Tomorrow is going to be the largest day of Magic for the entire year – The Ravnica: City of Guilds prerelease tournament. The buzz on this set is beyond anything ever seen before in Magic’s history, and preorders for the singles for this set back the buzz. For those of you who clicked to read this article, you’re looking to read about which Ravnica cards will be hottest to trade for at the prerelease. I have good news! Thanks to the people at MTGSalvation.com, the spoiler for this set was released extremely early. Because of this, we were able to get our singles preorders up the earliest ever for any set, and I have a couple of weeks of solid sales data to help advise you! And remember: All premium members now have access to this same data here! I advise you to check out this powerful new feature if you’re into trading cards.
A couple of disclaimers before I continue. First off, all spoiler information is courtesy of MTGSalvation.com. Card texts may not be 100% accurate, though this time around things were spoiled so far out that I feel pretty comfortable with what I have listed in this article. Still, there might be a number or word that might be off, so please keep that in mind. Second, this list is divided into two parts: Uncommons and Rares. I’ve listed our top 15 selling cards from each of those commonalities, in order, and included other cards of note that are either close to the top or are being overlooked right now. Commentary follows each category – the reason that this article was written (instead of just pointing you towards the new top seller generator) was because I can offer insights into why certain cards are hot, which older cards are going to heat up because of these, and which cards might be worth taking a second look at.
The 15 Top Selling Ravnica Uncommons
1) Putrefy (GB1, Instant) | Destroy Target artifact or creature. It can’t be regenerated.
2) Lightning Helix (RW, Instant) | Lightning Helix deals 3 damage to target creature or player and you gain 3 life.
3) Watchwolf (GW, Creature – Wolf) | 3/3
4) Telling Time (U1, Instant) | Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of those cards into your hand, one on top of your library, and one on the bottom of your library.
5) Psychic Drain (UBX, Sorcery) | Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard and you gain X life.
6) Moroii (UB2, Creature – Vampire) | 4/4, Flying. At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life.
7) Suppression Field (W1, Enchantment) | Activated abilities cost 2 more to play unless they’re mana abilities.
8) Dimir Machinations (B2, Sorcery) | Look at the top three cards of target player’s library. Remove any number of those cards from the game, then put the rest back in any order. Transmute BB1 (BB1, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
9) Carven Caryatid (GG1, Creature – Spirit) | Defender, 2/5. When Carven Caryatid comes into play, draw a card.
10) Recollect (G2, Sorcery) | Return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
11) Clutch of the Undercity (UUB1, Instant) | Return target permanent to its owner’s hand. Its controller loses 3 life. Transmute UB1 (UB1, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
12) Perplex (UB1, Instant) | Counter target spell unless its controller discards his or her hand. Transmute UB1 (UB1, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
13) Devouring Light (WW1, Instant) | Remove target attacking or blocking creature from the game. Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature’s color.)
14) Dimir Guildmage ((U/B)(U/B), Creature – Human Wizard) | 2/2. 3U: Target player draws a card. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery. 3B: Target player discards a card. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
15) Darkblast (B, Instant) | Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. Dredge 3 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly 3 cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
Putrefy is far and away our best seller so far, by almost a 3-to-1 margin. This card is the most versatile removal spell in quite some time, and fits almost perfectly into The Rock – especially given the loss of the instant-speed Diabolic Edict. Each set has a few uncommons which settle in the $2-$4 range, and this set has quite a few candidates for that niche. Carven Caryatid is being undervalued right now as a replacement Wall of Blossoms, and I expect sales to pick up on the card significantly once people get a chance to play with it – definitely a card worth picking up while it’s still cheap. I’ve had reports from qualified parties saying that Telling Time is the best Blue card-drawing spell since Fact or Fiction, better even than Thirst for Knowledge, Impulse, and Thoughtcast. That’s a bold claim to make, but they are worth picking up while they are still cheap just in case they take off in price.
You might also notice that the list is dominated, as far as guild cards go, by U/B (Dimir) cards. This is a trend that continues below onto the Rare list. The Dimir (U/B) guild is by and far the most popular guild so far, outranking the other three guilds combined on card sales! The guild is based around a Millstone/decking strategy, which may be viable once Ravnica becomes legal. Because of this, several Standard legal milling cards have begun showing an increased amount of sales, including Dampen Thought and Traumatize. Millstone has not really picked up yet, and might be underpowered compared to other milling spells (irony!). In older formats, Ambassador Laquatus and Haunting Echoes have shown renewed interest – will a U/B Haunting Echoes deck emerge in Extended?
The rest of the cards on the above list don’t come as much of a surprise – Lightning Helix is an amazing burn spell, Watchwolf is a giant creature for a low cost, Suppression Field will see a lot of Constructed play (especially in Standard where it really hurts Umezawa’s Jitte and Sensei’s Divining Top), Recollect (an Eternal Witness replacement for the new Standard), and Devouring Light (the latest in a long line of inefficient Swords to Plowshares replacements).
Other Ravnica Uncommons of Note:
17) Duskmantle, House of Shadow (Land) | Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool. UB, Tap: Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Duskmantle fits straight into the U/B milling theme. These U/B milling cards are the most popular sellers in the set as a conglomerate. This should move up over the coming weeks.
19) Boros Swiftblade (RW, Creature – Human Soldier) | 1/2. Double Strike.
People are underestimating how insane a 1/2 double striker is for just two mana. Remember, Skyhunter Skirmisher was seeing a lot of play as a 1/1 for three mana (albeit with flying), and this guy curves a lot better with early equipment.
22) Vigor Mortis (BB2, Sorcery) | Return target creature card from your graveyard to play. If any Green mana was spent to play this spell, that creature comes into play with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Zombify has always been popular and this is an interesting variant on Zombify. Not much more to say than that.
42) Congregation at Dawn (GGW, Instant) | Search your library for up to three creature cards and reveal them. Shuffle your library, then put those cards on top of it in any order.
This card is being undervalued due to the color-restrictive mana cost, but it is quite powerful to be able to tutor up to three cards at once to the top of your deck. It is potentially abusable in Life decks, and/or with the Dredge mechanic to set up a massive stock of reanimation a-la Buried Alive.
The 15 Top Selling Ravnica Rares
1) Glimpse the Unthinkable (UB, Sorcery) | Target player puts the top 10 cards from his or her library into his or her graveyard.
2) Circu, Dimir Lobotomist (UB2, Legendary Creature – Human Wizard) | 2/3. Whenever you play a blue spell, remove the top card of target library from the game. Whenever you play a black spell, remove the top card of target library from the game. Your opponents can’t play nonland cards with the same name as a card removed from the game with Circu.
3) Plague Boiler (3, Artifact) | At the beginning of your upkeep, put a plague counter on Plague Boiler. GB1: Put a plague counter on Plague Boiler or remove a plague counter from it. When Plague Boiler has three or more plague counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, destroy all nonland permanents.
4) Dimir Doppelganger (UB1, Creature – Shapeshifter) | 0/2. UB1: Remove target creature card in a graveyard from the game. Dimir Doppelganger becomes a copy of that card and gains this ability.
5) Loxodon Hierarch (GW2, Creature – Elephant Cleric) | 4/4. When Loxodon Hierarch comes into play, gain 4 life. GW, Sacrifice Loxodon Hierarch: Regenerate all creatures you control.
6) Grave-Shell Scarab (GGB2, Creature – Insect) | 4/4. 1, Sacrifice Grave-Shell Scarab: Draw a card. Dredge 1 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly 1 card from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
7) Moonlight Bargain (BB3, Instant) | Look at the top five cards of your library. For each card, put that card into your graveyard unless you pay 2 life. Then put the rest into your hand.
8) Overgrown Tomb (Land – Swamp Forest) | Tap: Add Black or Green to your mana pool. As Overgrown Tomb comes into play, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, Overgrown Tomb comes into play tapped instead.
9) Dimir Cutpurse (UB1, Creature – Spirit) | 2/2. Whenever Dimir Cutpurse deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card and you draw a card.
10) Watery Grave (Land – Island Swamp) | Add Blue or Black to your mana pool. As Watery Grave comes into play, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, Watery Grave comes into play tapped instead.
11) Shadow of Doubt ((U/B)(U/B), Instant) | Players can’t search libraries this turn. Draw a card.
12) Sacred Foundry (Land – Mountain Plains) | Tap: Add Red or White to your mana pool. As Sacred Foundry comes into play, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, Sacred Foundry comes into play tapped instead.
13) Gleancrawler ((G/B)(G/B)(G/B)3, Creature – Insect Horror) | 6/6, Trample. At the end of your turn, return to your hand all creature cards put into your graveyard from play this turn.
14) Char (R2, Instant) | Char deals 4 damage to target creature or player and 2 damage to you.
15) Master Warcraft ((R/W)(R/W)2, Instant) | Play Master Warcraft only before attackers are declared. You choose which creatures attack this turn. You choose how each creature blocks this turn.
Three of the four new dual lands clock in on the top fifteen (with the fourth as number sixteen below), which should come as surprise to nobody. Cards useful in U/B and B/G dominate the list, with barely any appearance from the G/W and R/W guilds. Circu and Glimpse the Unthinkable have been selling insanely well, and look to form the main nexus of any U/B milling deck in standard. Dimir Doppelganger comes as somewhat of a surprise, but it might be useful in that deck as well. Grave-Shell Scarab, Plague Boiler and Gleancrawler are all good choices for a G/B deck in Standard, with Grave-Shell Scarab a very viable choice for Extended Rock decks as well.
Moonlight Bargain might be close to Fact or Fiction in terms of sheer power level, and should not be undervalued. Loxodon Hierarch is potentially being overvalued right now, as Ravenous Baloth is more playable in Extended (as very few decks play both W/G right now that would need a 4/4 lifegain creature for four mana) and there doesn’t seem to be interest in a W/G deck for Standard yet. R/W seems more potentially explosive than W/G, even though W/G has larger creatures – R/W has much better removal and disruption. Shadow of Doubt is interesting as a card to hose combo decks (Tooth and Nail? Onslaught Fetch Lands? Goblin Matron?) and is very playable just due to replacing itself when cast. Master Warcraft is basically Mindslaver for one combat phase, and will be popular with casual players.
16) Temple Garden (Land – Forest Plains) | Tap: Add Green or White to your mana pool. As Temple Garden comes into play, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, Temple Garden comes into play tapped instead.
Brushland (W/G) and Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] (W/R) are the two most unpopular pain lands. Savannah (W/G) and Plateau (W/R) are the two most unpopular dual lands. It comes as no surprise that Sacred Foundry and Temple Garden are the two worst selling new duals of the four. However, W/R might finally come in of it’s own thanks to several very playable, aggressively costed spells and creatures available in Standard for these colors right now. W/G? It’s going to be overshadowed as an aggressive deck by W/R, which has a better game plan (removal + creatures).
18) Life from the Loam (G1, Sorcery) | Return up to three target land cards from your graveyard to your hand. Dredge 4 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly 4 cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
Besides being a great anti-land destruction spell, Life from the Loam is one of the best land netting cards in quite some time. Cast it early in the game and then Dredge it to get back probably two lands due to the initial Dredge. It can also be used late game to recur non-basic lands that might have fallen to disuse, such as Wasteland, Mishra’s Factory, or Treetop Village. This card is very subtly powerful and will practically ensure that a player will never be land screwed.
19) Hunted Troll (GG2, Creature – Troll Warrior) | 8/4. When Hunted Troll comes into play, put four 1/1 blue Faerie creature tokens with flying into play under target opponent’s control. G: Regenerate Hunted Troll.
The drawback of the Hunted Creatures is less significant than might appear in formats other than Standard, where cards like Engineered Explosives, Powder Keg, and Pernicious Deed offer already main-deckable ways to deal with the creatures’ drawbacks. In Standard, Trophy Hunter and Arashi act as ways to negate the four 1/1 flyers produced by a very undercosted 8/4 regenerator for four mana.
21) Hunted Horror (BB, Creature – Horror) | 7/7, Trample. When Hunted Horror comes into play, put two 3/3 green Centaur creature tokens with protection from black into play under target opponent’s control.
Hunted Horror will see play in Extended thanks to Pernicious Deed, Mutilate, Engineered Explosives, Chainer’s Edict, and other ways that Black can kill protection-from-black creatures to an insanely undercosted trampler to ran rampant over the board. You might not want to cast Hunted Horror on the second turn, but it is so undercosted that holding it until much later in the game is not much of a drawback.
23) Birds of Paradise (G, Creature – Bird) | 0/1, Flying. Tap: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool
This will start selling once people start playing Standard again – but for now everyone has Llanowar Elves on the brain. Pick these guys up if people are undervaluing them below what all other Birds of Paradise usually sell for ($15-$20).
24) Hunted Dragon (RR3, Creature – Dragon) | 6/6, Flying, Haste. When Hunted Dragon comes into play, put three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens with first strike into play under target opponent’s control.
It’s hard to say whether Hunted Horror or Hunted Dragon is the more powerful Hunted Creature, but these are the two from this very good cycle. Hunted Dragon is bigger and faster than Rorix, which saw a ton of play in Standard and Block. Hunted Dragon has the advantage over the other Hunted creatures in that it can hit the other player before the other player’s free creatures hit you. Since it has Haste, Evasion, and hits for six, I expect it will rise quite sharply in stock once people realize casting it usually means game over. Even if your opponent gets 2/2 creatures, Pyroclasm and Jiwari act as readily available ways in Standard to deal with small token creatures.
29) Dark Confidant (B1, Creature – Human Wizard) | 2/1. At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
Insane in Vintage where cards are maximized for low mana cost. Eminently abusive with Sensei’s Divining Top – a two mana one-way Howling Mine. It can backfire, but so could Necropotence. They curve well in Black, especially given that Black weenie is becoming more and more viable thanks to the tail end of Kamigawa block. It’s also an Invitationalists’ card, which adds to its popularity. Pick these up, because people are underestimating it due to the fear of mandatory life loss.
39) Flame Fusillade (R3, Sorcery) | Until end of turn, permanents you control gain “Tap: This permanent deals 1 damage to target creature or player.”.
Part of the new Illusions/Donate combo with Time Vault. Time Vault can untap itself infinite times, allowing you to Fusillade someone to death with just those two cards. Look for this to make an immediately impact in Legacy, and a potential (though unlikely) impact in Vintage. Think of this as a the Donate part of the combo – and get them now because people will be valuing these as bulk rares at the prerelease because they are junk in other formats.
46) Sunforger (3, Artifact – Equipment) | Equip 3. Equipped creature gets +4/+0. RW, Unattach Sunforger: Search your library for a red or white instant card with converted mana cost 4 or less and play that card without paying its mana cost. Then shuffle your library.
Insane. If R/W takes off as a deck (and I believe it will), this is the most powerful card in the deck. Attack with your creature at an extra four, and then tutor out any number of ridiculous spells post combat – Lightning Helix, Seed Spark, Shock, Char, Rally the Righteous, Blessed Breath, Ethereal Haze, Flames of the Blood Hand, Glacial Ray, Hanabi Blast, Hidetsugu’s Second Rite, Otherworldly Journey, Scour, and Master Warcraft seem like fine spells to fetch with this equipment in Standard – either off the board or as a one-of thanks to your toolbox.
In Extended, this potentially gets even more insane with spells like Shrapnel Blast, Fire/Ice (both halves), Absorb (! – that could come as a total surprise in an Aggro deck as a one-of to tutor for), Boil, Disenchant, Raise the Alarm, Final Fortune, Grab the Reins, Magma Jet, Orim’s Chant, Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], Pulse of the Fields, Reprisal, Second Sunrise, Shunt, Suffocating Blast (! – just like Absorb), Terminate, Urza’s Rage, and Violent Eruption can be fetched with Sunforger. Also quite good in casual play for grabbing, I don’t know, Swords to Plowshares, Tithe, and Lightning Bolt to name a few.
76) Vinelasher Kudzu (G1, Creature – Plant) | 1/1. Whenever a land comes into play under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on Vinelasher Kudzu.
Vinelasher Kudzu is perhaps the most criminally undervalued card in the set right now. This card is an improved (yes, improved) Quirion Dryad, which will be abused in Extended with the Onslaught fetch lands (play a fetch land, +1/+1. Use the fetch land to get another land, +1/+1). It will be abused in Standard with the insane amount of land tutoring Green has gotten recently (think Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama’s Reach). It grows bigger as you incur your normal game plan – playing a land a turn. Get these now – they are Constructed gold and are being ignored. This is the absolute sleeper hit of the set – and while I won’t go as far as to say it’s being as misevaluated as Arcbound Ravager (it’s probably not), I will say that it’s going to end up being one of the most played, playable, and splashable cards in the set across multiple, multiple formats.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and all feedback is appreciated on the forums! Have fun at whatever prerelease you attend, as this set is going to be a lot of fun – and before I go, here’s one last tip:
Pick up foil Elves of the Deep Shadow. It’s nature’s perfect Hypnotic Specter enabler for Standard.
Ben Bleiweiss
General Manager, StarCityGames.com