Live Play Data

Cyclonic Rift

· Instant · Ravnica Remastered (RVR)

16%

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

1189

Decks Running

610

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

68%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Cyclonic Rift lands in 40% of games where it resolves, a +16.0 percentage-point lift over the baseline, across 221 tracked casts on Playgroup Live.

Cyclonic Rift sits in 16% of multiplayer Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live. Across 931 tracked games it has been cast 223 times, and the win rate in those games comes out at 40%, compared to 24% in games where it stayed in the library.

As an instant, it resolves and heads to the graveyard. The 68% draw-to-play rate reflects how often a drawn copy actually gets cast before the game ends. Players who do cast it hold it a median of 2 turns after drawing it, suggesting deliberate timing rather than slamming it on the first open window. Median first cast lands on turn 7, well into the mid-game, where the overload mode at {6}{U} becomes reachable.

The card's spread across 397 distinct players, with the heaviest contributor accounting for just 5% of instances, gives the dataset reasonable breadth for a format-legal card at this power level. Still, at 931 tracked games the win-rate lift should be read as a directional signal, not a definitive verdict.

At a glance

16% of tracked Commander decks include Cyclonic Rift
68% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
T7 median first-cast turn, comfortably in overload range
40% win rate in games where Cyclonic Rift resolved
+16.0pp win-rate lift over the library baseline, a directional early signal
397 distinct players have brought Cyclonic Rift to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=223

17%

59%

T6-9

17%

T10+

Median 7 P25 6 · P75 9 · max 17

Cast same turn as drawn 32%

The "good card" funnel

1189 brought · 397 players

Brought to game

1189

Ever drawn

327

Reached battlefield

223

Still on board at game end

68%

Of 1189 copies brought to tracked games, 327 were drawn, 223 of those were cast, confirming that drawn copies translate to casts at a 68% rate.

≥ +9.9pp

Players who cast this card win 40% of the time (n=221) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=782).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 39% (n=105) — 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 +16.0pp; 95% confidence interval +9.9pp to +22.1pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

367 instances

3.5%

Library

7.1%

Battlefield

56.4%

Graveyard

7.9%

Exile

The graveyard dominates Cyclonic Rift's final zone chart, as expected for an instant that resolves and is done. The library share is minimal, meaning most copies in tracked games were actively seen or cast.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 The Ur-Dragon 22 decks
2 Vivi Ornitier 11 decks
3 Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man 10 decks
4 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 9 decks
5 Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait 8 decks
6 Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge 8 decks
7 Jodah, the Unifier 8 decks
8 Ms. Bumbleflower 8 decks
9 Urza, Lord High Artificer 8 decks
10 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV 7 decks

The commander list spans mono-blue, five-color, and everything in between. No single commander archetype monopolizes Cyclonic Rift, pointing to its role as a broad blue staple rather than a build-around piece.

Frequently Asked

How often is Cyclonic Rift drawn and cast in a Commander game?

In 931 tracked multiplayer games where Cyclonic Rift was in the deck, it was drawn 28% of the time. Of those drawn copies, 68% reached the graveyard via a cast before the game concluded. Players held it a median of 2 turns after drawing before casting, consistent with waiting for the right moment to maximize impact.

What turn does Cyclonic Rift usually get cast?

Median first cast is turn 7, with the distribution clustering between turns 5 and 9. That aligns with when overload becomes accessible at {6}{U}. The early outliers, a handful of casts on turns 2-4, are almost certainly single-target uses for spot removal rather than full-table resets.

Does casting Cyclonic Rift actually improve your odds of winning?

In the 221 participations where Cyclonic Rift was cast, the normalized win rate is 40%. In the 782 participations where it never left the library, the rate is 24%. That is a +16.0 percentage-point gap. With both buckets well above 15 observations this is a meaningful directional signal, but Playgroup Live's current dataset is small, so treat it as early evidence rather than a proven effect.

Is Cyclonic Rift banned in Commander?

No. Cyclonic Rift is legal in Commander, as well as Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and several other formats. It has been the subject of periodic ban discussions in Commander due to its one-sided, game-warping overload, but as of this writing it remains unrestricted in the format. It is not legal in Pauper or Pauper Commander due to its mythic rarity.

Which commanders most often pair with Cyclonic Rift in tracked games?

The Ur-Dragon leads with the highest raw deck count among tracked commanders, followed by a spread of blue-inclusive commanders across multiple archetypes. The distribution across 397 unique players, with no single player exceeding 5% of all instances, suggests the commander list reflects genuine format breadth rather than one heavily-played group skewing the results.