Top Trades: October 13 - October 20

Carnivorous Cultivator | Illustrated by Martina Fačková

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly column here at Cardsphere that tracks the site's most popular cards traded each week. So, with Reality Fracture thoroughly in the market and things starting to settle down, what cards are making moves this week? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Sphinx's Approach

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 18

Kicking things off this week as our honorable mention is, well, the most expected pick of the week considering our recent Top Trades installments, and that's Sphinx's Approach.

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

"But wait," I hear you say, "That's five total copies, and a deck can only run four copies of any given card!" Not when it comes to Sphinx's Approach, or many of Top Trades long-running honorable mentions. Sphinx's Approach lets you run any number of copies of it in your deck, making this a unique build-around akin to that of its main-multiverse namesake, Dragon's Approach.

#5 - Blue Elemental Blast

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

Coming in at number five on our main list this week is another blue instant, albeit a piece of interaction rather than build-around card advantage, and that's the classic spell Blue Elemental Blast.

For , Blue Elemental Blast lets you choose between countering a red spell and destroying a red permanent. A valuable piece of sideboard tech from across constructed formats, this powerful common has been pulling its wait disrupting aggressive strategies since it first came out back in Alpha.

#4 - Carnivorous Cultivator

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

Next up on our list is a much newer - and more wordy - card than Blue Elemental Blast, and that's Reality Fracture's own Carnivorous Cultivator.

For , you get a 2/3 Elf Warlock creature with deathtouch that enters prepared and has "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, return target land card from your graveyard to your hand." In order to help you get lands into your graveyard, it also packs a pretty unique prepared spell: Enroot, which is a sorcery for that searches your library for a land card, puts it into your graveyard, then shuffles.

Carnivorous Cultivator is a pretty powerful pick, as it's both a value engine thanks to that combat trick as well as a pretty unique tutor effect, especially for green. For the combo players out there, this spell basically reads as a green sorcery for that Entombs a land card, then leaves behind a creature as well.

#3 - Glint Hawk

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

Here at the middle of the pack is Glint Hawk, another classic Magic common that has been seeing competitive play (in Pauper, at least) for quite some time.

For , Glint Hawk is a 2/2 flying Bird creature that sacrifices itself when it enters unless you return an artifact card to your hand. Fortunately, in a world with too many low- and no-cost artifacts to count, that "downside" is more often than not upside in disguise, provided you build your deck right. Giant's Boulder is a great example of this: our most recent multi-week Top Trades honorable mention, that card's a one-mana artifact with an incredibly valuable enters trigger. Resolve it, then have Glint Hawk enter and bounce the Boulder back to your hand for use again later.

#2 - Ajani's Anguish

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Next up is our penultimate pick, a red enchantment that is going to leave a mark in Commander for years to come.

For , Ajani's Anguish is an enchantment that, when it enters, deals X damage to any target. Additionally, it has "Creatures you control have trample."

Thinking through how this card will be played out in practice, it's a real two-in-one. If there's nothing worth killing on board, then this is a one-mana enchantment that gives your whole board trample. That's a pretty powerful effect in and of itself, exactly the kind of thing an aggressive red strategy can get behind. As the game goes long, however, Ajani's Anguish is also a flexible piece of removal. Cast it for X equals one to pick of an Esper Sentinel or Faerie Mastermind, or turn it into a true Fireball - dumping all your mana into it - and shoot down the likes of The Ur-Dragon.

#1 - Haunted Ridge

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

Last but not least, it's time to talk about the constructed-playable land cycle returning to standard via Reality Fracture, and that's the slow lands. Case in point: Haunted Ridge.

Haunted Ridge is a land that enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or more lands. It has ": Add or ." While this certainly isn't the most powerful source of black or red mana which is available right now (just take a look at Lorwyn Eclipsed's reintroduction of the shock lands), Haunted Ridge and its company are nonetheless great includes for lower bracket Commander play as well as plenty of dedicated multicolor Standard decks; fixing is just that important these days.

Wrap Up

Alrighty, folks, that does it for Top Trades. It seems things are starting to settle down in the Reality Fracture market, as classic Magic playables from across sets are once again returning to our weekly lists. Check back next week for another Top Trades, and thanks for reading!