Live Play Data

Gemstone Caverns

Legendary Land · Time Spiral Remastered (TSR)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

709

Decks Running

369

Median Cast Turn

1.5

Drawn → Played

70%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

4% of tracked Commander decks run Gemstone Caverns, yet when it does hit a hand it's cast 70% of the time, with a median first-cast turn of 1.5.

Gemstone Caverns earns its spot on the basis of one unique proposition: it is the only land in Commander that can enter the battlefield during the mulligan phase, giving non-first-seat players a free mana advantage before a single turn begins. Playgroup Live tracks it in 4% of decks across 578 multiplayer games, a niche but deliberate inclusion.

When a copy reaches a player's hand, it converts to a cast at a rate of 70%. That gap between drawn and cast is mostly a timing artifact: copies drawn in the late game have nothing to do with the opening-hand trick and may not be played before the game ends. The median first-cast turn of 1.5 is deceptively low because a large cluster of casts happen on turn 1, pulled forward by the opening-hand ability. Once it resolves, 88% of cast copies remain on the battlefield at game end, consistent with its role as a simple mana source.

Commander decks with colorless commanders or five-color piles show the highest representation, where a free colored mana source in the opening hand carries outsized value. The card is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, and Vintage, though its design is most impactful in multiplayer formats where turn order creates the most variance.

At a glance

4% of tracked Commander decks include Gemstone Caverns
70% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T1.5 median first-cast turn, skewed early by opening-hand deployments
88% battlefield stickiness once the land resolves
234 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, spreading the data well
38% win rate in participations where Gemstone Caverns was cast (normalized to 4-player baseline)

First-cast turn

n=120

50%

10%

13%

T6-9

T10+

Median 1.5 P25 1 · P75 5 · max 17

Cast same turn as drawn 80%

The "good card" funnel

710 brought · 234 players

Brought to game

710

Ever drawn

172

Reached battlefield

120

Still on board at game end

105

70%

Of 710 Gemstone Caverns brought to games, 172 were drawn and 120 of those were cast, with most resolved copies remaining on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +1.5pp

Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=119) , vs 28% when it never left the library (n=469).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 39% (n=50) — 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 +9.9pp; 95% confidence interval +1.5pp to +18.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

198 instances

4.0%

Library

53.0%

Battlefield

17.7%

Graveyard

8.6%

Exile

The vast majority of Gemstone Caverns copies never leave the library, a baseline expectation for any singleton in a 100-card deck. The cards that do resolve tend to stay on the battlefield through end of game at 88%, matching its role as a simple, stable mana source.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander spread is wide, with no single archetype dominating. Colorless commanders, five-color piles, and aggressive tempo builds all appear near the top, reflecting how universally the opening-hand ability is valued across strategies.

Frequently Asked

How often is Gemstone Caverns drawn in a Commander game?

Across 578 tracked multiplayer games where Gemstone Caverns was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 172 instances that reached a hand, 70% were cast before the game ended. The remainder are mostly copies drawn too late in the game to matter, not choices to hold the card.

Does casting Gemstone Caverns actually help you win?

In 119 participations where Gemstone Caverns was cast, the normalized win rate is 38%, compared to 28% in participations where it stayed in the library. That is a +9.9 percentage-point lift. Both sample sizes are solid, so this is a consistent directional signal, though Playgroup Live's dataset is not large enough to call it definitive. Decks that deploy a free mana rock in the opening are typically the kind of decks that win more often anyway.

What commanders most commonly run Gemstone Caverns?

On Playgroup Live, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed and Zhulodok, Void Gorger each appear in 6 tracked decks, followed by Kenrith, the Returned King, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER at 5 decks each. The spread covers colorless, five-color, and tempo-focused strategies. The common thread is a desire for a free mana source when going second, especially in decks that want to deploy their commander ahead of schedule.

What turn does Gemstone Caverns usually enter the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 1.5, but the distribution is sharply bimodal. A large cluster lands on turn 1 via the opening-hand ability. Most of the rest fall between turns 4 and 5, representing copies drawn into the midgame. The mode of the distribution is turn 1, which underscores how central the opening-hand deployment is to the card's identity. When drawn and cast, 80% of those casts happen on the same turn the card was drawn.

Is Gemstone Caverns legal in Commander?

Yes. Gemstone Caverns is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and Gladiator. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. In Commander it occupies a niche as one of the few lands that can enter the battlefield before the game formally begins, specifically for players who are not the starting player.

How concentrated is the Gemstone Caverns data among individual players?

The concentration data is healthy. 234 distinct players have brought Gemstone Caverns to a tracked multiplayer game on Playgroup Live, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for 5% of all instances. That is well below the 15% threshold that would flag a single-player bias, so the stats reflect a genuinely broad cross-section of the Playgroup community rather than one pilot's repeated games.