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Bargaining is a mechanic first introduced inMagic: The Gathering’sWilds Of Eldraine set. It is one of the few mechanics that require specifically sacrificing a token as one of its activation requirements (although that can be an artifact or enchantment as well).
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Bargainingis similar to kickerin that using the ability will make the effect of a card stronger if you pay the bargain cost which costs a bit more. However, it is not a requirement for activating cards with bargain, so they can fit into any deck even if you are never actually planning to use the bargain effect.
How Does Bargaining Work?
Bargaining is an optional costyou can pay when casting a spell. In order to bargain a spell, you have tosacrifice either an artifact, enchantment,or token. It does not require multiple sacrifices, so you only need to sacrifice one of those.The kind of tokenyou sacrifice does not matter, as such, creature, Treasure, Roles, and any other token can be used for a bargain cost.
Every card with bargaining has adefault effect that will happen regardless of if the bargaining cost was paid or not. Each card will havea bonus effect if you do bargain a card for it.
There areno downsides to cards with bargaining,so it is only a positive effect attached to an already positive spell. Generally,bargaining will either make a spell cheaper or give an added bonusto give you more control over what a card can do.
Bargaining is an additional cost to activate a spell. This cost involves sacrificing either the artifact, enchantment, or token - meaning thatyour opponent cannot respond to the sacrifice target with removal - they’d only be able to respond to the spell itself.
Making The Most Of Bargaining
Theeasiest option for bargaining is with tokens. There is no shortage of token generators in every format, making it easy to always have something to sacrifice for bargain.
In formats such as Wilds Of Eldraine Limited,bargaining is especially good to sacrifice a Cursed Role tokenthat you had to put on a creature to get rid of that downside and gain an extra effect.
Bargaining is moststrong in sacrifice strategies. It gives many more options to decks as a way to sacrifice permanents to trigger the effects of your cards. If you build your deck around it byhaving multiple artifacts, enchantments, and tokens to sacrificeit almost guarantees you will always have something to bargain when the time comes.
Since bargaining gives you a stronger effect, thismakes all the sacrifice fodder you make (generally tokens) into threatsas they not only enable your main strategy of sacrifice, but you also get a strong effect that can push your advantage even further.
The best cards with bargaining are theones that push your advantage even moreor help you go even on mana.Beseech The Mirroris especially solid at this, as it cancast a spell it searches for if it’s four mana or less, essentially letting you cast the spell directly from your library. Evenif you don’t have a card to bargain, you still get to add the card to your hand- which is the strength of bargaining.
Another example of strong bargaining isRealm-Scorcher Hellkite, which willcreate four mana of any combination of colorswhen it’s bargained. Even if you don’t pay its bargain cost,you still have a 4/6 with flying and haste that can also burn for one damage for two manarepeatedly.
Another good use for bargaining is indecks that want artifacts or enchantments to leave the battlefield. There are plenty of strong artifacts with effects that trigger when they leave the battlefield likeIchor Wellspringwhich will draw you a card when it does.
So not only are you getting the effect of the artifact when it leaves the battlefield, but you’re also getting the benefit from bargaining it.
There are alsoenchantments that have similar traitsas well as cards with effects that trigger when enchantments are put into the battlefield such asAshiok’s Reaper(also found in Wilds Of Eldraine).
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How Many Bargaining Cards Are There?
As of Wilds Of Eldraine, there arecurrently 20 cards with bargain. Of those,eight are instants, seven are creatures, and five are sorceries.
Cards that can bargain are all mono-colored,and there are currently none that are multicolored or cards that care about cards being bargained.Blue, black, and green are the main coloredcards with bargaining, taking up 15 of the 20 slots, with white having the least.
