits in 42% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, cast on a median turn of 4 across 1079 observed casts from 2014 distinct players.

Cultivate is among the most-played green sorceries in Commander, and the live-game data from Playgroup Live backs that reputation. The card appears in 3280 of the 7796 distinct decks that have played a tracked game, an inclusion rate of 42%. That spread comes from 2014 unique players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for just 1% of all tracked instances. The data is well-distributed.

As a sorcery, Cultivate resolves and goes to the graveyard. The relevant performance question is whether players cast it when they draw it. 69% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended. The median first cast lands on turn 4, consistent with players holding it a turn after drawing before deploying it. The mode is turn 3, meaning the on-curve cast is very common when the card shows up in an opening hand or early draw.

Cultivate is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and most other sanctioned formats. It is not legal in Standard, Alchemy, or Old School. Its color identity is mono-green, which means it fits into any deck that touches green.

At a glance

42% of tracked Commander decks include Cultivate
T4 median first-cast turn, with turn 3 as the most common single turn
69% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
24% draw rate, expected for a singleton in a 100-card deck
2014 distinct players contributed to the dataset, a well-spread sample
39% of casts landed exactly on turn 3, the card's mana value

First-cast turn

n=1079

12%

25%

15%

11%

28%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 21

On curve 39% (265 / 1079 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 33%

The "good card" funnel

6584 brought · 2014 players

Brought to game

6584

Ever drawn

1558

Reached battlefield

1079

Still on board at game end

69%

Of 6584 Cultivates brought to games, 1558 were drawn, and 1079 of those were cast, a draw-to-cast rate of 69% that reflects a card players deploy quickly when it arrives.

≥ +1.3pp

Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=1015) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=4218).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=438) — 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 +4.0pp; 95% confidence interval +1.3pp to +6.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

1729 instances

4.3%

Library

1.3%

Battlefield

67.6%

Graveyard

7.8%

Exile

The vast majority of Cultivate instances end the game in the graveyard, exactly as expected for a sorcery that resolves and goes directly to the bin. The small library count reflects copies that were never drawn.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top commander reaches 3280 total tracked decks, but the commander list spans at least five distinct color identities, confirming Cultivate is a broad green staple rather than a build-around for any single archetype.

Card text

Cultivate

Sorcery

Search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal those cards, put one onto the battlefield tapped and the other into your hand, then shuffle.

Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC) · Common · Illustrated by Darius Zablockis

Frequently Asked

How often is Cultivate drawn in a Commander game?

In 5098 tracked games where Cultivate was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 1558 instances that reached a hand, 69% were cast before the game ended. The remainder reflects games that concluded before the player had a window to cast it, not a deliberate hold.

What turn does Cultivate usually get cast?

The median first-cast turn is 4, but the distribution is not uniform. Turn 3 is the single most common cast turn, which lines up exactly with Cultivate's mana value of 3. The p25 is turn 3 and the p75 is turn 7, meaning the middle half of all casts land between those two turns. A long tail extends past turn 10, reflecting late draws in longer games.

Does casting Cultivate correlate with winning?

In 1015 participations where Cultivate was cast, the win rate was 27%, compared to 23% in participations where it stayed in the library (n=4218). The gap is +4.0 percentage points. Both sample sizes are large, so this is a consistent directional signal rather than noise, though Commander win rates are always shaped by deck quality and table composition.

Is Cultivate banned anywhere relevant to Commander players?

No. Cultivate is legal and unrestricted in Commander, Pauper Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, Historic, Timeless, Brawl, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Standard Brawl, Alchemy, Future, Old School, or Premodern. There are no current ban proposals for Commander.

How concentrated is the Cultivate data across players?

The dataset draws from 2014 distinct players. The single heaviest contributor accounts for 1% of all tracked instances. That is well below the 15% threshold where concentration would meaningfully skew the numbers. The data reflects a broad cross-section of the Playgroup Live community rather than the habits of a single prolific player.

Which commanders most commonly pair with Cultivate?

The top commander by raw deck count is Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, followed by Pantlaza, Sun-Favored and Dina, Essence Brewer. The list spans multiple color identities: green-red-white, black-green, five-color, and green-blue-white commanders all appear. That spread reflects Cultivate's role as a format-wide ramp staple rather than a card slotted for one specific strategy. Any deck with green in its color identity is a candidate.