Live Play Data

Field of the Dead

Land · Core Set 2020 (M20)

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

615

Decks Running

266

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

78%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Field of the Dead is in 2% of multiplayer Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. When drawn, 78% of copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 5.

Field of the Dead sits in 2% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks, showing up in 266 of the 12009 distinct lists that have played a live game. That figure reflects a deliberately narrow niche: the card demands a high land count and meaningful name diversity, constraints that filter out most archetypes immediately.

When it does resolve, the data are consistent. 78% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended, and 90% of those stayed on the battlefield through the game's conclusion. Permanents do not get much stickier than that. Win rate when cast sits at 34%, compared to 23% in games where it remained in the library, a +10.7-percentage-point directional lift across a well-sampled set of 143 cast observations and 365 library observations.

The commander spread is notably wide. 216 distinct players have brought Field of the Dead to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than 32% of instances. That spread across land-matters, Zombie, and ramp archetypes suggests the card earns its slot in multiple strategic directions rather than a single tuned shell.

At a glance

2% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks run Field of the Dead
78% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn across observed games
90% battlefield stickiness: lands almost never get bounced or destroyed
+10.7pp directional win-rate lift when cast vs. left in library
216 distinct players have piloted this card in tracked games

First-cast turn

n=153

13%

18%

16%

33%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 13

Cast same turn as drawn 50%

The "good card" funnel

615 brought · 216 players

Brought to game

615

Ever drawn

195

Reached battlefield

153

Still on board at game end

138

78%

Of 615 Field of the Dead copies brought to games, 195 were drawn, 153 of those were cast, and 90% of cast copies stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +2.5pp

Players who cast this card win 34% of the time (n=143) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=365).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 40% (n=35) — 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 +10.6pp; 95% confidence interval +2.5pp to +18.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

219 instances

3.2%

Library

63.0%

Battlefield

17.4%

Graveyard

3.7%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Field of the Dead copies finish on the battlefield, a structural result of it being a permanent land that rarely gets removed. Most cards in a 100-card singleton deck never leave the library, so this distribution shows a card that almost always does its job when it surfaces.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The top-commander list spans multiple archetypes: land-matters, Zombie tribal, and ramp, spread across more than a dozen distinct commanders. No single commander dominates, which reflects how broadly the card fits into green-inclusive strategies that can hit seven differently named lands.

Frequently Asked

How often is Field of the Dead drawn in a Commander game?

Across 591 tracked multiplayer games where Field of the Dead was in the deck, it was drawn 32% of the time. That is slightly above average for a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of the 195 copies that reached a player's hand, 78% were cast before the game ended. The remainder is almost entirely a game-length effect rather than a deliberate hold.

What turn does Field of the Dead usually hit the battlefield?

Median first cast lands on turn 5. The distribution has a small early cluster from opening-hand keeps, with most casts spread across turns 3-8. That spread reflects the card's role: players tend to lay it whenever they can afford to take a tapped land, which depends heavily on their draw and their land count at the time.

Does casting Field of the Dead actually correlate with winning?

Win rate when cast is 34%, versus 23% in games where it sat in the library untouched. That is a +10.7-percentage-point gap across 143 cast observations and 365 library observations. Both sample sizes exceed 15, so this qualifies as a directional signal rather than noise. Read it as consistent early evidence that resolving Field of the Dead improves your odds, not a proven causal claim.

Is Field of the Dead banned anywhere?

Yes. Field of the Dead is banned in Modern, Pioneer, Historic, and Duel Commander, and not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. It is legal in multiplayer Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Timeless, and Oathbreaker. Its combination of free token generation at scale made it too consistent as a win condition in 60-card formats.

Which commanders most often pair with Field of the Dead?

On Playgroup Live, Hearthhull, the Worldseed and Teval, the Balanced Scale lead the top-commanders list by raw deck count, followed closely by The Necrobloom, Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, and Toph, the First Metalbender. Land-matters and graveyard recursion commanders dominate because they can reliably hit the seven-distinct-land-names threshold that triggers the Zombie token ability.

How concentrated is the Field of the Dead data among a few players?

The data is well spread. 216 distinct players have brought Field of the Dead to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for 32% of all instances. When a card's data is spread this broadly, aggregate patterns like median cast turn and draw-to-play rate are less likely to reflect one player's playstyle.