(Trading Post | By Adam Paquette)

Anyone Want to Trade?

Welcome back to The Toolbox! Here we take a look at underplayed cards and evaluate where they ought to see more play.

Today we are taking a look at Trading Post! This is a card that's rarely anywhere but in trade binders, but it should see play more often. Why should it be considered? Let’s take a look!

Trading Post offers a lot of options to its patrons, and each benefit provides you with the cost for another option: you can discard a card to gain four life, you can pay one life to make a 0/1 Goat token, you can sacrifice a creature to return an artifact from your graveyard to your hand, or you can sacrifice an artifact to draw a card! Each of these options is useful in minor ways; we've all probably been in that situation where discarding a card would be worth it to gain the 4 life you need to survive a big attack, for example. How can a card with so many specific applications be functional in a focused gameplan, though? 

Onto the commanders! Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient is an obvious pick for Trading Post's ability to copy any of these trades to get even more value out of them. Feldon of the Third Path can capitalize on the discard by making an artifact copy of any creature you toss into the bin, and sacrificing the token to the Post before the end step to get other important artifacts back from your graveyard, or to draw cards! Jalira, Master Polymorphist is probably one of the more interesting traders, as she mainly wants the Goat tokens that Trading Post creates, while the card draw and artifact recursion act more in the utility slot.

Where other token engines such as Nuisance Engine only make tokens, Trading Post offers extra modes of interaction. It’s no secret that mono-black can play a long game and generate an obscene amount of mana, so being able to sacrifice Treasure tokens from King Macar, the Gold-Cursed can be invaluable. Along with the recursion and ability to untap it with things like Unwinding Clock, it’s pretty clear why you wouldn’t mind being able to trade some Treasure!

What other commanders can you find shopping at this Trading Post, though? What other crazy combos and interactions are available? Let’s find out!

Live Fast, Die Young

Like many Aetherborn, Gonti, Lord of Luxury has a short life, but for us that’s actually a good thing! When they enter the battlefield, you get to look at the top four cards of an opponent’s library and exile one. As long as that card is exiled, you may cast it with mana of any color! Why does Gonti want to be involved with a Trading Post when they could simply steal our opponents’ cards?

Well, the point of Gonti is to steal cards, but you can only do that by having them enter the battlefield! So why not sacrifice them to get back that Expedition Map that you used earlier in the game and go find Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to recast them?

Since you're in mono-black, you can also discard cards like Sheoldred, Whispering One to Reanimate her. On the subject of recursion, Trading Post can retrieve many important artifacts for mono-black, from a sacrificed Mind Stone or Nevinyrral's Disk to that Whip of Erebos one of your opponents destroyed. Best of all, if Gonti takes an opponent's creature and someone tries to Homeward Path, Trading Post will make sure that creature stays dead rather than going home. Take a look at this decklist to see all the sweet things you can do with Trading Post. 

Phyrexian Perfection 

That’s right, Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer is up to make some Myr! Brudiclad is a 4/4 for six mana that gives your creature tokens haste. More importantly, Brudiclad creates 2/1 Myr tokens at the beginning of combat on your turn, then selects a token you control and transforms every other token of yours into a copy! Notably, this copying ability doesn't stop at the end of the turn; they remain copies indefinitely. Brudiclad makes creature tokens that are also artifacts, so why would this deck want Trading Post? Because synergy!

Now, I’m sure someone has taken a look at the EDHREC page for Brudiclad and is thinking, “But Elijah! Trading Post is in 35% of Brudiclad decks and already shows on their page!” This is true, but look on Trading Post's EDHREC page; Brudiclad doesn't show up as a popular commander for this card, and I think that's wrong. 35% is great, but I think that's not a high enough percentage, considering all the wonderful stuff this card enables for the token-copier. You can call me crazy, but at least hear me out first!

Brudiclad is a deck built around engines and a critical mass, so being able to recur Hangarback Walker, Unwinding Clock, Skullclamp, or even Retrofitter Foundry is a massive upside in this deck. Post also acts as its own engine by making 0/1 Goat tokens for Brudiclad to transform later; those Goats will add up, especially when they're turned into huge Minions from a Phyrexian Processor. Plus, once you build a huge board and your hand is running low, you can just sacrifice some of the extra artifacts to draw cards. Take a look at the decklist to see all the synergies that Trading post has with Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer!

Have Some Cookies

Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter (I call her 'Grandma') just wants wants to give you some cookies. That is, Servos and Constructs. Same thing. She's a 1/2 Human Artificer for one green mana who can create Servo tokens for three mana, and X/X Constructs for five mana. Those Constructs have power and toughness equal to the number of creatures you control, so she's a go-wide deck that can also go tall. Why does she want Trading Post? I think you can see where I'm going with this.

You get it already, sacrificing artifact creature tokens to recur artifacts or to draw cards is always a good thing. While Trading Post acted as more of an engine for Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer by making Goats, and the sacrificing ability was more of a backup, for Oviya, the opposite is true, and the recursion and card draw are much more impactful. 

Blue and red offer things like Thopter Spy Network and Scrap Mastery, whereas green has some more limited options. There's no denying that Rishkar's Expertise is a great card draw spell, or that Regrowth is great at recurring a card, but they are one-time use. If you want something that can provide you a lot of value over time, Trading Post is a great option. With tools like Unwinding Clock, Voltaic Key, Mycosynth Lattice, Clock of Omens, or Scrap Trawler, even just sacrificing Myr Retriever to get back another artifact is great! The artifact-based interactions that you can have with this deck are so powerful when you have an engine like Trading Post at your disposal. If you disagree, just take a look at the decklist for yourself! If you agree, great, take a look at the decklist anyway!

See You Next Trade

I hope that you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! Trading Post always seems to be the one oddball card that doesn't quite fit, but all those little options can really add up! Do you think these commanders are good picks to pair with the Post? Do you think that Trading Post is too slow and should only sit in random bulk bins? What underrated cards do you think others should have in their toolbox? Thank you as always for your support for the series! Please share your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, have a great day!

Elijah Klein

Elijah is a mildly obsessive EDH player from Georgia. He started playing during Battle for Zendikar with Green/Black Eldrazi Aristocrats and still pays tribute to the plane with his Omnath, Locus of Rage storm brew. He is always excited to innovate and try new things in Magic and Life. Elijah is currently a full time student looking to go into Computer Engineering but also has a bit of an artistic streak.