Live Play Data

Swarmyard

Land · Time Spiral Remastered (TSR)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

862

Decks Running

411

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

77%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Swarmyard appears in 2% of tracked Commander decks, but among Insect, Rat, Spider, and Squirrel commanders it is a near-automatic include. 77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.

Swarmyard is a niche land with a clear home. 2% overall inclusion in tracked Commander decks is expected for a card that only pulls its weight in creature-type-matters strategies. Inside those strategies, it is a staple: the top commanders by raw deck count are almost all Squirrel, Rat, Spider, or Insect pilots.

The play pattern is deliberate. Players don't rush it to the battlefield. Median first-cast turn is 4.0, and the hand-to-cast data shows an average of 1.24 turns sitting in hand before it lands. That makes sense for a utility land players tend to hold until they need the regeneration shield. Once it resolves, it is exceptionally sticky at 93%.

The dataset is well-spread across 359 distinct players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for only 23% of instances. That breadth gives the numbers more directional weight than a single dedicated player's grind would.

At a glance

2% of tracked Commander decks include Swarmyard
77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
T4.0 median first-cast turn
93% battlefield stickiness once the land enters play
359 distinct players contribute to the dataset, a healthy spread
154 total casts tracked across multiplayer games

First-cast turn

n=154

11%

18%

16%

29%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 3 · P75 6 · max 13

Cast same turn as drawn 44%

The "good card" funnel

862 brought · 359 players

Brought to game

862

Ever drawn

199

Reached battlefield

154

Still on board at game end

143

77%

Of 862 Swarmyard copies brought to multiplayer games, 199 were drawn, 154 of those were played to the battlefield, and 93% of cast copies remained there through the game's conclusion.

≥ -8.6pp

Players who cast this card win 24% of the time (n=141) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=536).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 22% (n=38) — 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 -1.1pp; 95% confidence interval -8.6pp to +6.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

229 instances

1.7%

Library

62.4%

Battlefield

17.9%

Graveyard

1.7%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Swarmyard copies end tracked games on the battlefield, with only a small fraction stranded in hand or the graveyard. Lands that do nothing when stuck in the library are expected in 100-card singleton, but once Swarmyard hits the field it tends to stay.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Chatterfang, Squirrel General 45 decks
2 Hazel of the Rootbloom 42 decks
3 The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 39 decks
4 Marrow-Gnawer 33 decks
5 Shelob, Child of Ungoliant 28 decks
6 Cosmic Spider-Man 25 decks
7 Vren, the Relentless 22 decks
8 Rat King, Verminister 16 decks
9 Blech, Loafing Pest 14 decks
10 The Wise Mothman 13 decks

Squirrel commanders dominate the top slots, with Rat and Spider pilots filling out the rest. The spread across at least four distinct creature-type archetypes confirms Swarmyard earns its slot wherever Insects, Rats, Spiders, or Squirrels are the centerpiece strategy.

Card text

Swarmyard

Land

: Add

: Regenerate target Insect, Rat, Spider, or Squirrel. (The next time it would be destroyed this turn, instead tap it, remove it from combat, and heal all damage on it.)

Time Spiral Remastered (TSR) · Rare · Illustrated by Thomas M. Baxa

Frequently Asked

How often is Swarmyard drawn in a Commander game?

Across 842 tracked multiplayer games where Swarmyard was in the deck, it was drawn 23% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton land in a 100-card deck. Of the 199 copies that reached a player's hand, 77% were played before the game ended.

What turn does Swarmyard typically enter play?

Median first-cast turn is 4.0, with the p25-p75 range spanning turns 3 to 7. The distribution is fairly flat across early-to-mid game turns, which suggests players are not slamming it immediately but holding it for when their creature-type matters. Hand-to-cast median is 1 turn in hand before it is played.

Is the win-rate lift from casting Swarmyard meaningful?

The cast-vs-library delta is small and the confidence interval crosses zero, so this is an early directional signal rather than a proven effect. Swarmyard is a support land in decks that are already built around a creature type. The card likely wins games alongside those strategies rather than by itself. With 141 cast observations, treat this data as directional.

Which commanders run Swarmyard most often?

By raw deck count in tracked games, Chatterfang, Squirrel General leads the multiplayer list, followed closely by Hazel of the Rootbloom and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Marrow-Gnawer anchors the Rat side, while Shelob, Child of Ungoliant and Cosmic Spider-Man represent Spiders. The spread across Squirrel, Rat, and Spider commanders reflects exactly the creature types Swarmyard protects.

Is Swarmyard legal in Commander?

Yes. Swarmyard is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. Its colorless color identity means it fits into any Commander deck, though its regeneration ability is only relevant for decks built around Insects, Rats, Spiders, or Squirrels.

How concentrated is the Swarmyard data across players?

359 distinct players have brought Swarmyard to a tracked game. The single highest-volume contributor accounts for roughly 23% of instances, well below the 30% threshold where concentration becomes a data quality concern. That spread gives the numbers more reliability than a card dominated by one or two grinders would have.