Live Play Data

Deserted Beach

Land · Innistrad Remastered (INR)

14%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

580

Decks Running

306

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

81%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

14% of tracked Commander decks run Deserted Beach. When drawn, 81% of copies reach the battlefield, and once played, it sticks 97% of the time through end of game.

Deserted Beach is a Azorius (white-blue) dual land that enters untapped once you control two or more other lands, making it a reliable mid-to-late opener that fits cleanly into any blue-white or three-color shell touching those colors. Across 555 tracked multiplayer Commander games on Playgroup Live, it appears in 306 of 2246 distinct decks, for an inclusion rate of 14%.

The standout figure is conversion: drawn copies reach the battlefield 81% of the time, one of the higher draw-to-play rates you will see for a land. Median first cast lands on turn 4.0, consistent with players dropping it as soon as it comes off the top rather than holding it. Stickiness is 97%, expected for a basic-type replacement land that opponents rarely bother removing. The data is well-spread: 279 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 3% of all instances, so no individual's collection is skewing the signal.

Deserted Beach fits the broader pattern of "slow dual lands" (sometimes called "slow fetches" or "Pathway alternatives") that have become a budget-accessible entry point into dual-land fixing. It sees heaviest play in Azorius and Esper commanders where white and blue are the primary colors, and turns up less often in five-color or mono-color shells where its conditional untap clause matters less.

At a glance

14% of tracked Commander decks include Deserted Beach
81% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
T4.0 median first-cast turn across observed games
97% battlefield stickiness once played
279 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game
306 decks running Deserted Beach in the Playgroup Live dataset

First-cast turn

n=136

12%

21%

15%

32%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 3 · P75 8 · max 15

Cast same turn as drawn 51%

The "good card" funnel

584 brought · 279 players

Brought to game

584

Ever drawn

168

Reached battlefield

136

Still on board at game end

132

81%

Of 584 copies brought to games, 168 were drawn, 136 of those reached the battlefield, and nearly all stayed there through end of game.

≥ +2.5pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=132) , vs 22% when it never left the library (n=361).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 30% (n=30) — 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 +10.7pp; 95% confidence interval +2.5pp to +19.0pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

189 instances

3.2%

Library

69.8%

Battlefield

9.5%

Graveyard

4.8%

Exile

The vast majority of Deserted Beach copies finish the game on the battlefield, a direct reflection of how rarely opponents spend removal on a land and how reliably it resolves once cast.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

The commander distribution skews toward Azorius and Esper builds, confirming that Deserted Beach earns its slot most often in decks where both white and blue mana are essential rather than incidental.

Frequently Asked

How often is Deserted Beach drawn in a Commander game?

Across 555 tracked multiplayer games where Deserted Beach was in the deck, it was drawn 29% of the time. That is roughly expected for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of the 168 copies that reached a player's hand, 81% were cast before the game ended. The median delay between drawing and playing is a single turn, meaning most players drop it quickly once it arrives.

What turn does Deserted Beach usually hit the battlefield?

Median first-cast turn is 4.0. The distribution peaks at turn 3 (mode) and spreads across the early-to-mid game, which tracks with Deserted Beach's design: it enters untapped as soon as you have two other lands, so players who draw it in the opening hand often wait one or two turns to satisfy that condition. The 25th percentile is turn 3 and the 75th is turn 8, showing a wide spread across game lengths.

Does casting Deserted Beach actually improve win rate?

In the 132 participations where Deserted Beach reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate is 32%. In participations where it stayed in the library, the rate is 22%. The gap of +10.8 percentage points is a directional positive signal. With over 100 observations in the cast bucket, this is one of the more reliable deltas in our dataset for a land, though we still flag it as consistent rather than conclusive given the format's inherent variance.

Is Deserted Beach legal in Commander?

Yes. Deserted Beach is legal in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Duel Commander, Brawl, and Gladiator. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, Pauper Commander, or Premodern. There are no bans or restrictions on the card in any format where it is legal.

Which commanders most often run Deserted Beach?

On Playgroup Live, the top commanders by raw deck count are Y'shtola, Night's Blessed (Esper), Ms. Bumbleflower (Bant), and The Tenth Doctor (Izzet). The heavy representation of Azorius and Esper commanders is expected: Deserted Beach produces white and blue mana, making it a natural fit for any deck that relies on both colors. It also appears in wider-color-identity lists that simply need blue or white fixing as one piece of a larger mana base.

How reliable is the Playgroup Live data for this card?

Deserted Beach has been brought to a tracked game 584 times across 555 games, with 189 instances where the card was meaningfully observed. Data comes from 279 distinct players, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 3% of all instances. That spread makes the figures here more robust than cards dominated by one or two prolific players, though Playgroup Live's dataset remains a live-play sample rather than a full population census.