Live Play Data

Underground River

Land · Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander (DSC)

26%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

879

Decks Running

512

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

73%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

26% of tracked Commander decks in the Blue-Black color space run Underground River, and 73% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.

Underground River sits in 26% of the 1984 tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, a solid foothold for a pain land competing against fetchlands, shocklands, and a crowded two-color mana base. The 512 decks running it span the full Blue-Black spectrum, from Esper and Grixis commanders down to dedicated UB builds.

The draw-to-play picture is straightforward: 73% of drawn copies were cast before the game ended. Median first cast lands on turn 4, which is late for a land but typical of copies drawn mid-game rather than in the opening hand. The distribution is front-loaded: 20 casts happened on turn 1, confirming that copies kept in opening hands tend to come down immediately. 62% of drawn-then-cast instances were played the same turn they were drawn, consistent with the "play it whenever you need the mana" behavior expected from a utility dual land.

Underground River is legal in Commander with no restrictions. The 1-damage rider matters in longer, life-tight games, but 93% stickiness once played suggests players are satisfied with the trade-off. The data comes from 817 tracked multiplayer games with healthy spread: 413 distinct players have contributed instances, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all tracked instances.

At a glance

26% of tracked Commander decks include Underground River
73% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
T4 median first-cast turn
93% battlefield stickiness once the land enters play
62% of drawn-then-cast instances played on the same turn they were drawn
413 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=163

20%

15%

13%

33%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4 P25 2 · P75 7 · max 16

Cast same turn as drawn 62%

The "good card" funnel

887 brought · 413 players

Brought to game

887

Ever drawn

222

Reached battlefield

163

Still on board at game end

152

73%

Of 887 Underground Rivers brought to tracked games, 222 were drawn, 163 of those reached the battlefield, and nearly all stayed there through end of game.

≥ -4.3pp

Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=152) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=568).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 28% (n=56) — 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 +2.7pp; 95% confidence interval -4.3pp to +9.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

261 instances

2.3%

Library

58.2%

Battlefield

20.7%

Graveyard

5.0%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Underground Rivers brought to games end on the battlefield, a strong signal that once drawn and played, this land sticks and keeps generating mana through end of game. The tiny library residual reflects copies never drawn from 100-card decks.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed leads by a wide margin at 512 total decks in the dataset, but the top-ten commander list spans Dimir, Esper, Grixis, and five-color builds, showing Underground River earns its slot across the full Blue-Black color space rather than clustering around a single archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Underground River drawn in a Commander game?

Across 817 tracked multiplayer games where this card was in a deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That is in line with what you'd expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 222 instances that reached a hand, 73% were cast before the game ended.

What turn does Underground River typically enter the battlefield?

Median first cast is turn 4, but the distribution has a clear early spike: 20 of the tracked casts came on turn 1. That early cluster represents copies kept in opening hands. The rest of the distribution spreads across turns 2-9, reflecting mid-game draws where players tap it as needed. Mean cast turn is somewhat higher than median, pulled by occasional late-game draws.

Does casting Underground River correlate with winning?

Early signal only, and the confidence interval is wide here. The cast win rate is 25% on a sample of 152 participations, versus 22% when the card stayed in the library across 568 participations. The raw delta is directional and positive, but the standard error means this should not be read as a causal claim. Treat it as a weak early signal that decks playing the land are not disadvantaged.

Is Underground River legal in Commander?

Yes. Underground River is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander.

How concentrated is Underground River's data across players?

The data is well spread. 413 distinct players have brought Underground River to a tracked game on Playgroup Live. The single heaviest contributor accounts for only 2% of all tracked instances, well below the threshold where one player's preference would skew the aggregate numbers. That spread makes the inclusion and play-pattern numbers more representative.

Why do players accept the 1-damage drawback on Underground River?

At 40 starting life in Commander, 1 damage per colored activation is a manageable cost for reliable two-color mana in a 100-card singleton format where you can't run four copies of a dual land. The 93% stickiness rate tells you players rarely lose the land once they've played it, and the 73% cast rate on drawn copies confirms they are not holding it in hand to avoid the damage. The pain-land cycle remains a budget-accessible option that enters untapped, which is often worth more than the life.