Top Trades: June 2 - June 9

Into the North | Illustrated by Richard Sardinha

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with some of Cardsphere's most popular trades from the week prior. So, what's been trading this week? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Stock Up

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Keeping the trend going of powerful uncommons popping up on each week's Top Trades, our honorable mention this go around is none other than Stock Up, the breakout multi-format all-star from Aetherdrift that shows just how potent the combination of card advantage and selection can be.

For , this sorcery lets you look at the top five cards of your library and pick two to put back into your hand. Three mana may be a lot for most Anticipate-style effects like these, let alone sorceries, but grabbing two cards instead of one is such a jump in power that even Eternal formats have been playing copies of this card.

#5 - Goldmire Bridge

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Moving from uncommons back a step to commons, our first main list pick of the week is Goldmire Bridge.

This artifact land enters tapped, has indestructible, and has ": Add or ." Played primarily in Pauper and lower-bracket Commander decks, Goldmire Bridge (as well as the rest of the Bridge cycle) plays double duty just about everywhere it shows up, powering Affinity strategies while fixing mana.

#4 - Tortured Existence

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

Another common, this one-mana enchantment has been a powerful utility piece across graveyard decks from Pauper to cEDH: it's Tortured Existence.

For , Tortured Existence is an enchantment with one activated ability: ", Discard a creature card: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand." A great way to keep the graveyard stocked, synergize with discard strategies, and also trigger Hashaton, Scarab's Fist, Tortured Existence has been a powerful pick for years.

#3 - Into the North

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

Our third and final pick for the week, it's Into the North.

For , this sorcery lets you search your library for a snow land, put it into play tapped, then shuffle. While this mostly grabs basic snow lands, it also has the potential to grab game-ending threats, like Dark Depths or Faceless Haven, fixing, like Boreal Shelf or Arctic Treeline, or utility, like Frostwalk Bastion. All this to say, plenty of opportunities to be much more than another piece of basic land ramp.

#2 - Moseo, Vein's New Dean

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

On to the rares and onto Secrets of Strixhaven; starting us off, it's Moseo, Vein's New Dean.

For , this 2/1 legendary Bird Skeleton Warlock brings with it two abilities. First, when it enters, you create a 1/1 green and black Pest with "Whenever this token attacks, you gain 1 life." Second, Moseo has "At the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, return up to one target creature card with mana value X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the amount of life you gained this turn."

A solid pick for both dedicated lifegain strategies as well as Aristocrats builds, Moseo is an engine and an enabler all in one... so long as you're able to keep that Pest alive.

#1 - Shattered Sanctum

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

Last but not least, another rare from Secrets of Strixhaven, it's Shattered Sanctum.

This land enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands and has ": Add or ." A solid pick, particularly for low-bracket Commander, Shattered Sanctum is an excellent piece of fixing for the mid game at the cost of being inflexibly tapped early on.

In most Standard environments, Shattered Sanctum would be a premier piece of fixing. Between the concurrent legality of shock lands and the general speed of Izzet these days, however, Shattered Sanctum is relegated to mostly being a Commander pick.

Wrap Up

Well, folks, that wraps up this week's installment of Top Trades. This week reminded us just how powerful commons and uncommons can be, even beyond formats like Pauper. Stay tuned for another Top Trades next week, and thanks for reading!