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collections_bookmark Part of Bloomburrow auto_awesome #22 in Golgari Commander Staples
Llanowar Wastes card art
Live Play Data

Llanowar Wastes

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)
30%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
2389
Decks Running
1210
Median Cast Turn
4.0
Drawn → Played
80%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

Llanowar Wastes sits in 30% of tracked Golgari-accessible decks on Playgroup Live, and 80% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.

Llanowar Wastes is a format staple for any Commander deck running black and green. Across 2211 tracked multiplayer games, it appears in 1210 of 4045 distinct decks that have seen live play, an inclusion rate of 30%.

The draw-to-play rate of 80% tells the clearest story: when a Llanowar Wastes reaches a player's hand, it almost always hits the battlefield. That figure is high even for a land. The median first-cast turn of 4.0 reflects the full spread of when the card is drawn. Lands grabbed in the opening hand or early turns play immediately, while copies drawn mid-game still enter play most of the time. The 1-damage pain clause is a real cost at 40-life Commander tables, but players clearly consider it well worth it for reliable black-green fixing.

The commander distribution is broad, which makes sense. Any deck in the Golgari color identity is a potential home, and the data confirms the card shows up across a wide range of archetypes: life-gain, elves, squirrels, graveyard, and five-color piles all appear near the top of the commander list. Concentration is not a concern here. Data spreads across 946 unique players, with no single contributor accounting for more than 24% of observations.

At a glance
  • 30% of tracked black-green decks include Llanowar Wastes
  • 80% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
  • T4.0 median first-cast turn
  • 87% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
  • 946 unique players in the dataset, indicating broad representation
  • 24% draw rate across tracked games

First-cast turn

n=454
15%
T1
15%
T2
13%
T3
12%
T4
10%
T5
29%
T6-9
6%
T10+
Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 7 · max 15
Cast same turn as drawn 53%

The "good card" funnel

2389 brought · 946 players
Brought to game
2389
Ever drawn
570
Reached battlefield
454
Still on board at game end
395
80%

Of 2389 copies brought to tracked games, 570 were drawn and 454 of those reached the battlefield, a high conversion rate driven by the card's role as early mana fixing.

≥ -2.3pp

Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=425) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=1529).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 29% (n=101) — 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 +1.9pp; 95% confidence interval -2.3pp to +6.2pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

647 instances
2.3%
Library
61.1%
Battlefield
18.5%
Graveyard
4.5%
Exile

Most Llanowar Wastes copies end the game on the battlefield rather than in the library, which is unusual for a singleton and reflects how early and reliably this land is played when drawn.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander spread is wide, anchored by Dina, Essence Brewer but ranging across Golgari, Sultai, Jund, and five-color commanders, confirming that Llanowar Wastes is a color-identity staple rather than an archetype-specific include.

Card text
Llanowar Wastes card

Llanowar Wastes

Land
{T}: Add {C}. {T}: Add {B} or {G}. This land deals 1 damage to you.
Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Lucas Graciano

Frequently Asked

How often is Llanowar Wastes drawn in a Commander game?
In 2211 tracked multiplayer games where Llanowar Wastes was in the deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of the 570 copies that reached a player's hand, 80% were played before the game ended.
What turn does Llanowar Wastes typically enter the battlefield?
The median first-cast turn is 4.0. The distribution runs early: a large cluster lands on turns 1 and 2, drawn in or near the opening hand and played immediately. The rest spread across the mid-game. The p25 is turn 2 and the p75 is turn 6, so the middle half of all casts happen in that window. As a land, it plays the same turn it is drawn the majority of the time.
Does casting Llanowar Wastes correlate with winning?
The cast win rate is 27% across 425 participations, compared to 25% when the card was never interacted with. The gap between those two numbers is +2.0 percentage points. The confidence interval on that delta crosses zero, so this is an early directional signal rather than a conclusive effect. A 4-player baseline is 25%, so both buckets are tracking near expectation.
Is Llanowar Wastes legal in Commander?
Yes. Llanowar Wastes is legal in Commander with no restrictions. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Old School.
Which commanders most often run Llanowar Wastes?
Dina, Essence Brewer leads the tracked commander list by a wide margin, followed by Hearthhull, the Worldseed and Teval, the Balanced Scale. The spread across commanders is genuinely wide. Any deck whose color identity includes both black and green is a candidate, and the data reflects that: the top ten commanders alone span Golgari, Sultai, Jund, and five-color identities.
How does the pain clause affect the decision to include this land?
Llanowar Wastes taps for colorless without a cost, but producing black or green deals 1 damage to you. At 40 life, Commander players absorb that cost routinely. The 80% play rate on drawn copies suggests virtually no hesitation. Decks with life-gain themes, like Dina or Witherbloom, actively benefit from life movement, which makes the pain clause even less of a deterrent in those shells.