Path of Ancestry
31% of tracked Commander decks run Path of Ancestry. When drawn, players cast it 71% of the time, and 91% of cast copies are still on the battlefield when the game ends.
Path of Ancestry sits in 31% of the Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, appearing across 547 of the 1,783 distinct decks in the dataset. That's a meaningful slice of the field for a common land with a specific requirement: it only rewards you when your commander has a creature type to share.
The draw-to-play rate of 70.5% is the clearest signal of how players value it. When Path of Ancestry reaches a hand, players almost always deploy it. The median first-cast turn is 4, though 48 of 148 recorded casts happened on turn 1, consistent with players keeping opening hands that include it. Battlefield stickiness is 91%, the highest number a land can realistically post. Lands don't get removed the way creatures and enchantments do, and the data reflects that.
The win-rate delta between games where the card was cast (39.2%) and games where it sat in the library (36.8%) is a modest +2.4 percentage points across a solid sample of 148 cast and 592 library observations. That's an early directional signal rather than a conclusive uplift, but it's consistent with what you'd expect from a land that generates tempo through incremental scry value over the course of a game.
- 31% of tracked Commander decks include Path of Ancestry
- 70.5% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
- 91% battlefield stickiness once cast, among the highest possible for a land
- T4 median first-cast turn, with a strong turn-1 cluster of 48 casts
- +2.4pp directional win-rate uplift when cast vs. left in the library
- 148 total recorded casts across 562 tracked games
First-cast turn
n=168The "good card" funnel
916 brought799 copies were brought to games, 200 were drawn, 148 of those were cast, and 135 of the cast copies were still on the battlefield when the game ended, a stickiness rate of 91%.
Players who cast this card win 39% of the time (n=168) , vs 38% when it never left the library (n=681).
Final zone distribution
916 instances592 of 799 copies never left the library, a structural consequence of singleton in 100-card decks rather than a reflection of the card's power level. Of the copies that did escape, 135 were still on the battlefield at game end.
Top commanders running this card
by deck count-
1
Killian, Decisive Mentor
39 decks
-
2
Zimone, Infinite Analyst
30 decks
-
3
Dina, Essence Brewer
29 decks
-
4
Rootha, Mastering the Moment
25 decks
-
5
Galadriel, Light of Valinor
17 decks
-
6
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
17 decks
-
7
Ureni of the Unwritten
15 decks
-
8
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden
13 decks
-
9
Me, the Immortal
13 decks
-
10
Pantlaza, Sun-Favored
13 decks
The top 10 commanders span six different color combinations, from Orzhov to Temur to Naya. No single archetype dominates, which signals that Path of Ancestry is a broad tribal staple rather than a build-around for one specific strategy.
How often is Path of Ancestry drawn in a Commander game? ▾
Across 562 tracked games where Path of Ancestry was in the deck, it was drawn in 25% of deck-participations. That aligns with what you'd expect for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 200 instances where it reached a player's hand, 70.5% were cast before the game ended, a strong conversion rate for a land that enters tapped.
What turn does Path of Ancestry usually get played? ▾
The median first-cast turn is 4, with a mean of 4.19. The distribution is skewed early: 48 of 148 recorded casts happened on turn 1, which reflects players keeping opening hands that include it. Most remaining casts cluster between turns 4 and 8, consistent with drawing it in the mid-game and playing it immediately.
Does casting Path of Ancestry actually improve your chances of winning? ▾
In games where Path of Ancestry was cast (148 observations), the win rate was 39.2%. In games where it sat in the library all game (592 observations), the win rate was 36.8%. That +2.4 percentage point delta is a directional positive signal, but the sample size is not large enough to call it conclusive. The baseline win rate in a 4-player pod is 25%, so both groups are already running above average, likely reflecting that tribal decks that run this land are competitive builds overall.
Why does Path of Ancestry see play so broadly across different commanders? ▾
The card's utility scales with any commander that has a creature type, which describes the large majority of legendary creatures. It produces any color in the commander's identity, making it a flexible mana fixer in multicolor decks. The scry 1 trigger is incremental but accumulates over a long game, and because it's a land, it faces almost no removal. The 10 commanders appearing most often with it span six different color pairs and triples, showing the card fits across the tribal spectrum rather than being confined to one archetype.
Is Path of Ancestry legal in formats outside Commander? ▾
Path of Ancestry is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Pauper Commander, Oathbreaker, Gladiator, Legacy, Vintage, Penny Dreadful, and The Lord of the Rings formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Historic, Alchemy, Brawl, or Standard Brawl. Outside Commander-adjacent formats it sees essentially no competitive play, since its scry trigger requires a commander to activate.
How quickly do players cast Path of Ancestry once they draw it? ▾
Of the 141 instances where Path of Ancestry was both drawn and cast, the median turns held in hand before casting was 0, and 71.6% were cast on the same turn they were drawn. The average delay was 0.61 turns. Those numbers are consistent with the behavior you'd expect for a land: players almost always play their land drop immediately, especially early in the game.