Top Trades: October 6 - 13

Pompous Battlemage | Illustrated by Justin Gerard

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

Honorable Mention - Sphinx's Approach

Number of Trades: 13 --- Number of Cards Traded: 27

Kicking things off as this week's honorable mention is none other than Sphinx's Approach, the newest addition to Magic's growing roster of cards which allow you to bypass deck building restrictions by allowing you to run any number of them in your decks. So, other than letting you play a ton of itself, what does Sphinx's Approach do?

For , this instant draws you two cards. Then, you may exile it as well as four other copies of Sphinx's Approach from your graveyard. If you do, you'll get to search your library for a Sphinx creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.

Paying three mana to draw two cards at instant speed is already perfectly serviceable for a common; staple on a to-battlefield tutor every five copies, and you've got yourself exactly the build-around-card that lower-bracket Commander players adore.

#5 - Draconic Visitor

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

Speaking of Commander, our first main list pick of the week is a already a smashing success in that format, and that's Draconic Visitor.

For , Draconic Visitor is a 5/5 flying Dragon creature that replaces each artifact token you create with a 5/5 red Dragon creature token. Whether that's Heartwood tokens in Limited or Treasures, Clues, and Food across the myriad artifact-based strategies in Commander, Draconic Visitor has firmly established itself as exactly the kind of army-in-a-can that ends games if left unanswered.

#4 - Pompous Battlemage

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Moving on to our next pick, Pompous Battlemage is red's newest take on the pushed one-drop aggro threat. For , you get a 1/1 Goblin creature with prowess that enters prepared. It's prepared spell is Improvised Act, a sorcery for which allows you to discard up to one card. If you do, you get to draw a card.

All in all, Pompous Battlemage is a great early game threat with some real usage in the midgame thanks to that prepared spell, but it's a far cry from some of red's scariest one-drops with prowess (*cough* Monastery Swiftspear *cough*).

#3 - The Theorist, Jace Beleren

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

Coming in at the middle of our list is The Theorist, Jace Beleren, another four-ability Jace planeswalker that has been making waves across constructed Magic.

For , The Theorist is a 3-loyalty Jace planeswalker with the triggered ability "At the beginning of each opponent's draw step, you draw a card." As for loyalty abilities, he has a +1 that creates a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token, a -2 that, for each opponent, returns up to one target artifact or creature that player controls to their hand, and a -6 that causes you to draw three cards and then put X +1/+1 counters on each creature you control, where X is the number of cards you have in your hand.

Across all four of these abilities, The Theorist stands out as a card that does it all. The triggered ability passively draws you cards while you play the long game. The +1 creates a creature which can block incoming attacks directed at The Theorist. The -2 takes care of a variety of potential threats, and the -6 refills your hand while also turning your board into a horde of dangerous creatures.

#2 - Loyal Tutor

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Here at second place is Loyal Tutor, a pretty simple instant that, for , searches your library for a planeswalker card, has you shuffle your deck, then you'll reveal that card and put it on top.

Despite being simple, Loyal Tutor remains a pretty striking card for the fact that we haven't gotten any comparable planeswalker-specific tutor. Sure, Vampiric Tutor can find planeswalkers, and Deploy the Gatewatch is a way to dig for planeswalkers, but Loyal Tutor is essentially first-in-class when it comes to simply finding a planeswalker and doing nothing else.

#1 - Verdant Kraken

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Last but not least, we have our most traded card of the week, Verdant Kraken.

For , this 6/6 Plant Kraken creature, like Draconic Visitor before it, is an expert at building armies, thanks to a single triggered ability. "At the beginning of each player's upkeep, you create a 3/3 green Forest Tentacle land creature token." As Forests, these tokens have the ability : Add ," but as creatures they do suffer from summoning sickness.

Once Verdant Kraken lands, it's pretty much a race to see if your opponent can answer it or if you'll just win the game. Resolve the Kraken, pass the turn, create a token, it comes back to your turn, create another token, etc. In Commander things get even scarier, as Verdant Kraken creates twelve power worth of tokens in a single cycle and ramps you by .

Wrap Up

This week was, once again, another spotlight for Reality Fracture. Jace is showing up across constructed formats again, green got a Kraken, planeswalkers finally have a dedicated tutor... what more could we ask for? Thanks for reading, folks, and come back next week for another Top Trades!