Glacial Fortress
Glacial Fortress sits in 39% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, with 79% of drawn copies reaching the battlefield and a median first-cast turn of 4.0.
Glacial Fortress is the go-to Azorius dual land for players who expect to control a Plains or Island on the early turns. Across 1200 tracked multiplayer Commander games, it appears in 748 of 1941 registered decks, a 39% inclusion rate that reflects how strongly it skews toward White-Blue and multicolor commanders with those identities.
When drawn, the fortress converts at a high clip. 79% of drawn copies are played before the game ends, and the median first-cast turn lands on turn 4.0. That early timing matters for a conditional land: getting it down in the first few turns, when Plains or Islands are already in play, is the difference between untapped and tapped. Once it resolves, it sticks at 95%, consistent with lands generally being low-removal targets.
The commander spread is broad. 593 distinct players have brought Glacial Fortress to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all instances. That spread gives the dataset solid cross-deck signal for an Azorius staple.
- 39% of tracked Commander decks include Glacial Fortress
- 79% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
- T4.0 median first-cast turn
- 95% stickiness once it enters play
- 593 distinct players have brought this land to a tracked game
- 25% draw rate per game, typical for a singleton in a 100-card deck
First-cast turn
n=268The "good card" funnel
1370 brought · 593 playersOf 1370 Glacial Fortress copies brought to tracked games, 341 were drawn, 268 of those were played, and 95% of cast copies remained on the battlefield through the end of the game.
Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=260) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=933).
When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 32% (n=67) — 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 +3.2pp; 95% confidence interval -2.4pp to +8.8pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.
Final zone distribution
371 instancesThe vast majority of Glacial Fortress copies end games on the battlefield or in the library, the structural norm for lands: they rarely get exiled or destroyed, and most instances in a 100-card singleton deck are simply never drawn.
Commanders that played this card
in tracked games-
1
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
72 decks
-
2
Ms. Bumbleflower
44 decks
-
3
Captain America, Team Leader
39 decks
-
4
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
37 decks
-
5
Zinnia, Valley's Voice
31 decks
-
6
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden
23 decks
-
7
Kilo, Apogee Mind
22 decks
-
8
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel
17 decks
-
9
Mister Fantastic
14 decks
-
10
Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima
13 decks
The commander list spreads across Azorius, Esper, Jeskai, Bant, and four-color identities, all sharing White and Blue. No single commander dominates, which reflects Glacial Fortress as a broad Azorius staple rather than a dedicated build-around piece.