Live Play Data

Vernal Fen

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

17%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1390

Decks Running

676

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

83%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

83% of drawn Vernal Fens are played before the game ends, one of the highest land-to-play conversion rates on Playgroup Live, across 676 tracked decks in black-green and beyond.

Vernal Fen converts drawn copies to played land at a rate of 83%, a strong signal that players who find this dual land put it to work immediately. Across 1312 tracked multiplayer Commander games, it appears in 676 of 4045 active decks, good for a 17% inclusion rate among decks in its color identity.

The card enters tapped unless you control two or more basics, a condition that rewards decks built around a robust basic land package. That constraint shows up in the cast-turn data: the distribution is unusually flat from turns 1 through 7, suggesting some players hold it until the condition is met rather than eating the tapped drawback. The median first-cast turn lands at 4.0, though roughly a quarter of casts arrive by turn 2.

Concentration looks healthy. 571 distinct players have brought Vernal Fen to a tracked game, and no single player accounts for more than a small slice of the total instances. That breadth makes the directional patterns in the data more credible than a thin single-player sample would be.

At a glance

17% of tracked Commander decks include Vernal Fen
83% of drawn copies reach play before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn across tracked games
87% battlefield stickiness once this land enters play
571 distinct players have brought Vernal Fen to a tracked game
342 total casts logged across all tracked multiplayer games

First-cast turn

n=342

13%

11%

15%

12%

11%

33%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 13

Cast same turn as drawn 52%

The "good card" funnel

1391 brought · 571 players

Brought to game

1391

Ever drawn

412

Reached battlefield

342

Still on board at game end

297

83%

Of 1391 Vernal Fens brought to games, 412 were drawn, 342 of those were played, and most remained on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -0.2pp

Players who cast this card win 26% of the time (n=318) , vs 21% when it never left the library (n=840).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 25% (n=61) — 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 +4.9pp; 95% confidence interval -0.2pp to +10.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

447 instances

2.9%

Library

66.4%

Battlefield

15.9%

Graveyard

3.4%

Exile

The overwhelming majority of Vernal Fen instances finish the game on the battlefield, a reflection of how rarely lands are destroyed once in play and how consistently players put this land to work when they find it.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Dina, Essence Brewer leads the commander list by a significant margin, and the top ten skews heavily Golgari, confirming that Vernal Fen is primarily a black-green staple with occasional reach into three- and five-color strategies.

Card text

Vernal Fen

Land — Swamp Forest

(

: Add

.) This land enters tapped unless you control two or more basic lands.

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Titus Lunter

Frequently Asked

How often is Vernal Fen drawn in a Commander game?

In 1312 tracked multiplayer Commander games where Vernal Fen was in the deck, it was drawn 30% of the time. That is consistent with what you expect from a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 412 instances that reached a player's hand, 83% were played before the game ended, which is a notably high rate for a conditional dual land.

Does Vernal Fen entering tapped slow down the decks that run it?

The first-cast-turn distribution gives a clue. The spread from turn 1 through turn 7 is fairly even, which suggests some players are waiting until they control two or more basics before playing it. About half of drawn copies are played on the same turn they are drawn (52% same-turn rate), so many players do slam it immediately regardless of the tapped condition. Whether that reflects the condition being met or the player accepting the drawback, the data does not separate out.

What turn does Vernal Fen typically hit the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 4.0. The distribution runs wide: the 25th percentile lands on turn 2 and the 75th percentile reaches turn 7. Mode is turn 1, driven by copies kept in opening hands and played as the first land drop. Late casts beyond turn 9 do exist but are uncommon.

Is Vernal Fen legal in Commander?

Yes. Vernal Fen is legal in Commander (and in Duel Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Gladiator, and Oathbreaker). It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Pauper, or Brawl. As a Land with black and green color identity, it slots into any Commander deck containing both black and green.

Which commanders most often pair with Vernal Fen?

In the Playgroup Live dataset, Dina, Essence Brewer leads by deck count, followed by Hearthhull the Worldseed and Auntie Ool, Cursewretch. The top of the list skews heavily toward Golgari (black-green) commanders, which makes sense given Vernal Fen's color identity. Several Jund and five-color commanders also appear, using it as part of a basic-land-heavy mana base.

Does casting Vernal Fen correlate with winning?

Directionally, yes, but the sample is not large enough to call it conclusive. Win rate in participations where Vernal Fen was cast sits at 26%, versus 21% in participations where it stayed in the library the entire game. The +4.9 percentage-point gap is a consistent early signal across 318 cast observations and 840 library observations. Treat it as directional rather than definitive.