Cliffside Market MTG Card
2009-09-04 - Number 5
2018-12-25 - Number 18
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Plane — Mercadia |
Key Takeaways
- Offers card advantage by enabling strategic hand management and effective resource swapping at key moments.
- Allows mana acceleration, crucial for deploying high-impact spells to outpace opponents in the early game.
- Provides instant speed interactions, giving players the flexibility to make pivotal plays during any phase.
Text of card
When you planeswalk to Cliffside Market or at the beginning of your upkeep, you may exchange life totals with target player. Whenever you roll chaos, exchange control of two target permanents that share a type.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Cliffside Market is designed to offer players a boost in card economy, effectively allowing them to exchange less useful cards from their hand for potentially more impactful ones. This swap can play a crucial role in maintaining a strong hand throughout the match.
Resource Acceleration: By providing access to additional mana, Cliffside Market can significantly enhance a players’ ability to cast high-cost spells earlier in the game. This acceleration can be a game-changer, especially in decks that thrive on casting large creatures or powerful spells ahead of the curve.
Instant Speed: The real strength of Cliffside Market lies in its ability to be played at instant speed. This flexibility allows players to adapt to the developing game, utilizing their mana efficiently and responding to opponents’ actions at the last possible moment, potentially leading to more advantageous exchanges and preserving the element of surprise.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Cliffside Market necessitates that you discard a valuable card from your hand to activate its ability. This can often be a steep price, especially if you’re struggling to maintain card advantage or depend heavily on each piece in your hand for a strategic play.
Specific Mana Cost: The activation cost of Cliffside Market requires a strict combination of mana colors, which might not be readily available at all times. This can potentially delay your plays or could cause inconsistency in mana bases that aren’t tailored to support such requirements.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: When sizing up the mana investment against the benefits, Cliffside Market can seem less appealing. Especially considering other options in the game, this card’s four mana activation cost is quite high, which may deter players from including it in their decks in a competitive environment where efficiency is key.
Reasons to Include Cliffside Market in Your Collection
Versatility: Cliffside Market offers a unique flexibility in deck building due to its ability to exchange resources based on the current in-game demands. This adaptability makes it a suitable inclusion across various deck archetypes, from control to combo.
Combo Potential: This card opens up avenues for innovative combos by allowing players to swap permanents under specific conditions, potentially disrupting opponent strategies or enhancing your own board state in unexpected ways.
Meta-Relevance: In a metagame where trades can tip the scales, Cliffside Market could play a pivotal role. Its ability to maneuver around sticky situations or capitalize on the ebb and flow of a match makes it a card worth considering as the environment shifts.
How to Beat Cliffside Market
Cliffside Market may seem like an unassuming addition to the card pool on the surface, but its ability to swap resources can be a major tactical advantage in Magic: The Gathering. This unique land card allows players to exchange one type of permanent card for another, potentially rearranging the battlefield in their favor.
To effectively counter Cliffside Market, it’s crucial to understand its limitations and manipulate those to your advantage. One strategy is to maintain control over the types of permanents you play. Opt for less exchangeable permanents or those that would be less beneficial for your opponent to acquire. Another approach is to apply pressure and force trades that are advantageous for you or simply remove the card through targeted land destruction or ability denial strategies.
Moreover, being aware of the market’s potential swaps can guide your playstyle. If your opponent relies on Cliffside Market, plan your moves to limit their profitable exchanges. By staying one step ahead, you can turn the tables on Cliffside Market and maintain the upper hand in your match.
Cards like Cliffside Market
Cliffside Market is a unique inclusion in the realm of exchange and control effects within Magic: The Gathering. It stands in the same category as cards like Perplexing Chimera, which allow for the swapping of permanents or spell effects. Cliffside Market takes this a step further by permitting the exchange of creatures or lands specifically, offering brand new strategic layers to the battlefield dynamics. On the contrary, Perplexing Chimera manipulates the stack and can often lead to a more reactionary, instant-speed interaction.
Analogous to Cliffside Market is the seasoned Shifting Loyalties, which also enables the exchange of control over two nonland permanents. However, Shifting Loyalties comes with the limitation of not being able to switch lands, carving out Cliffside Market’s niche in the land-swap space. Meanwhile, cards like Role Reversal offer a direct analog with the ability to exchange two target permanents that share a card type, be it creatures or lands, making it a versatile path to consider.
Scrutinizing these alternatives showcases Cliffside Market’s prowess in specific tactical maneuvers, particularly when maximizing the value of exchanging lands, a less common but potentially game-altering move in a player’s arsenal.
Cards similar to Cliffside Market by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Cliffside Market MTG card by a specific set like Planechase Planes and Planechase Anthology Planes, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Cliffside Market and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See Magic products
Printings
The Cliffside Market Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2009-09-04 and 2018-12-25. Illustrated by Matt Stewart.
| # | Release | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2009-09-04 | Planechase Planes | OHOP | 5 | 2003 | planar | black | Matt Stewart | |
| 2 | 2018-12-25 | Planechase Anthology Planes | OPCA | 18 | 2015 | planar | black | Matt Stewart |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Cliffside Market card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2009-10-01 | A face-up plane card that’s turned face down becomes a new object with no relation to its previous existence. In particular, it loses all counters it may have had. |
| 2009-10-01 | A plane card is treated as if its text box included “When you roll {PW}, put this card on the bottom of its owner’s planar deck face down, then move the top card of your planar deck off that planar deck and turn it face up.” This is called the “planeswalking ability.” |
| 2009-10-01 | Both permanents targeted by the chaos ability may be controlled by the same player. If they are, the effect nothing. |
| 2009-10-01 | For two players to exchange life totals, what actually happens is that each player gains or loses the amount of life necessary to equal the other player’s previous life total. For example, if Player A has 5 life and Player B has 3 life before the exchange, Player A will lose 2 life and Player B will gain 2 life. Other cards that interact with life gain or life loss will interact with this effect accordingly. |
| 2009-10-01 | If an ability of a plane refers to “you,” it’s referring to whoever the plane’s controller is at the time, not to the player that started the game with that plane card in their deck. Many abilities of plane cards affect all players, while many others affect only the planar controller, so read each ability carefully. |
| 2009-10-01 | If either permanent targeted by the chaos ability is an illegal target by the time the ability resolves, the exchange doesn’t happen. If both targets become illegal, the ability doesn’t resolve. |
| 2009-10-01 | Neither permanent you target with the chaos ability needs to be one you control. |
| 2009-10-01 | The control-change effect has no duration. For each permanent, it will last until the game ends or the permanent leaves the battlefield. It will override all previous control-change effects for those permanents, and may be overridden by a later control-change effect. |
| 2009-10-01 | The controller of a face-up plane card is the player designated as the “planar controller.” Normally, the planar controller is whoever the active player is. However, if the current planar controller would leave the game, instead the next player in turn order that wouldn’t leave the game becomes the planar controller, then the old planar controller leaves the game. The new planar controller retains that designation until they leave the game or a different player becomes the active player, whichever comes first. |
