Countdown to Christmas 2019: Planeswalkers

If you took part in our Christmas contest, as so many of you did, you probably can't wait for us to part the veil and unravel the mystery. It's time to lift the secret and to reveal the four planeswalker cards that were traded the most on Cardmarket.com in 2019.

Honorable Mentions

Granted, Oko, Thief of Crowns was the talk of the town for a while, the shapeshifter should by rights win the costume contest, and he clearly did bring Food. But he came a little late to the party to be a serious contender to place highly on the year's popularity charts. Then too, there just aren't enough copies of mythic rares in circulation for them to claim any of the top ranks, which also dooms Wrenn and Six. Instead, our countdown begins with …

#4 – Karn, the Great Creator

Karn, the Great does his best work in larger formats, although I once used his +1 ability on Parhelion II in a game of Limited. At any rate, the card didn't make big waves in Standard. However, at the first Modern Grand Prix where Karn, the Great Creator was legal, main decks with four Karn and four Chalice of the Void outperformed the field by 6.4 match points. At the time, such decks even averaged 1.8 points more than those with Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and Bridge from Below.

Karn remains a cornerstone of Modern to this day, appearing in Eldrazi Tron, in some Green Tron as well as some Amulet builds, and in the latest iteration of Urza decks. If anything, the rise of Urza, Lord High Artificer has made the card a more prevalent inclusion. The Top 8 of the most recent Modern GP, for example, included 14 copies of the Great Creator.

Similar goes for Legacy, where some decks rely on the deadly combination with Mycosynth Lattice alone to end games. It all pales in comparison to what Karn did with Vintage though. In a world of Moxen, Karn proved so powerful that he required a restriction.

#3 – Teferi, Time Raveler

It hasn't been that long since Wizards banned Reflector Mage from Standard play. So how about a card for the same mana cost that can bounce artifacts and enchantments too, draws a card in the process, and has a highly relevant effect on the game going forward?

Teferi, Time Raveler continues to see a sizeable amount of play in all 60-card formats. It is this ubiquity that earned him his place as the third most traded planeswalker of the year.

#2 – Ashiok, Dream Render

The biggest surprise performance by any archetype in 2019 has to be Scapeshift's run at the Standard Grand Prix in Denver. Decks with four copies of Scapeshift accounted for no more than 4.6% of the starting field, but claimed 20.3% of the Top 64 ranks at the tournament's conclusion. Four of 28 players finished in the Top 8, and another four in the Top 16.

The 3-mana Teferi above had been instrumental in the deck's success, allowing players to cast Scapeshift at the end of their opponent's turn. Ashiok, Dream Render, then, became instrumental in fighting the deck.

And the #1 Planeswalker Is …

Of course, Ashiok and Narset took the top two spots in large part due to their rarity, or lack thereof. There simply are about 2.3 times as many copies of a regular uncommon in existence as there are copies of any individual rare. In past years, the disparity wouldn't have affected planeswalkers, because cards of this type used to be typecast as mythic rares. But 2019 was the Year of the 'Walker. We got more different cards than ever before, at lower rarities, and they turned out more powerful than ever before too.

Narset, Parter of Veils is no exception. Just like Karn, she played a bigger role in the bigger formats. For example, six main-deck Narsets landed in the Top 8 at Cardmarket Series Prague's Pioneer event. Also like Karn, she earned a place on the list of cards restricted in Vintage.

And that's our Top 4. Did you expect this lineup? Any major surprises? Let us know in the comments, and check back tomorrow when we reveal the four most popular enchantments!

---

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.

---

---