Live Play Data

Path of Ancestry

Land · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

31%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

4186

Decks Running

2373

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

73%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Path of Ancestry sits in 31% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live. When drawn, 73% of copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.

Path of Ancestry is one of Commander's most reliable tribal lands, and the numbers reflect that. It appears in 2373 of the 7568 distinct decks that have played a tracked multiplayer game on Playgroup Live, good for an inclusion rate of 31%.

The funnel tells the real story. Of 4196 copies brought to games, 1018 were drawn. Of those drawn copies, 73% made it onto the battlefield, a strong conversion rate for a land that enters tapped. Once it lands, 93% of resolved copies survive through the end of the game, meaning removal is almost never spent on it.

The commander distribution is broad. 1274 distinct players have brought Path of Ancestry to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 1% of all instances. This is a well-spread signal, not a one-player artifact. Tribal commanders across every color combination show up in the top lists, confirming that the card's value scales with any creature-type theme rather than a single archetype.

At a glance

31% of tracked Commander decks include Path of Ancestry
73% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn across all tracked games
93% battlefield stickiness once the land resolves
1274 distinct players have brought it to a tracked multiplayer game
26% normalized win rate in games where Path of Ancestry was cast

First-cast turn

n=746

31%

11%

27%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 1 · P75 7 · max 19

Cast same turn as drawn 68%

The "good card" funnel

4196 brought · 1274 players

Brought to game

4196

Ever drawn

1018

Reached battlefield

746

Still on board at game end

695

73%

Of 4196 copies brought to tracked multiplayer games, 1018 were drawn, 746 of those were cast, and the overwhelming majority stayed on the battlefield through end of game, making Path of Ancestry one of the stickiest lands in the format.

≥ +1.3pp

Players who cast this card win 26% of the time (n=732) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=2917).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=264) — 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 +4.4pp; 95% confidence interval +1.3pp to +7.5pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

1104 instances

2.7%

Library

63.0%

Battlefield

14.1%

Graveyard

4.8%

Exile

The vast majority of Path of Ancestry copies that enter games never leave the library, a structural feature of 100-card singleton decks where most cards stay unseen. Of the copies that did move, battlefield was by far the most common final destination, consistent with its 93% stickiness once cast.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Y'shtola, Night's Blessed 56 decks
2 Killian, Decisive Mentor 50 decks
3 Dina, Essence Brewer 49 decks
4 Doctor Doom, King of Latveria 45 decks
5 Zimone, Infinite Analyst 43 decks
6 Pantlaza, Sun-Favored 36 decks
7 Captain America, Team Leader 35 decks
8 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 35 decks
9 Rootha, Mastering the Moment 35 decks
10 Ashling, the Limitless 34 decks

The top commanders list spans every color combination and multiple creature types, from Humans to Dinosaurs to Villains, reflecting that Path of Ancestry is a tribal-agnostic staple rather than a card tied to any single archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Path of Ancestry drawn in a Commander game?

Across 2661 tracked multiplayer games where the card was in a deck, it was drawn 24% of the time. That's consistent with what you'd expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 1018 copies that reached a hand, 73% were cast before the game ended. The remainder is largely a game-length effect: copies drawn very late often have no time to resolve before the pod wraps up.

What turn does Path of Ancestry typically hit the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 4.0. The mode is turn 1, which reflects copies kept in opening hands and played on the first land drop. After that, the distribution spreads evenly out to turn 9 and beyond, which is typical for a zero-mana land that players slot in as a flex include alongside other mana sources. The p75 sits at turn 7, so a late-drawn copy can still provide value through the scry trigger well into the game.

Does casting Path of Ancestry actually help you win?

In 732 participations where Path of Ancestry reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate was 26%. In participations where it stayed in the library, the rate was 22%. That's a +4.4 percentage-point lift. The sample here is large enough to treat this as a meaningful directional signal rather than noise, though many confounding factors (deck power, tribal synergy density) also drive outcomes.

Is Path of Ancestry legal in competitive formats?

Path of Ancestry is legal in Commander, Oathbreaker, Pauper Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Gladiator, and Pauper. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Historic, Alchemy, or Brawl. Its design is explicitly built around the Commander format's commander mechanic, which is why it sees almost no play outside of Commander variants.

Why is Path of Ancestry so popular in tribal Commander decks?

The card does two things simultaneously: it fixes mana across your commander's full color identity, and it generates scry 1 every time you cast a creature that shares a type with your commander. In a tribal deck, that scry trigger fires frequently, giving incremental card selection on top of mana production. It enters tapped, which is a real cost, but most tribal decks are not racing on the first two turns and absorb that drawback easily.

How concentrated is the Path of Ancestry data across players?

The data is well-spread. 1274 distinct players have brought Path of Ancestry to a tracked game, and the single most active contributor accounts for just 1% of all instances. That breadth means the stats reflect a diverse cross-section of pods and play styles rather than a single prolific user skewing the numbers.