Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I don't think they're scarce per se, but it's obviously a very powerful card relative to the rest of the card pool and thus it's not often traded. When a card isn't available for trade, it's buy price is going to climb.

True, but for those of us who need one more TSC and 3Woes it gets pricey

This is why we didn’t make another chase card like those this year (and probably won’t for the next set either). Having some chase cards is good for the game. Having too many is not. I don’t claim to know where the balance lies, but we try.

Cards I find myself using often include:

SoG
AotL
TSC
3W
CM/FA (CoW)

Wanderer
Awake/Covet
Humble

YWR
TEotE
CoP

What does YWR mean?

You will Remain

There aren't too many staple cards for every deck, but much of last year I saw these pretty much everywhere:

SoG
AotL
TSC/NJ
CM
FA (either)
3 Woes
Dull LS
Lawless LS
Imitate LS
YWR
CoP
Ends
The Deceiver

Though this is bound to change somewhat, I don't foresee many of the FoM cards becoming cards that see play like the aforementioned cards have (aside from for sure Prosperity soul, probably Wages, and potentially Babel). Most of the FoM stuff that's exceptionally strong is tied to certain colors or themes (Covet LS, Deceit & Vengeance, Phinehas, Baal Worship, Leviathan, Sodom & Gomorrah, David's Census) or is situationally strong but inconsistent (Fall of Man, R&D, Vindicated LS, Confused Languages, Overtaken, Heart of Depravity, Life Through Christ) that won't work as staples on the level of something as good as The Deceiver or YWR. IMO this is very good (lessening the amount of "must have" cards) yet also bad (very few truly valuable cards to open if you're looking for things that fit into more than a handful of decks).