A Popular Legacy Card?
Will Price | March 3, 2009 | 6:37 pm
Will this little guy be spitting all over Legacy players this weekend?
Probably not.
However…

An actual Magic: the Gathering card that you might be expecting to see this weekend
I have been using Cardshark to purchase singles for Magic on and off over the past seven years. It wasn’t until yesterday that I noticed that you could see a list of their most purchased cards, categorized by rarity and time frame. What rare has been sold the most? The answer, Chrome Mox, may not be that surprising considering its heavy play since its release. If you check out the most sold commons from the last 7 days, you will find that an interesting Ice Age card that is outselling the 2nd place Desperate Ritual by almost 3 to 1.
I wouldn’t just link to a random Pokemon card…
Mystic Remora, a card that I certainly had not heard of, has been selling very well by Cardshark standards over the past few weeks. The question is, where do we expect to see it? What Legacy decks are planning on packing this enchantment? Seriously, if you know what deck this is good in, please post in the comments. The only thing I have come up with is using it as a sideboard card in some storm deck and playing it out before you combo as a hedge in case your opponent has counters and/or Stifles.
If you go back two weeks in the numbers, you will see that Yavimaya Elder has spiked significantly as well. Could this mean a resurgence in rock decks?
Maybe these numbers don’t mean anything. Perhaps one of those “kooky” Vorthos players is trying to fill an entire binder with Mystic Remora. Maybe a dealer is anticipating that this will be a hot card and bought out a bunch at a nickel each, hoping to flip them for $1-2 at the GP.
It is hard to look at these numbers and try to divine any real insights into the metagame. Would someone have been able to see the spike in Wall of Reverence over the past few weeks and guessed that the deck that won the Pro Tour would be packing them in the main? More likely you would have pegged it as a popular casual card. However, as far as I know Cardshark is one of the only sites that makes information like this public (if you know of any others, post them in comments). I will probably check these lists as big events approach to see if any Remora-like outliers emerge.
Anyone who is going to the GP this weekend, let us know if you see any tricky fish at the top of the tables.
~WillPoP



Here is a deck list that LSV built and GerryT used to win some Moxen or some such at the PT.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptkyo09/vintage
Yeah, I can’t speak to Legacy, but this is a relatively popular card in Vintage. It gets used in Blue control decks as a way to fight the raw power of Dark Ritual. It won’t always get you there, but in between the extra Force of Will’s it draws you and the likelihood that your opponent is a donkey and will misplay due to it, Mystic Remora can be a good weapon for Mana Drain decks against their proper masters (aka TPS decks).
Seems like Yavimaya Elder has a good interaction with Natural Order (which probably leads to Progenitus).
Remora was popular in Extended decks around the time of High Tide, when virtually nobody played creature-heavy decks, and it was difficult to keep your combo going if every time you advanced it, your opponent drew a card. Nobody is cold vs. Remora, but it has its uses.