Top Trades: August 26-September 2

Welcome back to Top Trades, everyone! It's Thursday, and that means it's time to check in and see which cards here at Cardsphere have been moving around the most. So, what's popular this week? Let's take a look.

Honorable Mention - Sink into Stupor

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Starting us off this week is a revisit from Modern Horizons 3, and that card is Sink into Stupor. One of the set's cycle of mono-color MDFCs which can enter untapped, provided you pay three life, Sink into Stupor is a potent card for just about any deck running blue (at least, any deck running blue that can afford to have a mono-blue land). So, why is it so popular? Pretty simple - the front face is decently costed, and the back is an untapped land.

Zooming out for a second, lets take a closer look at that front face. Now, for a piece of interaction is pretty...not great, I'll yield that much. However, this isn't just a bounce spell - it's also a bounce spell that can hit spells on the stack! Think back to cards like Unsubstantiate, except Sink into Stupor goes even further and can bounce a nonland permanent of any type - not just creatures. Add that to the fact that this can also be a land and voilá! You've got a flexible card if I've ever seen one - exactly the type which control decks are so eagerly looking for.

#5 - Into the Flood Maw

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 6

Speaking of tempo plays, our first card for the main list this week is Into the Flood Maw - arguably one of the best bounce spells printed in a long time.

For just , Into the Flood Maw is an instant which allows you to return a creature you don't control to its owner's hand. But wait, there's more! If you gift an opponent a tapped fish - meaning that player creates a tapped 1/1 blue Fish creature token - then Into the Flood Maw reveals its true power: the ability to bounce a nonland permanent you don't control of any type.

Like I highlighted above with Sink into Stupor, the ability to target any nonland permanent is pretty powerful. Sure, in 60-card constructed odds are that the most problematic permanents at any given time are creatures, but ask any Commander player and they'll tell you just how annoying staring down a stax piece turn after turn can be. Don't have a way to counter someone's Stony Silence? Not a worry, Into the Flood Maw has you covered later down the line - and all for the price of a Fish.

#4 - Boggart Trawler

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Next up on our list is - gasp - another Modern Horizons 3 card, but not just any Modern Horizons 3 card. It's another MDFC! Looks like untapped lands with upside really are pretty popular. This time, we're looking at Boggart Trawler - a newcomer on Top Trades.

Boggart Trawler is one of black's two MDFC offerings from Modern Horizons 3 (the other being Fell the Profane). On the back, you get a land that taps for , while the frontside is a 3/1 Goblin creature for with "When Boggart Trawler enters the battlefield, exile target player's graveyard." So, how useful is this? Well, while I wouldn't put it nearly as highly as Sink into Stupor, it is an untapped land with upside, so it's always worth thinking about.

First off, being a Goblin is always relevant. It might not be a Legacy staple or legal in Pauper, but there will always be a Goblin deck somewhere going for glory, so having a Goblin on the other side of a land is worth noting. Now, if this card were red then I'd argue this point with much greater support, but black has its Goblins here and there so the point still stands.

As for the actual card beyond the creature type, it's here that things get a bit murkier. The ability to exile a player's graveyard is great, but usually you want to be able to do this much more efficiently - think Tormod's Crypt's mana cost of - so Boggart Trawler's cost of is really holding it back here.

Overall, Boggart Trawler is a solidly decent card. Incidental value is always good, afterall, but unlike Sink into Stupor I just don't see this one garnering much support outside of casual Commander.

#3 - Kappa Cannoneer

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Coming in at number three is Kappa Cannoneer, a pretty sizable beater in artifact-based strategies that has made impacts in Legacy, Modern, and Commander. Before we get into all that history, though, let's break down the card itself.

For , Kappa Cannoneer is a 4/4 Turtle Warrior artifact creature with improvise (meaning you can tap artifacts as you cast it to contribute per artifact tapped), ward , and the triggered ability of whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under your control (Kappa Cannoneer included), put a +1/+1 counter on the Cannoneer and it can't be blocked until end of turn. Since Kappa Cannoneer's trigger catches itself, this means that it'll enter and immediately get a +1/+1 counter, effectively making its base rate a six mana 5/5. The thing is, eternal formats have a lot of artifacts running around, meaning that this Turtle is almost always significantly cheaper than six mana.

When Kappa Cannoneer first came out, it had a near-immediate home in Legacy's mono-blue Eight Cast list, an artifact shell based around tempo plays and the value generated by Thought Monitor and Thoughtcast. Nowadays, Legacy has sped up a bit and Kappa isn't nearly as common, but it isn't completely dead either.

In Modern, Kappa Cannoneer faced a similar fate - initially debuting to ecstatic fanfare as players were excited for anything to breath new life into Affinity, only for more powerful decks to creep Kappa out pretty rapidly. So, why is it moving now?

Well, Modern and Legacy both had some pretty significant bans recently - Nadu, Winged Wisdom in Modern and Grief in both Legacy as well as Modern -  meaning that players are more willing to experiment with fringe lists, which is exactly what Kappa Cannoneer falls into. How long this attention sticks is anyone's guess, but I'm certainly all here for the return of our Turtle friend Kappa Cannoneer.

#2 - Darkstar Augur

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Alright, on to some new cards courtesy of Bloomburrow. First up, it's Darkstar Augur - one of the most aggressive mono-black value engines I've seen in a while.

For three mana - - Darkstar Augur is a 2/3 Bat Warlock with Offspring (an ability that lets you pay an additional cost to create a 1/1 token copy of this creature as an enter-the-battlefield trigger), flying, and "At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its mana value."

Anyone remember Dark Confidant? Because I remember Dark Confidant, and man, does this card read to me a lot like two Dark Confidants in a trench coat.

In all seriousness, Darkstar Augur promises a lot of value for a really efficient upfront mana cost. At its base rate, paying for a Dark Confidant with a bigger body and flying is pretty good. Tack on the Offspring cost of just and now you've literally spent twice Dark Confidant's mana cost in order to get - *squints at card* - exactly twice the number of triggers, but spread out over two much more useful bodies.

#1 - Feed the Cycle

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 9

Finally, for our most traded card of the week, it's time to go back to every Limited-player's roots to appreciate the simple things in life - this time, that's a plain-old efficient removal spell.

Feed the Cycle is an instant that costs and destroys a creature or planeswalker. Before getting too giddy about this strict upgrade to Hero's Downfall, however, we do need to note the spell's additional cost: either pay , or forage.

In order to forage, the foraging player choses one: exile three cards from your graveyard, or sacrifice a Food. Fortunately, Bloomburrow is a set full of Food, so this isn't a terribly inaccessible additional cost. Even then, if no Food is around, three cards isn't the most difficult thing to have in your graveyard. Black is full of self mill; just last week we saw Diresight - a powerful Bloomburrow common with surveil - crack our list.

Having broken down what it means to forage, the cost flexibility of Feed the Cycle becomes much more readily apparent - either pay , or pay and either sacrifice a Food or exile three cards from your graveyard. Not too restrictive, definitely efficient, and unconditional in its ability to remove creatures and planeswalkers.

Wrap Up

This week sure has been a throwback - Modern Horizons 3 dominated our early picks once again, with not one, but two whole MDFCs popping up. But fear not, Bloomburrow was here to keep things at least partially in line with current Magic releases. Tune in next week to see what cards are moving around, and thanks for reading!