Prairie Stream
Prairie Stream appears in 8.6% of tracked Commander decks, and 69% of the time it reaches a player's hand it gets played — a cast rate consistent with a land players are happy to see at almost any point in the game.
Prairie Stream sits in 146 of the 1,696 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, an 8.6% inclusion rate that reflects its narrow White-Blue color identity rather than any weakness. Within that identity slice, it is a reliable dual land option at no mana cost to play.
The draw-to-play rate of 69% is the most telling number here. Lands drawn late in a game are sometimes left in hand when the player is already mana-sufficient, so a 31% non-cast rate is structurally normal. The median first-play turn of 5 suggests Prairie Stream is more often a mid-game catch-up land than an early accelerant. The enters-tapped condition is the likely driver: players who can already make their colors on turns 1-2 hold it until the basic-land threshold is met or the tempo cost shrinks.
At 91% battlefield stickiness, once Prairie Stream resolves it almost never moves. That is typical for a basic land type dual, which dodges most removal. The card is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and Timeless.
- 8.6% inclusion rate across all tracked Commander decks
- 69% of drawn Prairie Streams are played before the game ends
- T5 median first-play turn
- 91% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
- 146 distinct tracked decks running Prairie Stream
- 30% draw rate, slightly above average for a singleton land in 100 cards
First-cast turn
n=61The "good card" funnel
289 broughtOf 203 copies brought to games, 61 were drawn and 44 of those were played — a 69% draw-to-play rate that reflects a land players are generally content to cast whenever they find it.
Players who cast this card win 34% of the time (n=61) , vs 38% when it never left the library (n=204).
Final zone distribution
289 instances137 of 203 Prairie Streams never left the library, the expected outcome for any singleton land in a 100-card deck — most games simply end before the card is reached.
Top commanders running this card
by deck count-
1
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
27 decks
-
2
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden
21 decks
-
3
Ms. Bumbleflower
11 decks
-
4
Urza, Chief Artificer
9 decks
-
5
Kenrith, the Returned King
8 decks
-
6
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
8 decks
-
7
Galadriel, Light of Valinor
7 decks
-
8
Mendicant Core, Guidelight
7 decks
-
9
Tom Bombadil
7 decks
-
10
Zedruu the Greathearted
7 decks
The top-ten commander list spans W/U, Esper, Jeskai, Bant, and five-color builds, showing Prairie Stream is spread broadly across any archetype that can run Plains and Island.
How often is Prairie Stream drawn in a Commander game? ▾
Across 203 deck-participations tracked on Playgroup Live, Prairie Stream was drawn in 61 instances, a 30% draw rate. That is modestly above the theoretical baseline for a singleton in a 100-card deck, which can reflect opening-hand keeps or mid-game draws in longer games. Of those 61 drawn instances, 44 were eventually played, a draw-to-play rate of roughly 69%.
What turn does Prairie Stream usually enter the battlefield? ▾
The median first-play turn is 5, with a mean of 4.6. The distribution is somewhat bimodal: 12 of 44 casts happened on turn 1, meaning it was in the opening hand and played immediately, while the remainder are spread across turns 2-11 with a cluster around turns 5-8. The late tail almost certainly reflects games where Prairie Stream was drawn after the player's mana base was already functional.
Does casting Prairie Stream correlate with winning? ▾
Early signal here points slightly negative. Win rate in participations where Prairie Stream was cast is 34%, versus 39% in participations where it stayed in the library all game. The cast-vs-library delta is -5.3 percentage points. With 44 cast observations and 137 library observations, this is directional rather than conclusive. One plausible explanation: games where Prairie Stream is cast tend to be longer or more contested, which by itself reduces individual win probability.
Why does Prairie Stream enter tapped so often in Commander? ▾
Prairie Stream enters untapped only if you control two or more basic lands. In the early turns of a Commander game, many mana bases lead with non-basic duals, fetchlands, or utility lands, making it easy to miss that threshold on turns 1-3. The median cast turn of 5 is consistent with players waiting until their basic count climbs before committing Prairie Stream, or simply drawing it after the tapped condition stops mattering.
Is Prairie Stream banned in any format? ▾
No. Prairie Stream is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, Brawl, Duel Commander, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Pauper Commander, or Premodern, mostly due to set rotation or format card pool restrictions rather than any power-level concern.
Which commanders most commonly run Prairie Stream? ▾
On Playgroup Live, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed leads with 16 decks, followed by Éowyn, Shieldmaiden at 14 and Ms. Bumbleflower at 11. The pattern is consistent: Prairie Stream shows up across White-Blue and three-color commanders that include White and Blue, with no single archetype dominating. Five-color commanders like Tom Bombadil also appear in the top ten, where Prairie Stream's basic land types make it fetchable alongside a full suite of basics.