Market

Merchants allow you to exchange for cards of their factions in your Market.

The Market is a zone mechanic and its associated keyword, similar to the sideboard used in some card games. Cards in the Market are not drawn normally, but certain cards allow them to be swapped with cards in hand, drawn, or even played directly, giving added flexibility in deckbuilding. Players cannot see their opponent's Market, except through specific cards' abilities.

The Market first appeared in The Fall of Argenport with the original Merchants.

The Market Zone

The Market icon appears near your deck. Interact with it to see your Market's cards.

The Market is a zone, separate from your deck, hand and void, with cards assigned to it beforehand during deck construction. Cards and abilities that would affect other zones (such as WarcryWarcry:
When this attacks, the top unit or weapon of your deck gets +1/+1.) do not affect cards in the Market unless specified.

Cards which enter the Market during gameplay remain there until interacted with, or until the game ends. If a temporary card (such as a copy from Bore's effect) is added to your Market, it will remain there (even if it was supposed to be discarded).

Interacting with the Market

There are several ways to use your Market, and some cards which interact with the opponent's Market.

Merchants, Smugglers, and Other Units

Playing a Merchant prompts you to choose the cards to swap.

Merchants are able to retrieve cards from the Market. Most Merchants have a SummonSummon:
Does something when played. ability which allows you to swap one card from your hand with any card in your Market that shares a faction with the Merchant.

The five original single-faction Merchants were released in The Fall of Argenport. Defiance introduced Smugglers, five new 2-faction Merchants which may each swap for a cards of either of their two factions. Smugglers for the remaining 2-faction alliances were released in Dark Frontier.

There is currently one other merchant, Wasteland Broker, which behaves different from the others - this will allow you take a card from your market and put four copies of it into the top 20 cards of your deck.

Find all the Merchant cards in Category:Merchant.

Empire of Glass included the first set of non-Merchant units that allowed a card to be swapped form the market - the Grafters, which have UltimateUltimate:
Can only be used once. abilities allowing a swap of a card in hand with a market card, then giving +1/+1 and a specific Battle Skill to a unit in hand.

Bargain

Bargain lets you play cards directly from the Market under certain conditions.

Cards with the BargainBargain:
Can be played from your Market if you met its requirement this turn. Bargain cards can be in your deck and market at the same time. keyword list a triggering condition, which if met lets the card be played directly from the Market.

The Flame of Xulta introduced Bargain in a cycle of five single-faction cards with conditions tied to specific unit types.

Market Spells

Echoes of Eternity had a cycle of fast spells that allow a card in hand to be swapped with a card from the market of a specific cost.

Argent Depths included the Etchings cycle of spells that draw a sigil and, with sufficient influence, allow the player to swap for a card of a specific faction.

Other Market Interactions

Homecoming introduced the first non-Merchant that could interact with the Market: Ponysnatcher, which stealsSteal:
Taking an enemy card is stealing. Stealing a card removes its influence requirements. random cards from the enemy Market.

Dark Frontier added more "Market hate" cards: Embargo Officer stops interaction with Markets, while Incendiary Slagmite and Bam, Sneakeepeekee were the first cards which let a player see their opponent's Market.

A small number of one-off market interaction cards appeared over the next few sets - Damara, Deft Saboteur, Goldplate Valkyrie, Glaive of the Chosen, and Near Perfect Imitation.

Empire of Glass represented a huge expansion in the range of market interactions, with cards that swap cards in play with cards in the market, play market cards directly, put cards into the market from play, and many other effects. This included a cycle of cards which added random cards of their faction to the market - Scrapmetal Fury, Xumuc Whisper, Watchwing Support, Vicious Overgrowth, and Xumuc Coercion.

Building a Market

Cards added to the Market appear in its tab and show the Market icon above them.

Each deck's initial Market cards are assigned during deck construction. The Market appears as a separate tab in the standard deckbuilder layout, and the collection area displays the Market icon above any cards already in the Market. Market cards appear at the end of the decklist in the advanced deckbuilder view.

Up to five cards may be added to the Market, with only a single copy of any given card. With the exception of Sigils, no card can be in both the main deck and the Market. Markets in limited formats, such as Leagues' sealed decks or Draft, may only use cards from the limited card pool. Note that Merchants do not appear in Forge mode.

The Black Market

Smugglers deal exclusively in goods from outside of the law (and your starting deck).

The Black Market is a deprecated mechanic introduced with the Smugglers in Defiance. Originally, a Market could include cards that are also in the main deck. Smugglers introduced the "Black Market", which could not include cards in the main deck. When a Smuggler was added to your deck, your Market had to be a Black Market for the deck to be valid.

The single-faction Merchants could still interact with cards in a Black Market, so using Merchants and Smugglers together was fine.

With the Market changes on March 11, 2020, the restrictions that were previously only on Black Markets were applied to all Markets, and the Black Market keyword was removed.

Notes

Cards added to your hand from your Market, like those swapped by Merchants, count as being drawn. They will trigger effects such as FateFate:
Does something when drawn., EchoEcho:
Get an additional copy when drawn. and InspireInspire:
Does something to units you draw..

Power cards in the Market count as the factions of the influence they create.

Multi-faction cards can be swapped by any Merchant of any of their factions.

The Market was first revealed in its Fall of Argenport mechanic spoiler article by DWD.

When adding cards to the market, such as with Scrapmetal Fury, there is a hard limit of 99 cards in the market. If you attempt to add more than this, the additional cards will be discarded.