Live Play Data

Game Trail

Land · Murders at Karlov Manor Commander (MKC)

16%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1018

Decks Running

492

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

76%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

16% of tracked Gruul-accessible Commander decks on Playgroup Live run Game Trail, and 76% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 3.

Game Trail is a consistent mana-fixing staple in Gruul and three-color green-red Commander decks. Across 974 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, 16% of decks in the dataset include it, spread across 492 distinct tracked lists.

The card's conditional entry mechanic rewards early land-drop sequencing. When Game Trail shows up in hand, players play it at a rate of 76%, and the median first-cast turn lands on turn 3. The mode of the first-cast distribution is turn 1, reflecting the strong incentive to lead with a Forest or Mountain and drop this untapped immediately. Once it reaches the battlefield, it sticks: 91% stickiness signals that players almost never lose it to removal, as expected for a basic dual land.

The commander spread is wide. Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER and Pantlaza, Sun-Favored head the list by raw deck count, but the data covers 437 distinct players with no single contributor exceeding 25% of instances, suggesting the numbers are not driven by any one pod or playgroup.

At a glance

16% of tracked Commander decks include Game Trail
76% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
T3 median first-cast turn across all observed casts
91% battlefield stickiness once played
437 distinct players have brought Game Trail to a tracked game
25% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck

First-cast turn

n=193

33%

10%

29%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3 P25 1 · P75 7 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 72%

The "good card" funnel

1019 brought · 437 players

Brought to game

1019

Ever drawn

254

Reached battlefield

193

Still on board at game end

176

76%

Of 1019 Game Trail copies brought to tracked games, 254 were drawn, 193 of those were cast, and 91% of cast copies stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -4.2pp

Players who cast this card win 21% of the time (n=187) , vs 19% when it never left the library (n=651).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 31% (n=56) — 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 +1.6pp; 95% confidence interval -4.2pp to +7.5pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

278 instances

4.0%

Library

63.3%

Battlefield

12.9%

Graveyard

3.6%

Exile

The vast majority of Game Trail copies never leave the library across all participations, a natural consequence of 100-card singleton variance. Of the copies that were observed, most finished on the battlefield, reflecting how reliably it sticks once played.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 73 decks
2 Pantlaza, Sun-Favored 51 decks
3 Bello, Bard of the Brambles 46 decks
4 The Swarmlord 21 decks
5 Kibo, Uktabi Prince 18 decks
6 Rin and Seri, Inseparable 18 decks
7 Wolverine, Best There Is 16 decks
8 Tovolar, Dire Overlord // Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge 15 decks
9 Magus Lucea Kane 12 decks
10 Atarka, World Render 11 decks

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER and Pantlaza lead by deck count, but the spread across ten distinct commanders spanning pure Gruul to Naya shows Game Trail is a format-wide mana-fixing choice rather than a card narrowly tied to any one archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Game Trail drawn in a Commander game?

Across 974 tracked multiplayer games where Game Trail was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That figure is normal for any singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 254 instances that entered a player's hand, 76% were played before the game ended. A portion of unplayed copies reflects games that ended before the land could be laid down, not a deliberate choice to hold it.

What turn does Game Trail usually enter the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 3 in multiplayer games. The distribution is front-loaded: turn 1 is the single most common cast turn, driven by players who keep an opening hand containing a Mountain or Forest and drop the land untapped immediately. The p75 sits at turn 7, so there is a long tail of late-game plays. Same-turn play rate after drawing is 72%, meaning most players who draw it do not hold it long before putting it into play.

Does casting Game Trail correlate with winning?

In 187 participations where Game Trail reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate was 21%. In participations where it stayed in the library, the rate was 19%. The delta is small and the confidence interval crosses zero, so this is directional at best. What the data does not show is that resolving Game Trail dramatically swings win probability on its own. It is a mana-fixing piece, not a win condition, so a flat delta is the expected result.

Is Game Trail legal in Commander?

Yes. Game Trail is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Pauper Commander, or Premodern. There are no bans or restrictions on it in any format where it is legal.

Which commanders most often run Game Trail?

Among tracked decks, Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER (Naya) leads by raw deck count, followed by Pantlaza, Sun-Favored (also Naya) and Bello, Bard of the Brambles (pure Gruul). The presence of three-color Naya commanders in the top spots reflects that Game Trail's color identity fits any deck containing both green and red, making it a natural inclusion even when white is the third color. Pure GR commanders like Bello and Atarka, World Render also appear prominently.

How concentrated is Game Trail's data among players?

The 974 multiplayer games tracked for Game Trail draw from 437 distinct players, which is a well-spread sample for a card at this inclusion rate. The single heaviest contributor accounts for a small fraction of total instances, so the aggregate numbers are not skewed by one prolific playgroup. This breadth adds confidence to the draw rate and cast-turn figures as representative of real Playgroup Live behavior.