Top Trades: December 23 - December 30

Accumulate Wisdom | Illustrated by Gemi

Happy New Year, everyone! We made it through 2025, and what could be better than starting off 2026 with Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards here at Cardsphere. So, without further ado, let's get to it.

Honorable Mention - Boomerang Basics

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 22

Swinging back from 2025 and into 2026 is Boomerang Basics, an interaction piece that has become a staple of blue decks across Standard.

For , Boomerang Basics is a Lesson sorcery that allows you to bounce any nonland permanent, and you get to draw a card if the permanent bounced this way was one you controlled. While being a sorcery hurts the flexibility of this card as a combat trick, preventing you from bouncing attackers or surprising your opponent by clearing a blocker, the ability to hit noncreature permanents is a huge upside that cannot be overstated. Planeswalkers, enchantments, all sorts of difficult to interact with cards suddenly become a whole lot easier to deal with.

#5 - Overgrown Tomb

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

Speaking of competitive stables, coming in at number five on our list is Overgrown Tomb, the Golgari shock land that will soon be making its way to Standard thanks to the upcoming set Lorwyn Eclipsed.

If you've played Magic for more than a week, odds are that you know about the shock lands: nonbasic lands that bring with them two basic land types, thus allowing them to provide either of two colors of mana (while also being fetchable). As a cost for this massive upside, however, they all come with the same enters restriction: either pay two life, or have the land enter tapped. This easily puts the shock lands as among the most powerful dual lands in Magic, following closely in the footsteps of the initial roster of nonbasics all the way back from Alpha.

#4 - Pyroblast

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

Coming in at fourth place on our list is another powerful staple with a storied history in Magic: Pyroblast.

Initially printed in Ice Age, Pyroblast is an instant for with two modes: either counter target spell if it's blue, or destroy target permanent if it's blue. That awkward phrasing about color selectivity is important: Pyroblast can target nonblue things, it just won't do anything when it resolves. This matters if you just need an instant to cast, such as for storm turns, but is otherwise pretty trivial.

As for the meat-and-potatoes of the two options themselves, both have plenty of reasons to draw players' attentions. Countering a blue spell often means countering a counterspell, providing nonblue decks with a valuable form of defensive stack interaction. Destroying a blue permanent, meanwhile, often means that Pyroblast is a one-mana answer to a control player's end-game threat, putting it on par with Swords to Plowshares in terms of mana-for-removal efficiency.

#3 - Accumulate Wisdom

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

Alrighty, with our storied staples out of the way, back to Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Here at the halfway point is Accumulate Wisdom, a Lesson instant for that allows you to look at the top three cards of your library, put one into your hand, then the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Alternatively, if you have at least three Lesson spells in your graveyard, you get to put all the cards you looked at this way into your hand.

At base rate, Accumulate Wisdom is already a pretty stellar cantrip. It may not be Brainstorm or Ponder, but two mana to dig three cards at instant speed is pretty solid. However, if you build around Lessons (which some decks have been rewarded by), Accumulate Wisdom becomes an absolute powerhouse that competes with even the likes of Stock Up.

#2 - Agna Qel'a

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

Our penultimate pick for the week is another nonbasic land, albeit one that seeks to grind out value rather than fix your mana.

Agna Gel'a enters tapped unless you control a basic land, and it has ": Add ." As for utility, it also has ", : Draw a card, then discard a card."

All in all, Agna Qel'a is a perfectly fine card. Entering tapped unless you control a basic is a real restriction, as it guarantees that this will never enter tapped on turn one. In slower formats, that's totally fine, but it's enough of a deal-breaker to keep this out of most other formats, considering that the activated ability of Agna Qel'a only lets you loot, not actually just draw a card. Still, looting has great synergy opportunities with discard decks (or really anything that likes to abuse the graveyard), so keep an eye out for Agna Qel'a: it's definitely worth a slot in plenty of Commander decks.

#1 - Yue, the Moon Spirit

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

Last but not least, the very first most traded card of 2026, it's Yue, the Moon Spirit.

For , Yue is a 3/3 with flying and vigilance, as well as the activated ability "Waterbend , : You may cast a noncreature spell from your hand without paying its mana cost." (While activating an ability with a waterbend cost, you may tap creatures and artifacts you control to help pay for it. Each creature and/or artifact tapped this way pays ).

Yue is a card that begs to be built around. Mono-blue doesn't exactly have a ton of ways to make token creatures to help afford that waterbend cost, but it certainly has ways to churn out cheap artifacts. Baubles, relics, anything and anything can effectively go from costing to paying for for Yue's waterbend ability, which, in turn, can cast explosive spells. Zero-cost Time Stretch, anyone?

Wrap Up

Well, folks, this week's Top Trades had all the hallmarks of Magic: The Gathering: classic lands and classic spells, modern Universes Beyond crossovers, a Commander favorite, and a good ol' Standard playable. Check back in next week for another Top Trades, and thanks for reading!