Live Play Data

Clifftop Retreat

Land · Marvel Super Heroes Commander (MSC)

43%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

874

Decks Running

518

Median Cast Turn

3.5

Drawn → Played

82%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

43% of tracked Commander decks run Clifftop Retreat. When drawn, 82% of copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 3.5.

Clifftop Retreat earns its slot in Boros and multicolor decks across the Commander format. 43% of the 1195 distinct decks that have played a tracked game on Playgroup Live include it, placing it among the more consistent dual-land choices available to red-white strategies.

The card's draw-to-play rate tells a clean story: 82% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends. Median first cast lands on turn 3.5, with a strong cluster in turns 1 through 3 reflecting opening-hand keeps where the land enters untapped immediately. Players hold it a median of one turn before playing it, which is typical for a conditional-untapped land that depends on board context.

The dataset is well-spread across 415 distinct players, with the single most active contributor accounting for just 2% of all tracked instances. That breadth adds confidence to the directional signals here.

At a glance

43% of tracked Commander decks include Clifftop Retreat
27% draw rate, consistent with a singleton land in a 100-card deck
82% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T3.5 median first-cast turn
89% battlefield stickiness once cast
415 distinct players have brought Clifftop Retreat to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=192

14%

23%

13%

11%

27%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.5 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 15

Cast same turn as drawn 52%

The "good card" funnel

875 brought · 415 players

Brought to game

875

Ever drawn

235

Reached battlefield

192

Still on board at game end

170

82%

Of 875 Clifftop Retreats brought to games, 235 were drawn, 192 of those were cast, and 89% of cast copies remained on the battlefield at end of game.

≥ -3.4pp

Players who cast this card win 25% of the time (n=191) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=585).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 39% (n=37) — 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 +3.1pp; 95% confidence interval -3.4pp to +9.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

258 instances

3.9%

Library

65.9%

Battlefield

14.7%

Graveyard

3.9%

Exile

The vast majority of Clifftop Retreats never leave the library in a given game, a structural reality of 100-card singleton. Of the copies that were observed, most finished on the battlefield, consistent with a land that stays in play once it resolves.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Quintorius, History Chaser leads by raw deck count, but the list spans pure Boros, Naya, Jeskai, and Mardu commanders, showing Clifftop Retreat is a staple across any archetype touching red and white rather than a tool for one specific strategy.

Frequently Asked

How often is Clifftop Retreat drawn in a Commander game?

Across 752 tracked games where Clifftop Retreat was in the deck, it was drawn 27% of the time. That is normal for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 235 instances that reached a player's hand, 82% were cast before the game concluded.

What turn does Clifftop Retreat usually enter the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 3.5. The distribution skews early: a notable cluster of casts falls on turns 1 and 2, reflecting opening-hand scenarios where the player already controls a Mountain or Plains. The 25th percentile lands on turn 2 and the 75th on turn 6, so late draws are common but the land still provides early mana when it counts.

Is Clifftop Retreat legal in Commander?

Yes. Clifftop Retreat is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Alchemy, Timeless, Brawl, Duel Commander, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander, and it is not legal in PreDH.

Which commanders most commonly run Clifftop Retreat?

Quintorius, History Chaser leads the tracked data with the highest raw deck count, which makes sense for a pure Boros commander. Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, and Eowyn, Shieldmaiden follow, all running red and white in their color identities. The spread across more than a dozen commander archetypes confirms Clifftop Retreat is a format staple rather than a build-around piece.

Does casting Clifftop Retreat correlate with winning?

The multiplayer win rate when cast sits at 25% across 191 observations, compared to 22% for participations where the card stayed in the library. The raw delta is positive but the lower confidence bound dips below zero on the current sample, so treat this as a directional early signal rather than a proven edge. The 4-player normalized baseline is 25%, so the cast rate is modestly above average.

How reliably does Clifftop Retreat enter the battlefield untapped?

The data does not directly tag whether the land entered tapped or untapped, but the first-cast-turn distribution provides context. Roughly a third of all casts happen on turns 1 through 3, the turns most likely to feature an already-controlled Mountain or Plains from the opening hand. The high draw-to-play rate of 82% and a same-turn cast rate of 52% also suggest players find it immediately usable more often than not.