Live Play Data

Shivan Reef

Land · Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC)

28%

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

2786

Decks Running

1318

Median Cast Turn

4.0

Drawn → Played

70%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

Shivan Reef appears in 28% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks on Playgroup Live, and 70% of drawn copies reach the battlefield, with a median first-cast turn of 4.0.

Shivan Reef sits in 28% of multiplayer Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, covering 1318 of the 4749 distinct decks that have appeared in a tracked game. That figure reflects its role as a reliable dual land for any deck touching blue and red.

The draw-to-play rate tells a clean story: 70% of drawn copies are played before the game ends. That is consistent with what you'd expect from a land, where the decision to play is rarely deferred once the card is in hand. Median first play lands on turn 4.0, with a wide spread from early-game opening-hand drops to late-game topdecks. Stickiness once played is 93%, typical of a land that generates recurring value every turn.

The commander distribution is notably broad. Shivan Reef shows up across red-blue pairs, Jeskai shells, and five-color piles alike. No single commander monopolizes the card, which is exactly what you'd expect from a color-identity-gated fixing land rather than a synergy piece. The data come from 1036 distinct players, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for just 2% of all tracked instances, meaning the sample is well-spread.

At a glance

28% of tracked multiplayer Commander decks include Shivan Reef
70% of drawn copies are played before the game ends
T4.0 median first-play turn across all observed casts
93% battlefield stickiness once the land enters play
1036 distinct players have brought Shivan Reef to a tracked game
32% normalized win rate in games where Shivan Reef reached the battlefield

First-cast turn

n=508

15%

14%

12%

16%

11%

25%

T6-9

T10+

Median 4.0 P25 2 · P75 6 · max 14

Cast same turn as drawn 53%

The "good card" funnel

2792 brought · 1036 players

Brought to game

2792

Ever drawn

725

Reached battlefield

508

Still on board at game end

471

70%

Of 2792 Shivan Reefs brought to tracked games, 725 were drawn, 508 of those were played, and the large majority stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +3.0pp

Players who cast this card win 32% of the time (n=472) , vs 24% when it never left the library (n=1798).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 38% (n=189) — 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 +7.3pp; 95% confidence interval +3.0pp to +11.6pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

793 instances

2.5%

Library

59.4%

Battlefield

15.0%

Graveyard

5.2%

Exile

Most Shivan Reefs finish games on the battlefield, which is expected for a land that stays in play once dropped. The small library remainder reflects instances where it was never drawn across the course of the game.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Rootha, Mastering the Moment 68 decks
2 Vivi Ornitier 49 decks
3 Ulalek, Fused Atrocity 45 decks
4 Ureni of the Unwritten 45 decks
5 Zinnia, Valley's Voice 44 decks
6 Kilo, Apogee Mind 42 decks
7 Fire Lord Azula 38 decks
8 Sauron, the Dark Lord 37 decks
9 Inspirit, Flagship Vessel 36 decks
10 Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man 34 decks

Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads the raw count, but the list spans red-blue pairs, Jeskai triples, and five-color shells, confirming Shivan Reef is mana-fixing first and synergy piece never.

Card text

Shivan Reef

Land

: Add

: Add

. This land deals 1 damage to you.

Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) · Rare · Illustrated by Andrew Mar

Frequently Asked

How often is Shivan Reef drawn in a Commander game?

Across 2519 tracked multiplayer games where Shivan Reef was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is consistent with singleton odds in a 100-card deck. Of 725 instances that reached a player's hand, 70% were played before the game concluded.

What turn does Shivan Reef typically enter the battlefield?

Median first play is turn 4.0. The distribution is broad: a strong cluster in turns 1 through 3 from opening-hand keeps, then a long tail extending into the double digits for late topdecks. The interquartile range runs from turn 2 to turn 6, so most games see it hit the table in the first few turns of real development.

Does playing Shivan Reef correlate with winning?

In 472 participations where Shivan Reef reached the battlefield, the normalized win rate is 32%. When Shivan Reef never left the library, win rate is 24%. That is a +7.3 percentage-point gap in favor of games where it was played. The lower bound of the confidence interval sits above zero, so this is a consistent early signal, though it partly reflects that decks running good mana fixing tend to be well-built overall.

Is Shivan Reef legal in Commander?

Yes. Shivan Reef is legal and unrestricted in Commander, as well as in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Historic, and several other formats. It is not legal in Standard, Pauper, or Pauper Commander due to rarity restrictions.

Which commanders most often run Shivan Reef?

On Playgroup Live, Rootha, Mastering the Moment leads the raw deck count among tracked commanders, followed by Zinnia, Valley's Voice and Ulalek, Fused Atrocity. The spread across red-blue, Jeskai, and five-color commanders confirms that Shivan Reef is chosen for color fixing rather than any specific synergy.

How concentrated is the Shivan Reef data across players?

The 2519-game sample draws from 1036 distinct players on Playgroup Live. The single heaviest contributor accounts for 2% of all tracked instances. That is well below the 15% threshold where concentration becomes a concern, so the data reflects a genuinely broad cross-section of the player base rather than one prolific deckbuilder skewing the numbers.