10 most used magic cards

what are the 10 most used cards in magic (other than basic land)?

LIke I would guess counterspell is one of them?

impossible to say. there is a diffrent list for every format and probably for every casual group on top of that.

for most formats i can tell you what cards are most played quite precicely because deckcheck has a top 50 list for cards used in decks that made a top 8 in a tournament. this data might not be 100% accurate but its as good as any:

standard:

Lightning Bolt
Bloodbraid Elf
Verdant Catacombs
Blightning
Savage Lands
Rootbound Crag
Sprouting Thrinax
Path to Exile
Dragonskull Summit
Maelstrom Pulse

not suprisingly 9 out of these 10 are in every jund list ^^

extended:

Path to Exile
Misty Rainforest
Tarmogoyf
Scalding Tarn
Lightning Bolt
Arid Mesa
Chrome Mox
Verdant Catacombs
Stomping Ground
Thoughtseize

goyf, path, bolt, stomping groung, mesa, other fetchlands with green and red ... yes zoo is dominating exteded ... not as bad as jund in standard but still about 40+% of the format ... thoughsize and chrome mox hint at another about 40% of the format ... a colorful variaty of combodecks such as hypergenesis, dark depth, dredge and thopter foundry / sword of the meek ...

legacy:

Force of Will
Brainstorm
Wasteland
Tarmogoyf
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Swords to Plowshares
Daze
Tropical Island
Wooded Foothills

this list cleary shows how powerful blue is in legacy. you can play anything with blue from grow over standstill to meerfolks ... 2 counters in the top 10 + brainstorm + 2 fetchlands for island + tropical ... yeah legacy is blue country. also interesting to see that every format so far has a swords like effect in the top 10 + fetchlands and some form of dual. this goes a long way to show how important a stable mana base and ultra efficiant spot removal is.

vintage:

Force of Will
Polluted Delta
Brainstorm
Underground Sea
Flooded Strand
Wasteland
Mana Drain
Duress
Black Lotus
Volcanic Island

ok blue a lot of it ^^. in a format where cards are increadably powerful countering is seriously needed if you want to survive let alone win. brainstorm again + the 2 best counters ever printed. the same fetches for islands + 2 duels with u. thats 7/10 cards that point to blue. duress is not outdated here. thoughsize does not see as mcuh play as duress in vintage because there are almost no creatures in vintage, so why bother paying 2 life ... wasteland is here instead of stripmine because you can only play 1 stripmine and 4 wastelands and deckcheck counts absolute numbers. you would think if lotus then made it so would the moxes and ancestral recal. no. whilst they are played in a huge number of decks they are not played in all. some only play 2-3 moxes etc. the only deck, however that does not play lotus is dredge. also note that time twister is not even in the top 50 (unlike time walk or library of alexandria) because all most no one plays it any more. its just not good in this format to give your opponent 7 new cards as well ...

so there you have all the data i can give you ... they tell you a lot about the formats too if you know how to read it. as for casual its impossible to say since it will varie greatly.

also note counterspell is in no top 10 here ;) the only top 50 it appears in is legacy takeing an underwhelming spot 45 ...

hope this somewhat answers your question.

I use llanowar Elves in all my green decks

Everyone's obsessed with that cursed lightning bolt. :mad: