Live Play Data

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

· Legendary Creature — Human Soldier Mercenary · Final Fantasy (FIN)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

702

Decks Running

320

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

82%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

82% of drawn Cloud, Midgar Mercenary copies are cast before the game ends, and the median first cast lands on turn 5, making it one of the more consistently executed mythics in Playgroup Live's tracked pool.

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary hits the table on turn 5 at the median, and 82% of drawn copies reach the battlefield. That execution rate is a strong early signal for a mythic rare from the Final Fantasy set, appearing in 320 of the 10462 distinct decks tracked on Playgroup Live.

The card's enter-the-battlefield tutor grabs any Equipment directly to hand, which explains why players rarely sit on it. Once equipped, Cloud doubles triggered abilities from both itself and attached Equipment, creating compounding value that rewards immediate deployment. The 82% cast rate is consistent with a card players treat as a high priority on the stack of decisions each turn.

The commander distribution is notably spread: 274 distinct players have brought Cloud, Midgar Mercenary to a tracked game, and no single contributor accounts for more than a small fraction of observed instances, lending reasonable breadth to the dataset. It fits most naturally into Equipment-focused white shells, but shows up across Naya, Esper, and mono-white commander strategies as a tutor that pays dividends when the board is live.

At a glance

3% of tracked Commander decks include Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
82% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T5 median first-cast turn across tracked games
58% battlefield stickiness once Cloud resolves
274 distinct players have contributed data, indicating broad spread
147 total casts recorded across all tracked multiplayer games

First-cast turn

n=147

16%

12%

15%

13%

28%

T6-9

10%

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 18

On curve 23% (24 / 147 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 43%

The "good card" funnel

702 brought · 274 players

Brought to game

702

Ever drawn

179

Reached battlefield

147

Still on board at game end

134

82%

Of 702 copies brought to multiplayer games, 179 were drawn, 147 of those were cast, and 58% of cast copies remained on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ -1.0pp

Players who cast this card win 37% of the time (n=133) , vs 29% when it never left the library (n=409).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 15% (n=27) — 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 +7.4pp; 95% confidence interval -1.0pp to +15.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

256 instances

1.6%

Library

52.3%

Battlefield

24.2%

Graveyard

5.5%

Exile

The vast majority of Cloud, Midgar Mercenary copies never leave the library, a structural feature of 100-card singleton rather than any weakness of the card itself. Of the copies that were observed, most finished on the battlefield.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER 85 decks
2 Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima 32 decks
3 Cloud, Midgar Mercenary 28 decks
4 Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer 20 decks
5 Lightning, Army of One 19 decks
6 Captain America, First Avenger 13 decks
7 Noctis, Heir Apparent 10 decks
8 Ekthi, Contaminator Priest 9 decks
9 Amy Rose 7 decks
10 Squall, SeeD Mercenary 7 decks

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER commands the largest share of decks running this card, but the list spans ten distinct commanders across five color identities, showing broad adoption beyond obvious FF7 synergy builds.

Card text

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

Legendary Creature — Human Soldier Mercenary

When Cloud enters, search your library for an Equipment card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. As long as Cloud is equipped, if a triggered ability of Cloud or an Equipment attached to it triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.

2 / 1

Final Fantasy (FIN) · Mythic · Illustrated by Kazto Furuya

Frequently Asked

How often is Cloud, Midgar Mercenary drawn in a Commander game?

Across 682 tracked multiplayer games where the card was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is a typical draw rate for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 179 copies that reached a player's hand, 82% were cast before the game concluded. The remainder were most likely drawn late, when the game ended before another main phase arrived.

What turn does Cloud, Midgar Mercenary typically hit the battlefield?

The median first-cast turn is 5, with a mode of turn 2 in the observed distribution. The interquartile range runs from turn 3 to turn 7, so early draws get it down fast while mid- or late-game draws push the median up. The on-curve rate of 23% reflects that many copies are drawn after the earliest possible window rather than held by choice, which the 43% same-turn cast rate partially confirms: when players do draw it, roughly half slam it the same turn.

How sticky is Cloud, Midgar Mercenary once it resolves?

58% of cast copies finish the game on the battlefield. That figure is directional given the sample size, but it is consistent with a 2-mana white creature that generates immediate value on entry. Even if Cloud is removed, the Equipment it tutored remains in hand, softening the tempo loss.

Is Cloud, Midgar Mercenary banned anywhere?

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is legal in Commander, Duel Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Historic, Timeless, Vintage, Alchemy, Brawl, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Pauper, Pauper Commander, Old School, or Premodern due to rarity or format restrictions, not a ban.

Which commanders most often run Cloud, Midgar Mercenary?

In the tracked multiplayer dataset, Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER leads with 56 decks, followed by Cloud, Midgar Mercenary itself as a commander at 23 decks, and Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima at 16. The spread covers Naya, mono-white, Esper, and Boros shells, reflecting the card's utility in any white Equipment strategy regardless of additional colors.

Does casting Cloud, Midgar Mercenary actually improve win rate?

The win rate when cast is 37% (n=133), versus 29% when the card stays in the library (n=409). The delta is small and the confidence interval crosses zero, so this should be read as directional only, not a proven effect. A 4-player baseline is 25%, and both buckets sit near or above that, which is consistent with the card appearing in competitive-leaning Equipment lists.