Top Trades: August 12-August 19

Happy Thursday, everyone! The week's just about over, and you know what that means - it's time to check in with Top Trades, the series where we talk about the most popular cards on Cardsphere. So, what's been moving around the most in the past week? Let's find out!

Honorable Mention - Patchwork Banner

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

Kicking things off this week is our honorable mention, Patchwork Banner - a card which last week's readers will recognize as our second-most traded card of the week. So, what is Patchwork Banner, and why is it still so popular?

For , Patchwork Banner is a generically useful card for pretty much any and every creature type-focused list out there, at least in terms of casual Commander - one of Magic's largest and fastest-growing formats. The reason Patchwork Banner is generically good is that, besides lacking a color identity, its typal-benefit is flexible. When Patchwork Banner enters, you'll choose a creature type for the +1/+1 bonus to be applied to. Slivers, Dinosaurs, Vampires, you name it - every deck loves a little boost.

Besides just being an anthem effect, Patchwork Banner is also a mana rock - and an untapped one at that. Simply tapping the Banner will provide you with one mana of any color, further enhancing the applicability of this card to decklists far and wide.

#5 - Sunspine Lynx

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

Alright, with our honorable mention out of the way it's time to get down to the main selection for this week's Top Trades, and starting us off here is Sunspine Lynx.

Sunspine Lynx is a pretty interesting top-end threat for a handful of red-focused aggro decks in Standard right now, leading to a plethora of players to start including it as a one- or two-of in some of the meta's best decks. This is because Sunspine Lynx serves both as an efficient clock - a 5/4 for that immediately deals damage when it enters the battlefield - as well as a stop gap effect preventing your opponents from recovering. It may not come up terribly often, but this Lynx's two other abilities - "Damage can't be prevented" and "Players can't gain life" - both serve to make sure that your opponent won't be undoing any of the damage you pressure them with...as long as the Lynx is in play, that is.

#4 - Scavenger's Talent

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

Up next on our list is one of Bloomburrow's Class enchantments, a cycle of cards that have each started to creep up in popularity in recent weeks (first it was Innkeeper's Talent, now Scavenger's...plus another one which we'll talk about later). It's worth noting that, despite being our fourth pick of the week, Scavenger's Talent has the exact same stats as Sunspine Lynx. So, what makes this card a bit more noteworthy? One word: Pioneer.

So far, when discussing cards from Bloomburrow, we've mostly discussed their impacts on Standard and Commander. After all, a new Standard set is bound to shake up Standard, and any set that's even remotely typal will have Commander gems for years to come. But that's not all the formats which Standard sets impact, and Scavenger's Talent is emblematic of that. Sure, it isn't taking over Pioneer, but this Class here is certainly making a splash there - a much bigger one than the drop it's made it Standard.

Alright, big picture aside, what does Scavenger's Talent actually do? Well, like most Classes, Scavenger's Talent comes in three levels.

Starting at Level 1 and costing just the initial investment of , Scavenger's baseline ability is a triggered effect which, although limited to just once per turn, creates a Food token whenever one or more creatures you control die. Paying will bring it to Level 2, where it gains the static effect of "Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, target player mills two cards." Finally, Level 3 - which costs to reach - adds "At the beginning of your end step, you may sacrifice three other nonland permanents. If you do, return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter on it."

Like most good cards nowadays, Scavenger's Talent synergizes with itself. The first level gives you permanents with an in-built sacrifice outlet, the second provides a way to put creatures in your graveyard if you target yourself, and the final ability brings those creatures back. All around, a pretty sweet value engine.

#3 - Dawn's Truce

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

Here we are, folks - white finally got its color-shifted Heroic Intervention. All it cost us was gifting a card.

In all seriousness, Dawn's Truce is a pretty straightforward but nonetheless useful card which many players are happy to see roaming around the Standard and casual Commander tables. Coming in at the relatively affordable cost of , this instant grants you and permanents you control hexproof until end of turn. Additionally, if you gift an opponent a card, Dawn's Truce will also grant your permanents indestructible until end of turn.

This kind of effect - protection rising to the level of near-immunity for a turn - has led to Dawn's Truce carving out a niche for itself in many of the more battlefield-dependent non-blue Standard decklists, where it serves the important role of protecting against blow-outs and board wipes. Nobody wants to give their opponent a card, but sometimes that is just better than losing out on most of yours.

#2 - Three Tree City

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

Three Tree City, like Patchwork Banner, is a creature type-focused card that can go in any typal Commander deck, and probably will start to see play in most of them. Why? Because, like many of Commander's best cards, it's a land which enters the battlefield untapped, can provide at least one mana without any restrictions (in this case, colorless), and has upside. This time around, that upside is the ability to make an absolutely absurd amount of colored mana.

In creature type-focused Commander decks, odds are one of your goals will be to have a lot of a certain type of creature in play. Token or nontoken doesn't matter, you'll still want to see a lot of creatures. More things to get pumped with anthems like Patchwork Banner, etc. By their very nature, typal decks are inclined to go wide. Three Tree City rewards you for this, as once you hit four creatures of a shared type then this land can start netting you more than one mana per turn (taking into account the cost of activation as well as the missed out on by not just tapping Three Tree City for its first ability).

Immediately, this harkens back to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - one of Commander's most popular lands. Well, Nykthos works best in the strictly less popular mono-color Commander decks, whereas Three Tree City works best in the significantly more popular typal decks. My back of the napkin tells me that this is going to be an in-demand card for a long time.

#1 - Caretaker's Talent

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

Surprise! Remember how I hinted at a third Class card earlier that was putting up pretty striking numbers? Well, that card is none other than this week's most traded card - Caretaker's Talent. So, what does this Talent bring to the table?

At Level 1 and with a mana cost of , Caretaker's Talent has the once-per-turn triggered ability of "Whenever one or more tokens enter the battlefield under your control, draw a card." Investing more into Caretaker's Talent will bring it to Level 2, whereupon it will create a token that's a copy of a token you already control. Assuming you timed this right, this will also draw a card thanks to Level 1's triggered ability. Finally, at a cost of , Caretaker's Talent can be brought to Level 3, which grants the static ability "Creature tokens you control get +2/+2." Now that's self-synergy I can get behind.

Just like Scavenger's Talent, Caretaker's Talent really is a one-man-band. It provides an opportunity to draw cards, then helps you to build an army, and then finally pumps that army. Card draw, token generation, creature enhancement - that's a game winning combo right there, folks. It might not be as ubiquitous as Three Tree City will remain in the years to come, but this is certainly a card to keep an eye on - especially in Standard matchups, where a single copy can easily take over the game.

Wrap Up

Well folks, we did it - we made it to a week entirely monopolized by a single set...a set that wasn't Modern Horizons 3! Bloomburrow's successes have staked their claim, and this week was all about them. Tune in next time to see what's moving around here at Cardsphere, and thanks for reading.