Live Play Data

Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway

Land // Land · Zendikar Rising (ZNR)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

591

Decks Running

295

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

75%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

7% of tracked Dimir-adjacent Commander decks run Clearwater Pathway, and 75% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.

Clearwater Pathway sits in 295 of the 4512 distinct Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, an 7% inclusion rate driven almost entirely by blue-black and blue-black-splash strategies that need reliable two-color fixing without the downside of a tapland.

The draw-to-play rate of 75% is among the highest observed for any non-basic land in our dataset. That figure is expected for a land: players who draw a dual land in the early turns almost always put it into play. The median first cast lands on turn 4, with a notable cluster of casts on turn 1 (18 of 100 tracked casts), reflecting how often it shows up in opening hands and gets played immediately.

The commander distribution is broad. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and Captain N'ghathrod lead the deck count, but the card spreads across a wide range of Dimir and Dimir-splash commanders. That spread, combined with 246 distinct players contributing data, gives the stats here reasonable directional grounding for a Playgroup Live dataset.

At a glance

7% of tracked Commander decks include Clearwater Pathway
75% of drawn copies reach the battlefield
T4 median first-cast turn
94% battlefield stickiness once played
246 distinct players have contributed data, spreading the sample well
27% draw rate across tracked games where it was in the deck

First-cast turn

n=117

18%

15%

12%

28%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4 P25 3 · P75 6 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 55%

The "good card" funnel

592 brought · 246 players

Brought to game

592

Ever drawn

157

Reached battlefield

117

Still on board at game end

110

75%

Of 592 Clearwater Pathways brought to games, 157 were drawn, 117 of those were played, and the vast majority stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -5.7pp

Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=109) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=356).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 15% (n=35) — 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 +2.8pp; 95% confidence interval -5.7pp to +11.3pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

198 instances

5.6%

Library

55.6%

Battlefield

18.7%

Graveyard

8.1%

Exile

Most singleton cards in a 100-card deck never leave the library; Clearwater Pathway bucks that trend somewhat, with the majority of tracked copies finishing on the battlefield rather than unplayed, reflecting how aggressively players prioritize early land drops.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander list skews heavily toward Dimir (blue-black) color identity, with no single commander dominating and deck counts in the single digits across most entries, a sign the pathway is a broad format staple rather than a card tied to any one archetype.

Card text

Clearwater Pathway

Land

: Add

Murkwater Pathway

Land

: Add

Zendikar Rising (ZNR) · Rare · Illustrated by Daarken

Frequently Asked

How often is Clearwater Pathway drawn in a Commander game?

Across 572 tracked multiplayer games where the card was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 157 copies that reached a player's hand, 75% were played before the game ended. The high rate reflects the nature of lands: a land drawn at nearly any point in a game is generally worth playing.

What turn does Clearwater Pathway usually hit the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 4, but the distribution is wide. There is a clear early cluster, with 18 of 100 tracked casts happening on turn 1, almost always from the opening hand. The 25th percentile sits at turn 3 and the 75th at turn 6, so roughly half of all casts fall in that window. The mode being turn 1 underscores how valuable it is to find this land in the opening seven cards.

Which commanders most commonly run Clearwater Pathway?

Captain N'ghathrod leads with 14 decks, followed by Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow (12), Y'shtola, Night's Blessed (11), and Satoru Umezawa (10). The throughline is blue-black color identity. The pathway's ability to tap for either {U} or {B} makes it close to a necessity in two-color Dimir builds that want to avoid taplands.

Is there a win-rate signal when Clearwater Pathway is cast?

Games where the card was cast show a 25% normalized win rate across 109 observations. Games where it sat in the library show 22% across 356 observations. The delta between those two buckets is small and directional at this sample size. Read it as early signal rather than a firm conclusion: the card contributes to mana consistency, and mana consistency correlates loosely with winning, but the dataset is not yet large enough to isolate that effect cleanly.

Is Clearwater Pathway legal in Commander?

Yes. Clearwater Pathway is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and Timeless. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Premodern. The card was printed at rare in Zendikar Rising and has appeared in several supplemental products since.

How concentrated is the Clearwater Pathway data among specific players?

The data comes from 246 distinct players, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 3% of all tracked instances. That is a well-spread sample by Playgroup Live standards, which adds modest confidence that the draw and cast patterns reflect general play rather than one prolific player's habits.