Seaside Citadel
Seaside Citadel appears in 3.4% of tracked Commander decks on Playgroup Live, but when drawn, 71% of copies are played before the game ends, with 95% sticking on the battlefield once cast.
Seaside Citadel is a niche inclusion: at 3.4% inclusion across 2,220 tracked decks, it shows up only in shells that need Bant (Green, White, Blue) fixing and can tolerate a tapped land on entry. The 76 decks running it are deliberate choices, not defaults.
The draw-to-play rate tells the real story. 71% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, and once there, 95% survive to the game's end. Lands are almost impossible to remove in Commander, and that stickiness number confirms it. The median first-cast turn of 5 is higher than a turn-1 Sol Ring, but for a tapped triland in a format with 40 life and long games, turn 5 is functionally fine.
The commander distribution skews heavily toward five-color and Bant commanders, exactly the shells that need a reliable third or fourth color source. The card earns its slot in greedy mana bases rather than tight two-color builds.
- 3.4% inclusion rate across 2,220 tracked Commander decks
- 71% of drawn copies are cast before the game ends
- 95% battlefield stickiness once Seaside Citadel is played
- T5 median first-cast turn
- 76 distinct tracked decks running Seaside Citadel
- 24.6% draw rate, consistent with singleton in a 100-card deck
First-cast turn
n=22The "good card" funnel
126 broughtOf 114 Seaside Citadels brought to games, 28 were drawn, 21 of those were cast, and 20 remained on the battlefield when the game ended, a clean 95% stickiness rate across the final step.
Players who cast this card win 27% of the time (n=22) , vs 35% when it never left the library (n=95).
Final zone distribution
126 instances84 of 114 brought copies ended the game in the library, a structural reality of singleton 100-card decks rather than a sign of low impact. The 20 battlefield finishes represent a solid conversion rate for a land.
Top commanders running this card
by deck count-
1
Ashling, the Limitless
10 decks
-
2
Kenrith, the Returned King
10 decks
-
3
Ms. Bumbleflower
9 decks
-
4
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
8 decks
-
5
The First Sliver
6 decks
-
6
The Ur-Dragon
6 decks
-
7
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
5 decks
-
8
Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge
5 decks
-
9
Yuna, Grand Summoner
5 decks
-
10
Arcades, the Strategist
4 decks
The commander list splits evenly between five-color builds and dedicated Bant commanders, confirming Seaside Citadel earns its slot specifically in Green-White-Blue and wider color identities rather than being a format-wide staple.
How often is Seaside Citadel drawn in a Commander game? ▾
Across 114 instances brought to games in the Playgroup Live dataset, the card was drawn 28 times, a 24.6% draw rate. That figure is normal for any singleton in a 100-card deck. Of those 28 drawn copies, 21 were cast, giving the 71% draw-to-play rate. The rest were either stuck in hand at game end or never reached the battlefield in time.
What turn does Seaside Citadel typically hit the battlefield? ▾
The median first-cast turn is 5, with the middle 50% of casts landing between turns 2 and 7. Five copies were played on turn 1, likely kept in opening hands as part of a multicolor mana base. The spread is wide (up to turn 13 in the dataset), which reflects the reality that tapped lands are often played reactively whenever mana fixing is needed rather than on a fixed curve.
Does casting Seaside Citadel correlate with winning? ▾
In 21 observed participations where the card was cast, the win rate was 23.8%, close to the 25% baseline expected in a four-player pod. In 84 participations where it sat in the library all game, the win rate was 34.5%. The delta is -10.7 percentage points. Both buckets have enough observations to note the direction, but we treat this as an early signal rather than a conclusion. Lands are enablers, not win conditions, so a raw win-rate comparison understates their value.
Why is the win rate lower when Seaside Citadel is cast? ▾
This is a known pattern for mana-fixing lands. Decks that need color fixing the most are often the greediest multicolor builds, which can be less consistent than focused two-color strategies. The card being cast also says nothing about how smoothly the rest of the game went. Treat the cast win rate as descriptive context, not a verdict on the card's power level.
Which commanders run Seaside Citadel most often? ▾
The top two commanders in the dataset are Ashling, the Limitless and Ms. Bumbleflower, each appearing in 9 tracked decks that include Seaside Citadel. Five-color commanders like Kenrith, the Returned King, The First Sliver, and Esika, God of the Tree also show up prominently. The common thread is a wide color identity that demands reliable fixing across Green, White, and Blue at minimum.
Is Seaside Citadel legal in Commander? ▾
Yes. Seaside Citadel is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, and Premodern. It is not legal in Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, Brawl, or Alchemy. In Commander it is specifically relevant to any deck whose commander has Green, White, and Blue in their color identity.