Top Trades: August 12 - August 19

Thrumming Hivepool | Illustrated by Rob Rey

Happy Thursday, everyone! I hope your week has been going well. Now that we're one step closer to the weekend, it's time again for Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards from the week prior here at Cardsphere. So, what's been moving? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Starfield Vocalist

Number of Trades: 11 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Starting off as our honorable mention this week is Starfield Vocalist, a trigger-doubler with a potent amount of flexibility thanks to its warp cost.

For , Starfield Vocalist is a 3/4 Human Bard creature with a warp cost of , allowing you to cast it for a reduced cost if you're okay with having it being put into exile at the end of the turn. Don't worry, though, you can cast it again on a later turn from exile for its mana cost.

Beyond just being a 3/4 that can warp, Starfield Vocalist also carries with it a replacement effect that doubles all triggered abilities of permanents you control, provided that those abilities are triggered by a permanent entering the battlefield. In short, Starfield Vocalist is a Panharmonicon that covers all permanent types (not just artifacts and creatures), as well as can be brought in for a single turn if you're tight on mana and still want to double up on a particularly impactful trigger.

#5 - Moonlit Meditation

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

Coming up next on our list is a card that really makes me glad Dockside Extortionist is banned in Commander, and that's Moonlit Meditation.

For , this Aura enchantment reads "Enchant artifact or creature you control" and "The first time you would create one or more tokens each turn, you may instead create that many tokens that are copies of enchanted permanent." Not an overly complicated card, but absolutely one that can snowball. Just imagine sticking this on Academy Manufactor, a card that allows you to make each of a Food, Clue, and Treasure if you would just make one. Next thing you know, you're stacking replacement effects and turning a single Treasure token into three more Academy Manufactors... then nine on the next turn, and so on. That's a surefire way to be the table enemy in a Commander pod.

#4 - Archenemy's Charm

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

Speaking of being the archenemy, next up is the third in Magic's triple-cost, mono-color cycle of charms: Archenemy's Charm.

For , Archenemy's Charm is a modal instant that allows you to pick one of three effects. You can either exile target creature or planeswalker, return one or two target creature and/or planeswalker cards from your graveyard to your hand, or put two +1/+1 counters on target creature you control and it gains lifelink until end of turn.

Just like the rest of Magic's modal spell contingent, these cards all bring with them a package of mediocre effects that are amped up a level by the flexibility their menu offers. In Archenemy's Charm's case, that effectively means paying a premium for a removal spell that can swap rolls and be a resource-restock if your graveyard's full but your battlefield isn't.

#3 - Tannuk, Memorial Ensign

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Here at the halfway mark is Tannuk, Memorial Ensign, an interesting source of card advantage for Landfall strategies.

With a cost of , Tannuk here is a 2/4 legendary Kavu Pilot creature that, whenever a land you control enters, deals 1 damage to each opponent. Additionally, if this is the second time this ability has resolved this turn, you draw a card.

The first thing that comes to mind with Tannuk is the obvious synergy with fetch lands, Explore effects, and even just good '0l Evolving Wilds. Green doesn't just ramp with Elves, after all; it has plenty of ways to repeatedly set up two lands (or more) per turn, and Tannuk will help keep your hand stocked as you pull ahead. Pushing things further, Tannuk is also capable of being an outlet for any sort of combo that causes lands to enter an infinite number of times, exactly the sort of convoluted, fun, late-game combo that mid-bracket Commander is all about.

#2 - Thrumming Hivepool

Number of Trades: 11 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

I think I may have said "Commander" one too many times this week, because our penultimate pick for this edition of Top Trades is a card that wraps up just about everything the format is known for: splashy, expensive spells, a popular creature type, and a new twist on an old favorite (ability, that is).

For , Thrumming Hivepool is an artifact with affinity for Slivers that grants all Slivers you control double strike and haste. Additionally, in case your Sliver deck didn't already have an army out by the time you cast Thrumming Hivepool, this artifact will help build you one: at the beginning of your upkeep, Thrumming Hivepool lets you create two 1/1 colorless Silver creature tokens.

Thrumming Hivepool really is a Sliver deck in a single card. It'll make an army if you give it enough time, it grants a serious boon to all the Slivers you control, and (just to tie the Sliver theme all the way together), it's made all the more powerful (cheaper) by the Slivers you already control.

#1 - Consult the Star Charts

Number of Trades: 16 --- Number of Cards Traded: 18

Alrighty, with Thrumming Hivepool out of the way, it's time to move on to our most traded card of the week, a selection that is far from a Commander pick. Let's consult with Consult the Star Charts.

For , Consult the Star Charts is an instant with a kicker cost of that causes you to look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of lands you control. You then put one of those cards into your hand, unless Consult the Star Charts was kicked, in which case you put two. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

All in all, Consult the Star Charts is basically a slightly worse, slightly better Stock Up that scales as the game goes on. Broken cards make Stock Up better in the early game, since that card doesn't care about how many lands you control and will always let you look at five cards. Consult the Star Charts, meanwhile, requires a bit more of an investment but has the all-around better card type (instant, rather than sorcery) and can look at more cards once you hit 6+ lands in play. Slow decks will like this spell a lot; the only question is, how many of those decks can survive long enough?

Wrap Up

This week continued to show Edge of Eternities' popularity, especially in Commander. From flashy spells to trigger-doublers and interesting commanders, this set had at least one solid candidate for just about everything and everyone. Check back in next week for another edition of Top Trades, and thanks for reading!