Tainted Isle
10% of tracked Dimir and Sultai decks on Playgroup Live run Tainted Isle, and 77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.
Tainted Isle is a conditional dual land that taps for {U} or {B} when you control a Swamp, and for colorless otherwise. It shows up in 10% of decks tracked on Playgroup Live, across 510 distinct lists in the dataset. That reflects its natural ceiling: the card is only useful inside black-blue or black-green-blue color identities, and even then it asks for a Swamp in play to unlock its colored mana.
When drawn, 77% of copies reach the battlefield before the game ends. That is high for a conditional land, and it fits the card's role: Tainted Isle is almost always played immediately rather than held. Of 166 recorded instances on the battlefield, 91% remained there through the end of the game. Median first cast lands on turn 4.0, which is earlier than most non-basic lands and reflects players snapping it down as soon as their mana base permits.
The commander distribution is broad. The Wise Mothman leads the list but the spread across Dimir, Sultai, and even Esper commanders is consistent with Tainted Isle being treated as a generic role-player in any deck that can run a Swamp. The data here is drawn from 944 tracked multiplayer games involving 450 distinct players, so percentages are directional rather than conclusive.
- 10% of tracked Commander decks in-color include Tainted Isle
- 77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
- T4.0 median first-cast turn
- 91% of cast copies stay on the battlefield through end of game
- 450 distinct players have brought Tainted Isle to a tracked game
- 166 total instances recorded on the battlefield across all tracked games
First-cast turn
n=166The "good card" funnel
976 brought · 450 playersOf 976 Tainted Isle copies brought to tracked games, 216 were drawn, 166 of those reached the battlefield, and 91% of cast copies stayed in play through end of game.
Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=157) , vs 18% when it never left the library (n=605).
When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 23% (n=45) — 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 +7.1pp; 95% confidence interval +0.3pp to +13.9pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.
Final zone distribution
280 instancesMost Tainted Isle copies end the game on the battlefield, which is expected for a land that produces mana every turn and has no built-in sacrifice cost. The graveyard and exile numbers reflect removal and mill rather than the card outliving its usefulness.
Commanders that played this card
in tracked games-
1
The Wise Mothman
62 decks
-
2
Captain N'ghathrod
50 decks
-
3
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
31 decks
-
4
Aminatou, Veil Piercer
27 decks
-
5
Alela, Cunning Conqueror
23 decks
-
6
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
16 decks
-
7
Jon Irenicus, Shattered One
15 decks
-
8
Lord of the Nazgûl
15 decks
-
9
Vren, the Relentless
14 decks
-
10
Satoru Umezawa
13 decks
Dimir commanders dominate the top-of-list, but the spread across Sultai, Esper, and other Swamp-adjacent identities shows Tainted Isle is treated as a format role-player rather than a build-around for any single commander.
Tainted Isle
: Add 
.
: Add or . Activate only if you control a Swamp.