Live Play Data

Underground Mortuary

Land — Swamp Forest · Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM)

11%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

514

Decks Running

295

Median Cast Turn

3.0

Drawn → Played

84%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

84% of drawn Underground Mortuary copies reach the battlefield, and decks that cast it win 28% of games versus 23% when it stays buried in the library.

Underground Mortuary sits in 11% of tracked Golgari-identity Commander decks on Playgroup Live. Its draw-to-play rate of 84% is one of the highest we see for a tapped dual land, a signal that players virtually never strand it in hand once it arrives.

The card's value proposition is straightforward: it enters tapped, so it costs you tempo, but it pays back with a free surveil 1 that can fuel graveyard strategies, filter dead draws, or simply set up the top of the deck. That immediate ETB value likely explains why 84% of drawn copies get played. Median first cast lands on turn 3.0, and 70% of the time players drop it the very same turn they draw it.

The commander spread is broad. Across 295 distinct decks in the dataset, no single commander dominates the list. Golgari graveyard commanders (Meren, Shelob, Ygra), value engines (Teval, Betor), and midrange creature builds all show up in the top ten. That breadth is consistent with Underground Mortuary's role as a generic fixing piece for any Black-Green shell rather than a synergy card for one archetype.

At a glance

11% of tracked Golgari Commander decks include Underground Mortuary
84% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T3.0 median turn of first cast
70% of the time it is played the same turn it is drawn
88% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
248 distinct players have brought Underground Mortuary to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=160

29%

14%

12%

26%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.0 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 12

Cast same turn as drawn 70%

The "good card" funnel

515 brought · 248 players

Brought to game

515

Ever drawn

190

Reached battlefield

160

Still on board at game end

141

84%

Of 515 copies brought to games, 190 were drawn, 160 of those were cast, and 88% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ -2.8pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=149) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=277).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 35% (n=27) — 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 +5.3pp; 95% confidence interval -2.8pp to +13.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

210 instances

2.4%

Library

67.1%

Battlefield

16.2%

Graveyard

3.8%

Exile

The vast majority of Underground Mortuary copies that entered play finished the game on the battlefield, a typical outcome for a land that has no sacrifice or bounce clause built in.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

No single commander dominates the list. Teval and Betor lead with roughly 10 and 9 decks respectively, but the spread across Golgari, Sultai, Jund, and Abzan commanders confirms Underground Mortuary is a generic fixing piece rather than a card tied to one archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Underground Mortuary drawn in a Commander game?

Across 493 tracked multiplayer games, Underground Mortuary was drawn 37% of the time it was in a deck. That is fairly high for a land in a 100-card singleton format, partly because players often keep opening hands that contain it. Of 190 drawn instances, 84% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Underground Mortuary usually enter the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 3.0. The distribution is front-loaded: mode is turn 1, meaning a significant cluster of copies come down in the very first turn of the game from the opening hand. The interquartile range runs from turn 1 to turn 6, so you do see late casts as players draw into it mid-game. 70% of the time, players cast it the same turn they draw it, consistent with treating it as an immediate land drop rather than holding it for a specific window.

Does casting Underground Mortuary improve your odds of winning?

In 149 participations where Underground Mortuary reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate was 28%, compared to 23% across 277 participations where it never left the library. The +5.3 percentage-point gap is a directional early signal, not a definitive finding. The sample is meaningful in size but Playgroup Live's dataset is still growing, so treat it as consistent rather than conclusive.

Is Underground Mortuary legal in Commander?

Yes. Underground Mortuary from Murders at Karlov Manor is legal in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Standard, Historic, and several other formats. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander because it is a rare.

Why does Underground Mortuary see play over a basic Swamp or Forest?

Underground Mortuary is a dual land typed as both a Swamp and a Forest, so it satisfies color requirements for Black and Green while counting toward basic-land-matters effects. The ETB surveil 1 provides immediate value. The downside is entering tapped, which costs a mana of tempo on the turn you play it. Graveyard-focused commanders in particular appreciate the surveil as a way to put key cards into the graveyard on curve.

How concentrated is the Underground Mortuary data across players?

The dataset is well spread. 248 distinct players have brought Underground Mortuary to a tracked game on Playgroup Live, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of total instances. That breadth strengthens confidence in the observed patterns, even as the overall dataset continues to grow.