Glacial Fortress
Glacial Fortress appears in 9.2% of all tracked Commander decks but lands in 74% of the Blue-White decks that can run it. When drawn, players cast it 74% of the time, with a median first-cast turn of 4.
Glacial Fortress is a conditional dual land, entering untapped only when a Plains or Island is already in play. Across 195 tracked games on Playgroup Live, it sits in 153 decks, a 9.2% overall inclusion rate that reflects its narrow White-Blue color identity rather than any weakness in the card itself.
The draw-to-play rate is 74%. When Glacial Fortress reaches a player's hand, they almost always play it. Battlefield stickiness sits at 97%, meaning once it resolves, it essentially never leaves. These numbers are consistent with what you'd expect from a near-unconditional dual land in a format where mana fixing is hard to come by.
The early-game condition matters. Half of drawn copies are cast the same turn they're drawn, but the median first-cast turn of 4 suggests many copies arrive after the untap condition is trivially met. The spread of commanders using it, from Esper to Temur-adjacent builds touching White and Blue, confirms Glacial Fortress as a format-agnostic mana staple wherever those two colors appear together.
- 9.2% overall inclusion rate across all tracked Commander decks
- 74% of drawn Glacial Fortresses are cast before the game ends
- 97% battlefield stickiness once the land resolves
- T4 median first-cast turn
- 153 distinct decks including Glacial Fortress in the Playgroup Live dataset
- +5.6pp win-rate delta when cast versus sitting in the library all game
First-cast turn
n=45The "good card" funnel
296 broughtOf 213 Glacial Fortresses brought to games, 46 were drawn, 36 of those were cast, and 35 were still on the battlefield when the game ended, a 97% stickiness rate that reflects how rarely lands are removed in Commander.
Players who cast this card win 38% of the time (n=45) , vs 31% when it never left the library (n=228).
Final zone distribution
296 instances162 of 213 Glacial Fortresses never left the library, the expected result for any singleton in a 100-card deck where drawing one land out of 35 to 40 in a given game is the norm rather than the exception.
Top commanders running this card
by deck count-
1
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
31 decks
-
2
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden
21 decks
-
3
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
11 decks
-
4
Ms. Bumbleflower
10 decks
-
5
Zedruu the Greathearted
10 decks
-
6
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel
8 decks
-
7
Mendicant Core, Guidelight
8 decks
-
8
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
8 decks
-
9
Kratos, Stoic Father
6 decks
-
10
Zinnia, Valley's Voice
6 decks
The top 10 commanders spread across five different color combinations, all touching White and Blue, showing that Glacial Fortress is a staple of the color pair rather than any single archetype.
How often is Glacial Fortress drawn in a Commander game? ▾
Across 195 tracked games, Glacial Fortress was drawn in 46 of 213 deck-participations, a draw rate of 21.6%. That is roughly in line with what you would expect for a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those 46 drawn copies, 36 were cast before the game ended, putting the draw-to-play rate at 74%.
Does Glacial Fortress actually help you win? ▾
The win rate in games where Glacial Fortress was cast is 38.9% across 36 observations, versus 33.3% in the 162 participations where it stayed in the library all game. That 5.6 percentage-point delta is a directional early signal. Neither bucket is large enough to treat the gap as conclusive, but the direction is positive and consistent with better mana leading to better outcomes.
What turn does Glacial Fortress usually enter the battlefield? ▾
The median first-cast turn is 4, with a mean of 4.83. The distribution runs from turn 1 to turn 14. About a third of casts happen on turns 1 through 3, which tracks with players who kept an opening hand containing the land alongside a Plains or Island. The p75 is turn 7, showing a long tail of late arrivals.
Does Glacial Fortress enter tapped very often in practice? ▾
The stats do not track tapped-versus-untapped entry directly, but the hand-to-cast data offers a clue. The median turns spent in hand before being cast is 0, and 51.5% of drawn copies are cast the same turn they are drawn. Players are not sitting on this land waiting for the right moment. Most of the time, by the turn a player draws it, they already control a Plains or Island, and they play it immediately.
Which commanders most commonly pair with Glacial Fortress? ▾
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed leads with 21 decks, followed by Éowyn, Shieldmaiden at 14 and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic at 11. The top ten commanders span Esper, Jeskai, Bant, and straight Azorius, confirming the card shows up wherever White and Blue are in the color identity regardless of the third color.
Is Glacial Fortress legal in the formats where people actually play it? ▾
Glacial Fortress is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Brawl, Duel Commander, and Oathbreaker. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander. The vast majority of its play occurs in Commander, which is the format these Playgroup Live stats cover.