Top Trades: April 14 - April 21

Grave Researcher | Illustrated by Izzy

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards here at Cardsphere. So, what have players been picking up this week? Let's take a look.

Honorable Mention – Slime Against Humanity

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 46

Just like the card text itself, Slime Against Humanity is the card that just keeps popping up as many times as it wants to. For , this sorcery lets you create a 0/0 green Ooze with trample and put X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is two plus the number of Oozes you control as well as the number of cards named Slime Against Humanity in your graveyard and exile. Best of all, you can run as many copies of this card in your deck as you want: one, four, or one-hundred.

#5 – Strike It Rich

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

For , Strike It Rich is a sorcery that gives you a Treasure token, plus it can be flashed-back for . A flexible ramp piece that effectively works as a turn-delayed ritual with synergies in artifact and sacrifice builds, Strike it Rich is especially popular in Commander decks that aren't already piling up on tons of mana from sources like mana dorks or the bevy of black's rituals.

#4 – Scheming Silvertongue

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

For , Scheming Silvertongue is a 1/3 Vampire Warlock that has flying and lifelink. At the beginning of your second main phase, if you gained two or more life this turn, Scheming Silvertongue becomes prepared, a new mechanic in Secrets of Strixhaven that means, while prepared, you can cast a copy of the prepared creature's prepared spell. Doing so unprepares it. Here, that spell is Sign in Blood, a sorcery for that has target player draw two cards and lose two life.

A solid piece of card advantage outside of blue that slots nicely into any lifegain build, keep an eye on this one. I've got a feeling it's going to stick around for a while.

#3 – Grave Researcher

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

Our second pick with the prepared mechanic, Grave Researcher brings another iconic black spell to the table: Reanimate. For , this 3/3 Troll Warlock lets you surveil 1 at the beginning of your upkeep. If you have three or more creatures in your graveyard, it becomes prepared, unlocking Reanimate, a sorcery for that puts a creature from any graveyard onto the battlefield under your control at the cost of life equal to its mana value.

Grave Researcher stocks the graveyard continually thanks to surveil, only to bring back a creature from anywhere for the low, low cost of . Like Scheming Silvertongue before it, I can see this creature becoming a Commander mainstay pretty quickly.

#2 – Erode

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

Alrighty folks, time for the newest take on Path to Exile.

For , Erode is an instant that destroys target creature or planeswalker, then lets its controller search for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield tapped.

Easily one of the best removal spells across Standard and probably the third-best removal spell in white overall (behind Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile), what more is there to say? It's a good card, that's for sure. Pick one up if you're removal-heavy or playing in a format without Path to Exile, but I wouldn't go switching out cards just yet.

#1 – Flow State

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 18

Here we are folks, our most traded card of the week: Flow State.

For , Flow State is a sorcery somewhere between Expressive Iteration and Stock Up. It reads: “Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. If there is an instant card and a sorcery card in your graveyard, instead put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom in any order.”

A cantrip that can pretty easily scale up into selection and card advantage all-in-one, Flow State is essentially a supercharged Anticipate for any deck running a solid amount of instants and sorceries. Early game it smooths draws, late game it turns on serious card advantage for just about any spellslinger or control deck. Time will tell whether this card comes to dominate formats, but my bet is that it'll put up results even if it isn't the next Treasure Cruise.

Wrap Up

That's Top Trades: a week dominated by Secrets of Strixhaven, this set has already made waves cross formats, and it's not even fully out yet! Here's to hoping things keep moving next week, once cards enter the tournament roster. Thanks for reading!