Live Play Data

Vernal Fen

Land — Swamp Forest · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

18%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

585

Decks Running

296

Median Cast Turn

5.0

Drawn → Played

83%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

18% of tracked Commander decks in Golgari colors run Vernal Fen. When drawn, 83% of copies reach the battlefield, and 89% of those stay there through end of game.

Vernal Fen is a dual land that taps for Black or Green and enters untapped as long as you control two or more basic lands. Across 540 multiplayer Commander games tracked on Playgroup Live, it appears in 296 of 1659 distinct decks for an inclusion rate of 18%.

The draw-to-play rate of 83% is high for a land. Lands can sit stranded in hand when mana is already sufficient, so that figure reflects genuine demand. Median first-cast turn lands on turn 5.0, which is later than a turn-1 land drop, consistent with players holding it until the untapped condition is reliably met. Once it does hit the battlefield, 89% of copies stay there through the end of the game, which is exactly what you want from a mana base piece.

Vernal Fen is a staple of Golgari (Black-Green) and Jund/five-color builds that run enough basic Swamps and Forests to unlock the untapped mode reliably. The data is well-spread: 254 distinct players have brought it to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small fraction of the total sample, which gives the numbers real breadth.

At a glance

18% of tracked Commander decks include Vernal Fen
83% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T5.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
89% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
254 distinct players have brought Vernal Fen to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=148

13%

11%

12%

10%

39%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5.0 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 13

Cast same turn as drawn 54%

The "good card" funnel

586 brought · 254 players

Brought to game

586

Ever drawn

178

Reached battlefield

148

Still on board at game end

132

83%

Of 586 Vernal Fens brought to games, 178 were drawn, 148 of those were played, and the large majority stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -6.0pp

Players who cast this card win 24% of the time (n=145) , vs 23% when it never left the library (n=383).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 15% (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 +1.5pp; 95% confidence interval -6.0pp to +9.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

191 instances

1.6%

Library

69.1%

Battlefield

14.7%

Graveyard

3.1%

Exile

The vast majority of Vernal Fen copies never leave the library in any given game, which is expected for a singleton land in a 100-card deck. The copies that do surface tend to stick on the battlefield.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Dina, Essence Brewer leads by raw deck count, but the spread across multiple Golgari, Jund, and five-color commanders shows that Vernal Fen is a format-wide mana-base choice rather than the signature of any single strategy.

Frequently Asked

How often is Vernal Fen drawn in a Commander game?

In 540 tracked multiplayer Commander games where Vernal Fen was in the deck, it was drawn 30% of the time. That is somewhat higher than the baseline draw rate for a singleton in a 100-card deck, which partly reflects the fact that many Vernal Fen decks run tutors or card draw. Of 178 drawn copies, 83% were played before the game ended.

What turn does Vernal Fen typically enter the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 5.0. The distribution has a cluster of early drops (turns 1-2 in opening hands) and a broader spread through mid-game turns. Playing it later is consistent with waiting to have two or more basic lands in play so it enters untapped, though some players do drop it tapped in the early turns when they need the mana immediately.

Does casting Vernal Fen correlate with winning?

In 145 participations where Vernal Fen reached the battlefield, the win rate was 24%, compared to 23% in 383 participations where it stayed in the library. The gap between those two figures is small and the confidence interval crosses zero, so treat this as directional rather than conclusive. Mana-base pieces generally show weak win-rate lift on their own because good mana enables everything else.

Is Vernal Fen legal in Commander?

Yes. Vernal Fen is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Oathbreaker, and Gladiator. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Pauper, or Brawl. Its Black-Green color identity restricts it to decks whose commander includes both Black and Green, or to five-color commanders.

Which commanders most often run Vernal Fen?

Dina, Essence Brewer leads the tracked sample with the highest raw deck count, followed by Auntie Ool, Cursewretch and Hearthhull, the Worldseed. The spread across 254 unique players and multiple Golgari and Jund commanders suggests this is a broadly adopted mana-base choice rather than a card specific to one deck archetype.

Does Vernal Fen enter untapped often enough to be worth it?

The data does not directly track how often the untapped condition is met, but the 83% draw-to-play rate and 89% stickiness together suggest players are satisfied with what they get. A land that entered tapped every game and provided little value would be cut from lists quickly. The fact that 296 tracked decks continue to run it is consistent with the untapped mode being available often enough to matter.