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Polluted Delta card art
Live Play Data

Polluted Delta

Land · Modern Horizons 3 (MH3)
10%
Live Inclusion
Buy on TCGplayer
Times Brought
963
Decks Running
525
Median Cast Turn
3.0
Drawn → Played
66%
Format
Multiplayer 1v1

Found in 10% of Playgroup Live Commander decks, Polluted Delta is cast on a median turn of 3.0 and reaches a player's hand 25% of the time across 703 tracked games.

Polluted Delta is a format staple for any Commander deck touching black or blue. Across 703 tracked games on Playgroup Live, 10% of active decks have included it, with 525 distinct decklists bringing it to a game.

The fetch land's job is to fix mana and thin the library, and the data reflects that role. Median first activation lands on turn 3.0, with a strong cluster on turn 1 from opening-hand keeps. Of the 243 times it entered a hand, 66% were activated before the game ended. The remaining copies are largely a timing effect: lands drawn deep in a game often go unused because the mana was no longer needed or the game concluded first.

The commander distribution is notably broad. 342 distinct players have brought Polluted Delta to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 5% of all instances. That spread signals a genuinely format-wide card rather than a stat artifact driven by one active player. It appears most often under five-color and Dimir commanders, which tracks with its ability to fetch either an Island or a Swamp.

At a glance
  • 10% of tracked Commander decks include Polluted Delta
  • T3.0 median turn of first activation
  • 66% of drawn copies are activated before the game ends
  • 25% draw rate, consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck
  • 342 distinct players have contributed data, a well-spread sample

First-cast turn

n=160
29%
T1
18%
T2
9%
T3
13%
T4
8%
T5
21%
T6-9
3%
T10+
Median 3.0 P25 1 · P75 5 · max 11
Cast same turn as drawn 57%

The "good card" funnel

964 brought · 342 players
Brought to game
964
Ever drawn
243
Reached battlefield
160
Still on board at game end
12
66%

Of 964 copies brought to games, 243 were drawn, 160 of those were activated, and the vast majority moved directly to the graveyard as designed, with very few remaining on the battlefield at game end.

≥ -1.7pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=157) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=648).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=85) — 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 +5.1pp; 95% confidence interval -1.7pp to +12.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

287 instances
2.8%
Library
4.2%
Battlefield
65.5%
Graveyard
9.8%
Exile

The large graveyard pile reflects Polluted Delta doing exactly its job: every activation sacrifices the land, so resolved cracks always move to the graveyard rather than staying in play. The library majority is the structural baseline for any singleton in a 100-card deck.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans five-color, Dimir, Esper, and Grixis builds, showing Polluted Delta is not tied to one archetype. Its reach across any deck touching blue or black keeps the distribution wide rather than concentrated at the top.

Frequently Asked

How often is Polluted Delta drawn in a Commander game?
Across 703 tracked games where Polluted Delta was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That figure is typical for any singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 243 copies that reached a hand, 66% were activated before the game ended. Copies that were not activated are overwhelmingly a game-length effect rather than a deliberate hold.
What turn does Polluted Delta usually get cracked?
Median first activation is turn 3.0, with the interquartile range running from turn 1 to turn 5. The turn-1 cluster is driven by opening-hand keeps where the fetch is the cleanest mana source available. Late activations stretch out to turn 11 in the dataset, but the bulk of cracks happen in the first few turns of the game.
Does Polluted Delta actually help you win?
Win rate when activated sits at 29% across 157 instances, compared to 24% when it stayed in the library. That is a +5.1 percentage-point lift. With 648 library observations and 157 cast observations, treat this as a directional early signal rather than a definitive effect. The lift is consistent with the general principle that good mana improves win equity.
Why does Polluted Delta end up in the graveyard so often?
Fetching is a sacrifice effect. Tapping, paying a life, and sacrificing the land is the entire activation, so every cracked copy moves to the graveyard immediately after finding its target. That is working as intended. The final-zone chart will show a large graveyard pile for this card in every healthy dataset, and it tells you about usage volume rather than disruption or destruction.
Is Polluted Delta banned anywhere relevant to Commander players?
Polluted Delta is legal and unrestricted in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and several other formats. It is banned in Pioneer and Historic. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. For the vast majority of Commander players, there are no format restrictions to worry about.
Which commanders most commonly run Polluted Delta on Playgroup Live?
The top game-level commanders are The Ur-Dragon and Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, followed by Y'shtola, Night's Blessed and several Grixis-identity commanders including Kefka and Sauron. That spread makes sense: Polluted Delta fetches Islands and Swamps, making it a natural fit for any deck with blue or black in its color identity, and five-color decks value it as a cheap way to hit either color.