Top Trades: July 22-July 29

Welcome back to Top Trades, everyone. This week is shaping up to be an interesting break from our norm - plenty of Modern Horizons 3 cards still in the mix, no doubt, but also some familiar faces from Magic's past (including one as old as Mercadian Masques - try and guess which one). But first, let's check out our honorable mention!

Honorable Mention - Amped Raptor

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

This week's honorable mention is Amped Raptor, a card that may be new but certainly feels like something more at home in the Modern of years gone by. Why, you ask? Well, late's take a look!

For two mana - - Amped Raptor is a 2/1 Dinosaur creature with a triggered ability eerily reminiscent of cascade. When Amped Raptor enters, if you cast it, you get two energy counters, then exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card. Then, you can pay an amount of energy counters equal to the that card's mana value in order to cast it without paying its mana cost. So, why does this remind me of a younger Modern? Because the decks in which Amped Raptor sees the most play make use of this pseudo-cascade to the fullest by running a suite of cards taken straight from earlier versions of Jund. Thoughtseize, Lightning Bolt, Tarmogoyf - all the excitement of 2016 Modern, backed up by this little energetic Dinosaur.

#5 - Psychic Frog

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

Coming in to start off our Top Trades list for the week is Psychic Frog, an incredibly efficient midrange threat that's making the Grief headache in Legacy all the worse right now. But first, what does this card actually do?

At the cost of , Psychic Frog is a 1/2 Frog creature with "Whenever Psychic Frog deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, draw a card," as well as "Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Psychic Frog." But wait, there's more! You can also exile three cards from your graveyard to give Psychic Frog flying until end of turn. Overall, this creates a creature that is very hard to deal with; it can grow rapidly, with a mere two discard activations often enough to put it outside the range of most damage-based removal in the formats it's relevant in (Modern and Legacy), but more importantly it's self-synergistic. Discard enough cards and you'll be able to give Psychic Frog flying thanks to its second activated ability, which will make it much easier for you to draw a card in combat, something you can discard later down the line if you so choose.

Now, everything I just mentioned should paint a picture of a pretty excellent creature, but not the stuff of nightmares (*cough* Nadu, Winged Wisdom *cough*), so why is it that Psychic Frog is making such a splash in Legacy of all places? Well, it's because it slots really well into the dominant Grief-based Reanimator deck, helping to shore up the deck's lackluster performance in the midgame if the Grief plan falls short, all the while filling the graveyard with powerful reanimation targets such as Atraxa, Grand Unifier.

#4 - Snuff Out

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

Here we are! Our number four pick this week is also the card first teased in our intro, and that's Snuff Out - a premier removal spell dating all the way back to Mercadian Masques. So why is this old card making a reemergence?

Overall, it's because Snuff Out is a good card that has halved in price. Despite being a common in its original printing, Snuff Out peaked at a price of nearly $15+ as recently as 2023, but over the past six months it has stabilized in the $7-$8 range, making it a much more appealing pickup. Still pricy for a common (or uncommon, going by the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who reprints), but not nearly as bad as things once were. So, now that the price drop has settled, people are moving back in to pick up their copies. Since this week is a comparably quite one (not too many cards exchanging hands), it has allowed for cards with stable, albeit small, trading trends that would otherwise be hidden - like Snuff Out - to make an appearance.

#3 - Ral, Monsoon Mage

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Alright, I've talked about Ruby Storm quite a lot in the past few weeks, but in order to understand why Ral, Monsoon Mage is showing up on our list you need to understand what Ruby Storm is, so since that deck is a comparably new one here's a brief refresher.

Ruby Storm is a Modern deck based around two cost reducers - Ral, Monsoon Mage and Ruby Medallion - which allow you to chain increasingly mana-positive rituals together, alongside impulse draw effects, until you hit a critical storm count at which point you cast Wish to grab Grapeshot from your sideboard and go for the win. Usually there's a Past in Flames involved in this process, but not necessarily all of the time.

Now, from this breakdown it's easy to see the first part as to why Ral here is important, that reason being the crucial front-face effect of "Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost less to cast," but really what makes the Ral so pivotal (and the deck so lethal) is the ability to cast Ral and use his ultimate in the same turn. This is because, when Ral returns to the battlefield transformed, he enters with a number of loyalty counters equal to two plus the number of instant and sorcery spells you've cast this turn. On a good turn (read: on an "I win" turn), this often means that you'll cast Ral, followed by a ritual, and then another, then toss in some red cantrips, and voilá! Flip Ral, use his ultimate ability, cast many more free instants and sorceries, then cast a Grapeshot with a massive stormcount.

#2 - Wastescape Battlemage

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Our penultimate pick of the week is a card that I didn't even know existed until I was doing the data review for Top Trades, and that card is Wastescape Battlemage.

With a cost of , Wastescape Battlemage is a 2/2 Eldrazi Wizard with the dual kicker costs of and/or , meaning that - should you decide to kick this spell by paying extra mana - you're offered the choice of paying one or both additional costs. When you do, Wastescape Battlemage will return the favor with up to two abilities that trigger upon casting it.

The first kick trigger occurs when is paid and reads "exile target artifact or enchantment an opponent controls," while the kick trigger corresponding to the cost reads "return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand." These are both fine abilities, but it's really the first one which has caught players' attention. The reason is because of The One Ring, a terribly prevalent and powerful artifact with indestructible that is dominating Modern and Legacy. Thanks to the indestructible ability, The One Ring is incredibly difficult to deal with once it's resolved, but Wastescape Battlemage is one of a rare few which has the ability to exile artifacts, making the hinderance of indestructible obsolete. This has made Wastescape Battlemage an excellent sideboard option in Eldrazi lists across both Modern and Legacy, proving that even niche uncommons can carve out a significant role.

#1 - Harsh Mentor

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

Here we are, this week's most traded card, and - *gasp* - it's another selection from Magic's past! More than just a familiar face to those playing the game long enough, though, Harsh Mentor is also another pick which has earned its spot thanks to its role as a sideboard powerhouse. So, what is Harsh Mentor, and what problem does it seek to solve?

For , Harsh Mentor is a 2/2 Human Cleric with the ability "Whenever an opponent activates an ability of an artifact, creature, or land on the battlefield, if it isn't a mana ability, Harsh Mentor deals 2 damage to that player." In most matchups, this text is effectively useless, since one of the first lessons most players learn is that life is a resource. Afterall, the only lifepoint that matters is the last one, right? Well, there's a certain activated-ability focused deck right now, helmed by the artifact Shuko and its good friend Nadu, Winged Wisdom, that is destroying Modern, and that list triggers Harsh Mentor so frequently that the damage from Harsh Mentor is actually sufficient to throw Nadu off its game.

Basically, the Nadu combo deck works by activating Shuko's equip ability twice per turn per creature, chaining together enough landfall triggers and card advantage to overwhelm the board with more creatures to target with Shuko and snowball into a win. Harsh Mentor stops that dead in its tracks, as Shuko can only be activated nine times (usually less) before its controller gets put into the kill zone. Considering that Nadu is the most popular deck in Modern right now, this has rapidly made Harsh Mentor one of the format's most popular sideboard pieces as well.

Wrap Up

This week proved to be a really interesting one; we got to see an old card making waves thanks to price movements, we chatted about sideboards almost as much as anything else, and I got to relive memories of 2016 Jund thanks to a Dinosaur in the honorable mentions slot. Tune back in next week where we'll check in with what's been moving here at Cardsphere. Thanks for reading!