Top Trades: April 22-April 29

Happy Thursday, everyone, and welcome to May! Another week (and another month) is wrapping up, and that means it's time for Top Trades, the column where we check in with the most popular cards from the week before here at Cardsphere. So, what are folks trading? Let's take a look.

Honorable Mention - Cori-Steel Cutter

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

Kicking off this edition of Top Trades as our honorable mention for the week is Cori-Steel Cutter, the most recent in a long-line of Equipment that readily brings a creature with it (Batterskull, Kaldra Compleat, etc.), and boy, oh boy, does it put that creature to work fast.

For , Cori-Steel Cutter is an Equipment with equip that grants equipped creature +1/+1, haste, and trample. Not bad, but certainly not as crazy as some of the text boxes on cards like Sword of Fire and Ice. No, the real craziness is thanks to the Flurry mechanic.

Cori-Steel Cutter also has "Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a 1/1 white Monk creature token with prowess. You may attach this Equipment to it." Fortunately, this both bypasses the equip cost as well as counts Cori-Steel Cutter itself, meaning that plenty of aggressive decks across formats right now are curving out by casting Cori-Steel Cutter, then immediately following up with another spell in the same turn (usually a one-drop, like Lightning Bolt), and the tokens don't stop there. Plenty of spellslinger decks can make a token a turn with Cori-Steel Cutter, and those prowess Monks add up.

#5 - Flumph

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Alrighty, on to the first card for our main list of the week, a very different two-drop. So, what's going on with Flumph?

For , Flumph is a 0/4 Jellyfish with defender, flying, and "Whenever Flumph is dealt damage, you and target opponent each draw a card.

All in all, Flumph isn't a terribly impressive creature. It's fun, but it isn't exactly dominating formats. That being said, it does have a ton of combo potential, but not the oppressive kind. Instead, Flumph opens the door to some wacky 3+ card combos, exactly the kind that lower-bracket Commander games are fine with.

Nearly all of these combos begin with giving Flumph indestructible. From there, all you need is something like Orcish Bowmasters (or anything else that has some sort of damage trigger related to drawing a card, such as Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind). In the case of Orcish Bowmasters, you can use its triggered ability to deal one damage to Flumph, causing everyone to draw a card, causing Orcish Bowmasters to trigger again, targeting the indestructible Flumph, looping through card draw until everyone has their decks in their hands. Not bad.

#4 - Hullbreacher

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 16

Speaking of oppressive combos, now we get to talk about a card so spooky that Wizards of the Coast decided to leave it on the Commander ban list after taking over the format: Hullbreacher.

For , Hullbreacher is a 3/2 Merfolk Pirate with flash and "If an opponent would draw a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, instead you create a Treasure token." So, why is - or more accurately, was - Hullbreacher seeing a spike in popularity? Speculation.

Despite being a notoriously powerful and unfun Magic card, Hullbreacher is a card that saw a lot of speculation as a potential unban target by Wizards of the Coast this past week. Sure, it would absolutely be shunned by brackets three and below, but maybe cEDH and high-power would like it? Or at least tolerate it. Alas, it didn't come to be, and now Hullbreacher is slinking back into the abyss of the Commander ban list.

#3 - Goblin Bombardment

Number of Trades: 11 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

Now for some classic shenanigans. You know it, you love it, it's time to talk about one of red's premier sacrifice outlets: Goblin Bombardment.

For , Goblin Bombardment is an enchantment with one simple, potent line of text, "Sacrifice a creature: This enchantment deals one damage to any target." Nothing splashy, but pay close attention to the lack of restrictions on it; no "once per turn," no "activate only as a sorcery," just a sleek, simple sacrifice outlet.

Right now, Goblin Bombardment is on a bit of a competitive resurgence, making waves as a utility piece in Modern's Boros Energy decklists. There, thanks to the absolutely monstrous army of tokens created by Ocelot Pride, Goblin Bombardment can easily keep a board clear for game-ending combat steps.

#2 - Armored Skyhunter

Number of Trades: 12 --- Number of Cards Traded: 15

Our penultimate pick for the week is a bit of a wild one, a card seeing an upswing in demand purely off of the popularity of Equipment synergies in white Commander decks (especially red-white, looking back to cards like Cori-Steel Cutter).

For , Armored Skyhunter is a 3/3 Cat Knight with flying and a triggered ability that lets you look at the top six cards of your library, put either an Aura or Equipment from among them into play, and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If an Equipment is put into play this way, you may attach it to a creature you control (you don't pay the equip cost).

Looking at each part of this card, there's something good here for all sorts of white Commander strategies. Knights and Cats are two of the most important white creature types, especially in mid-to-low bracket Commander. Equipment strategies frequently overlap with these two kindred synergies, and even when they don't all run together Equipment-matters decks are one of the most popular white strategies for Commander. This makes Armored Skyhunter an interesting card for a lot of decks, and a must-have for a decent few.

#1 - Shiko, Paragon of the Way

Number of Trades: 14 --- Number of Cards Traded: 14

Last but not least, our most traded card for the week and our only Tarkir: Dragonstorm card to make the main list: it's Shiko, Paragon of the Way.

For , Shiko, Paragon of the Way is a 4/5 Spirit Dragon with flying, vigilance, and "When Shiko enters, exile target nonland card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard. Copy it, then you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost."

I'll be honest, when Shiko first came out, I was pretty underwhelmed. It didn't have the raw power of something like Teval, Arbiter of Virtue with its ominous line of "Spells you cast have delve," nor did it have Betor, Kin to All's gamebreaking end-of-turn trigger. However, despite all this, pulled through as a bit of a sleeper hit among the other splashier Spirit Dragons and has made a name for itself as a solid threat across Standard while simultaneously forging a path as a fringe option in cEDH (who doesn't love making another Rhystic Study after it got countered).

Wrap Up

Well, folks, it looks like the weeks of just-Tarkir: Dragonstorm are over, but the set has far from gone cold. Tune in next week for another edition of Top Trades, and thanks for reading!