Top Trades: October 20 - October 27

Stingcaster Mage | Illustrated by Matt Stewart

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series here at Cardsphere that checks in on the most popular cards moving across the site. So, what's being traded this week? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Giant's Boulder

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Over the past few weeks here at Cardsphere, two cards have been jostling back and forth for the position of honorable mention. On one hand, you have Sphinx's Approach. On the other, you've got Giant's Boulder. Looking that the numbers, this week is a Giant's Boulder week.

For , you get an artifact that causes you to scry 2 when it enters, making it somewhat akin to a colorless cantrip. Even more valuable, however, are its two activated abilities, ", : Add one mana of any color," and ", , Sacrifice this artifact: Destroy target permanent." All together, you get one card that tells the story of an entire game: set up your draws, smooth out your mana, and destroy the biggest threat.

#5 - Firdoch Core

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

Here at number five on our weekly list is another powerful common artifact, and that's Firdoch Core.

For , Firdoch Core is a kindred Shapeshifter artifact with ": Add one mana of any color," and ": This artifact becomes a 4/4 artifact creature until end of turn."

While this might not be the ubiquitous utility artifact like that of Giant's Boulder, it's still a decently useful mana rock that slots into basically any mid-to-low bracket typal Commander deck out there.

#4 - Dark Ritual

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Speaking of mana, our fourth pick needs absolutely no introduction, being one of the most powerful spells in Magic and tracing its origin all the way back to Alpha. It's Dark Ritual.

For , Dark Ritual is an instant that adds . A juggernaut of competitive formats anywhere it's legal, Dark Ritual will continue to be popular as long as Magic is popular.

#3 - Stingcaster Mage

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

Have you ever wondered what Snapcaster Mage would be like as a red creature? Well, Reality Fracture is here to answer that question for you.

For , Stingcaster Mage is a 2/1 Human Wizard creature with haste that reads "When this creature enters, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost."

There you have it, folks. Swap blue to red and flash for haste and your copy of Snapcaster Mage has transformed. While these might be relatively small changes in terms of sheer number of symbols, this actually is a huge shift in how the card works. Snapcaster Mage is a card primed for bringing counterspells and cantrips back from the dead and for making combat a nightmare by serving as a surprise blocker. Stingcaster Mage is an aggro card through and through; bonus points if you pick up Lightning Bolt just to shoot it at your opponent's face.

#2 - Sacred Foundry

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Next up is our second classic Magic card of the week, and that's Sacred Foundry from the infamous shock land cycle.

For those unacquainted, the shock lands are a set of ten lands that each bring with them two basic land types. Each land enters tapped unless you pay two life as the land enters (hence, Shock). In the case of Sacred Foundry, that means you get a land with that's both a Mountain and Plains, meaning it can add or .

#1 - Dark Matter Manipulator

Number of Trades: 13 --- Number of Cards Traded: 17

Last but certainly not least, let's return to Reality Fracture for our most traded card of the week, Dark Matter Manipulator.

For , this 1/2 Human Warlock creature causes you to mill three cards when it enters. It also gains +2/+0 for each increment of seven cards in your graveyard.

While an excellent source of incremental graveyard value, Dark Matter Manipulator is spiking in success because of its ability to be a low-cost aggressive threat. Run it alongside newly-Standard-legal Tarmogoyf to grow your whole board at once and relive some classic Modern memories, or slot it in as a value play in more tempo-oriented self mill strategies. Regardless of where you play it, odds are that you'll quickly figure out just how worthwhile this little card can be.

Wrap Up

Well, folks, this week was one full of Magic classics and their modern-era spinoffs. A shock land, Dark Ritual, a Snapcaster Mage look-a-like, all sorts of stuff! Come back next week for another Top Trades, and thanks for reading!