Top Trades: August 19-August 26

Welcome back, everybody! Another Thursday, another Top Trades - the weekly series where we check in and see what's moving around here at Cardsphere. So, now that Bloomburrow has settled and the meta has shifted, what cards are players trading? Well, let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Dawn's Truce

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

First up, our honorable mention for the week. This time around, that honor goes to Dawn's Truce, white's color-shifted, Standard-legal version of Heroic Intervention. Wouldn't you know it, this time we have an example of a modern-era redo that hasn't been powercrept. Pretty neat.

Alright, all comparisons and sarcasm aside, what does Dawn's Truce do, and where is it doing it? For two mana - - Dawn's Truce is an instant which grants you and permanents you control hexproof until end of turn. Additionally, it also has "Gift a card." This means that you may chose to have an opponent draw a card before any other effects of Dawn's Truce resolve. If you choose this option, then your permanents will also gain indestructible until end of turn.

Put simply, Dawn's Truce currently serves as a protective piece for many go-wide strategies, be they Commander or Standard decks. While nobody really wants to have their opponents to have extra cards, sometimes that's just the price for saving yourself from a board wipe...or comboing it with your own board wipe to make it one-sided. Now that's worth a card.

#5 - Orim's Chant

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

Starting off our main list for the week is Orim's Chant, a card that's not too dissimilar from our honorable mention, except instead of worrying about boardstates, Orim's Chant is all about the stack.

For the low low price of , Orim's Chant is an instant that prevents target player from casting spells this turn. Additionally, it also has the kicker cost of , meaning that for just one mana more you can unlock the full effect of Orim's Chant, that effect being the additional restriction of "creatures can't attack this turn."

To start off with evaluating Orim's Chant, let's look at how it stacks up against Dawn's Truce - that is, how it handles defensive situations. Outside of fringe board wipe combos which I mentioned above, Dawn's Truce is usually used as a means by which to prevent your opponent from interacting with your board pressure. Orim's Chant, meanwhile, is frequently used to prevent your opponent from interacting with your stack pressure - that is, it prevents your opponents from countering any of the many spells you'll likely be casting immediately afterwards.

This is where the comparison to Dawn's Truce stops, as Orim's Chant's kicker ability allows for it to be a much more proactive card. Shutting an opponent off from both casting spells and attacking with creatures on their turn is about as close to a Time Walk as white is ever going to get. Resolving a kicked Orim's Chant in an opponent's upkeep usually means that their turn will proceed as "draw, go," allowing you to come back from behind or close out the game from ahead. Not too bad for just , especially when you consider that this is the most the spell will cost you.

#4 - Diresight

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 9

Next up on our list is a card with no comparison to anything prior, except for the fact that it's another Bloomburrow card just as Dawn's Truce before it, and that card is Diresight.

Diresight is a pretty straightforward card advantage and card selection piece, but it's thanks to one keyword that this common is spiking players' intrigue. For , this sorcery reads as "Surveil 2, then draw two cards. You lose 2 life." Black has had access to cards like this for a while now, most notably Read the Bones, but unlike all those psuedo-Divinations Diresight brings with it the ability to surveil rather than scry. In a color as graveyard-centric as black, that difference - the ability to selectively put cards in the graveyard - can make all the difference.

#3 - Artist's Talent

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

Another week, another card from Bloomburrow's Talent cycle. Boy, these Classes sure are something. So, what does this week's installment have to offer?

At base rate, Artist's Talent is an enchantment that costs that allows you to discard a card whenever you cast a noncreature spell. When you do, you draw a card. Already, this is a really potent ability (as we'll see when discussing this card's home deck in a moment). But wait, there's more.

By paying , you can bring Artist's Talent to Level 2. Here, it gains "Noncreature spells you cast cost less to cast." You heard that right - not just instants and sorceries, but any noncreature spells. Normally I wouldn't pay too much attention to this, but with the wild success of Class enchantments across formats right now it is most definitely worth paying attention to. At the very least, this also means that your second copy of Artist's Talent just costs .

Finally, for another , Artist's Talent can reach its final stage at Level 3. Now, it also has the replacement effect of "If a source you control would deal noncombat damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals that much damage plus 2 instead." Now that's a lot of damage.

So, what deck can Artist's Talent call home right now? Primarily the Pioneer deck Izzet Phoenix - a list which, you guessed it, wins through chaining a lot of instants and sorceries together in hopes of reanimating the Arclight Phoenixes in its graveyard. This has pushed Artist's Talent to the top, as the list doesn't even need to level it up in order to gain the primary value from the card. Simply cast an instant, discard a Phoenix, draw another instant, and rinse and repeat.

#2 - Krark-Clan Shaman

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Our penultimate pick for the week is another common (one of three - try and guess the top spot before we get to it), although this time a much older card: Pauper all-star, Krark-Clan Shaman. So, what's it do?

For , Krark-Clan Shaman is a 1/1 Goblin Shaman with the activated ability "Sacrifice an artifact: Krark-Clan Shaman deals 1 damage to each creature without flying." Don't mistake this little guy's sole point of toughness, however - the trick here is all in activating the Shaman many times at once while holding priority. Once you understand this, the real power of this card can shine through: an unlocked sacrifice outlet that is also a potential board wipe.

What do I mean by unlocked? I mean that there's no additional cost, beyond the artifact itself, to active this ability. No mana, no tapping, just nothing. If you need to, this means that Krark-Clan Shaman can be cast and cracked on the same turn, eating as many artifacts as your heart desires (and board allows) in order to destroy creatures big and small. Additionally, given that Pauper is a format full of graveyard synergies, it's worth noting that there are plenty of strategies constantly exploring artifacts that want to be sacrificed, a cause to which Krark-Clan Shaman is happy to lend a hand.

#1 - Lotus Petal

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 26

Here we are! Our top traded card for the week and our third common as well - Lotus Petal, another card firmly in the "oldie but a goodie" camp of not-yet powercrept key pieces from Magic's formative years.

For those of you not yet acquainted with Lotus Petal, this simple artifact is deceptively powerful. For the lowest-possible cost of nothing, this artifact reads as "Sacrifice Lotus Petal: Add one mana of any color." Make no mistake, one free mana, even if it costs a card, is always worth taking seriously. Plenty of combo decks have been able to win games on turn one thanks to the likes of Lotus Petal, a trend that will likely be on the uptick in months to follow.

What do I mean by uptick? Well, it's here that we have to talk about Magic's most recent bannings, specifically in Legacy. Over the past few months, Legacy has been dominated by a Reanimator strategy backed up by Grief. This has made other combo decks take a back seat, as a turn one double-Grief trigger is often enough to strip all the combo cards out of opposing decks. This week, however, Grief was banned in Legacy, and with that banning comes the potential resurgence of these mana-hungry combo decks, for which Lotus Petal is an automatic inclusion. Only time will tell if Grief's banning will be enough to unlock these decks, but I'm hopeful.

Wrap Up

What do you think? Will Grief's ban allow for combo to return in full-force to Legacy, or will Psychic Frog keep the format on lock? What about Diresight - a shiny toy for the moment, or a new staple for cubes, Commander decks, and more?

That wraps up this week's edition of Top Trades. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope to see you all next week!