Well, well, well, if it isn’t a bright new day, mortals? With the online version of the Marketplace now available for everyone, perhaps it’s no surprise to see even further twists and turns in the top twenty trading list.
There’s always something new to analyze and discover – and yet, steady trends and popular little friends seem to have nevertheless established themselves as reliable elements of this column over time. What are they? Read on to find out!
Analysis provided by featured writer, Luci Kelemen...
New kids on the block
As we’re getting closer and closer to the release of Trial of the Gods, there’s no doubt going to be a complete upheaval of expectations and previous trends on the Marketplace. I, for one, am very much looking forward to it – but as the data shows, there’s still enough movement right now to analyze, even in such a mature metagame.
The ups and downs of the Marketplace continue to highlight the flexibility and depth of the Gods Unchained meta, even with only just two sets in play right now. Even ten weeks into trading, we find multiple cards on the top twenty list which never made a cut before, some climbing quite high in the process.
In fact, each of the top three cards are featured for the first time, which hasn’t happened since the time Slayer War upended the metagame last year. Flying Carpet (some of you may remember when this creature was a 3 mana 3/3 with flank!), Inquisitor’s Summons and Shadow Slash take the podium spots, though Eager Gryphon from the previous column still managed to hang on at #9.
Overall, ten of the cards are first-timers in the top twenty bracket, with notable arrivals including Dimension Looper at #6, Nether Nanny at #11 and Revenant Lynx at #15.
Old faithfuls and clear trends
The rarity crunch keeps on crunching: not one legendary card made it to the top 20 since week 4, a huge change from the early days when Avatar of Magic and Avatar of War defined so much of the game (alongside Jason, Medea’s Muse). In fact, eleven of the top twelve were commons, with a single rare sneaking in at number five as a combo breaker. Regular readers of the column can probably guess which one it is. That’s right, it’s Pyramid Warden, more durable than diamonds, featured on all but one of these top twenty lists to date.
With Nimble Pixie missing the cut twice after holding the longest top twenty streak out of all Gods Unchained cards, it’s now officially behind its Anubian buddy. In fact, Pyramid Warden’s popularity has increased for the third time in a row, at least where this analysis is concerned, going from #18 to #9 to #5, making this the highest spot it held to date on these top twenty lists.
No wonder cards like these are such consistent performers: they are strong early tempo plays, which make them viable in a wide variety of aggressive decks. It’s much tougher to find dedicated control tools which work regardless of your specific approach – though of course, Demogorgon would perhaps beg to differ –, but if your goal is to identify cards which are likely to trade in high volumes, ones like these are a fairly safe bet across every metagame.
Two weeks ago, we’ve seen thirteen commons, five rares and three epics on the list – this time around, fourteen commons, two rares and four epics make up the list. Not only that, but the higher-rarity cards increasingly seem to cluster in the lower part of the top twenty. The highest non-common card is the aforementioned Pyramid Warden at #5, the lowest such cards have ever been in the history of this column. Meanwhile, the highest-placing epic is Scythes of the Harvest at #13. One has to wonder how this phenomenon will change as the play-to-earn structure of the game gets fleshed out and more players engage with that card earning pathway over time.
As for legendaries, their special nature and archetype-specific impact makes them a high-risk-high-reward choice for speculation and investors, at least in the short term. It will be really interesting to see whether these cards from the upcoming expansion (especially considering their story relevance and potential impact) will see the same sort of popularity on the Marketplace early on as some of the other cards did in the opening weeks.
You may recall that Jason, Medea’s Muse was the second-highest traded card in terms of volume on the opening week! (Admittedly, A Real Man was #3, albeit for very different reasons.) Almost half of the top twenty – nine of them, to be precise – were of the highest rarity in the game. Interestingly, Amplification Machine has made a triumphant return at #17 this time around after being absent from these lists since the opening week. It seems like a lifetime ago in many ways, and this back-and-forth suggests an exciting period going forward as we inch ever closer to the release of the new cards.
Top 20 Cards - Week 9&10
Marketplace update: trade in your browser!
Beyond the stats dive, we’ve also got a small public service announcement for you: in case you missed it, the web-based iteration of the Marketplace is now live, ready for your browser-based trading needs. It works exactly the same way as the in-client version does, to such an extent that you don’t even need to re-link your existing wallet if you’ve already done so in the game previously. With four decimal places to work with, you can precisely pinpoint any sweet deal out there.
Meanwhile, quality and rarity filters were also moved to the forefront, which should make it easier to find what you’re looking for. Multiple further quality-of-life improvements are in the pipeline, slated for future release, the details of which you can find in this dedicated blog post.
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