Can you feel it? We’re almost there! That’s right, the Trial of the Gods expansion is almost upon us. What does the Marketplace look like as the players begin to anticipate all the new cards that are set to shake up the metagame and overall economy? Well, most of you decided to go face. Can’t blame you. Let’s dive into the details!
Genesis, week 18: The aggro thesis
Geez, people, chill out for a moment. Light’s Blessed Jackalope is on top of the list for Week 18 among the Genesis cards, a 1 mana 1/1 with a Roar that reads “heal each other friendly creature for 4” but it might as well read “if you made two value trades, win the game”. It's been a key part of the Midrange Light package that’s a mainstay meta choice in recent times (and it’s no surprise to see Highborn Knight at #6.
However, right behind it is Out of Its Misery, a fascinating redraw tool for low-curve War decks. Under the right circumstances, you sacrifice a token or a small damaged creature for a chance to play an overstated version of something else in your deck, essentially buffing your board presence after making the attacks and trades you were looking for. It seems the Slayer War package is back again, and it really feels like it hasn’t even left us in the first place: Whetstone has popped up at #4.
In number three, Friendly Mimic makes a surprise appearance, a finicky little combo card we haven’t seen around in the top 20 since Week 3 of trading. A 4 mana 2/2 which adds a copy of a friendly creature to your hand, it requires a lot of setup but can do devastating damage when combined with the right ally. Buyer beware: its UnchainedStats winrate isn’t exactly stellar.
What I’m going to say next will no doubt shock you: Pyramid Warden took a week off from the top 20! It must be taxing to always be on the top, and Week 18 saw the omnipresent creature fall off the charts for the first time in ages. Not to worry though, it bounced back to #19 immediately thereafter. Another old stalwart has picked up the slack in its stead: Nimble Pixie, the flexible early-game play for the whole family, was at #7.
That said, you could already spot pockets of the emerging counters lower down the list. Sacred Lore and Reap came in at #5 and #16 respectively for Death, and Demogorgon was spotted again at #9. It was only the beginning.
Genesis, week 19: the zzz antithesis
Week 19 was when everyone went to sleep. Demogorgon vaulted atop the pack to #1, an epic creature which was mostly seen on the top 20 charts in the early weeks of trading but has bounced back in a big was as we get ever closer to Trial of the Gods. It combines a massive tempo swing, instant board impact and healing in a nifty package to make every aggro player sad around you. And who doesn’t want that, really? Ah, that’s right – the aggro players.
Moving on, Valkyrie Heartsworn has popped up in second place – quite an entrance to make for a card that hasn’t been previously featured in the weekly top 20 lists. Tribal synergy is the name of the game with this one, and works the best in the early game alongside a swarm of other Viking creatures. Did you know it was originally just a 1/1 with a Roar that read “gain +3 Attack if you have 3 or more Vikings in your Void”? Its utility has certainly gone up since those days.
Malfunctioning Servitor is #3 for the week, another card which we haven’t seen ‘round these parts for a while. Only seen on the Week 4 top 20 list, its Roar which transfers a random minion into a 1/5 or a 5/1 can serve as a quasi-removal tool when there is only one big threat on the board.
Before we move on from Genesis, don’t forget to check out the details of the latest Marketplace update, and keep in mind that all of its trinkets, boards and card backs have been permanently activated for trade on May 7!
Here's the round-up of Genesis top sellers:
Core, week 18: Big boys and great girls
It’s rare to see humongous piles of stats on the game board and it’s usually a sign that something fishy is going on with the mana locks. Do I see Nature doing nasty things in the corner of my eye? It’s certainly the most straightforward explanation for Helian Elite’s number one spot on the core trading list (previously #7 on week 17), and 8 mana 10/12 with Protected and Frontline. In third place, a very similar card: Burnished Bull.
Number four? Tainted Treant. I knew it!
Spartan’s #2 spot suggests a further exploration of tribal synergies last month, similarly to Valkyrie Heartsworn. Nefarious Briar’s #5 spot likely owes a lot to Slayer War and its potential to counter those strategies. It’s worth mentioning that we’ve seen quite a few epics on this week’s top 20 core card lists, unlike in the previous iteration: Spartan itself, of course, takes #2 but Patience Priestess (#7), Blackguard (#10), Tomb Blademaster (#11), Thaumnetic Golem (#13), Faeflame Blade (#17) and Phase Touched Golem (#18) have also made it this time around.
Thing is, not one of them stuck around for next week’s party.
Core, week 19: A complete overhaul
Though we had comparatively fewer core-exclusive datasets to analyze, it’s already becoming quite clear that the core trading is even more volatile than that of the Genesis cards. Though we do see certain cards bubbling back to the surface, it’s incredibly rare to see the same ones on back-to-back top 20 lists. Let's compare:
For week 19, Leyhoard Hatchling is in #1, last seen two weeks ago in the fifteenth position: a Magic card which requires a ton of setup but is a key part of the currently popular combo archetype for the class. 10 mana 2/1 you say? Well, it’s usually a lot cheaper than that because of the high number of cards in your hand, and a Roar which deals six damage also helps out a lot with the value proposition.
Runed Asp came in second, an interesting card (one which was just updated a few days ago at the time of writing, removing just one Mana lock instead of two as its potential Afterlife effect) for Death. Symmetrical effects like these are always a challenging proposition to get right, as your opponent is basically guaranteed to reap its benefits before you do. As such, you need to make sure you get much more out of it than they can over the course of the game – and the fact that you can choose between drawing a card or unlocking a mana lock makes it easier to find a way to benefit.
#3 of the list is perhaps the most interesting card we’ve looked at in today’s column, yet another Death creature in the form of Void Banshee, a 2 mana 4/3 with an Afterlife that reads “deal 4 damage to your god and pull the top card of your deck into your void”. It’s not an insignificant price to pay for the extra two stats, but neither downside is particularly scary for a deck like Death Zoo, which definitely prefers the tempo aspect on offer. You’ll remember Bombfly was also among the top core cards traded just a few weeks ago.
Enjoy the meta while it lasts before it departs this mortal coil, for Trial of the Gods is almost upon us, and with it, a whole new world of excitement, experimentation and no doubt a complete upheaval of everything we’ve seen and known about the Marketplace. It’s going to be a special time for Gods Unchained players, and I for one can’t wait to analyze everything it has to offer in the coming weeks!
~ Credit: Luci Kelemen
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