Live Play Data

Cloud Key

· Artifact · Edge of Eternities Commander (EOC)

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

706

Decks Running

355

Median Cast Turn

5.0

Drawn → Played

73%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Cloud Key appears in 2% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, drawn 25% of the time, with 73% of drawn copies cast before the game ends and a median first-cast turn of 5.0.

Cloud Key is a colorless cost-reducer that fits into any Commander deck running a heavy concentration of one spell type. Across 682 tracked multiplayer games on Playgroup Live, it sits in 355 of 15835 distinct tracked decks, an inclusion rate of 2%.

When Cloud Key reaches a player's hand, 73% of those copies are cast before the game concludes. The median first-cast turn is 5.0, a beat behind its mana value of 3, which reflects how frequently it arrives mid-game rather than in the opener. Once it resolves, it sticks around: 79% of cast copies remain on the battlefield at game's end. The data is directional rather than conclusive given the sample size, but the pattern is consistent.

The commander distribution is notably spread. 310 distinct players have brought Cloud Key to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 3% of all instances. Artifact-heavy commanders, particularly those in Jeskai and colorless shells, dominate the top slots, which tracks with Cloud Key's natural home in artifact-centric strategies.

At a glance

2% of tracked Commander decks include Cloud Key
25% draw rate across tracked games, typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck
73% of drawn Cloud Keys are cast before the game ends
T5.0 median first-cast turn, one step behind its 3-mana cost
79% battlefield stickiness: most resolved copies survive to end of game
310 distinct players have brought Cloud Key to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=130

15%

18%

38%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 5.0 P25 3 · P75 8 · max 16

On curve 25% (20 / 130 cast on T3) Cast same turn as drawn 38%

The "good card" funnel

707 brought · 310 players

Brought to game

707

Ever drawn

178

Reached battlefield

130

Still on board at game end

103

73%

Of 707 Cloud Keys brought to games, 178 were drawn, 130 of those were cast, and 79% of resolved copies remained on the battlefield at game's end.

≥ -6.0pp

Players who cast this card win 28% of the time (n=125) , vs 26% when it never left the library (n=446).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 21% (n=45) — 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 +2.5pp; 95% confidence interval -6.0pp to +11.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

190 instances

4.2%

Library

54.2%

Battlefield

20.0%

Graveyard

3.7%

Exile

Most Cloud Keys that were brought to games ended on the battlefield or graveyard, a smaller share than typical cards spent the whole game buried in the library, reflecting that it gets drawn and played at a reasonable clip when included.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Inspirit, Flagship Vessel 27 decks
2 Kilo, Apogee Mind 26 decks
3 Ultron, Artificial Malevolence 21 decks
4 Mendicant Core, Guidelight 10 decks
5 Aloy, Savior of Meridian 7 decks
6 Iron Man, Titan of Innovation 7 decks
7 Urza, Lord High Artificer 7 decks
8 Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man 6 decks
9 Emry, Lurker of the Loch 5 decks
10 Imotekh the Stormlord 5 decks

The commander list is spread across a dozen archetypes, but Jeskai artifact commanders and colorless shells dominate the top slots, a clear signal that Cloud Key earns its slot most in spell-type-dense artifact strategies.

Frequently Asked

How often is Cloud Key drawn in a Commander game?

Across 682 tracked multiplayer games where Cloud Key was in the deck, it was drawn 25% of the time. That is a normal draw rate for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 178 copies that reached a player's hand, 73% were cast before the game ended. A drawn copy going uncast most often means the game concluded before the player found a window to resolve it, not that they chose to hold it.

What turn does Cloud Key usually hit the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 5.0, with the distribution running from turn 2 through the mid-teens. The 25th percentile lands on turn 4 and the 75th on turn 8, so it is cast across a wide spread of game states. A large portion of copies arrive after turn 3, which mostly reflects drawing it after the opening hand rather than players deliberately holding it.

Does casting Cloud Key improve your win rate?

In the current dataset, the win rate when cast is 28% versus 26% when the card stayed in the library all game. The gap is directional and both buckets have enough observations to be interesting, but the confidence interval crosses zero, so treat it as an early signal rather than a proven effect. The data will sharpen as more games are tracked.

Which commanders run Cloud Key most often?

On Playgroup Live, Cloud Key clusters most heavily under Kilo, Apogee Mind and Inspirit, Flagship Vessel, both Jeskai artifact commanders from recent sets, along with Ultron, Artificial Malevolence in a colorless shell. This matches the card's design: it rewards decks that cast many spells of a single type, particularly artifacts, and colorless identity means it slots into any of those strategies without restriction.

Is Cloud Key legal in Commander?

Yes. Cloud Key is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Brawl, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Alchemy, Pauper, or Pauper Commander.

How concentrated is Cloud Key's data among specific players?

The data is well spread. 310 distinct players have brought Cloud Key to at least one tracked game on Playgroup Live, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 3% of all instances. That breadth adds confidence to the directional patterns we see, even if the overall sample size is still growing.