Live Play Data

Rootbound Crag

Land · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

33%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1180

Decks Running

605

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

79%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Rootbound Crag appears in 33% of tracked Gruul-adjacent Commander decks on Playgroup Live, and 79% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.

Rootbound Crag is the go-to enemy-check dual for Red-Green Commander decks, and the Playgroup Live numbers back that reputation. It sits in 33% of tracked decks, spread across 509 distinct players, with no single contributor driving more than a small slice of the dataset.

When drawn, the land reaches the battlefield 79% of the time. That high conversion reflects both how much players value untapped mana and how early the card tends to show up: the median first play lands on turn 4, and roughly half of drawn copies are played the same turn they arrive in hand. Once it resolves, it sticks. 92% of cast Rootbound Crags end the game on the battlefield, which is exactly what you want from a mana base piece.

The win-rate lift from casting it over leaving it in the library is a modest early signal at current sample sizes, so treat it as directional rather than conclusive. The stronger story here is reliability: an entering-untapped dual land that requires only one basic land type in play, covering the two most common land types in Gruul and Naya shells, fills that role consistently across a wide spread of commanders and archetypes.

At a glance

33% of tracked decks include Rootbound Crag
79% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
T4 median first-cast turn
92% battlefield stickiness once played
509 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game
26% draw rate per game, normal for a singleton in 100 cards

First-cast turn

n=239

13%

19%

11%

13%

28%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 50%

The "good card" funnel

1183 brought · 509 players

Brought to game

1183

Ever drawn

303

Reached battlefield

239

Still on board at game end

219

79%

Of 1183 Rootbound Crags brought to games, 303 were drawn, 239 of those were played onto the battlefield, and the overwhelming majority stayed there through end of game.

≥ -3.2pp

Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=230) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=781).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 35% (n=62) — 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 +2.6pp; 95% confidence interval -3.2pp to +8.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

338 instances

3.8%

Library

64.8%

Battlefield

16.3%

Graveyard

4.7%

Exile

Most Rootbound Crags tracked end up on the battlefield at game's end. That is the expected outcome for a land: once it resolves, opponents rarely have a reason to remove it, and it generates mana every turn until the game ends.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list spans Gruul, Jund, Naya, and five-color shells, which reflects how broadly an R/G dual fits into the color pie. No single commander dominates, suggesting this is a format-wide mana-base staple rather than a card tied to one specific strategy.

Frequently Asked

How often is Rootbound Crag drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1059 tracked multiplayer games where Rootbound Crag was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is in the expected range for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 303 drawn instances, 79% were played before the game ended. The median first play lands on turn 4, with a notable cluster of early plays from players who kept it in their opening hand.

Does Rootbound Crag enter the battlefield untapped reliably?

The oracle text requires you to control a Mountain or a Forest for it to enter untapped. In Gruul, Naya, Temur, and four- or five-color decks, one of those basic land types is almost always already in play by the time Rootbound Crag is drawn. The same-turn play rate of 50% for drawn copies is consistent with players finding the condition met and playing it immediately. In mono-Red or mono-Green shells it does not fit at all, which is reflected in its color-identity restriction.

What commanders run Rootbound Crag most often?

The top commanders in Playgroup Live's tracked dataset skew toward Gruul and Gruul-adjacent pairings: Auntie Ool, Cursewretch (Jund), Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER (Naya), and Bello, Bard of the Brambles (pure Gruul) lead the list. That spread makes sense given the card's Red-Green color identity. The distribution is wide enough that no single archetype dominates the sample.

Is Rootbound Crag legal in Commander?

Yes. Rootbound Crag is legal in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. Its color identity is Red and Green, so it can only be included in Commander decks whose commander also has a Red and/or Green color identity, or a five-color identity.

What does the win-rate data say about Rootbound Crag?

Games where Rootbound Crag was cast show a win rate of 25%, compared to 23% in participations where it never left the library. The delta is small and the confidence interval crosses zero at current sample sizes, so this is a directional signal at best. Mana-base lands are expected to show modest win-rate lifts: they enable your whole game plan rather than winning by themselves.

How concentrated is this card among a small group of players?

Rootbound Crag is well-spread across Playgroup Live's dataset. 509 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of all instances. That breadth adds credibility to the draw and play-rate numbers, since they are not driven by one or two power users running the card repeatedly in the same metagame.