Top Trades: January 19-January 26

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards here at Cardsphere. So, which picks have caught the most attention this week? Let’s take a look!

Honorable Mention – Sheltered by Ghosts

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Continuing its run from last week is one of Duskmourn’s more powerful removal spells, wrapped neatly in an enchantment-synergizing package: Sheltered by Ghosts.

For , Sheltered by Ghosts is an Aura that enchants a creature you control. That creature gets +1/+0, as well as lifelink and ward . Pretty strong stuff, but the real power comes from Sheltered by Ghosts’ triggered ability:

“When Sheltered by Ghosts enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until Sheltered by Ghosts leaves the battlefield.”

Buff your own creature, take out any of your opponent's threats, and leapfrog ahead with a whole lot of advantage – all for . No wonder this card keeps showing up on Top Trades.

#5 – Psychic Frog

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 4

Speaking of value two-drops, let’s talk about one that was so good it got banned in Legacy and continues to play a not-so-insignificant role in Modern: Psychic Frog.

For , this 1/2 Frog from Modern Horizons 3 comes down and does a whole lot of everything. It draws you a card whenever it deals combat damage to a player, can grow thanks to its activated ability of “Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Psychic Frog,” and can also fly – provided you’re willing to exile three cards from your graveyard to activate its last ability.

In the competitive world, Psychic Frog primarily serves two roles: early card advantage, plus a discard outlet for Reanimator strategies. The older the format, the more the graveyard matters, and boy oh boy does Psychic Frog put the graveyard to work.

#4 - Hedge Maze

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

Next up on our list is a much less controversial card, but nonetheless one which is slowly creeping into more and more decks across formats: Hedge Maze.

Hedge Maze is a land from the Murders at Karlov Manor cycle of Surveil Lands. Each land in this ten-card cycle enters tapped and has two basic land types (making them fetchable), and each has the triggered ability of surveil 1 when it enters.

Surveiling isn’t necessarily the strongest ability in the world, but it is a way to gain card selection while (potentially) putting cards into your graveyard – something which our earlier pick, Psychic Frog, has already demonstrated as being very impactful in the right situations.

That all being said, just about any deck running Fetchlands has started to incorporate some select number of Surveil Lands, as plenty of turns will end with an unspent mana. So, why not use that unspent mana to surveil?

#3 – Urza’s Saga

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

Alrighty, now on to a much more complicated land: Urza’s Saga.

Urza’s Saga is one of very few enchantment lands, and the only one which puts that additional cardtype to use, thanks to its subtype of Saga (as well as the titular Urza’s subtype thanks to the land typing).

Taken all together, every part of Urza’s Saga is meaningful, especially the more powerful the format in which it is played. An untapped mana-producer that also can create relevant creatures and search for some of the game's most powerful artifacts (*cough* Sol Ring *cough*) should not go underestimated, and the top decks in plenty of formats show that.

#2 – Shardmage’s Rescue

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 9

We’ve talked about Duskmourn enchantments that get rid of things, but what about a Duskmourn enchantment that (only) protects things? Well, Shardmage’s Rescue has got you covered!

For , this neat little trick of an Aura has flash, enchants a creature you control, grants the enchanted creature +1/+1 and, most importantly, hexproof – provided Shardmage’s Rescue entered this turn.

White is full of effects like this – cheap spells that grant hexproof to a creature for a turn. The interesting thing about Shardmage’s Rescue, however, is the long-term bonus +1/+1 which it brings via a synergistic card type (being an enchantment). Whether its Commander or Standard, enchantments are having a bit of a resurgence right now, and Shardmage’s Rescue is playing into that.

#1 – Tortured Existence

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

Speaking of enchantments, we’ve got another one coming thanks to our most traded card for the week: Tortured Existence.

For , Tortured Existence is an enchantment with the activated ability “, Discard a creature card: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.” So, why all the buzz on this old card? Well, for that we have Magic’s preview season to thank, and one card in particular: Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist.

This legendary two-mana 1/3 Zombie Wizard doesn’t have a lot of text, but what it does have is incredibly powerful – if you have a discard outlet. “Whenever you discard a creature card, you may pay . If you do, create a tapped token that’s a copy of that card, except it’s a 4/4 black Zombie.” Pair this with Tortured Existence, and now you have a repeatable way to not just cheat some of Magic’s scariest creatures into play, but the ability to loop a pair of creatures over and over again.

Wrap Up

This week was a pretty solid split between enchantments, graveyards, and enchantments that deal with graveyards. All in all, we took a look at some of Magic’s recent most powerful effects, as well as a synergy that might just be good enough to break beyond high-power Commander and into the cEDH tables thanks to Hashaton.

Come back next week to see what’s new with Top Trades, and thanks for reading!