Live Play Data

Birds of Paradise

· Creature — Bird · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

27%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

3302

Decks Running

1681

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

80%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

27% of tracked Commander decks run Birds of Paradise, and 80% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends, with a median first-cast turn of 3.

Birds of Paradise sits in 27% of the 6174 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. Nearly four out of five drawn copies reach the battlefield, a figure consistent with a one-mana accelerant that players are eager to deploy as early as possible.

The cast-turn distribution tells a clear story: mode is turn 1, and the p25 sits at turn 1 as well, meaning a meaningful share of Birds hit the table before most opponents have even untapped. 80% of drawn copies are cast, which is high. The median uncast time in hand is 0 turns, and 74% of drawn-and-cast instances are played the same turn they are drawn. Players are not holding this card for value. They are casting it immediately.

The commander distribution is broad. 1066 distinct players have brought Birds of Paradise to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for only 1% of all instances. That spread lends the dataset real weight. The card appears across five-color goodstuff, dragon tribal, and mono-green shells alike, reflecting its role as a format-agnostic mana fixer rather than a piece of any one strategy.

At a glance

27% of tracked Commander decks include Birds of Paradise
80% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T3 median first-cast turn across all tracked games
74% of drawn-and-cast instances played the same turn they were drawn
57% battlefield stickiness once cast
1066 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=685

34%

11%

25%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3 P25 1 · P75 6 · max 16

On curve 34% (235 / 685 cast on T1) Cast same turn as drawn 74%

The "good card" funnel

3303 brought · 1066 players

Brought to game

3303

Ever drawn

859

Reached battlefield

685

Still on board at game end

389

80%

Of 3303 Birds of Paradise brought to games, 859 were drawn, 685 of those were cast, and 57% of cast copies remained on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +0.6pp

Players who cast this card win 31% of the time (n=631) , vs 27% when it never left the library (n=2073).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=151) — 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 +4.3pp; 95% confidence interval +0.6pp to +8.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

936 instances

2.2%

Library

41.6%

Battlefield

35.5%

Graveyard

6.5%

Exile

Most Birds of Paradise that end the game outside the library finish on the battlefield or in the graveyard, reflecting a creature that either survives long enough to keep tapping or gets picked off by removal after delivering early acceleration.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 T'Challa, the Black Panther 63 decks
2 The Ur-Dragon 47 decks
3 Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit 35 decks
4 Witherbloom, the Balancer 29 decks
5 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 28 decks
6 Choco, Seeker of Paradise 24 decks
7 Henzie "Toolbox" Torre 24 decks
8 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice 23 decks
9 Ms. Bumbleflower 23 decks
10 The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 22 decks

The commander list spans mono-green, Selesnya, five-color, and Golgari shells, a spread that confirms Birds of Paradise functions as a format-wide green staple rather than a piece of any single archetype.

Frequently Asked

How often is Birds of Paradise drawn in a Commander game?

In 2702 tracked multiplayer games where Birds of Paradise was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That rate is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 859 instances that reached a player's hand, 80% were cast before the game ended. The remainder reflects cards drawn late in games that concluded before the player could act, not deliberate holds.

What turn does Birds of Paradise usually get cast?

Median first-cast turn is 3. The distribution skews sharply early: the statistical mode is turn 1, and the 25th percentile also lands on turn 1, meaning a large share of casts happen in the opening turns. 74% of drawn-and-cast instances land the same turn they are drawn, which is a strong signal that players slam this card the moment they see it.

Does casting Birds of Paradise correlate with winning?

Games where Birds of Paradise was cast show a win rate of 31%, compared to 27% in games where it stayed in the library. That is a +4.3 percentage-point gap across 631 cast observations and 2073 library observations. Both buckets are well-sampled, so this is a consistent early signal rather than noise. Mana acceleration correlating with wins is expected, though deck quality is a confounding factor the delta only partially controls for.

How sticky is Birds of Paradise on the battlefield?

57% of resolved Birds of Paradise are still on the battlefield at the end of the game. That is lower than enchantments or large artifacts, which is expected for a 0/1 flying creature in a format with a lot of incidental removal and combat. It still taps for mana every turn it survives, so the value it delivers often precedes its removal.

Which commanders most commonly run Birds of Paradise?

T'Challa, the Black Panther leads the tracked dataset, followed by The Ur-Dragon and Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit. The spread across commanders with different color identities, from five-color to Selesnya to Golgari, reflects Birds of Paradise's role as a generic mana fixer available to any green deck. No single commander archetype monopolizes its play patterns.

Is Birds of Paradise legal in Commander?

Yes. Birds of Paradise is legal in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, or Pauper. It has no ban or restriction in Commander and is considered one of the strongest one-mana ramp pieces available to any green deck.