Today, we look at a card from the Magic 2019 Core Set that's a former a #1 TCGPlayer bestseller. That card is Demanding Dragon, a 5/5 dragon for 5 mana that has an ability that may be more powerful than some people realize. Pre-ordering for around $1 on major Magic card retailers like Card Kingdom and Channel Fireball, this rare had a bit more demand than anticipated. It also received a lot of attention on eBay and Amazon. But, did that demand hold up?

Demanding Dragon's Casual Appeal

Demanding Dragon is a card casual players can get very excited about. When he enters the battlefield, the Dragon deals 5 damage to target opponent unless he or she sacrifices a creature. That's pretty powerful, either way. Plus, he's 5 power and 5 toughness. While he may be no Thundermaw Hellkite or Stormbreath Dragon, forcing an opponent to sacrifice a creature is always a powerful play. Five damage is no joke, either.

Why is Demanding Dragon So Cheap?

As powerful as he sounds, why is he only $1? Well, this isn't a card that screams competitive play. But this isn't just a Dragon. This is a creature with a generically powerful effect that can slot into a variety of midrange decks. Really, his strength is very dependent on the meta. If there are decks that can effectively swarm the board, he's going to be a fairly weak play. But, he's really strong against decks that play one big finisher or don't play many creatures at all.  So, there is room for Demanding Dragon to be very good.

Is Demanding Dragon a Good Standard Card?

 In Standard, Demanding Dragon felt more like a sideboard card against particular decks. M19 is full of cards built to hose certain decks and this is definitely one of those. There are definitely ways to abuse his enter-the-battlefield ability, such as blinking and reanimating. If those types of decks are viable in Standard, he'd definitely be a player. Also, the recent best Dragon in Standard, Glorybringer, wouldn't hang around past October 2018.

You couldn't expect a huge price tag on this guy, especially being only a Core Set rare. But, since there is so much interest in him, you should be keeping an eye on him. Attaching a Lava Axe to a creature that can at the very least force your opponent to sacrifice something or take a sizeable amount of damage to the face is awesome. Yeah, your opponent can choose not to sacrifice something, but losing a quarter of your starting life total is pretty sizeable.

Unfortunately for Demanding Dragon, there proved to be no real home for him. Despite how good he looks on paper, he just hasn't proven to be worthy of competitive play. He doesn't quite do enough for 5 mana. Had he been 4 mana instead, and dealt 4 damage, and was a 4/4, Demanding Dragon may be more attractive to competitive deckbuilders.

Should I Care About Demanding Dragon?

Demanding Dragon is still an interesting card, even without any significant Standard play. Five mana Dragons typically do see play, but there are a couple things that work against him. He doesn't have haste, which most competitively played Dragons do, giving you an immediate return on investment for your mana. Some players thought his abilities make up for that, but that hasn't played out.

It seemed like Demanding Dragon could be a $3-4 card very easily, especially with his demand profile early on. It never happened, though. With that said, he is a Dragon, and his foils bottomed out at $1.50. There is some value in foil Demanding Dragon if you really like collecting Dragons.

Also, Demanding Dragon has also popped up in a few mono-Red EDH Decks, such as Lathliss, Dragon Queen (also from Magic 2019) and Ilharg, the Raze-Boar. Kaalia, Zenith Seeker from Magic 2020 is also inviting him into some of her lists, too, so there is still potential for Demanding Dragon to find some more homes.

If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of the next big thing in Magic: the Gathering, check the best-seller lists on various websites. You especially want to pay attention to TCGPlayer and Amazon, although Troll and Toad is another good one to check. Sometimes, you'll see a card that you simply don't understand why it's among the top 10 or even top 5 cards. But there's always a reason.

Tower Defense is a decent uncommon from Gatecrash that you can play at instant speed. It gives creatures you control +0/+5 and reach until end of turn. People have played this card before, especially in Defender decks, which are a lot of fun with Assault Formation.

But what caused this little pump spell to become a #4 best-seller on TCGPlayer in late June 2018? Enter one of the coolest Legendary Creatures in Magic 2019, Arcades, the Strategist!

The reimagining of the Elder Dragons from Magic the Gathering's Legends set is pretty freaking awesome. Each of them has some sweet abilities, but Arcades, the Strategist has created a pretty sweet new Commander (EDH) deck all on his own. While Bant Defenders is an archetype that's existed for a long time, Arcades 2.0 makes that deck suddenly quite good.

Before now, Doran, the Siege Tower was the best Defender deck commander. But he's Green, White, and Black, which leaves out a lot of really sweet Defenders, such as Wall of Denial, for example. Arcades allows you to play all of those Blue Defenders, and then some!

A 4-mana 3/5 with Flying and Vigilance, this Elder Dragon draws you a card whenever a creature with defender enters the battlefield under your control. Already, this deck gains some serious card advantage. Then, there's the big effect on this card, something we've only seen before on Doran, and enchantments like Assault Formation and Rolling Stones.

"Each creature you control with defender assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power and can attack as though it didn't have defender."

There are lots of high toughness creatures in Magic with Defender. This kind of deck has been semi-competitive in the past. But Arcades, the Strategist gives you an amazing advantage by giving you really easy card draw.

So where does Tower Defense as a 2-mana instant pump spell fit in? That's because Tower Defense essentially is a +5/+5 pump spell for your team. The reach can be good sometimes, too, if you're using it defensively. But in an Arcades, the Strategist deck, you're using this combat trick more often than not on offense. But the ability to use the reach to block flyers is pretty sweet, and could swing a game in your favor.

Long story short, Tower Defense is only the first of a number of cards that should see a big boost from Arcades, the Strategist being printed. Tree of Redemption from Masters 25 is going to become quite relevant in that deck, as well as mana dorks like Axebane Guardian and Overgrown Battlement. Countless Walls and Treefolk are going to be at home in this deck, too. Plus, having access to Blue means access to crazy good spells like Cyclonic Rift, extra turn cards, and counter-magic.

While people are pretty excited that Arcades, the Strategist makes for an awesome budget Commander deck, this guy has a chance to turn Bant Defenders into an extremely competitive strategy. As a Bant lover myself, I love this guy.

And because of him, Tower Defense is going to win some games.

by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate

First printed in Magic 2011, Phylactery Lich is an interesting mono-black zombie.  The Lich was later reprinted in the Magic 2013 and Magic 2019 Core Sets. It’s a 5/5 Zombie for only 3 mana, and it’s indestructible.

Of course, with that power and toughness for a low cost. there’s a downside. But, it’s an interesting drawback. When the Lich enters the battlefield, you put a phylactery counter on an artifact you control. The counter itself doesn’t do anything, but if you control no permanents with phylactery counters on them, you sacrifice Phylactery Lich.
 
There are, of course, cases in which you could easily have four of these on the board at a time and spread out the counters among four artifacts. You only have to have one of those counters no matter how many of the Lich you have on the board. The question is, what artifacts are going to be played in mono-black?

When this card was first in Standard, Scars of Mirrodin block was still available, and there were several good options. You had Mortarpod and Lashwrithe, both often played in mono-black control decks. There were other artifacts that could be playable, as well, but it will be interesting to see what artifacts will be played in this sort of Constructed deck in the future.
 
Potentially, this is an extremely good card. It’s especially good in mono-black Zombies (for obvious reasons). I’d like to see some competitive decks playing it, though I’m not sure we will. In any case, you’ll want to have one if you ever play Zombies in EDH. It’s a good card that may go overlooked, and can work in a deck made for it.
 
~ Phoenix