Exploration
81% of drawn Exploration copies are cast before the game ends, and the median first-cast turn is 4.0, making it one of the fastest-deployed ramp enchantments tracked on Playgroup Live.
Exploration sits in 586 of 8985 tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, a 7% inclusion rate that reflects its tight color restriction to green rather than any lack of power. When players do draw it, 81% of copies reach the battlefield before the game ends.
The cast-turn distribution tells a clear story: mode is turn 1, median is turn 4.0, and a full third of casts land on or before turn 2. Exploration earns its reputation as an accelerant precisely because it comes down before opponents can establish their own mana bases. Once it resolves, 81% of copies survive through the end of the game, a high stickiness number consistent with enchantments that attract less immediate removal than artifacts or creatures.
The commander spread is broad. Flubs, the Fool leads the multiplayer list at 14 decks, but the top 10 commanders span four different color combinations, all sharing green. Land-synergy strategies anchor the top slots: Aesi, Hearthhull, Lumra, Omnath variants, and Yarok all appear, confirming Exploration is a format staple wherever the landfall and land-drop loops live.
- 7% of tracked Commander decks include Exploration
- 81% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
- T4.0 median first-cast turn, with mode on turn 1
- 81% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
- 471 distinct players have brought Exploration to a tracked game
- 75% of drawn copies are cast the same turn they are drawn
First-cast turn
n=268The "good card" funnel
1207 brought · 471 playersOf 1207 Exploration copies brought to multiplayer games, 330 were drawn, 268 of those were cast, and 81% of resolved copies survived through the end of the game.
Players who cast this card win 33% of the time (n=252) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=732).
When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 33% (n=57) — 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 +5.9pp; 95% confidence interval -0.1pp to +12.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.
Final zone distribution
380 instancesThe vast majority of Exploration copies that never leave the library reflects the structural reality of a 100-card singleton deck, not a weakness of the card. Among observed instances, most finish on the battlefield.
Commanders that played this card
in tracked games-
1
Flubs, the Fool
31 decks
-
2
Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
27 decks
-
3
Hearthhull, the Worldseed
20 decks
-
4
Lumra, Bellow of the Woods
17 decks
-
5
Omnath, Locus of Creation
15 decks
-
6
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
12 decks
-
7
Homer, the Hermit
12 decks
-
8
The Necrobloom
12 decks
-
9
Tifa Lockhart
12 decks
-
10
Toph, the First Metalbender
10 decks
Flubs, the Fool leads the multiplayer list at 14 decks, but the top 10 spans four different green-inclusive color combinations, showing Exploration is a broadly-adopted staple rather than a single-deck card.