Live Play Data

Ziatora's Proving Ground

Land — Swamp Mountain Forest · Streets of New Capenna (SNC)

21%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

328

Decks Running

168

Median Cast Turn

3.0

Drawn → Played

89%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

89% of drawn Ziatora's Proving Grounds are played before the game ends, one of the highest land-to-play rates on Playgroup Live, with a median first-play turn of 3.0.

Ziatora's Proving Ground lands in 21% of tracked Commander decks, and nearly every copy that reaches a player's hand gets played. Across 308 tracked games, 89% of drawn copies were put onto the battlefield before the game concluded.

The numbers reflect what Jund (Black-Red-Green) decks have always known: a triome that taps for three colors and cycles when surplus covers nearly every late-game scenario. The cycling clause at 3 mana gives players a genuine out when the ground is flooded, which explains why so few copies sit stranded in hand. Median first-play turn is 3.0, consistent with opening-hand keeps where players lead with a tapped triome and develop their mana base early.

The commander distribution is broad. Indoraptor, Henzie, and The Ur-Dragon top the list, spanning strict Jund and full five-color shells alike. That spread across 149 distinct players, with the single heaviest contributor accounting for only 9% of tracked instances, suggests the data is not driven by one prolific player.

At a glance

21% of tracked Commander decks include Ziatora's Proving Ground
89% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
T3.0 median first-play turn
89% battlefield stickiness once the land enters play
149 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
40% draw rate across all participations

First-cast turn

n=118

29%

17%

11%

10%

11%

20%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.0 P25 1 · P75 5 · max 11

Cast same turn as drawn 71%

The "good card" funnel

329 brought · 149 players

Brought to game

329

Ever drawn

132

Reached battlefield

118

Still on board at game end

105

89%

Of 329 copies brought to games, 132 were drawn and 118 of those were played, with the overwhelming majority remaining on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -1.3pp

Players who cast this card win 29% of the time (n=116) , vs 21% when it never left the library (n=177).

Observed gap +8.0pp; 95% confidence interval -1.3pp to +17.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

141 instances

1.4%

Library

74.5%

Battlefield

14.2%

Graveyard

2.8%

Exile

The vast majority of Ziatora's Proving Grounds finish the game on the battlefield as active lands, a far higher rate than most singleton non-basics, reflecting how reliably the card earns its deck slot.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid 15 decks
2 Henzie "Toolbox" Torre 13 decks
3 The Ur-Dragon 11 decks
4 Hearthhull, the Worldseed 8 decks
5 Jodah, the Unifier 6 decks
6 Thantis, the Warweaver 6 decks
7 Disa the Restless 5 decks
8 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King 5 decks
9 Tom Bombadil 5 decks
10 Child of Alara 4 decks

Jund commanders fill the top spots, but the list extends into five-color shells, showing the card earns its place wherever Black, Red, and Green overlap regardless of the fourth or fifth color.

Frequently Asked

How often is Ziatora's Proving Ground drawn in a Commander game?

In 308 tracked games where the card was in a deck, it was drawn 40% of the time. That is on the higher end for a singleton land in a 100-card deck, partly because triomes are often kept in opening hands. Of 132 instances that reached a hand, 89% were played before the game ended.

What turn does Ziatora's Proving Ground typically hit the battlefield?

Median first-play turn is 3.0, with 70% of plays landing on turn 3.0 or earlier (p25 of turn 1, p75 of turn 5). The mode is turn 1, which reflects opening-hand keeps where players lead with the triome and accept the enters-tapped penalty to lock in three-color fixing immediately.

Does casting Ziatora's Proving Ground correlate with winning?

Decks where the card was played won 29% of tracked games (116 participations). Decks where it stayed in the library won 21% (177 participations). The raw delta is +8.0 percentage points. Both buckets are reasonably sized, but the confidence interval on this dataset still overlaps zero, so treat this as a directional early signal rather than a proven causal link.

Is Ziatora's Proving Ground legal in Commander?

Yes. Ziatora's Proving Ground from Streets of New Capenna is legal in Commander with no restrictions. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and Timeless. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander.

Which commanders run Ziatora's Proving Ground most often?

On Playgroup Live, Indoraptor the Perfect Hybrid (15 decks), Henzie 'Toolbox' Torre (13 decks), and The Ur-Dragon (11 decks) lead the list. Pure Jund (BRG) commanders dominate the top spots, though five-color shells appear frequently because they need every fixing land they can play. The spread across 149 unique players suggests no single archetype is distorting the sample.

Why do so few copies of Ziatora's Proving Ground end up in the graveyard from cycling?

The graveyard count in our final-zone data captures all pathways: cycling, discard effects, and removal. Most copies end the game on the battlefield after being played as a land, which accounts for the high battlefield stickiness of 89%. Players appear to cycle only when mana is genuinely abundant, keeping cycling as a late-game option rather than an early default.