Live Play Data

Spire Garden

Land · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Eternal (TMC)

23%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1661

Decks Running

812

Median Cast Turn

3.0

Drawn → Played

80%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

23% of tracked Commander decks that can run Spire Garden do. When drawn, it reaches the battlefield 80% of the time, and 92% of cast copies survive to end of game.

Spire Garden is a format fixture for any Gruul-adjacent Commander deck. Across 1531 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, 23% of eligible decks brought it to the table, spread across 639 distinct players. No single player accounts for more than 2% of the tracked instances, a sign the data reflects broad real-world play rather than a concentrated sample.

The card's core appeal is simple: in a four-player pod, it enters untapped for free and taps for red or green. That design shows up clearly in the draw-to-play number. Of 415 drawn copies, 80% were played before the game ended. Median first cast lands on turn 3.0, but turn 1 is the mode. Roughly a quarter of all casts happen in the opening turns when players are building their mana base.

Spire Garden fits naturally into any deck containing both green and red in its color identity. The commander distribution is wide, from focused Gruul builds to five-color piles, which reflects how broadly applicable untapped dual lands are in the format.

At a glance

23% of tracked eligible Commander decks include Spire Garden
80% of drawn copies were played before the game ended
T3.0 median first-cast turn, with turn 1 as the most common single turn
92% of cast copies survived to end of game
639 distinct players brought this card to a tracked game
31% normalized win rate in games where Spire Garden was played

First-cast turn

n=334

26%

17%

11%

23%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.0 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 15

Cast same turn as drawn 66%

The "good card" funnel

1663 brought · 639 players

Brought to game

1663

Ever drawn

415

Reached battlefield

334

Still on board at game end

307

80%

Of 1663 Spire Gardens brought to games, 415 were drawn and 334 of those were cast, with the overwhelming majority finishing on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +1.0pp

Players who cast this card win 31% of the time (n=312) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=1067).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 32% (n=74) — 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 +6.3pp; 95% confidence interval +1.0pp to +11.5pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

462 instances

4.8%

Library

66.5%

Battlefield

12.3%

Graveyard

3.5%

Exile

The vast majority of Spire Garden copies that never leave the library simply were not drawn, a structural reality of 100-card singleton rather than any reluctance to play it. Of copies that were observed, most finished on the battlefield.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Leonardo, the Balance 42 decks
2 Pantlaza, Sun-Favored 31 decks
3 Henzie "Toolbox" Torre 26 decks
4 Baylen, the Haymaker 24 decks
5 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 23 decks
6 Gishath, Sun's Avatar 23 decks
7 Kibo, Uktabi Prince 21 decks
8 Bello, Bard of the Brambles 20 decks
9 Atla Palani, Nest Tender 19 decks
10 Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness 18 decks

The commander list spans the full spectrum of Gruul-adjacent color identities, from pure RG builds like Bello and Kibo to five-color piles like Leonardo and Heroes in a Half Shell. No single commander dominates, reflecting how broadly this land fits any deck touching red and green.

Frequently Asked

How often is Spire Garden drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1531 tracked multiplayer games, Spire Garden was drawn 25% of the time in decks that included it. That draw rate is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 415 copies that reached a hand, 80% were played before the game concluded.

What turn does Spire Garden usually get played?

Median first-cast turn is 3.0, but the distribution skews early. Turn 1 is the single most common cast turn, reflecting games where it appeared in the opening hand and was played immediately. The 25th percentile lands on turn 1 and the 75th on turn 6, so there is a wide spread depending on when in the game it was drawn.

Does playing Spire Garden correlate with winning?

In 312 tracked participations where Spire Garden was cast, the normalized win rate was 31%, compared to 25% when it stayed in the library. The +6.3 percentage-point gap is a directional early signal on a dataset of this size, but it is consistent with what you would expect from a free untapped dual land accelerating your early turns.

Is Spire Garden banned anywhere?

Spire Garden is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Oathbreaker, Gladiator, and Two-Headed Giant. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Pauper, or Brawl formats. The card is unrestricted in Commander, the format where it sees the most play.

Why is Spire Garden popular in Commander specifically?

Commander games typically seat four players, which means the condition for Spire Garden to enter untapped (two or more opponents) is almost always met. In practice it functions as a free untapped dual land in the vast majority of games, which is strong enough to earn a slot in any deck running both green and red. The same card is much weaker in 1-on-1 Duel Commander, where it often enters tapped.

How concentrated is the Spire Garden data across players?

The data is well-spread. 639 distinct players have brought Spire Garden to a tracked game, and the single highest-volume contributor accounts for only 2% of all tracked instances. That breadth adds credibility to the play patterns we observe, though Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing and all signals should be read as directional rather than definitive.