Hey y’all! Hope I wasn’t missed too much last week – our staff was hard at work making sure the Ravnica release would be a success, and that meant getting far ahead on my other job responsibilities. I made sure there was a small update last week, but in case you missed it, let me summarize:
1) Ravnica Foil Singles are now available for sale.
2) Pro Player Cards have been given their own category. We have these cards priced at $.50 each across the board, and so far Brian Kibler has proven to be the most popular of the Pros! Contrary to popular belief, Brian did not buy copies of himself. yet.
3) I’ve added several promo cards to the site, including Foil Sol Rings and Textless Pyroclasm. Textless Hinder and Player Rewards Hypnotic Specter are coming soon!
BUYLIST UPDATE
The Buylist has been updated and many T2 (9th, Champions, Betrayers, Saviors) buy prices have been doubled (and sometimes even tripled) in anticipation of our needs for States! Ravnica and Ravnica foils have been added to the buylist as well – go check it out today and turn your cards into cash.
THE MONSTER UPDATE
The following sets have been massively restocked in our inventory, courtesy of getting through the Monster. Kudos to Ryan, Sue, Dave, Josh and Josh for their help alphabetizing and sorting these sets, and thanks to Adam and Chad for their work on grading.
Invasion
Invasion Foils
Judgment
Judgment Foils
Card of the week: Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] has had the highest price increase of any of the pain lands reprinted in 9th Edition. This mainly comes from the fact that the Boros Guild (R/W) is quickly becoming the most popular of the four guilds printed in Ravnica, and many people are gravitating towards Red/White decks for States. The Forge has nearly tripled in prce since then. As you can also see, we’re quite sold out of them at the moment as well. Just a month and a half ago, we had several hundred copies of Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] in stock. Get your hands on Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forges[/author] now, because their price are just going to keep increasing.
The 100 Most Essential Commons For Extended
Extended season is almost upon the Magic land, and for the first time in a long while the format is set to rotate. Gone will be Tempest, Urza’s and Masques block, leaving the beginning of Extended at Invasion. 7th, 8th and 9th will represent the base sets, and all of these blocks will not rotate until 2008. Because of this, I’ve put together a list of the 100 commons I feel are the most essential to have in this format. These are the cards that I recommend that people obtain in order to have a good base to build upon for virtually every playable Extended deck. Please note the following:
1) These cards are sorted by color, alphabetically. This isn’t a ranking – this is a checklist that you should use to put together your Extended toolbox.
2) All of these cards are commons. I’ll be getting to Uncommons and Rares in other weeks.
3) There are a lot of sideboard only cards on this list. Never underestimate the power of sideboard cards when putting together a deck building toolbox for a format. Not many main decked Chill last year. This did not make Chill any less of an important card to have in your collection for when you needed to hose Red off the sideboard.
4) Brief explanations of each card are listed. The term Universal in this case means that it’s going to see a lot of play in a deck which uses that color. Will The Rock use Echoing Decay, Smother, Innocent Blood, Rend Flesh, Chainer’s Edict, Terror, or something else as its removal spell? It all depends on the metagame. Because of this, universal spells are handy, because they can be readily interchanged if the need calls for a slightly different twist on an effect
Black Cards
1) Cabal Ritual (Combo decks)
2) Distress (Universal discard spell)
3) Duress (Universal discard spell)
4) Echoing Decay (Universal creature removal – sideboard versus tokens)
5) Faceless Butcher (Removal creature)
6) Ghastly Demise (Wish target, sideboard for decks which fill their graveyard)
7) Innocent Blood (Universal removal spell)
8) Mesmeric Fiend (Universal hand destruction)
9) Nightscape Familiar (Tog, blue combo enabler)
10) Ravenous Rats (Rats, The Rock, discard creature)
11) Rend Flesh (Universal creature removal)
12) Terror (Universal creature removal)
Blue Cards
13) Aether Burst (Universal bounce)
14) Annul (Sideboard artifact/enchantment hate)
15) Aquamoeba (Madness enabler for U/G or U/R)
16) Boomerang (Universal bounce)
17) Careful Study (Madness, dredge, threshold and combo enabler)
18) Counterspell (Universal countermagic)
19) Deep Analysis (Universal card drawing)
20) Echoing Truth (Universal bounce)
21) Force Spike (Universal countermagic)
22) Mana Leak (Universal countermagic)
23) Memory Lapse (Universal countermagic)
24) Mental Note (Dredge, threshold and flashback enabler)
25) Muddle the Mixture (Universal countermagic and tutor)
26) Ninja of the Deep Hours (Tier 1 creature)
27) Opt (Cantrip)
28) Repulse (Universal bounce)
29) Rushing River (Universal bounce)
30) Serum Visions (Cantrip)
31) Sleight of Hand (Cantrip)
32) Syncopate (Universal countermagic and remove from game effect)
33) Thought Courier (Card drawing creature)
34) Trinket Mage (Tutoring)
35) Unsummon (Universal Bounce)
Green Cards
36) Basking Rootwalla (Tier 1 creature)
37) Civic Wayfinder (Tutoring, Mana fixing)
38) Elves of Deep Shadow (Mana acceleration)
39) Farseek (Tutoring, mana acceleration, mana fixing)
40) Kodama’s Reach (Tutoring, mana accleration, mana fixing)
41) Krosan Tusker (Cycler, mana fixing)
42) Lay of the Land (Tutoring, mana fixing)
43) Llanowar Elves (Mana acceleration)
44) Matsu-Tribe Sniper (Sideboard against Wonder)
45) Moment’s Peace (Universal fog effect)
46) Naturalize (Universal artifact/enchantment removal)
47) Sakura-Tribe Elder (Mana acceleration, mana fixing, tutoring)
48) Vine Trellis (Mana acceleration, defense)
49) Wear Away (Universal artifact/enchantment removal)
50) Werebear (Mana acceleration, theshold decks)
51) Wild Mongrel (Tier 1 creature, madness/flashback/dredge enabler)
Red Cards
52) Echoing Ruin (Universal artifact removal)
53) Electrostatic Bolt (Universal creature removal)
54) Fiery Temper (Madness enabled creature removal – G/R and U/R)
55) Firebolt (Universal creature removal)
56) Frostling (Removal creature)
57) Hearth Kami (Artifact removal creature)
58) Lava Dart (Universal creature removal)
59) Molten Rain (Universal Land Destruction)
60) Overload (Universal artifact removal)
61) Seething Song (Mana acceleration)
62) Shatter (Universal artifact removal)
63) Shock (Universal creature removal)
64) Skirk Prospector (Goblins)
65) Stone Rain (Universal land destruction)
66) Volcanic Hammer (Universal creature removal)
White Cards
67) Circle of Protection: Black (Anti-Black sideboard card)
68) Circle of Protection: Green (Anti-Green sideboard card)
69) Circle of Protection: Red (Anti-Red sideboard card)
70) Daru Spiritualist (Life)
71) Disenchant (Universal artifact/enchantment removal)
72) Dismantling Blow (Universal artifact/enchantment removal, card drawing)
73) Kami of Ancient Law (Enchantment removal creature)
74) Raise the Alarm (Combo enabler, instant speed creature)
75) Renewed Faith (Universal lifegain, cycler)
76) Sunscape Familiar (Combo enabler)
77) Terashi’s Grasp (Universal artifact/enchantment removal)
78) Wipe Clean (Universal enchantment removal, remove-from-game effect)
Artifacts
79) Aether Spellbomb (Universal bounce, cantrip)
80) Bonesplitter (Equipment)
81) Chromatic Sphere (Mana Fixing, cantrip)
82) Frogmite (Affinity)
83) Myr Enforcer (Affinity)
84) Pyrite Spellbomb (Universal creature removal, cantrip)
85) Wayfarer’s Bauble (Mana acceleration, mana fixing, tutoring)
Gold Cards
86) Consult the Necrosages (Universal card drawing/discard)
87) Perplex (Universal countermagic)
88) Recoil (Universal bounce)
89) Terminate (Universal creature removal)
Lands
90) Ancient Den (Affinity enabler, combo enabler, mana production)
91) Barren Moor (Cycling, mana production)
92) Darksteel Citadel (Anti-land destruction, affinity enabler, combo enabler, mana production)
93) Forgotten Cave (Cycling, mana production)
94) Great Furnace (Affinity enabler, combo enabler, mana production)
95) Lonely Sandbar (Cycling, mana production)
96) Seat of the Synod (Affinity enabler, combo enabler, mana production)
97) Secluded Steppe (Cycling, mana production)
98) Tranquil Thicket (Cycling, mana production)
99) Tree of Tales (Affinity enabler, combo enabler, mana production)
100) Vault of Whispers (Affinity enabler, combo enabler, mana production)
You’re going to want four of each of these cards to have your full Extended toolbox enabled. As always, feedback is appreciated in the forum!
Until next week,
Ben Bleiweiss
General Manager, StarCityGames.com
Ben@StarCityGames.com