Live Play Data

Old Gnawbone

· Legendary Creature — Dragon · Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (AFR)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

542

Decks Running

255

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

77%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

51% of multiplayer games where Old Gnawbone resolved ended in a win for its controller, a +21.4 percentage-point lift over games where it stayed buried in the library.

Old Gnawbone lands on the battlefield and wins games at a striking clip. Across 518 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, the card posted a 51% win rate in participations where it was cast, compared to 30% when it never left the library. That +21.4 percentage-point gap is one of the larger deltas we see on any high-cost creature in the dataset, and with 101 and 314 observations in each bucket respectively, it carries real weight.

The card's mana cost of {5}{G}{G} means it rarely lands on curve in the traditional sense. Median first-cast turn sits at 7, well past when most ramp-heavy Dragon decks have assembled enough mana to force it through. Despite that, players cast it quickly once it's in hand: 43% of drawn-and-cast instances were played on the same turn the card was drawn. That's a strong signal that when Old Gnawbone finally arrives, it hits the table immediately.

The commander distribution tells the story you'd expect. The Ur-Dragon leads by a wide margin, but Old Gnawbone shows up across a surprisingly broad slice of the green meta, from treasure-synergy commanders like Korvold to combat-focused Gruul pairings. Its inclusion rate of 3% reflects its mythic rarity and seven-mana cost rather than any lack of desirability among green players who can support it.

At a glance

3% of tracked Commander decks include Old Gnawbone
51% win rate in games where Old Gnawbone resolved
77% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended
T7 median first-cast turn across all tracked games
65% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
43% of drawn-and-cast instances went down the same turn they were drawn

First-cast turn

n=115

17%

14%

50%

T6-9

16%

T10+

Median 7 P25 5 · P75 9 · max 13

On curve 61% (18 / 115 cast on T7) Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

542 brought · 218 players

Brought to game

542

Ever drawn

149

Reached battlefield

115

Still on board at game end

77%

Of 542 Old Gnawbones brought to tracked games, 149 were drawn, 115 of those were cast, and the majority stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +11.5pp

Players who cast this card win 51% of the time (n=101) , vs 30% when it never left the library (n=314).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 23% (n=30) — 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 +21.4pp; 95% confidence interval +11.5pp to +31.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

163 instances

3.7%

Library

46.6%

Battlefield

19.6%

Graveyard

4.9%

Exile

Most Old Gnawbones finish the game on the battlefield or in the graveyard after dying in combat, a clear sign that when it resolves, it becomes an immediate target that still demands resources to answer.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The Ur-Dragon dominates the commander list in raw count, but Old Gnawbone shows up across Dragon-tribal, Treasure-synergy, and combat-focused builds, pointing to a broadly playable card rather than a narrow tribal slot.

Card text

Old Gnawbone

Legendary Creature — Dragon

Flying Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, create that many Treasure tokens.

7 / 7

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (AFR) · Mythic · Illustrated by Filip Burburan

Frequently Asked

How often does Old Gnawbone get drawn in a Commander game?

In 518 tracked multiplayer games where Old Gnawbone was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That's consistent with what you'd expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those drawn copies, 77% reached the battlefield before the game ended. The remainder is largely a function of late draws in games that concluded before the mana was available.

What turn does Old Gnawbone usually get cast?

The median first-cast turn is 7, and the mode sits at 7. That fits the card's mana cost of {5}{G}{G}: in most pods it takes until the mid-game to assemble seven mana cleanly. A meaningful cluster of casts does land on turns 3-4, which reflects ramp-heavy Dragon builds that can cheat on mana. The p90 extends out to turn 10, so late-game draws do still see play.

Does casting Old Gnawbone actually improve your win rate?

The data is directional and encouraging. Games where Old Gnawbone was cast show a 51% normalized win rate versus 30% in games where it sat in the library untouched. The +21.4 point gap is large relative to most seven-mana creatures we track. With 101 observations in the cast bucket, this reads as a genuine effect, though Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing and we treat it as a strong directional signal rather than a closed case.

How sticky is Old Gnawbone once it hits the battlefield?

65% of resolved Old Gnawbones end the game on the battlefield rather than being destroyed, exiled, or bounced. For a seven-mana creature with no built-in protection, that's a reasonable result. It suggests that in most games, once the mana investment pays off, opponents struggle to remove it before it has already changed the game state through Treasure generation.

Which commanders run Old Gnawbone most often?

The Ur-Dragon leads the field by a wide margin in raw deck count, followed by Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm, and Ureni of the Unwritten. That top-three cluster is all Dragon-tribal, which makes sense: Old Gnawbone generates Treasure off every attacking creature, and Dragon decks tend to swing wide with large bodies. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King also appears, leaning into the Treasure-sacrifice synergy. The spread across 218 unique players with no single contributor exceeding 27% of instances means the data is not driven by one player's repetition.

Is Old Gnawbone legal in Commander?

Yes. Old Gnawbone from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, Brawl, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Penny Dreadful, or PreDH. No Commander-format ban or restriction applies to this card.