Top Trades: November 4 - November 11

Red Elemental Blast | Illustrated by Izzy

Howdy, folks, and welcome to Top Trades, the weekly series that checks in with the most popular cards here at Cardsphere. So, what cards are moving around this time? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Thornglint Bridge

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Continuing with our recent trend of picking a Bridge per week is Thornglint Bridge, our honorable mention.

Thornglint Bridge is an artifact land that enters tapped, has indestructible, and can tap to provide either or to your mana pool. Like the rest of the Bridge cycle before it (and however many more will come after it), Thornglint Bridge is a card that is made playable in no small part due to it being an artifact.

Pauper and Commander (at least, the lower brackets) are both worlds where having lands enter tapped is not as big of a dilemma as it is elsewhere, and both formats are still home to the affinity archetype. Put the two together and you've got plenty of decks out there that want to up their metalcraft count while simultaneously reducing the cost of their spells, all with the help of Thornglint Bridge (or its alternately-colored companions).

#5 - Zulaport Cutthroat

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

Speaking of classic strategies, starting off our main list for the week is a staple in aristocrats decks across the Commander world: Zulaport Cutthroat.

For , Zulaport Cutthroat is a 1/1 Human Rogue Ally that, whenever it or another creature you control dies, causes each opponent to lose one life and for you to gain one life. This may be a small trigger, but aristocrats decks are built around amassing a reliable stream of death triggers turn after turn after turn, and Zulaport Cutthroat is an easy and efficient way to erode opposing life totals while padding your own.

Also, it's worth noting that Zulaport Cutthroat is an Ally creature. In Magic's upcoming Avatar crossover set, we'll be seeing the release of plenty of new Ally support, as the creature type is making a resurgence as one of the set's main themes. I wouldn't be surprised to see Zulaport Cutthroat continue its steady stream of trades here at Cardsphere given the new support it'll be recieving.

#4 - Fireblast

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

Next up is another long-time classic of Magic's eternal formats, except now we're moving away from Commander and towards both Pauper and Legacy.

For , Fireblast is an instant that deals four damage to any target. However, the real power in this card comes from its alternate casting cost: just sacrifice two Mountains and you can cast this spell for free. A staple of burn decks going back as far as this card was first printed, Fireblast is burn's closer. Tap two Mountains for a double Lightning Bolt, then sacrifice those Mountains for Fireblast and you've dealt ten damage as early as turn two! Being able to push through an extra four damage (plus being able to trigger prowess an extra time for free, if you're so lucky as to have a Monastery Swiftspear in play) is routinely game-ending for the most all-in of burn decks.

#3 - Red Elemental Blast

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Up next is another classic red spell, although not necessarily a dedicated component of the burn armada: it's Red Elemental Blast.

For , Red Elemental Blast is an instant that allows you to pick between countering a blue spell or destroying a blue permanent. In competitive Magic, this usually means that Red Elemental Blast serves as a mono-red piece of defensive stack interaction for a color that is otherwise limited in that arena, as Red Elemental Blast is one of the most ubiquitous counters for classic blue counterspells out there.

#2 - Forgotten Cave

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

Our penultimate pick for the week is one that, while not nearly as historically powerful as some of the other cards on our list, has nonetheless carved out its own role as a flexible land for plenty of discard-based Commander decklists: Forgotten Cave.

Forgotten Cave is a land that enters tapped, has ": Add ," and has a cycling cost of .

So, why would a tapped mono-colored land make it on to our list? Thanks to the release of Spider-Man, discard-based strategies have been seeing an upswing in casual Commander play recently, and lands that have cycling fit right in with that structure. Mayhem, madness, and cycling all put together are the basics of a powerful archetype, and Forgotten Cave has a key part of that trifecta.

#1 - Up the Beanstalk

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Here we are, folks, back to the truly broken stuff. This week's honorable mention is Up the Beanstalk, a format-defining card that went on to be banned in Modern and Standard.

For , Up the Beanstalk is an enchantment that draws you a card whenever Up the Beanstalk enters and whenever you cast a spell with mana value five or less. The problem, however, is that Up the Beanstalk doesn't require that any mana be spent on that spell; enter Magic's many alternate-cost free spells.

Fury, Solitude, Force of Will, Fireblast, all of these are spells that, despite having a mana value of five or greater, functionally cost zero mana. For most of them, the alternate cost is the exiling of another card from your hand. Up the Beanstalk completely negates this alternate cost issue, as now the card disadvantage taken as an exchange for a mana cost is replaced with card filtration, exiling something useless and drawing something fresh. With multiple copies of this enchantment in play, something like Force of Will can actually go card-positive, meaning that a free spell is suddenly both no mana to cast and draws more cards than it costs to play.

This free-spell world also completely ignores that Up the Beanstalk is, at its very worst, a sorcery-speed cantrip in green. All this to say, the card was just too much value for too many formats.

Wrap Up

This week was a week of potent picks from across Magic's many formats. From casual to competitive, banned-out-of-Standard to barely-legal-in-Legacy, this week was a week of staples. Check back in next week for another Top Trades, and thanks for reading!