Top Trades: September 2-September 9

Welcome back, everyone, and happy Thursday! It's time for Top Trades, the series where we take a look at some of the most popular cards being traded here at Cardsphere. So, which cards should you keep your eye out for? Let's take a look.

Honorable Mention - Diresight

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

Starting us off for the week is our honorable mention, a pretty powerful Bloomburrow common, and that card is Diresight.

Diresight is an interesting case because it is essentially a redo of an already popular common, Read the Bones, except with one keyword change which allows for it to be a far more synergistic card than its Theros-debuted predecessor.

Both cards are sorceries, both cost , both cause you to draw two cards, but it's the difference in the means of card selection which you'll perform before drawing that makes such a big impact here. In Read the Bones' case, you scry 2, which either puts the cards back on top of your library or on the bottom. Not bad, but not stellar. Diresight, however, lets you put cards into your graveyard thanks to scrying being swapped for surveilling.

Black is a color packed full of graveyard synergies, so any incremental means of packing your graveyard is always worth prioritizing. As such, swapping from Read the Bones to Diresight in cubes, Commander decks, and wherever else possible is probably going to be the move going forward. Don't skip out on this little common; victories are often found at the margins.

#5 - Long River Lurker

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 5

Turning to the main list for the week, let's take a look at Long River Lurker - the first Frog from Bloomburrow to make it onto Top Trades.

For , Long River Lurker is a 2/3 Frog Scout with ward , the static ability "Other Frogs you control have ward ," and the triggered ability "When Long River Lurker enters, target creature you control can't be blocked this turn. Whenever that creature deals combat damage this turn, you may exile it. If you do, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control." So, what exactly is this little guy up to right now? Well, a lot of casual Commander, with just a dash of fringe Standard play.

First up, Commander. Frogs are a pretty popular creature type, all things considered. They aren't strong per se, nowhere near Slivers or even Squirrels, but they are a fan favourite. This cult following means that any potentially viable additions are rapidly experimented with in eager fashion, and that is most definitely true here. If you're playing Frogs in Commander, odds are you'll be playing Long River Lurker.

As for Standard, a niche Frog-based tempo deck has begun to pop up in some of the weekly tournaments, adding to Long River Lurker's popularity, especially since you can run this card in multiples. Ward isn't a whole lot, but stack two or more of these creatures in play and suddenly your whole board might as well have hexproof. Now that's value.

#4 - Zoraline, Cosmos Caller

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 6

Alright, onto some real Standard powerhouses - first in line, it's Zoraline.

Zoraline, Cosmos Caller is a top end threat in nearly every Orzhov-containing Standard deck, from Orzhov Bats to Abzan Midrange and much, much more. It's not particularly hard to see why - for you'll get a 3/3 legendary Bat Cleric with flying, vigiliance, "Whenever a Bat you control attacks, you gain 1 life," and "Whenever Zoraline enters or attacks, you may pay and 2 life. When you do, return target nonland permanent card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter on it."

Zoraline does just about everything that midrange - and Standard as a whole - wants right now. Typal synergies? Check. Efficiently costed, evasive body? Check. Easily triggerable ability that pays dividends the longer the game goes? Check and check. Unlike alot of synergistic creatures, however, Zoraline doesn't need to be built around in order to pack a punch - a three mana 3/3 flyer with repeatable recursion stuck to it is already good. The Bats-matter effect is just icing on the cake.

#3 - Hunter's Talent

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

Just like any Bloomburrow-era Top Trades list, it's now time to talk about this week's Class enchantment. So, what's up in store? Why that would be Hunter's Talent - our first uncommon from the Class cycle.

At base rate, Hunter's Talent costs for an enchantment with "When Hunter's Talent enters, target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to target creature you don't control." Not too bad - incidental removal is always great - but its the second stage where things start to pop off (at least, in the Standard metagame, that is).

Pay another and you can bring Hunter's Talent to Level 2, where it gains "Whenever you attack, target attacking creature you control gets +1/+0 and gains trample until end of turn." Not too crazy in and of itself, but then you remember that this is a format with Emberheart Challenger - an efficient aggro threat that provides card advantage whenever you target it for the first time each turn. That, my friends, is how Standard decklists start to take shape.

Finally, we come to Level 3, attainable via an investment of more. At this stage, Hunter's Talent gains "At the beginning of your end step, if you control a creature with power 4 or greater, draw a card." Couple that with our aforementioned Gruul value-package of Emberheart Challenger, and things can really start to snowball.

#2 - Heaped Harvest

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

Our penultimate pick of the week is Heaped Harvest, an unassuming common pulling a lot of weight in Standard ramp decks right now.

For , Heaped Harvest is a Food artifact with "When Heaped Harvest enters and when you sacrifice it, you may search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle." Additionally, as with all Food, Heaped Harvest also carries the standard ability of ", , Sacrifice Heaped Harvest: You gain 3 life." Odds are, however, that you won't need to pay that cost in order to sacrifice Heaped Harvest - and that's all thanks to the forage mechanic.

Forage allows players to gain some sort of advantage at the cost of either exiling three cards from their graveyard or sacrificing a Food. Sometimes, its an alternate cost, other times its a cost in and of itself. Heaped Harvest takes full advantage of this as, since it's a Food, it can be readily sacrificed in order to forage whenever the opportunity arises. This frequently sidesteps the cost to sacrifice Heaped Harvest to its own ability, allowing you to rapidly ramp out a lot of lands.

#1 - Season of Gathering

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

Here we are everyone, our final pick of the list, Season of Gathering - a generically good card seeing play across Commander and Standard.

For , Season of Gathering is a sorcery that asks you to choose five points worth of modes from among three options (allowing you to pick multiple modes more than once, provided it does not exceed the point systems elaborated on in the textbox).

For one point, put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control. It gains trample and vigilance until end of turn. For two points, choose artifact or enchantment, then destroy all cards of the chosen type. Finally, for three points, draw cards equal to the greatest power among creatures you control.

Important to note here is that these modes happen sequentially based off of how they appear in the text box. That means that, if you spend two points choosing the first mode twice and then your remaining three on the final mode, you'll distribute the counters first and then draw your cards. Pretty nifty.

In Commander, this card speaks for itself. Flexible, impactful, and allowing you to potentially close out a game - all things that help to justify that high mana cost. In Standard, meanwhile, Season of Gathering is pretty exclusively a closer. That isn't to say that an artifact/enchantment boardwhipe or a mass card draw aren't valuable, just that the go-wide decks running this card will most frequently deploy it to give five of their creatures +1/+1, trample, and vigilance. Either way you play it, this Season will certainly be a powerful moment.

Wrap Up

There you have it, everyone! A week full of Bloomburrow, touching on everything from Commander to Standard, and even a potential cube replacement. Come back next week to see what's being traded here at Cardsphere, and thanks for reading.